Astros beat the Dodgers for their first World Series Championship in their franchise history!!!
ogc thoughts
But more importantly, they beat LA!!! It's also an Orange Decade, with Giants in 10, 12, 14, and Astros in 17.
As Dodgers fans feared, and I wondered, Darvish's Game 3 performance appears to be his level of abilities, as he repeated that performance in Game 7. Verlander, who LA could have had instead, was probably the better acquisition, had Darvish had a similar a similar performance, they would most probably be celebrating right now, as they were 3-2 in the other non-Darvish games, and a performance like Verlander in Game 3 would probably be a winner. Moreover, had the Dodgers gotten Verlander, the Astros would not have had Verlander, and while he didn't win a game, he at least kept them close, and what if they had to get Darvish instead?
Sometimes deals are about keeping a player away from a competitor, not just about making you better. The Dodgers probably went for Darvish because he was only a commitment for a few months, while Verlander would earn $20M (more?) for two more seasons, and would require more prospects given up in trade.
Not that McCullers was all that good either, but he at least pitched out of trouble. Darvish just got into trouble and stayed there, it was all bad.
But that Houston bullpen, boy, they pretty much collapsed and the Astros were saved by the large number of starting pitchers in the bullpen, and by using other starters a few days later. When the Giants did that in 2010, that seemed like the first time I had seen that, but I admit I was not as into the World Series when the Giants were not in them. Anyone know if they did it first? Or at least first to do it regularly in the playoffs?
In any case, the Astros need to add some new guys who can do it for them in the bullpen. It was pretty bad the way so many of them just failed. Sure, the new ball sucked, but it didn't seem to affect Morton or Peacock or Verlander (are they all high velocity starters?). I know that pitchers who rely on sliders were especially affected, but also other off-speed pitches too, other than curves. Some guys were able to will a well-pitched game.
I think Tommy Lasorda used Orel Hershiser out of the bullpen in 1988. Probably ruined Hershiser's arm in the process.
ReplyDeleteThanks, now that you mentioned it, I do recall Orel being used out of the pen too. Never connected it with ruining his arm, but it makes sense to me, as I don't think much of Lasorda as a manager, as good as they were with him as manager, I think he brought them down some, due to incompetence.
Deletedarvish has been hurt on and off this season. I think he had some physical distress but he and the bums staff probably declared him ready to go, but he clearly was not by the time the WS came around. When Darvish is healthy he is ace like
ReplyDeleteI did not know that, thanks, and so I would be inclined to agree except that he was ace like in the playoffs until those two WS starts.
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