Uncle Mike23

I thought between Dragon and the olds, there was enough stroke to get this thread stickied.

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Great farm system and young team. They will still be the best team in the west the next 5 years

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dallastiger55

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“I’ll have to push back a little on that-it’s not just the great farm system and great young players, it’s the great front office and decision makers who will continually make our team one that will compete for the next generation. We did something this year that had never been done before, or has everyone already forgotten that we made the playoffs at 81-81? That’s history!”

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Jwho77

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You fricker

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Yacht Rock.

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Is this just a know it when you see it/hear it type thing?

Like how Dragon knew immediately that Cocksuck was Cocksuck?

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Send him to Japan with Imai.

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THANK YOU FANS!

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Jwho

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Seems as if Houston certainly bought into the Yacht Rock theme. It absolutely looked like a team that had checked out—although it was hard to see a difference between this game and what we saw all year.

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5 Deep

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Which lucky DAT starter had the best record this year and is the poor sacrificial lamb who gets to start tomorrow’s season ending thread? Or, is it fittingly into the sewers?

Four pitches, two outs.

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Dubon

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Miss him so much

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He’s gone (he’s gone)
Oh I, oh I, I better learn how to face it
He’s gone (he’s gone)
Oh I, oh I, I'd pay the devil to replace him
He’s gone (he’s gone), oh I
What went wrong?

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Roster out.

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With that roster, it appears there will be very few opportunities for the DAT to experience any “Afternoon Delight” over the next few days.

Sounds like Crane will be singing “Baby Come Back” to Espada if the team makes a run.

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Astros owner Jim Crane said Monday the team's playoff berth will be "something to consider" when deciding on the future of manager Joe Espada, whose contract expires after the season. Crane said there have been no discussions about the possibility of a new deal for Espada recently and they'll sit down and talk about things when the season is over. As for whether Houston winning the AL West to reach the postseason after missing out last year would have any bearing on the decision, Crane had this to say: "All positives are positives," he told The Associated Press. "All negatives are negatives. So I think that would be something to consider when we make the decision."

Espada's future with the team remains in question after the Astros parted ways with general manager Dana Brown last month. Crane doesn't believe the move had an impact on how the club finished the season.

"I don't think it had a lot to do with what happened, you know, whether we won or we lost," he said. "It was a courtesy actually to give him some time because we weren't going to renew his contract. I made a decision that we weren't going to renew his contract, so I wanted to give him time to regroup and we knew we had enough coverage from the other three guys."

After Brown's departure on Aug. 24, assistant general managers Charles Cook, Gavin Dickey and Connor Huff, along with senior adviser Jeff Bagwell, took over his responsibilities.

There have been questions about how things have worked after the unorthodox move to part ways with a general manager while a team was in playoff contention.

"I guess they're working pretty good -- we got into the playoffs," Crane said with a laugh. "I think everything's fine. We've got a number of assistant general managers filling in, and so our communication is good. Everything's running smooth, ready for a win."

The Astros became the first team in MLB history to make the postseason without a winning record by finishing 81-81 to outlast the Texas Rangers and move on to the Wild Card Series.

They'll host the Chicago White Sox in a best-of-three matchup beginning Tuesday.

The Astros are in the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 years, a remarkable stretch in which they reached the ALCS seven straight times from 2017-23 and advanced to the World Series four times, winning championships in 2017 and 2022.

"We've always said we're here to win and we're here to make the playoffs and make a deep run in the playoffs, and we've done that consistently," Crane said. "So getting in the playoffs is a big deal. If you don't, you don't have a chance."

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