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There's No Ace, but the Astros Rotation is Deep with Quality

  Who should the Astros start in Game 1 of a playoff series?  This question has come up a good bit recently. Jake Kaplan put that question as  the lead to his mailbag column  today. Radio talk show host Sean Pendergast asked the question in a weekend twitter poll.  #Penderpoll  … Astros starting pitcher in Game 1 of the playoffs (or a wild card game) … WHO YA GOT? VOTE: — Sean Pendergast (@SeanTPendergast)  August 14, 2021 I have three reactions to this question 1.) It's too early in the season to answer this question, even if we are getting to back half of August; there's still a lot of season to go. 2.) I'm sure that Dusty will go with McCullers; playoff experience will matter to him, and  3. This is a difficult question to answer because the Astros have a very unique starting rotation this season--one with lots of good pitchers but no ace. Taking a look at all American League pitchers by Wins Above Replacement, it's clear that the Astros have n...
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A House Divided: Mine

Baseball was at the beginning of our relationship. Shortly I moved to New York in 2007 to take a job as a professor at John Jay College, CUNY, one of my colleagues—a Red Sox fan—invited me to go to a Red Sox bar in the middle of Manhattan to watch Yankees- Red Sox. And Erin, another new professor in our political science department, was also a Red Sox fan, so she was going to come with. Sounds great. The first colleague got delayed, so Erin and I took the subway to the Red Sox bar, had a great time, had our first two beers and great conversation before our other colleague got there. Earlier that summer, I looked the schedule and found out that the Astros had a September series at Shea Stadium. I bought two tickets before I got to New York, figuring one of my new colleagues would want to join me at a ballgame.  And since the Red Sox fan was single, a woman, and into baseball, it seemed obvious to invite her. And by the 4 th inning, I knew I wanted to ask Erin out on a formal date. ...
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