Shine On You Crazy Diamonds!!!!
With Pink Floyd being my favorite band of all time, I had to reference them in the title of today's post. It comes from the beginning and ending tracks off of their 1975 release, "Wish You Were Here," a tribute record to founding band member, Syd Barrett. This spacey, yet haunting and moody record has earned plenty of accolades over the past 4 decades, and remains one of the best albums in all of rock-n-roll to this day.
I could think of no other pop culture reference to bring to the forefront in describing the current state of the Houston Astros. Now it's true, they hit the skids in this past road series against the defending American League Champions, the Cleveland Indians. Mostly, Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber, their two pitching aces, pitch their ways out of offensive jams initiated by the spacemen. The Astros did put up a great fight in those final two games, keeping both scores within a run. However, the boys from the rock-n-roll capital of the USA came out the victors of that series. Houston will see them again at Minute Maid Park in next month, in what could be another preview of this season's ALCS series.
But the 3 game set up in Ohio had plenty of upside from the offense. Specifically, the duo of #BearSquared in Brian McCann and your people's champion and mine, Evan Gattis. The bearded bash brothers gave chase to a pair of monster home runs on Wednesday, in spite of the loss. Both of these men, the Astros' catching core, have been contributing extremely well with the bat, and both are slashing over a .275 BA and .800 OPS respectively. Just check out the dingers for yourselves:
But I digress. As mentioned so many times before, I have been following the careers of both of these men for a while. Not only are they look-a-likes, but even there own stats mirror each other. Courtesy of Fangraphs, Baseball Reference and ESPN.com, you readers can see how the two lumberjacks are almost identical on both sides of the ball:
But the past is the past, after all. And these two are going to be a big part of this organization and ball club's future. As of this writing, McCann will be getting a well deserved off day, and Gattis will catch for a second day in a row behind none other than Charlie Morton. The Astros open a 3 game set at home against divisional rivals, the Oakland Atheltics. Then, on Monday, a big 4 game home stand against in-state divisional rivals the Texas Rangers, whom the Astros will face for the first time this season.
No easy feat awaits these fellas, but I'm confident that they will always remember how talented and capable they are to take things all the way. Keep on shining like crazy diamonds, spacemen!
I could think of no other pop culture reference to bring to the forefront in describing the current state of the Houston Astros. Now it's true, they hit the skids in this past road series against the defending American League Champions, the Cleveland Indians. Mostly, Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber, their two pitching aces, pitch their ways out of offensive jams initiated by the spacemen. The Astros did put up a great fight in those final two games, keeping both scores within a run. However, the boys from the rock-n-roll capital of the USA came out the victors of that series. Houston will see them again at Minute Maid Park in next month, in what could be another preview of this season's ALCS series.
But the 3 game set up in Ohio had plenty of upside from the offense. Specifically, the duo of #BearSquared in Brian McCann and your people's champion and mine, Evan Gattis. The bearded bash brothers gave chase to a pair of monster home runs on Wednesday, in spite of the loss. Both of these men, the Astros' catching core, have been contributing extremely well with the bat, and both are slashing over a .275 BA and .800 OPS respectively. Just check out the dingers for yourselves:
- Gattis' two-run monster shot over the center field wall!
- McCann's two-run bomb to nearly the same location!
But it hasn't just been their bats coming alive. Gattis and McCann have been working the pitching staff very well. El Oso Blanco, in particular, had himself quite the defensive outing yesterday behind Mike Fiers. Check out this awesome play with the arm! He also gunned down Lonnie Chisenhall in the second inning while he tried to nab second base. Unfortunately, MLB.com does not have that video. Lazy good for nothings!@blummer27 @RealToddKalas are Evan Gattis and Brian McCann the new bash bros? @astros @ROOTSPORTSSW pic.twitter.com/rnDIr0UolU— Nicky Mintz (@chunky37) April 27, 2017
But I digress. As mentioned so many times before, I have been following the careers of both of these men for a while. Not only are they look-a-likes, but even there own stats mirror each other. Courtesy of Fangraphs, Baseball Reference and ESPN.com, you readers can see how the two lumberjacks are almost identical on both sides of the ball:
- Fangraphs - Brian McCann; Evan Gattis
- Baseball Reference - Evan Gattis; Brian McCann
- ESPN.com - Evan Gattis, Brian McCann
But the past is the past, after all. And these two are going to be a big part of this organization and ball club's future. As of this writing, McCann will be getting a well deserved off day, and Gattis will catch for a second day in a row behind none other than Charlie Morton. The Astros open a 3 game set at home against divisional rivals, the Oakland Atheltics. Then, on Monday, a big 4 game home stand against in-state divisional rivals the Texas Rangers, whom the Astros will face for the first time this season.
No easy feat awaits these fellas, but I'm confident that they will always remember how talented and capable they are to take things all the way. Keep on shining like crazy diamonds, spacemen!
Original Photo Credits: Jason Miller of Getty Images (McCann, Left) & Tony Dejak of the Associated Press (Gattis, Right)
The Combo of #BearSquared Keeps Rolling Ever On!!!!
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