Congratulations, Astros!

Earlier this morning, at 12:27 AM to be precise, I, The Grandstander, went LIVE!! on Facebook (channelling my inner Antonio Brown) to give my immediate thoughts on the Astros 5-1 Game 7 win last night.  You can find it on my Facebook timeline if you missed it and if you are interested.  Having done that, let me just give some final thoughts on the 2017 World Series and MLB Post-Season.

• It was a terrific Series.  Certainly one of the best and most exciting ones in my lifetime.  The Astros victory was well deserved and well earned.
• I was rooting for the Astros in the Series for many reasons, but one reason that I am glad it happened was that it will assure that that crazy and memorable Game 5 extra innings win will remain in memory as perhaps the best and most exciting baseball games ever.  Certainly in the Top Three to Five of such contests.  Ad the Astros lost the Series, it would soon have receded to just an interesting footnote in baseball history.
• For the most part, the Series included spectacular flame outs by the bullpens of both teams, and Houston manager AJ Hinch seemed to lose confidence in most if not all of his relievers.  But you manage a bullpen differently in a Game 7, and Hinch's use of season long relievers early, and starter Charlie Morton late in the game last night worked to perfection.
• Speaking of Hinch, throughout this entire post season, which included two Games Seven, Hinch at all times seemed to be the calmest man in the ball park, and Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts wasn't far behind him.  I can only imagine how many packs of cigarettes Jim Leyland would have gone through in just that fifth game, let alone the entire Series.
• And speaking of Charlie Morton, beginning in that Game Seven against the Yankees in the ALCS, and that four inning relief job in Game Seven of the WS, I found myself  rooting for him and being unbelievably, inexplicably happy for him.

• In seven seasons with the Pirates, Morton went 41-62 with a 4.41 ERA and a 1.427 WHIP.  While he showed signs at times of being a good pitcher, he was a general disappointment, and there was no hue and cry of disappointment when he was traded after the 2015 season to Philadelphia (for David Whitehead, and whatever happened to him?).  However, he always came across as a good guy, and he ran into hard luck (nine trips to the DL over the years), and I confess to being completely unaware to his resurgence with the Astros this season (14-7, 3.62).  When I saw him start Game 7 against the Yankees, I just wanted him to win, and seeing him go four innings and being on the mound to get the 27th out last night, well, it just felt good.  I can't explain it.
• Speaking of relief pitchers and Dave Roberts, I wonder how many people in LA are asking, "Why didn't Clayton Kershaw start Game Seven?"  I know that hindsight is 20/20, but when you saw what Kershaw did in relief last night, and when you know there was no "next game" until next April, and if this guy is supposed to be the "next Koufax", well, it's a question that has to be asked.
• And on the subject of ex-Pirates, it needs to be noted that Tony Watson was the winning pitcher in two of the Dodgers three wins.  And Francisco Liriano also pitched in Game Seven for the winning Astros.
• Jose Altuve is a great player, no question about it, but the ballplayer with whom I was most impressed throughout this Post Season was Astros outfielder George Springer.

• We all know what he did in the Series: five home runs, and every one of them seemed to be critical ones.  He also impressed me as a fabulous outfielder, and, yes, he did make one bad mistake in judgment in that fifth game out there in center field, but, man, do I wish he played for the Pirates.  The Series MVP is my newest baseball Mancrush.
• The television coverage of the WS by Fox was great, and, yes, I am including Joe Buck in that evaluation, despite the fact that at one point he made the serious grammatical error when he said "between the three of them..."  Color analyst John Smoltz was positively terrific,  maybe the best there is right now, and I can even forgive him for reminding us on more that one occasion that during his career he was called upon to start in three different Games Seven.  If I had something like that on my resume, I'd drop it onto the conversation as often as I could.

I will end his post by stealing from pal Joe Risacher an observation that he made on Facebook late last night.  One could - could -  say that in 2015, after winning 98 games, the Pirates and the Astros were in the same relative positions, baseball-wise. After that season, the Pirates elected to, if not blow up, then certainly not build upon that season's success.  The Astros continued to build and when the opportunity came two seasons later to really "go for it", the Astros did, spent money (the Justin Verlander deal being the most obvious example, but there were others), and today they are World Series Champions.  The Pirates are coming off of back-to-back losing seasons.  Too simplistic a comparison?  Perhaps, but it is hard not to draw some very bad conclusions if you are a Bucco fan.

It was a really bad year for the City of Houston, Texas.  I am glad that they now have the chance to celebrate their baseball team.

Losing Streak Ends

Lots to love as the Bucs end their six game losing streak in the Rhineland tonight....

• Pedro Alvarez crushes a three run dinger. He now has a modest three game hitting streak wherein he has gone 4-for-12. I know, I know..I sound like the Pirates announcers grasping at anything in hopes that Alvarez starts to hit, but did you see how he mashed that HR tonight?


• Andrew McCutchen blasts a two run homer to take the team lead in both HR and RBI.


• But most of all, Charlie Morton does a dead on imitation of Greg Maddux and throws a CG shutout tonight. He looked absolutely amazing out there tonight. The guy who was quite possibly the worst starting pitcher in baseball last year at this time is now 5-1 with two complete games and a 2.62 ERA.

.500!!!!....and other thoughts

Today the Pirates achieved what has seemed to be the Holy Grail for lo these past 18-going-on-19 seasons: a .500 record. Today's win over the Astros was a most dramatic one, a come from behind effort thanks to a three run, eighth inning home run by Ryan Doumit. Doumit's blast rescued the team from what would have been a most frustrating defeat.

Of course, a .500 record 34 games into the season means very little, and over the course of a full season, a .500 record means only that you are a mediocre team. The Pirates from the Bob Nutting on down to the clubhouse guy who rinses out the jock straps have proclaimed as nauseum that ".500 is not the goal; championships are." An admirable sentiment, to be sure, but we all know what these last 19 seasons have been like, so the possibility of the team actually winning more games than they lose should not be dismissed as being not worth talking about. I was at PNC on Friday night when the team could have hit the .500 mark, and didn't, and this afternoon, when they did, and I can tell you that seeing the team play to this level, and, yes, I know that it is only May 8, meant an awful lot to the paying customers. The team should not dismiss this sentiment so lightly.

*****

It came to my attention over the weekend that one of The Grandstander's Loyal Readers, Mike J. of Robinson Township, has accused me of going a bit too heavy with what he terms "Neal Huntington bashing." OK, so let's give Neal a little dap this evening for the following:

Kevin Correia - See my post of May 2. If you tell me that you saw a 5-2, sub-3.00 ERA on Mother's Day for this guy, I won't believe you.

James McDonald - After a shaky start to the season, J-Mac turns in a solid start for the third straight time today. Sending Octavio Dotel to McCort-land for this guy is starting to look like a steal.

Charlie Morton - 4-1 so far after that train wreck of a 2010 season? Again, who saw that coming? If Morton keeps this up, we'll soon be asking "Nate Who?"

Ryan Doumit - Huntington made no secret of wanting to trade Doumit this off-season, and such a trade could still happen, but Neal didn't just make a fire sale deal and dump him, and Doumit has been hitting well as a spot starter, even before today's heroics. Sometimes, the best traders are the ones you don't make.

The Bullpen - Even though Chris Resop has fallen to earth a bit in this Astros series, it appears that GM Neal has cobbled together a pretty good bullpen thus far in 2011.

Clint Hurdle - The GM is the guy who hires the manager, theoretically, anyway, so give Neal the credit for bringing in Hurdle, who certainly appears to be a good manager so far. (Using this same logic, Neal also gets the credit for hiring John Russell three years ago, but we come here today to praise Neal, not to bury him.)

OK, Mike, how does THAT sit with you?

*****

I suppose I can't let another day pass without commenting on Rashard Mendenhall and his tweets. In the highest tradition of Sports Talk Radio Culture, this topic has been thoroughly beaten into the ground, not only in Pittsburgh, but all across the USA. The best observation that I heard came from PTI's Michael Wilbon, who said, essentially, that Mendenhall is a 23 year old kid, who has shown a moderate ability to run with a football in the NFL, and how does this give him a platform that deserves all the attention that his insipid tweeting has given him? In other words, who cares what Rashard Mendenhall thinks? I don't. Nor do I really care, one way or another, if the Steelers choose to keep him or cut him. I suspect that he will not be released, but I also think he won't get many second chances if his performance starts to fall off.

Early Pirates Thoughts

It is early, very early, but how about a few thoughts on your 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates.

• Neil Walker, with 7 hits, 7 RBI, and an OPS over 1.000, has been the Pirates best player, and his scoring the winning run on Sunday from second base on an infield single has been the Pirates' best play of the four game season.


• Not bad for a guy who the Pirates last year were grooming to be a utility infielder.


• While Walker has been the best player so far, Andrew McCutchen and Jose Tabata have not been far behind.


• The biggest surprise has been the fairly strong performances of the four starting pitchers. Correia, Maholm, Ohlendorf, and Morton, especially Charlie Morton, all have done good work in their starts, each of them lasting six innings.


• How about Clint Hurdle coming out of the dugout on Sunday in Chicago to vociferously argue an umpire's call? After the three years of sleep-walking John Russell, I didn't think that Bucco skippers were allowed to do that.


• And kudos again to Hurdle for yanking his ineffective Eighth Inning Set-Up reliever, and bringing in his Closer with two outs in the eighth inning to put out the fire last night. Used to be that your best relievers were often called upon to pitch two or even three innings at a crack.


• On the minus side of the ledger has been Even Meek and Ronny Cedeno. You have to think that Meek will turn things around and be an effective reliever. You have no such hope that Cedeno will be an effective short stop. He has butchered two seemingly sure fire double play balls two games in a row, and the team is extremely fortunate that those two blunders didn't cost them the last two victories.


• GM Neil can be criticized for many things, and the fact that Ronny Cedeno is the best SS the Pirates have to offer four years into the Huntington Regime ranks very high on the list.

Switching from the diamond to the hardwood, congratulations to the Connecticut Huskies for winning the NCAA Championship last night. The game was, shall we say, far from an artistic masterpiece. I was glad that I had a baseball game to switch too for most of that hoops game. However, that takes nothing away from the well-earned Championship for UConn.

Incidentally, Loyal Reader Bill had pointed out to me over the weekend that the two teams that played for the Championship last night, UConn and Butler, were the same teams that handed Pitt it's two post-season losses in the Big East and the NCAA, respectively. Those victories over Pitt came by a combined score of a whopping three - count 'em - THREE POINTS. Kind of adds a bit of perspective to the Panthers' season.

Fish Fry Fridays Are Back!!

A little of this and a little of that....

• It's Lent. It's Friday. That means it's time to visit a local Fish Fry. Tonight we take a break from visiting a local Catholic Church and are instead heading to the Serbian Club on the South Side (or, to be more locally precise, the Sahsside). One of our neighbors are involved withe Serbian Club (through their Orthodox Church) and have been touting the Club's Fish Fry, so that's where we're headed tonight!
• I went on Facebook between games of the NCAA double-headers last night and confidently stated that it would be the Duke Blue Devils cutting down the nets in Houston next Monday night. Shows you how smart I am. That beatdown that Arizona put on the Dookies was not something you often see to one of Coach K's squads.
• Is it good to score 30+ points in a game while maintaining a shooting percentage in the low 30% range? Ask Jimmer Fredette and the BYU Cougars.
• My NCAA bracket entry was utterly smashed after the first weekend, so I an watching the games now purely for entertainment purposes. I had called for a final four consisting of Pitt, Notre Dame, North Carolina, and Duke, with UNC beating ND for the Championship. This can mean only one thing - bet heavily against the Tar Heels this weekend.
• If you are looking for a local rooting interest in the NCAA games at this point, how about cheering for Arizona and their young head coach, Blackhawk and Pitt alum Sean Miller.
• To tie up one more loose basketball end, I am sorry to report that the Shaler Lady Titans fell to Mt. Lebanon in the PIAA State semi-finals last week. So ends a great season for these young ladies.
• Kevin Correia gets the nod as Opening Day starter for the Pirates. Doesn't exactly fill you with optimism, does it?
• It is also noted that Charlie Morton has earned spot in the Pirates starting rotation. Who would have seen that coming after that train wreck of a season he had last year? Be sure, though, that Morton earned this spot. He has easily been the Bucs best starter in Spring Training. Good for him for overcoming last season's travails. Maybe THAT cold be a feel-good story for 2011.
• The NFL owners who profess to have the interests of "the fans" first and foremost in their hearts are the same group of businessmen who are now asking their season ticket holders to pony up their money for there 2011 tickets. This after they, the owners, have shut down the game putting into question if there will even be NFL games in 2011. And, yes, this includes the altruistic, Sainted Rooney family of Your Pittsburgh Steelers. I guess this is just another example of the "Steelers Way" of doing business.
• That said, I do not believe that there will be a single NFL game lost in 2011 due to a lockout/strike. This could mean that replacement players will once again make their appearance in NFL uniforms as they did back in 1987. At the same ticket prices, of course.