Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

[AC]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

I have a slight feeling that this next updates will be, oh, I dunno...





I'm watching you, 35...

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Welcome to the Trop...the chittiest ballpark in all of baseball, if I do say so myself. Every time I see this place, I want to throw up in my mouth. It is disgusting, ugly, and every bad word you could ever throw out in a sentence. Wait? We are at home instead of in Tampa? Halleluiah! I must have misread the schedule...but there are no complaints here. I HATE the Trop.

Welcome to the Astros Carlos Pena.


The Reds didn't appreciate you, and we're sorry about that. Let us reward you with a couple tidbits about the Astros transactions this last week:

DFA'd David Carpenter (1-4, 7.64 ERA, .560 BAA), Lucas Harrell (1-8, 8.77 ERA, .356 BAA), and Hector Noesi (1-1, 6.60 ERA, 15 HR allowed in 30.1 innings)

Noesi was claimed by these Rays, but sits in their AAA affiliate. Harrell was claimed by the Yankees! Oh hail the mighty Yankees for taking us out from under a god awful contract and a god awful player. I hope that you rot in hell Milky. And Carpenter cleared waivers and is sitting in free agency. But onto our action, it would be an interesting game against these Rays as they come into the game ranked 2nd in team batting average. Wait is that right? I had to of misread that...


Yes that is correct, wow...the same Rays that have been no-hit 3 times in the last 4 years are 2nd in baseball in team average? Impressive turnaround. Here we go with today's action


Thank god we're at home, I can't reiterate enough times how much I ****ing hate that chithole in Tampa. Tampa's lineup for all to see


Ahh that's why they're 2nd in average. The top 6 hitters are all hitting .275 or higher. Good news we've got Kyle "The Fisher Price Buzzsaw" Weiland coming to the rescue today.


He would face off against Mr. Big Game James himself


Not so great in the numbers column for Big Game. But he is always a tough matchup. Fast forward to the top of the 4th inning. Catcher Steven Vogt takes a 2-1 fastball from Weiland and lines it to center, scoring Travis Hafner from 2nd base to make the game 1-0. However, former Ray Carlos Pena would double and be plated by a Jason Castro single to tie the game at 1. An inning later, Kyle Weiland would single and be scored on a Chris Johnson RBI single to make it 2-1. And so it stayed. Yes it really was a 2-1 final. Kyle Weiland gave us 6 strong innings (as shown here)


And we would take this one here in Houston.


Oh that reminds me, Sergio Escalona had been pitching so badly in the closers role recently. Which led to a change of the guard at closer, welcome to the fray Kevin Jepsen. Your 1.09 ERA and .187 BAA is music to my ears. Pena goes 1-4 in his Houston debut and scores a run.

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Off we go! After taking 2 of 3 from Tampa, we took 2 of 3 from Minnesota and moved into Chicago to face the division rival Cubbies. 5-0 Jeremy Bonderman vs Paul MahoLOLm (yes that is his nickname for me.) Not much else to say about this one, other than how much of a one-sided pitching matchup it was.


vs this


Yeah, you do the math.


Bondo was on point all game long. First inning he punched out 2 batters and was looking sharp. 2nd inning he allowed a run, but it took him only 15 pitches to get through. 3rd inning, punched out the 8 hitter McDonald on a NASTY heater up and in and the pitcher on a slider. 4th inning goes quickly as well. And he also helps his own cause in this game with an RBI single.

But Juicin's 16th bomb on the year is a bigger story.


And so is a CG for Jeremy. He punched out 11, walked nobody (which is unbelievable considering the walk numbers he's been giving me in some starts) and allowed the 1 run.


We would take this one easy by a final of 5-1


Big news is on the horizon for the Astros as they sit a mere 2 games out of the Wild Card lead. A rumored big trade has been preliminarily approved which sends a slugger to Houston. More on this in a minute!

[AC]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Ohhhh, here it comes!

[jknott10]

Are any of those Bonderman starts sim starts?

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Are any of those Bonderman starts sim starts?

Most of them are actually, I've played 2 or 3 of his starts and the rest are simmed. He had another CG shutout earlier in the year during a sim.

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Offices of Jeff Luhnow
July 2nd, 2013



Jeff hung up the phone. He had just completed arguably the biggest deal of his GM career. Well, he completed it yesterday...but this deal was part of that. More on the first deal in a moment: After the club swept away the Cubs, they took 2 of 3 from San Francisco and headed for home. To face Jed Lowrie and the last place Braves? What happened to the Disney movie team from last season? But now...the Astros would have another bat to make a move with. Jeff just put the finishing touches on a deal that would acquire Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies who is hitting .267 with 16 longballs and 44 RBIs. A major upgrade for the squad in the outfield and in the power department. He had to give up alot, including top pick Lance McCullers, Nick Tropeano (another top arm) and Delinio DeShields Jr (2nd base prospect). But it was worth it to bring home the win here in Houston.

Time to compete. Time to win, time to...shed payroll. CarGo has a huge deal and there was someone who would be the casualty of that. Sadly, it was Brian Bogusevic. Bogey was dealt immediately following the CarGo deal to Detroit for 1B prospect Ryan Strieby to clear cap space. They'd miss Bogey, but Carlos would be more than enough outfielder to compensate them for their loss.

The game was starting...




That was the Bravos lineup to face this man


The BUD coming out of the woodwork to start the debut of Carlos Gonzalez, and he is poised to make an All-Star Game appearance this season. Finally an Astros pitcher in the game! And wait a minute? Is that Vlad Guerrero I see trolling left field? What is he like 100 now? Jesus...the Braves must be desperate. Well why wouldn't they be? They're in last place and other than their starter today, have been awful. Speaking of which here's our new look lineup with CarGo in there


And our opponent tonight


Beachy is our opponent today. And in the first AB of CarGo, Carlos lines a deep drive to left center...going back is Guerrero. To the track, to the wall and it is! Caught. Just missed his first AB with the squad being a dinger, I was disappointed to say the least. But it was ok since the Super Lineup produced a run with Pena and Johnson doubling to start off the 2nd inning to make it 1-0 and that would be all we'd need for awhile. The Bud was on his game. No hitting these fools for 5 innings. Before he allowed a bloop single in the 6th and erased it with a DP ball.



Check out the matchup through 7.1 innings, pretty good right? Well it got even more complex as Bud loaded up the bases before escaping after this guy made a running play to save extra bases.


That's right, CarGo to the rescue. Only 1 run allowed for Bud and we'd head for the 9th. But back to Carlos for a moment. CarGo's 2nd AB was better as he got an infield single hustling down the line. And his 3rd AB was also a single in which he scored the 2nd run of the game for us. He didn't get a 4th AB since SOMEBODY (I'm looking at you JD) got robbed of a base knock in the 8th inning and left him on deck. And since our Pen is so good, we wouldn't look back. Jepsen locked down the Braves and ended the game with a K of Jed Lowrie of all people.



Bud's final numbers before the All-Star break, not too shabby my man.



And once again, Bud Norris is a victor against a solid team...no matter what their record is the Braves are one of our rivals and we need to treat them as such. We won and that's great. We closed out the Pre-Break schedule with taking 2 of 4 from ATL, and 2 of 3 from CIN. With the highlight being Paul Clemens beating Johnny Cueto and moments afterward receiving the "Stock Rising" email, which makes him an A Pot now. Hell yeah.

CarGo may have been expensive and we'll miss all three of the guys we gave up, but how can I not go get a bat? We need them and we are in this race. We can make some noise. And even if we fall out of it this year, CarGo is locked up for 4 more years. He's a great option for us going forward as well.

[pokerplaya]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Offices of Jeff Luhnow
July 2nd, 2013

CarGo may have been expensive and we'll miss all three of the guys we gave up, but how can I not go get a bat? We need them and we are in this race. We can make some noise. And even if we fall out of it this year, CarGo is locked up for 4 more years. He's a great option for us going forward as well.

Love the move. You are in the race, 9 games over .500 -- you have to try to compete now. Not going to take the time to see if you have recent standings posted right now, but I'm sure it'd take a bad collapse to fall out of at least a wild-card at this point.

Not trying to jinx it, obviously. You appear to be in solid position for the second-half stretch run, and CarGo is a very, very solid player, still with some upside to add for it.

[AC]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

You're welcome for the super lineup.

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Love the move. You are in the race, 9 games over .500 -- you have to try to compete now. Not going to take the time to see if you have recent standings posted right now, but I'm sure it'd take a bad collapse to fall out of at least a wild-card at this point.

Not trying to jinx it, obviously. You appear to be in solid position for the second-half stretch run, and CarGo is a very, very solid player, still with some upside to add for it.

I'm sitting at 47-38 (I think) right now and I forgot to check the standings and all that stuff. I may not do that tonight as I'm going to the now free DIA tomorrow with some former classmates and I'm enjoying watching the all-star game play out. But it will all be posted before I move on.

But I agree, Carlos is a controllable bat and I couldn't justify leaving my lineup as was...it was so bad.

[AC]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Was it me, you, Bugle, or NFG that suggested CarGo?

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Was it me, you, Bugle, or NFG that suggested CarGo?

You or NFG

[AC]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

You or NFG

I'm gonna guess him lol

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

I'm gonna guess him lol

Me too, but I think I've cranked out enough updates tonight...I'm drained on typing stories and recaps. I just wanna get my stuff together and see the ASG. I'm actually excited for the 2nd half of baseball. Which is more than I could say when I was 15 games out of the wild card at the break last season.

EDIT: The HR Derby may be on the agenda. I'm not quite tired enough to sleep yet and its interesting to me to see what happens here.

[AC]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Me too, but I think I've cranked out enough updates tonight...I'm drained on typing stories and recaps. I just wanna get my stuff together and see the ASG. I'm actually excited for the 2nd half of baseball. Which is more than I could say when I was 15 games out of the wild card at the break last season.

Don't get burnt out. If you're done, you're done. Sit back, read some of my updates coming out Pokerplaya's got a new update... Relax. You've been all over the place today lol.