Houston Astros: Best Team in the Game

[The Express]

First of all, straight pitch is stupid.

Second of all, if you're playing curve pitch Houston is the best team in the game. Reasons why:

• You get a lot of infield singles because the speed guys also have low power ratings and great contact ratings
• Almost every single is actually a double since Houston has so much speed you can steal successfully almost everytime
• 3 out of 4 games my pitchers will combine for a shutout against you
• MScott and Nolan both have a 50 on stamina so you have a deeper bullpun in case the game goes into extra innings
• Nolan is the best pitcher in the game
• MScott is easily top 5 and has the best drop ball in the game
• D.Thon is the must clutch player in the game
• GG

[TβG]

First of all, welcome to the boards

Second of all, have you ever played against a person and not the computer?

- have you ever played the drinking game?
- do you know the secret to throwing out baserunners?
- you have a built-in friend here at these boards and his name is "strassy"
- have you ever played a series with 1sp (one starting pitcher)?
- gg

[BeefMaster]

I second TBG's welcome.  We haven't had any good discussion of the merits of the teams lately, so thanks for stirring it up.

You get a lot of infield singles because the speed guys also have low power ratings and great contact ratings

Contact rating doesn't help you here.  The actual function of the rating is to reduce power, not to improve how well a player makes contact - if anything, that hurts your point, as a guy with a good (low) contact rating will hit balls harder more often.

Almost every single is actually a double since Houston has so much speed you can steal successfully almost everytime

Against the computer, maybe, but I can steal most of the time against the computer with 3/4 of Minnesota's lineup.  Against a human who knows how to throw out baserunners, Lopes is the only guy on Houston who can steal bases regularly (although you might be able to get a few with Hatcher, depending on the opponent).

[The Express]

• TY for the welcome.
• Who plays the computer?
• I don't drink.
• There's a secret to throwing out baserunners? Last time I checked the NES controller still only had two buttons so I'm not sure what you're talking about.
• Good point about the contact rating-- got me there.
• Bill Doran's nickname should be "Doran the Explorer"
• 3 IP w/ Scott, 1 IP w/ DSmith, 4 IP w/ Nolan, 1 IP Kerfeld, GG.

[The Express]

and obviously if you go 9 innings w/ one pitcher or play straight pitch detroit = best team in game b/c of their offense

[TβG]

the secret to throwing out baserunners is that you throw the ball toward home with your catcher and the opponent fails to slide into second base... most of the time resulting in an out.

what in the world are you referring to with "gg"?

[fightonusc]

Greg Gagne?

[TβG]

goose gossage?

[fightonusc]

Good Grief!

[TbT]

GG allen?

Dude(or dudette if your a woman), kefeld is the fucking shit...he needs more than an inning of work.  ive found it to be no secret that people just dont like batting vs a european handjobber sidearmer (myself included).

Anywho, Houston was better than St louis last thursday in the finale of the bootleggers bar RBI session.  KEVIN FKN BASS WALK OFF 2 RUN SHOT in the 10th off a very tired Todd Worrell. 

[TβG]

gorman gthomas?

[JoeDirt]

This is complete insanity.  Here's why:

• You get a lot of infield singles because the speed guys also have low power ratings and great contact ratings

Not if your opponent knows how to pitch at all.  If you are Ho and I'm anybody else, I'm going to bust a lot of your high speed/low power guys inside to take the infield hit away from you.  Sure, I'll also bust you outside enough to keep you off guard, but that's exactly what you'll be, as you ground out to my ss over and over.  Moreover, even if you do squeeze one between the 3b and ss, I'm still in control, as realistically, you're going to have to do that 3 times an inning to score 1 run (so unlikely).

• Almost every single is actually a double since Houston has so much speed you can steal successfully almost everytime

See TBG/Beef's responses.  Beef even gives too much credit...Lopes can still be thrown out more often than not.

• 3 out of 4 games my pitchers will combine for a shutout against you

Honestly, this has more to do with the level you're playing against.  If you can routinely shut your opponent out with Ho, then your opponent isn't that good.  I'm not saying that Ho's pitching isn't that good, but you should be able to score a few runs pretty regularly, at least.  And the problem is, even if you can keep your opponent to a few runs, you're still in trouble because Ho's offense is so weak.

• MScott and Nolan both have a 50 on stamina so you have a deeper bullpun in case the game goes into extra innings

True, but even so, you have to be perfect at all times because you're offense is so deficient. 

• Nolan is the best pitcher in the game

Highly debatable.  I personally think Tudor is the best, but your point stands--Ryan is one of the top SPs in the game.  For the record, I regard the following SPs as better than Ryan: Tudor, Fernando, Clemens...

• MScott is easily top 5 and has the best drop ball in the game

I doubt it.  The four SPs listed above are better than Scott...as are Gooden, Ojeda, Key, Krukow...and you're correct, Scott has a great drop rating, but it's almost too good.  It's too easy to lay off because it almost always drops.

• D.Thon is the must clutch player in the game

okay...(but he's probably not on my list of top 20 clutch hitters).

• GG

Good game?

[JoeDirt]

Also, despite my complete disagreement with the very premise of your claim, it is very fantastic to have a legit  RBI debate again!

[Attezz]

How do you make bullets?

[The Express]

The beautiful thing about MScott's drop ball: I'm going to throw four of them at you once I have you at an 0-2 count.    You can either sit there and watch one of them go for the strikeout, or you can swing at one of them and strikeout. Take your pick. My buddy is a pretty good player, but the other day i had 6K in 2 IP with the Scottsman.  I like to start MScott and not really worry about draining him quickly b/c I got 50 stamina Nolan and one inning wonder Kerfeld waiting in the wings.

Also, my buddy was going to "the secret throwout" the other day when we were playing and I was still swiping bags off of him with everybody... then again, he wasn't too great at getting the throw in quickly. 

I think the key to winning with Houston is waiting on pitches and draining the other guys pitching staff. 

All I can say about DThon is that it was the bottom of the 12th in a 0-0 game and I brought him in.  He hit the walk-off homer to preserve my undefeated record against one of my buddies. Since then he's actually done nothing for me. But that one instance alone makes him the greatest clutch player ever. 

GG

[ultimate7]

How do you make bullets?

copy paste from Word?

[Gerlost]

How do you make bullets?

Gunpowder?

[ultimate7]

I love using the Astros in Hou/STL matchups, growing up played this matchup almost exclusively (much like Strassy/Nacho), using 1 SP in 7 game series.  But Houston is the worst team in RBI, it makes it so fun to win with them.

[JoeDirt]

The beautiful thing about MScott's drop ball: I'm going to throw four of them at you once I have you at an 0-2 count.    You can either sit there and watch one of them go for the strikeout, or you can swing at one of them and strikeout. Take your pick. My buddy is a pretty good player, but the other day i had 6K in 2 IP with the Scottsman.  I like to start MScott and not really worry about draining him quickly b/c I got 50 stamina Nolan and one inning wonder Kerfeld waiting in the wings.

Also, my buddy was going to "the secret throwout" the other day when we were playing and I was still swiping bags off of him with everybody... then again, he wasn't too great at getting the throw in quickly. 

I think the key to winning with Houston is waiting on pitches and draining the other guys pitching staff. 

All I can say about DThon is that it was the bottom of the 12th in a 0-0 game and I brought him in.  He hit the walk-off homer to preserve my undefeated record against one of my buddies. Since then he's actually done nothing for me. But that one instance alone makes him the greatest clutch player ever. 

GG

Good luck consistently getting to 0-2 on me with Scott.  I'll take most of the drop balls that you want to use to get me to 0-2 in the first place...

[Attezz]

Yeah, aren't like 90% of MScott's drop ball's 'balls'

Our strategy used to be to just ignore them constantly (easier in theory when you rarely play against Hou)