The regular season is over and now it's PLAYOFF TIME! Here's the situation:

NATIONAL LEAGUE

The two National League wildcard teams are the Brewers and the Nationals. They play Tuesday, and the winner advances to the NLDS against the Dodgers. The other NLDS match-up is the Braves against the Cardinals.

Had the Brewers not lost likely MVP Christian Yelich, I could have seen them going all the way. But Yelich is just too big a loss. I think they'll beat the Nationals but they won't beat the Dodgers.

The Cardinals have no business beating the Braves, but like they say - the playoffs are a crapshoot. I think the Braves are the most likely team to win the Nationl League pennant. They just seem to have that "it" factor. Plus, the Dodgers' bullpen has been struggling lately. That is NOT good.

I pick the Dodgers v. Braves in the NLCS, with the Braves advancing to the World Series.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

You already know who I'm picking, don't you! Of COURSE I'm going with the Astros and not just because I am a shameless homer.

First off, the A's play the Rays in the Wild Card game, and the winner goes up against the Astros. Meanwhile, the Yankees and the Twins play in the other ALDS series.

If there's a Team of Destiny this year, it has to be the Yankees. Their injury situation has been unprecedented and yet they ran away with the AL East and almost had the best record in all baseball. I'd like to see the Twins advance but it's just too hard to pick against this Yankees team.

On the other side, I'm not worried about the Rays but I do have a little concern if the Astros face the A's. Although we used them for a whipping post early in the year, they actually competed against us very well in September. That means something.

But when you have the best pitching staff and most fearsome hitters in all baseball going against you, your days are numbered. I don't know if there's enough bandwidth on Prince.org to list all the records the Astros set this year, but here are a few highlights:

-First team in major league history to lead baseball in fewest strikeouts by our batters, and most strikeouts by our pitchers.
-Garrett Cole becamse the first pitcher in major league history to srike out 10 or more batters in 9 straight games. That ninth game was yesterday, so you could say Cole is peaking right now
-First team to ever throw a combined no-hitter AND a single-pitcher no-hitter in the same season. Plus, Zack Grienke was 2 outs away from his own no-hitter about four days ago.
-Yordan Alvarez hit for the highest rookie OPS in the history of major league baseball. Higher than Ted Williams; higher than Shoeless Joe Jackson
-Alex Bregman has a 50/50 shot at MVP. Granted, Mike Trout missed some games that cost him but if we're going to apply that logic and project numbers, then Yordan Alvarez would be your NVP without question. Bregman, however, was there every day and put up MVP-worthy numbers
-Completely overlooked is George Springer. Thirty-nine home runs from the leadoff position, with Joes Altuve and Michael Brantley right behind him. On any other team, Springer would be mentioned as not only the team MVP but maybe the league MVP. On this team, he's like the fourth or fifth guy you think of
-The pitching is just out of this world. Don't be surprised if Justin Verlander and Garrett Cole share the Cy Young. I honestly could not tell you which one deserves it more. Those guys are #1 and #2 in almost every single pitching category
-Former Cy young winner and 18-game winner Zack Greinke is our third starter
-Our set-man and closer were both All Stars this year, and both of them were completely unhittable in September

OK, I think I've jinxed the Astros enough. Good luck to your favorite team.

Play ball!

Give the Astros the trophy already.

I hope the Dodgers don't advance to the World Series because they will lose to the Astros making them WS losers for three consecutive years. That's too sad. Like Buffalo Bills sad.

Crazy NL wild card game. I thought the Brewers had it in the bag the way they knocked Scherzer around early. Oops.

A couple exciting Wild Card games gives us the Nationals and the Rays as playoof participants. After losing Bryce Harper, who saw the Nats coming? Not me, that's for sure.

Last week, Hosuton's first observing Sikh deputy, Sandeep Dhaliwal, was killed in the line of duty. The New York Yankees sent a large wreath and a touching card to the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

Pure class, and it's making my eyes leak a little.

Thank you, New York Yankees.

RodeoSchro said:

On the other side, I'm not worried about the Rays

I don't think many people if any predicted there would be a game five in the Astros/Rays ALDS. I will not miss that game tomorrow.

sexton said:

RodeoSchro said:

On the other side, I'm not worried about the Rays

I don't think many people if any predicted there would be a game five in the Astros/Rays ALDS. I will not miss that game tomorrow.

It's my anniversary tomorrow and for her gift, I am giving my wife seats at the bar of our favorite restaurant so we can watch it while eating steaks.

Dave Roberts should be escorted out of Chavez Ravine RIGHT NOW. Dont talk to the media...just turn in your uniform, dont worry about your office...we will mail everything to you. GET THE FUCK OUT AND DONT EVER COME BACK.

INSANE.

That's the only way I can describe yesterday.

First, the Cardinals/Braves. I had the Bravos as my dark horse team to win the NL, and maybe the whole enchilada. Whoops! The Cardinals - who I think have absolutely come from out of nowhere - put a whipping on the Braves that had to be seen to be believed. And they did it in Atlanta. Dang.

But SUPER dang about the LA Dodgers. I mean. WTF?!? We can pile on the Dodgers all we want but let's give the Nationals credit. They ripped out the Dodgers' heart right there in Chaves Ravine. In front of Justin Timberlake and everyone!

I know they have two great starters in Strasburg and Scherzer. But I still can't get over the fact that they appear to have gotten better by losing one of the 3 or 4 best players in baseball to free agency and getting NOTHING in return. How does that happen?

Don't sleep on the Nats.

OK, now let's pile on the Dodgers. Here is my first nit to pick:

Justin Turner is an LA phony! I am sick and tired of that pine tar stripe on the back of his jersey. It's fake, just like LA. There is no swing in the recorded history of baseball - either in a game or in batting practice - where a right-handed batter is going to leave a stripe on the back of his left shoulder. This is something Turner does on purpose, I'm guessing for branding reasons. Fake fake fake fake.

UncleJam, I'm guessing Dave Roberts is gone. Good guy but he over-manages waaaay too often. The Dodgers could have won the 2017 World Series had he not National Leagued-himself to death in the games played in Houston. I'm sure everyone is going to let Roberts have it for bringing in Kershaw last night. I'm conflicted about that, though.

On the one hand, logic says stay with the formula that got you there. You didn't use Kershaw as a reliever in the regular season, and you had the best record in the National League. Why do something now you never did during the incredibly successful regular season?

On the other hand, it WAS an elimination game. And baseball history is rife with teams trotting out starters in the late stages of elimination games. The Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Franciso Giants did it in World Series Game 7s and won. So i'm not going to completely throw Roberts under the bus for this move.

But still...lots of playoff appearances but no World Series titles. The Atlanta Braves of the 1990's are telling you to stick it out but if LA wins a World Series with these players, I'm guessing they'll have a different manager.

I hear Bruce Bochy is available!

And now for the Astros/Rays. Here is my completely amateur analysis of the Astros' hitting woes.

The Astros' batters had the fewest strikeouts in the major leagues this year. And, they also had the highest batting average in the majors in counts with 2 strikes. But I'd guessing most of those counts were 3-2 or 2-2, but not 0-2.

The Rays have started attacking the Astros' batters and consistently thrown the first pitch of every at-bat for a strike. The second pitch, too. We've seen an incredible number of Astros sitting on an 0-2 count before they even knew what happened. I mentioned we had the highest 2-strike batting average in the majors, but I didn't tell you what that average was.

It was .207.

When the Rays get all these 2-strike counts on us, we're going to hit .200. And while we're better at hitting with 2 strikes on us, ain't no one gonna win any playoff games hitting a team average of .200.

That, my friends, is the story of games 3 and 4. So what do the Astros do?

Quit taking the first pitch. Swing at it with the laser-focused intent of putting it into play. The hits will come and if they come often enough, the Rays pitchers will start trying to nibble on the first pitch of each at-bat, and the Astros with their keen eyes will find themselves in 1-0, 2-0 and 2-1 counts more often.

We will feast if we can get to that.

Gerrit Cole pitches today. He's been the best pitcher in baseball for four solid months. I have no reason to think the Rays will be able to scratch even one run against him. And if the Astros can put up 3 or 4 runs in the first couple innings, Cole might end up striking out 17 or 18 Rays because they are going to have to get aggressive at the plate, which is to Cole's advantage.

I hope I'm right and if it turns out I am, please forward my contact information to the Los Angeles Dodgers. I hear they may have a job opening soon!

Ill tell you what Rodeo...I will take over the front office in LA, you manage the boys! But I just saw that the Dodgers are bringing Roberts back. Maybe it'll work next year

[Edited 10/10/19 19:36pm]

Gerrit Cole did what Gerrit Cole has done since May 22, 2019 - win. He was dominating. And the Astros hitters? Here, let these quotes from the Houston Chronicle article explain what they did:


The Astros kickstarted their win with four consecutive hits on Glasnow’s first 10 pitches.

“It was really surprising,” catcher Travis d’Arnaud said. “They must have had a game plan to attack him early.”

Glasnow returned to the clubhouse, read a flurry of text messages from friends pointing out his flaws and quickly examined video of his first inning. He figured out too late what the Astros had in the first several minutes of the game.

He was tipping his pitches based on his glove height. When Glasnow brought the ball to his mitt, he positioned his hands at the height of his collar bone before delivering a fastball, and he lowered it a couple of inches before a curveball.

George Springer, Brantley and Altuve each saw fewer than three pitches during their first plate appearance. All struck singles against fastballs thrown harder than 98 mph. Altuve stroked an opposite-field line drive that scored Springer, giving the Astros a feeling that was so foreign throughout this series.

******************************************************************

I was hoping they'd be aggressive and they were! There's a picture on the Chronicle website that shows Glasnow would drop his glove about three inches if he was throwing a curve ball. The Astros picked up on that immediately, and just waited for pitches where the glove was held higher in the wind-up, indicating a fastball was coming. It doesn't matter if you can throw a fastball 98 mph - if major league hitters know it's coming, they'll hit it.

And hit it we did!

Great win for the Astros and now, if I have read the calendar correctly, I think our pitching line-up will be

Game 1 - Greinke
Game 2 - Verlander
Game 3 - Cole
Game 4 - Urquidy or Miley
Game 5 - Greinke
Game 6 - Verlander
Game 7 - Cole

I'm not expecting anything less than a 7 game series, so having Games 6 and 7 at home, with Verlander and Cole starting on normal rest, makes me happy.

Go Astros!

Wow, what a weekend!

Folks, the Washington Nationals are for real. I saw a Visa card parody where a bunch of Washington Nationals apparel prices were listed, and then the last item was "2019 NLCS? Bryce-less". Ouch! But dang! These guys definitely bear watching.

Of course, MY attention has been on the Astros-Yankees series. The Yankees put the absolute wazoo to us Saturday. Once again we became non-aggressive at the plate. And once again, Zack Greinke just didn't pitch well in the playoffs. We need ONE good start out of him and if we get it, we'll be invincible even with our spaghetti noodle bats.

But last night's game was what baseball is all about. Holy moley that was 4 hours and 50 minutes of just superb ball. By both teams, and especially the pitching staffs.

Carlos Correa had been hitting the ball hard all night. His home run was epic. After the game an interviewer asked him what the Astros' mindset would have been if they'd lost this game. "We weren't losing this game," said Correa. "That was just never going to happen". AWESOME.

Here are a few observations from last night:

* Yes - the umpire gave us a make-up call against Gary Sanchez in the 11th on that strike three. But Sanchez was supposed ot have already been out, and he knew it. So did the umpire. So did EVERYONE but missing the call on a foul tip isn't anything that can be reviewed. Sanchez - a catcher - had to know that the strikezone would be expanded after that. He didn't adjust. You can argue about the purity of the game but it was nice to see an umpire fix his mistake. I'd bet you that Josh James was going to get one and only one wide strike and if Sanchez had swung and fouled it off, that would have been that. But Sanchez didn't swing and that's solely on him

* I absolutely LOVE John Smoltz. He's the very definition of "stud". He made a great point last night (I hope!) about how the extensive use of the Yankee bullpen is going to catch up to their arms in three or four games from now. He would know. And if that happens, that will be HUGE for the Astros. Our bully is rested and not over-used. In fact, Brad Peacock hasn't even appeared in a game yet

* According to Joe Buck, the travel plans for the two teams yesterday were that the Astros were going to stay in Houston and fly to New York Monday; but the Yankees were going to fly back to New York after last night's game. If the Yankees stuck to that, I think it would sap energy from their players. They couldn't have left Houston until about 1:00 AM Houston time, but more likely closer to 1:30 AM Houston time, which would be 2:30 AM New York time. It's a four-hour flight to New York and that means the Yankees would be arriving back home right around sun-up. That's not optimal for any athlete, and they still have to work out and take batting practice today

Back to the Nationals-Cardinals. Game 3 is tonight in Washington. I can't wait to see the crowd in D.C. It's going to be ELECTRIC!

Aaron Judge said it best - this season was a complete FAILURE. Yankees had so many chances to take this series, especially in game 2. Their inability to get clutch hits with men in scoring position came back to bite them. And I would have walked Altuve in that situation. Let someone else beat me, not him. You can not fool around with Altuve - the man is money.

Bottom line, Houston did all the little things right, and NY didn't.

uPtoWnNY said:

Aaron Judge said it best - this season was a complete FAILURE. Yankees had so many chances to take this series, especially in game 2. Their inability to get clutch hits with men in scoring position came back to bite them. And I would have walked Altuve in that situation. Let someone else beat me, not him. You can not fool around with Altuve - the man is money.

Bottom line, Houston did all the little things right, and NY didn't.

all of NY is mourning

jfenster said:

all of NY is mourning

Not the Mets fans who had it with the Yankee fans boasting all season that their team would win the WS.

Well...it turns out that contrary to rumor, Gerrit Cole is human. Or maybe Juan Soto is NOT human? Maybe he sold his soul to the devil, who in return makes him play "Baby Shark" as his walk-up music? Hard to tell!

But all is not lost for us Astros fans. New York beat us at home in Game 1 and that series didn't make it to a Game 7. Two years ago the Dodgers beat us at home in Game 1 and we took the World Series on their field in Game 7. So the Astros aren't going to worry too much.

We can't continue leaving 11 men on base. That dog won't hunt. I really expected Carlos Correa to break out - he looks so locked-in and he's been making hard contact - but he was a windmill last night. Come on, Carlos! I believe in you!

Game 2 is tonight. Verlander v. Strasburg. The Astros did a great job last night, working the count and running up Scherzer's pitch total. Allegedly, the Nationals' weakness is the bullpen, so we need to do the same thing tonight - but better!

Go 'Stros!

Yuck. Not much else to say from the Astro's side except, go get 'em Friday night!

Pokeno4Money said:

jfenster said:

all of NY is mourning

Not the Mets fans who had it with the Yankee fans boasting all season that their team would win the WS.

like the mets had a achance

jfenster said:

Pokeno4Money said:

Not the Mets fans who had it with the Yankee fans boasting all season that their team would win the WS.

like the mets had a achance

Nobody cares about the Mets, and the Yankees are yesterday's news.

As will be the Nationals in about one week - I hope! Let's go 'Stros!

What a difference a weekend makes!

Before the Org went down (prayers to all in California), I was prepared to take some ribbing from any Nationals fans here. But on Friday the Org went down and stayed down through Sunday, and so did the Nats!

Or rather, the Astros went UP and went OFF. We're hitting now like we did in most of the previous 172 games this year. Everybody is hot again, and that means everybody. I think our hottest player this post season, Jose Altuve, is the only regular without a World Series home run. And he's crushing the ball; it just seems to usually be right at someone.

It was a shame to see Scherzer not be able to pitch last night but with the stuff Cole had, it probably didn't matter.

A tip of the hat to Zack Greinke. What a gutty performance! He danced around trouble all night and got out of it time after time after time.

What can I say about Jose Urquidy? Except to be honest, I wasn't completely surprised. He threw some absolutely FILTHY starts this year. Most have never heard of him going into the World Series, but he made the World Series roster for a reason and that reason is that he has incredible stuff. It looks like he has the right stuff inside, too.

We had a chance to see something I've never seen before on Saturday night. Well, to be honest, we DID see something I'd never seen before but it wasn't as cool as what could have been.

The Astros led off the 7th with pinch hitter Kyle Tucker. We batted around and Tucker came up again, with 2 outs and the bases loaded. Now, I've never seen a pinch hitter get two pinch-hit at-bats in the same inning. But what would have been REALLY cool would have been if Tucker had been pinch-hit for in his second at-bat. Have you ever seen a pinch hitter pinch-hit for? I sure haven't!

To say the city of Houston is stoked is an understatement. Two years ago, the World Series lifted the city out of the depression caused by the devastation from Hurricane Harvey.

This year all is well, and our focus is on baseball for baseball's sake. Bring on Game 6!

The Astros are beasts.

Rodeo, you live in Houston?

I've found a few reasons why the Nationals will lose the World Series this year. And they have nothing to do with the Astros being one of the most formidable teams in the history of baseball.

1. Despite the logic expressed by the NY Times here, the jinx was on when a World Series celebration rehearsal took place at Nationals Park last Thursday. Nationals fans are convinced this was very bad mojo. https://www.nytimes.com/2...curse.html

2. Two women behind home plate during game five flashed Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole when he was on the mound as he pitched to Nationals batters and was captured on live TV. One of the women claimed it was to promote her digital magazine, but we all know in actuality, they were planted there by the Nationals in an attempt to throw Cole of his game. This kind of shenanigans can only backfire on Washington and give them more bad luck. Both women were unsurprisingly subsequently banned from all MLB stadiums for life. https://www.hollywoodrepo...ra-1250344

3. Lastly, at the risk of getting this thread moved to P&R, game five was also attended by the current U.S. President and when he was shown on the Nationals Park video screen, was greeted by loud boos and later chants of "lock hin up!" Nationals fans showing this level of disrespect to, according to Jon Voight, "the greatest president of this century" can only come back to bite their team, if it wasn't in such a precarious position already. https://www.cnn.com/2019/...index.html

Because of these reasons, the Nationals are done. Their fate sealed by their own hands.

[Edited 10/29/19 10:08am]

2freaky4church1 said:

Rodeo, you live in Houston?

Yes.

sexton said:

I've found a few reasons why the Nationals will lose the World Series this year. And they have nothing to do with the Astros being one of the most formidable teams in the history of basbeall.

1. Despite the logic expressed by the NY Times here, the jinx was on when a World Series celebration rehearsal took place at Nationals Park last Thursday. Nationals fans are convinced this was very bad mojo. https://www.nytimes.com/2...curse.html

2. Two women behind home plate during game five flashed Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole when he was on the mound as he pitched to Astros batters and was captured on live TV. One of the women claimed it was to promote her digital magazine, but we all know in actuality, they were planted there by the Nationals in an attempt to throw Cole of his game. This kind of shenanigans can only backfire on Washington and give them more bad luck. Both women were unsurprisingly subsequently banned from all MLB stadiums for life. https://www.hollywoodrepo...ra-1250344

3. Lastly, at the risk of getting this thread moved to P&R, game five was also attended by the current U.S. President and when he was shown on the Nationals Park video screen, was greeted by loud boos and later chants of "lock hin up!" Nationals fans showing this level of disrespect to, according to Jon Voight, "the greatest president of this century" can only come back to bite their team, if it wasn't in such a precarious position already. https://www.cnn.com/2019/...index.html

Because of these reasons, the Nationals are done. Their fate sealed by their own hands.

sounds like someone's trying a reverse jinx!

The celebration rehearsal is SOP. I am sure the Astros' organization held one yesterday, and I'm also sure both the Nationals and the Astros have champagne/beer/plastic sheeting/Prince's ski goggles at the ready.

Wow, I hadn't thought of the Nats putting those girls there, but THAT is a conspiracy worthy of P&R! Seriously though - did I see on TV those tickets cost the three women (it was three, wasn't it?) $100,000? I guess if they got TV interviews out of it then they did accomplish their mission, although with all due respect I highly doubt that promoting breast cancer awareness was really part of their mission. I'd bet it was all about self-promotion.

Jon Voight? I think I know of a guy who bought his old LeBaron convertible! But I will be more than happy to blame unrepentant serial adulterer Donald J. Trump for showing up at the game, invoking the wrath of Nats fans, and thus costing their team the World Series, LOL.

The funniest thing about that deal is that all these allegedly "conservative" talking heads are saying the stands were full of "liberals who paid $1,000 a ticket". Honestly, I hope so because if that's true then it means that liberals must make more money than "conservatives" and that's why the stadium was full of libtards, LOL.

And ZOMG my wife just sent me an email from work saying last-minute company tix are available for tonight's game!

Love how the media are going after the people. Booing Trump was great.

2freaky4church1 said:

Love how the media are going after the people. Booing Trump was great.

True, but let's get back to baseball itself.

sexton said:

I've found a few reasons why the Nationals will lose the World Series this year. And they have nothing to do with the Astros being one of the most formidable teams in the history of baseball.

1. Despite the logic expressed by the NY Times here, the jinx was on when a World Series celebration rehearsal took place at Nationals Park last Thursday. Nationals fans are convinced this was very bad mojo. https://www.nytimes.com/2...curse.html

2. Two women behind home plate during game five flashed Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole when he was on the mound as he pitched to Astros batters and was captured on live TV. One of the women claimed it was to promote her digital magazine, but we all know in actuality, they were planted there by the Nationals in an attempt to throw Cole of his game. This kind of shenanigans can only backfire on Washington and give them more bad luck. Both women were unsurprisingly subsequently banned from all MLB stadiums for life. https://www.hollywoodrepo...ra-1250344


3. Lastly, at the risk of getting this thread moved to P&R, game five was also attended by the current U.S. President and when he was shown on the Nationals Park video screen, was greeted by loud boos and later chants of "lock hin up!" Nationals fans showing this level of disrespect to, according to Jon Voight, "the greatest president of this century" can only come back to bite their team, if it wasn't in such a precarious position already. https://www.cnn.com/2019/...index.html

Because of these reasons, the Nationals are done. Their fate sealed by their own hands.

Wait, whut? Booing Trump gave the Nationals more mojo. Not saying the Astros won't win but they stalled on firing Taubman for a week, fake calling fake news on an SI reporter. A story which was corroborated by their hometown paper. That ain't mojo.

poppys said:

sexton said:

I've found a few reasons why the Nationals will lose the World Series this year. And they have nothing to do with the Astros being one of the most formidable teams in the history of baseball.

1. Despite the logic expressed by the NY Times here, the jinx was on when a World Series celebration rehearsal took place at Nationals Park last Thursday. Nationals fans are convinced this was very bad mojo. https://www.nytimes.com/2...curse.html

2. Two women behind home plate during game five flashed Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole when he was on the mound as he pitched to Astros batters and was captured on live TV. One of the women claimed it was to promote her digital magazine, but we all know in actuality, they were planted there by the Nationals in an attempt to throw Cole of his game. This kind of shenanigans can only backfire on Washington and give them more bad luck. Both women were unsurprisingly subsequently banned from all MLB stadiums for life. https://www.hollywoodrepo...ra-1250344


3. Lastly, at the risk of getting this thread moved to P&R, game five was also attended by the current U.S. President and when he was shown on the Nationals Park video screen, was greeted by loud boos and later chants of "lock hin up!" Nationals fans showing this level of disrespect to, according to Jon Voight, "the greatest president of this century" can only come back to bite their team, if it wasn't in such a precarious position already. https://www.cnn.com/2019/...index.html

Because of these reasons, the Nationals are done. Their fate sealed by their own hands.

Wait, whut? Booing Trump gave the Nationals more mojo. Not saying the Astros won't win but they stalled on firing Taubman for a week, fake calling fake news on an SI reporter. A story which was corroborated by their hometown paper. That ain't mojo.

The inside story is that a Chronicle female reporter (I won't say which one) began wearing a domestic violence awareness bracelet after the 'Stros got Roberto Osuna last year. That made Taubman mad and he finally took out his anger last week.

The weird thing is that he was yelling, "Thank God we got Osuna!" to this woman after a game in which Osuna had blown the save. I was screaming a lot of things too, but compliments about Osuna's choke job wasn't one of them.

RodeoSchro said:

poppys said:

Wait, whut? Booing Trump gave the Nationals more mojo. Not saying the Astros won't win but they stalled on firing Taubman for a week, fake calling fake news on an SI reporter. A story which was corroborated by their hometown paper. That ain't mojo.

The inside story is that a Chronicle female reporter (I won't say which one) began wearing a domestic violence awareness bracelet after the 'Stros got Roberto Osuna last year. That made Taubman mad and he finally took out his anger last week.

The weird thing is that he was yelling, "Thank God we got Osuna!" to this woman after a game in which Osuna had blown the save. I was screaming a lot of things too, but compliments about Osuna's choke job wasn't one of them.

I followed the story. Taubman taunted reporters with Osuna because he was suspended for 75 games by MLB last season for credible domestic violence abuses. So it makes sense in a very ugly way.

The Astros released a statement calling the Sports Illustrated story by Stephanie Apstein "misleading and completely irresponsible". They finally had to fire the GM, but they tried not to.