Houston and Philly

[RonCey]

These twp teams are starting to play well and starting to put some space between themselves and .500. With the Nationals in a predictable free fall, Houston and Philly are demonstrating that they may be our toughest Wild Card competition. It will be interesting to see if these two teams do anything drastic at the deadline to make it clear that they're going to go for the jugular in the second half.

[Coach C]

I don't know about you, but the Astros are really starting to make me very angry with their late surge.

 

It's annoying.

[UK1679666180]

It definitely has to be something to considered by Hendry, it is still a long ways away before the deadline and subsequent waiver deals after 8/1 and they have several teams to climb over.

[illiniguy]

I don't know about you, but the Astros are really starting to make me very angry with their late surge.

 

It's annoying.

some of us saw it annoying when it was starting. they weren't as bad as they were playing, but they aren't this good either. Chase Utley for the Phillies is great. I love all the main sites and sourses saying the phils are shopping Billy Wagner. Yeah in the heat of the playoff race they are going to get rid of their closer. :lol:

[Coach C]

It definitely has to be something to considered by Hendry, it is still a long ways away before the deadline and subsequent waiver deals after 8/1 and they have several teams to climb over.

 

This is true. However, to the Cubs benefit, if they are playing well, and Hendry makes some moves, the Cubs play alot of the NL Central in September, especially Houston in the last weeks of September, to the first 2 days in October. So the Cubs will have their chances to knock them down in the standings if needed.

[dalgreen]

Houston will go so far as a healthy Pettite and Oswalt will carry them. The Phils, I think, are still a streaky team. Hopefully they will have their 15 game slump or so, especially when we're there next week. Although we have several teams to climb, we're only one out on the loss side to a lot of those teams.

[otis89]

Houston will go so far as a healthy Pettite and Oswalt will carry them.

 

Uh, what happened to Clemens?

[cubweiser03]

I don't know about you, but the Astros are really starting to make me very angry with their late surge.

 

It's annoying.

some of us saw it annoying when it was starting. they weren't as bad as they were playing, but they aren't this good either. Chase Utley for the Phillies is great. I love all the main sites and sourses saying the phils are shopping Billy Wagner. Yeah in the heat of the playoff race they are going to get rid of their closer. :lol:

 

I agree all these reports about billy wagner traded are funny. Philly is a streaky team like the Cubs. Astros have played their best ball of the year, it wont get any better for them.

[JGalt73]

FWIW: Buster Olney is calling Houston the WC leader today:

 

Who will win the NL Wild Card?

 

Buster Olney: (11:31 AM ET ) Mike: I qualify this answer by saying that before the season, I had the Marlins. If I had to pick a team today, it would be the Astros, because of their 1-2-3 in the rotation and because of Lidge at the back end of the bullpen.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Does anyone really think the Astros are better than us? They've gotten some unexpected pitching(Wheeler, Pettitte), but I really doubt that Pettitte maintains that success. Plus their offense really isn't very good for playing half their games in MMP. I'm not saying that we're without flaws, but I've seen comments about acquiring players in order to "keep pace" with the Astros. Also, whatever happened to Mike Scott and Jimyisamisspell?

[E.J.]

Someone please explain to me how Morgan freakin' Ensberg is hitting .290 with a .387 OBP and .589 SLG %? The guy has 26 homeruns and 74 RBI's. How is that possible? It's Morgan freakin' Ensberg. :shock:

[Derwood]

Hopefully the Cubs can pay the Astros back this year with a 3 or 4 game sweep that sends them into a freefall late and surges the Cubbies into the wildcard. I was at one of those fateful games last year; the series where Houston seemed on its last legs, and a series win by the Cubs likely would have buried them. But the Astros beat the snot out of the Cubs and started their unbelievable surge towards teh playoffs.

 

yeah, that game sucked.

[UK1679666180]

It definitely has to be something to considered by Hendry, it is still a long ways away before the deadline and subsequent waiver deals after 8/1 and they have several teams to climb over.

 

This is true. However, to the Cubs benefit, if they are playing well, and Hendry makes some moves, the Cubs play alot of the NL Central in September, especially Houston in the last weeks of September, to the first 2 days in October. So the Cubs will have their chances to knock them down in the standings if needed.

 

But, they have a short time frame to decide that. That includes not having Nomar or them deciding to push Wood even further while his shoulder hangs on by a string.

[astrosfan34]

Does anyone really think the Astros are better than us? They've gotten some unexpected pitching(Wheeler, Pettitte), but I really doubt that Pettitte maintains that success. Plus their offense really isn't very good for playing half their games in MMP. I'm not saying that we're without flaws, but I've seen comments about acquiring players in order to "keep pace" with the Astros. Also, whatever happened to Mike Scott and Jimyisamisspell?

I wouldn't call Pettitte unexpected, and I do think that he will keep his success up. I think that due to the injuries with the Cubs and the fact that the Astros and Cubs IMO are the 2 best teams in this WC hunt, it will come down to the very end of the schedule. I will say that I would like the Astros chances a lot better if they had Adam Dunn or some other big bat....

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

These two teams play each other this week, so if we can sweep the Giants, then we'll gain ground on at least one of them.

[Bull]

I don't know about you, but the Astros are really starting to make me very angry with their late surge.

 

It's annoying.

some of us saw it annoying when it was starting. they weren't as bad as they were playing, but they aren't this good either. Chase Utley for the Phillies is great. I love all the main sites and sourses saying the phils are shopping Billy Wagner. Yeah in the heat of the playoff race they are going to get rid of their closer. :lol:

 

viewtopic.php?t=22446&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

 

I was nearly laughed off the board for suggesting it, but I'm now convinced that Houston is the team to beat in the WC race. And don't count Washington out so fast. [-X

[Dr. Cub]

Someone please explain to me how Morgan freakin' Ensberg is hitting .290 with a .387 OBP and .589 SLG %? The guy has 26 homeruns and 74 RBI's. How is that possible? It's Morgan freakin' Ensberg. :shock:

 

I don't know how it isn't obvious to you, because your question had the answer contained within itself. Obviously, it's because he changed his middle name to "freakin", what other possible explanation could there be? :oops:

[illiniguy]

I don't know about you, but the Astros are really starting to make me very angry with their late surge.

 

It's annoying.

some of us saw it annoying when it was starting. they weren't as bad as they were playing, but they aren't this good either. Chase Utley for the Phillies is great. I love all the main sites and sourses saying the phils are shopping Billy Wagner. Yeah in the heat of the playoff race they are going to get rid of their closer. :lol:

 

viewtopic.php?t=22446&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

 

I was nearly laughed off the board for suggesting it, but I'm now convinced that Houston is the team to beat in the WC race. And don't count Washington out so fast. [-X

Well I knew they would get a lot better with Berkman back and we, as usual, didn't put enough space in between ourselves and them.

[Jimy is a misspell]

You rang? :D

[bukie]

Actually, I'm more concerned about the Mets and Astros than the Phillies, Marlins, or Nationals (or the NL West for that matter).

 

The Mets have hung around despite getting next to nothing out of Piazza, Beltran, Glavine and Matsui. Pedro is anchoring an overall solid pitching staff, and their youngsters have been carrying the offense. If they can get any sort of production out of Beltran or Piazza, they could even make a run at the NL East (and this is coming from someone who never thought the Mets had a chance last year even when experts thought they had a shot at winning the division).

 

The Astros' offense is being carried by Biggio, Berkman and Ensberg, and their starting pitching has been fantastic lately. Can they keep it up? Well, the Cubs will get their shots at them, at least.