Sunday, March 11, 2018

Sunday Morning Hot Links

*Washington scored two runs in the top of the 9th to force a 2-2 tie in yesterday's game. Because Washington was the away team, they win on aggregate runs, and the Astros are eliminated from the 2018 season. They managed six hits - one for extra-bases (a double from A.J. Reed).

-Dallas Keuchel threw 3.2IP, 1H/0ER, 5K:0BB
-David Paulino threw 2.2IP, 0H/2R (0ER), 2K:2BB
-Tony Sipp allowed a hit and a walk in 1IP.
-Tim Federowicz was 2x2 with an RBI.

*Jerome Solomon writes that Verlander and Keuchel have taken different routes (pitch count vs innings pitched) to the same destination. Keuchel:
JV is a different cat. Sometimes we talk and I don't even understand how he doesn't ever get sore or anything. It just doesn't seem fair.

*Carlos Correa is determined to win an MVP:
MVP is something I don't want to retire without winning one. It would be like a dream come true. I already have a Rookie of the Year. I have an All-Star. I've got a World Series championship. That's amazing. I don't know if it's this year, but at some point, I'd like to win that, and I'll just try to improve my game every single day to try to accomplish that...

...I don't want to be one of the top [players], I want to be the top one....For me, right now it's the time to sacrifice a lot and put in the work...

*Hinch is going to start giving position players days off, so that they're used to 2-3 days off between Plate Appearances (looking at you, Evan Gattis) before the season starts.

*Joel Sherman writes that the Astros look an awful lot like the 1998-2000 Yankees. Sherman:
The dynastic Yankees won in the postseason for a variety of reasons, but one was that no one person in the lineup put undo [sic] pressure on himself, so strong was the belief that the guy behind him was of quality and could come through...Another reason the dynastic Yankees won in the postseason was that no matter what happened in any one game, the internal belief was the next starter was capable of winning a big game...The Astros have evolved into something akin to that. 

*In light of Dallas Keuchel's "We're Not The Cubs" slogan (which should, and will, be on a t-shirt), the Chicago Daily Herald's Barry Rozner has a pretty good look into what a World Series hangover actually looks like. Rozner:
[Kris Bryant] was gassed after the Dodgers eliminated the Cubs in last fall's NLCS. Bryant spoke of the year before, of it being Thanksgiving 2016 - after weeks of World Series celebrations - by the time he allowed his Las Vegas couch to secure his beaten body. By then, most of baseball had rested a month, and been back training another month, in preparation for the 2017 season. Bryant just wanted to sleep. And the turkey hadn't even been sliced. 

*Former Astros Great Nate Freiman is headed to Duke to get his MBA.