Jose Cruz

[Gantry]

It's time we had some RBI discussion. 

Do you keep Jose Cruz in?  If not, who do you sub him for? 

I personally always keep him in, seems to outperform his 768 power in straight pitch.  But then again lefty hits are big with Houston since their power is so fkn anemic.  Same player as a righty and he's likely worthless. 

Also, look at my dee-nee.com entry for Houston.  His nickname is Cheo?  I don't even know what that means, nobody ever gave him that nickname.  Why did I make shit up?  What the fuck is wrong with me? 

[fightonusc]

Nope, you are correct.

Also, No. 2 spot is time for the DickieThon.

[fightonusc]

Gonna need Strassy's help here, but I think the translation might be a bit light.

[Gantry]

A HA!  So I'm a genius for tracking down his real nickname.  Got it...

[Gantry]

Gonna need Strassy's help here, but I think the translation might be a bit light.

Hell I'm going to try without cheating or using subs. 

Well, it's true I love Whataburgers -- es verdad?
It's one of my favorite places for me to eat  --  think he says mi sitio
Whataburgers are pure beef __ good spice/warmth  -- se vido bien calientitos?

Don't understand a word of this line - maybe starts with acá and ends with pariña, though I don't know if that's a word

All the ingredients are fresh like the lettuce, tomato __ and the onions  -- las pepeninos?
___ exactly how I like
My favorite Whataburger is made with Jalapeños  -- though "hace que tiene" confuses me.  More like "does have?"
But the best is that when I'm in a hurry I Cruuuz through the drive-thru window, how nice


Holy fuck I'm terrible at spoken Spanish, probably listened to it 15 times to barely get half.

[Gantry]

Well he's Puerto Rican, so I feel a little better since I haven't heard them speak much. 

[Gantry]

Turning on the subtitles:

servido bien calientido - served nice and warm probably.  Now that I know it's servido it's so fkn obvious
parrilla?

YouTube does not do a good job subtitling that. 

[Gantry]

parrilla is a grill, adding to my flash cards. 

IS EVERYONE HAPPY THAT I MADE YET ANOTHER THREAD ABOUT MYSELF??!?!?!?!

[TempoGL]

Gonna need Strassy's help here, but I think the translation might be a bit light.

Hell I'm going to try without cheating or using subs. 

Well, it's true I love Whataburgers -- es verdad?
It's one of my favorite places for me to eat  --  think he says mi sitio
Whataburgers are pure beef __ good spice/warmth  -- se vido bien calientitos?

Don't understand a word of this line - maybe starts with acá and ends with pariña, though I don't know if that's a word

All the ingredients are fresh like the lettuce, tomato __ and the onions  -- las pepeninos?
___ exactly how I like
My favorite Whataburger is made with Jalapeños  -- though "hace que tiene" confuses me.  More like "does have?"
But the best is that when I'm in a hurry I Cruuuz through the drive-thru window, how nice


Holy fuck I'm terrible at spoken Spanish, probably listened to it 15 times to barely get half.

Here's my (spicy) take:

"Well, it's true.  I love Whataburger.  It's one of my favorite places to eat.  Whataburgers are made with pure beef and they come hot off the grill (he's saying parilla, which means "grill")

All the ingredients are really fresh, like the lettuce, the tomatoes (he used a weird puerto rican word but that's what it's got to be), the peppers, and the onions.  And they make my Whataburger exactly how I like it.  My favorite Whataburger is one that has jalapenos (why he makes a "ooh that's hot" gesture is beyond me, must have been hamming it up for the camera)

But the best part about Whataburger is when I am in a hurry, I Cruuuuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzz through the drive through.  How great!"

Gantry and I had some small differences but I'm not saying those parts were wrong on his end, there's always some poetic license in translation as it rarely is word-for-word.

As for Jose Cruz in RBI, I always leave him in.  I've probably played as Houston more than anybody on earth, but I don't claim to be the expert, as everyone's style of play is different.  Stu and I always play curve pitch, and you can only use your second starter until the 14th inning or later, so pinch hitting is more important than it may be in other styles.

My Astros lineup:

1. Hatcher
2. Cruz
3. Lopes or Garner (Walling will hit if there's two outs and no one on, as to not waste the PH bonus)
4. Davis
5. Bass
6. Doran
7. Reynolds
8. Lopes or Garner

Puhl and Thon are left to pinch hitting for the pitcher's spot.  It is a bit wasteful to leave them only for one at-bat apiece, but our games are almost always low scoring affairs and you will often need one of them in a pinch (get it?)

[Gantry]

Got closer than I thought, holy cow "ellos hacen" - they make.  Would have never heard it on my own - now I can't unhear that, weird how that works.  What word is he saying there for peppers?  Almost sounds like pepeniño or something. 

I found it interesting you take Walling out immediately then I looked at the numbers.  He has the worst power numbers out of any Houston starter, even Hatcher.  I had no idea...

What determines if you go Lopes/Garner in three or eight? 

[TempoGL]

Situational. If speed is likely to be of importance, I go Lopes. If not, Garner

[fknmclane]

Cruz stays.

[fknmclane]

Lopes comes in for the bottom half of the pathetic order.

[fknmclane]

Maybe even bring Lopes in for Denny Walling. God, Denny Walling fucking sucks.

[TempoGL]

Maybe even bring Lopes in for Denny Walling. God, Denny Walling fucking sucks.

If memory serves, Walling was the last guy to hit a home run on either side when Nacho and I attempted 24 hours of RBI.  Turns out I was wrong, Nacho still needed to hit a lot more home runs:

https://forums.dee-nee.com/index.php?topic=14578.msg292439#msg292439

[Gantry]

Maybe even bring Lopes in for Denny Walling. God, Denny Walling fucking sucks.

He really really does

[Nacho]

We need to do another RBI marathon sometime.

Cruz has good speed and there are worse Astros in the starting lineup.

[Flood]

We need to do another RBI marathon sometime.

Cruz has good speed and there are worse Astros in the starting lineup.

Yep...Cruz stays. What a shitty lineup.

[GDavis]

I used to sub out Reynolds and Ashby and use the other 2 pinch hitters situationally.

[Gantry]

Denny Walling is so bad, honestly didn't know his power #s were that low