Altuve Walk Off HR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Astros going back to the series!!!!!!!!!!!

That was a great moment, and the end of my rooting for the Astros. Go Nats!!!

This is old school baseball built on the back of strong starting pitching! I love it!

I won't be watching it. I'm a Cleveland fan and it's the team that knocked us out of a Wildcard spot (WAS) vs yet another team (HOU) that took a great outfielder that we can't afford because we're a small market. Still stings seeing Brantley in that uniform

Houston didnt pay brantley a ton. He went there because hes friends with springer and the team was good with a chance to win.

Is cleveland really that much smallwr sports market than houston? Houston is a huge city but most years revenue wise they are closer to middle top of the pack. They are bringing in more now because they are good. Houston is a baseball town though. The fans show up


edit: looked it up. Houston is the 8th in sports market size(2.3 million homes). Cleveland 19th. (1.3 million)

Cleveland couldn't afford to keep Brantley and we had to trade away Bauer midseason because it was known that we couldn't afford to retain him. My Brantley comment is more about the lack of parity and hard salary cap in baseball than about the Astros rolling in cash. He's one of the most recent good players to leave because it was known that we couldn't pay him. It just sucks seeing every good player leave to make more money at large market teams when we are outbid or to small to mid size teams competing for a title.


We couldn't even get Lucroy because he invoked his no-trade clause against us a few years ago. Baseball lacks parity and now Clevelands window is closing and all our Allstars from a few years ago will be scattered throughout the league. We were on the cusp of making the playoffs again and now our team will fall apart before we're a serious contender again

?? Baseball is ultimate parity. The nationals are in the world series lol. 

Brantley only signed a 2 year 32 million contract. Thats 16 per. Thats not outrageous at all. You didnt sign him because he was ready to move on and it was pretty clear the indians were on the down swing and he had a better opportunity in houston. Bauer was a get something for him deal. I think you are overplaying the cant afford anyone and shipping them away argument.


The problem is your team had bloated salaries from when they contended and the young good players pay days became due. Bauer was also traded because he had had enough. He threw a freaking ball into the stands lol. He wanted out. 

C'mon. If the Royals can win a series, ANY team can.

"Ultimate parity" lol. Basically all mid and small market teams need to tank or be unwatchable for a 5 years to get the draft capital for a good roster to make a deep playoff run. There's a reason the same big market teams are always in the playoffs. It's not an apples to apples comparison with something like BOS or LAD to CLE and MIL.

Brantley's contract wasn't awful but still something the Indians couldn't afford. Had to have big contracts in 15-16 to make sure our roster wasn't once again poached by BOS or NYY. With small markets, if we spend on good players now, it's an unspoken rule that the roster will fall apart because big markets will outbid us for the rest of our team.

Bauer was pissed that he was traded. Up to the day he was traded he said that he wanted to stay. His thrown ball was out of anger that he wasn't staying.

I guess it's good that two mid markets are in the World Series but it hurts to see Brantley leaving for the same reason the Tribw lose every good player we ever have. Couldn't afford him.

I dunno, Tampa seems to knock on the door almost every year. We might see them in the playoffs a lot more if they diddnt have two juggernauts to defeat every year in Boston and NYY. They have been a complete thorn in our sides for over a decade. I can only imagine if they had cash to spend!

Maybe they don't have the biggest fanbases, but Houston and Washington are the 5th & 6th biggest metro areas in the US, hardly mid-market.

 

Was hoping for NYY-WAS, since I was raised rooting for the former by my NY family and I live in the latter.
So, I guess... go Nats!

I hate the Yankees more than any other pro sports team, so I'm happy. I'm an Orioles fan, not a Nats fan, but I'll root for them in the playoffs at least. Usually the team that gets hot at the end wins it all, and they've been quite hot. But also teams that get a long layoff between the DS and WS tend to not do so well. Just hoping for some good games at least.

I just hope the astros atleast try to retain Cole. He has been otherworldly this year.