The Astros are one win from returning to the World Series, but if they advance, it looks increasingly possible that they’ll do so without the benefit of top starter Lance McCullers Jr. Manager Dusty Baker announced to reporters today that there’s no change with McCullers, who was ruled out for the ALCS (Twitter link via USA Today’s Bob Nightengale). The right-hander has not yet resumed throwing, which does not bode well for his World Series availability.
There’s similarly pessimistic news on center fielder Jake Meyers. The Astros aren’t replacing the promising rookie outfielder on the roster, but he’s unlikely to play again this series, according to Baker (via FOX 26’s Mark Berman). He could be available as a pinch-hitting or pinch-running option, however, and removing him from the roster mid-series would rule Meyers out for a potential World Series return. (Players removed from a postseason roster are ineligible to return for one full round of play.) Meyers has been batting a shoulder injury and recently had a setback.
Formally losing McCullers would be a tough blow for an Astros club that has rallied back from a 2-1 deficit to take a 3-2 series lead over the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. McCullers exited after four innings in Houston’s decisive Game 4 victory over the White Sox in the American League Division Series after revealing to the team that he’d experienced forearm discomfort.
McCullers underwent an MRI after the fact, and while the team hasn’t provided a formal diagnosis, it’s said to be a muscular issue rather than a structural issue (i.e. ligament damage). While McCullers was not included on the ALCS roster, there was at least hope that he’d be able to return should Houston qualify for a World Series showdown against either the Dodgers or the Braves.
If it indeed proves that McCullers can’t return, Houston’s options in his absence include Framber Valdez, Zack Greinke, Jake Odorizzi, Cristian Javier and rookie Luis Garcia — the latter of whom will get the nod in Game 6, according to Baker.
McCullers, 28, signed a five-year, $85MM extension in Spring Training, forgoing a potential run at free agency. He responded with a career-high 28 starts and 162 1/3 innings, pitching to a 3.16 ERA with a 27% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate along the way.
Prior to this injury, he was probably kicking himself for signing that extension. Now I’m guessing he’s made peace with it as forearm issues are usually a bad sign of things to come. Had he remained healthy and gone to free agency, he would have cleared 5/$100M easily.
Who do you guys think will make the World Series. The math says the rankings from most likely to least likely are:
1. Atlanta Braves: 3-1 NLCS lead
2. Houston Astros: 3-2 ALCS lead
3. Boston Red Sox: 2-3 ALCS deficit
4. Los Angeles Dodgers: 1-3 NLCS deficit
I’m going with the math and guessing Braves at Astros. The funny thing is that the Braves top this list but even if they dominate tonight and make the World Series they will still be favored to lose. The Red Sox and Astros both have better records and more importantly both will have home field advantage over the Braves in the World Series. If the 4th ranked Dodgers win 3 in a row and knock off the Braves they immediately become the favorite to win it all. So the rankings change a lot but this is how the 4 rank now. I’m hoping the ALCS goes 7 games and both of the next 2 go deep into extra innings.
Kind of funny actually. Looking at the probability statistics the Braves are the most likely team to make it to the World Series but also the most likely team to lose the World Series. The Dodgers are the least likely team to make the World Series but if they do they become the most likely team to win the World Series. The Astros are the 2nd most likely team to make it but are favored to beat the #1 ranked Braves if they do. The #3 ranked Red Sox are also favored to beat the #1 ranked Braves if they upset the Astros.
@missedwar. If I was gambler and could afford it I’d bet big on the Braves winning the World Series. It’s against my beliefs though.
Yeah. I could see that. The odds are really huge. That’s why I was a little surprised with all the Cardinals fans that thought the Cardinals would win but didn’t bet on them. If you had bet $17 on the Cardinals because you thought they were going to win Vegas would have given you $1,000 if you were right. If I believed in them as much as they seemed to I would have taken that bet in a heartbeat. The odds aren’t nearly as high paying for the Braves right now though. Betting on the Braves actually has the lowest payout right now. The biggest payout is the reverse order of how I ranked them. If the Braves do complete the knock off of the Dodgers though they will have the biggest payout of the last 2 remaining teams. At that point though you will only double your money. If anyone thought the Cardinals were going to win, betting on them when they had 983-17 odds was way too good to turn down. I don’t think all the people saying that actually believes it though. They were probably just trying to make people believe their team was better than it was.
The Brewers had a better (regular season)record than the Braves. Mil’s season is over. The Dodgers had a better (regular season) record than the Braves. If LA doesn’t win 3 in a row,their season will be over as well. Will the Braves win the World Series (if they get there)? I have no idea, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they did. As a Braves fan I hope they do. Every team has issues AND injuries AND lose key players every year. That’s the good AND bad about the baseball season, it’s a war of attrition and adjusting on the fly.
How about what the TV execs want:
1. Dodgers-Astros
2. Dodgers-Red Sox
3. Red Sox-Braves
4. Astros-Braves.
If the math holds up, and it’s Atl-Hou, I’m guessing a new lowest rated WS ever.
How about screw the TV execs. People watch baseball because it’s a real sport. If they wanted to watch it panned out for ratings they can just watched choreographed pro-wrestling. If the tv execs got what they wanted it would be Yankees vs. Dodgers every single year and the league would fall apart because 90% of fans would stop watching.
You ain’t gotta get hot about, man. Yikes. Just a talking point for fun.
Oh, I wasn’t getting hot at you. You made a good point. Nothing wrong with what you said at all. And I agree. That’s what the execs want. They basically want every fan to believe every team is capable of winning but also want it to come down to the 2 biggest markets every year. It really just bugs me because it bleeds down to the nationally televised announcers. You can always tell those guys heavily favor the big market teams. During the Braves Dodger game the other day an outfielder made a throw from shallow right field to home plate and didn’t get the runner out. The ball also bounced twice on the way there. So from shallow right field he couldn’t make the play and his arm was so weak that it had to bounce off the ground twice before it even made it to the catcher. All the announcer could talk about was how “great of a throw that was.” He never mentioned the guy that scored. He never mentioned the guy that got the hit. All he could do was praise the guy who bounced his throw off the ground twice from shallow right field and still couldn’t make the play. It was so obvious from the start of the game he was only there to support the big market team. All he did was talk about how good they were and completely ignored the team that was actually bashing their brains out. It gets very annoying because a lot of announcers do that come playoff time. Joe Buck is one that always does it. If the Yankees, Red Sox or Dodgers are playing against a smaller market team he always talks up the big market team no matter what happens. I wasn’t coming at you for the comment though. I was really just coming at the execs and the people they hire who will spout off the narrative they want everyone to hear. I agree with you 100% though.
Anything involving Houston right now will have high ratings. The pure hatred people have for them will lead to people wanting to see them lose.
I would expect Fox Sports would want Dodgers-Red Sox as #1 matchup—a WS repeat match. Dodgers-Astros also a repeat, but the potential viewing audience for the Red Sox would be greater than the Astros (demo markets aside, there are more Sox fans all over the country than Astros fans outside the Houston market).
Atlanta-Houston would be considered the catastrophic matchup of the four. This isn’t about which would be “good baseball”—they’d all be good matchups. But that pairing is the least likely to stimulate viewing.
MLB could learn more from wrestling. They need to have a heel.
The heel is going to the world series.
Yep, I was hoping for the Dodgers again but looks like the Braves.
He already had TJ surgery. This injury is a muscle injury and the same one that Odorizzi had earlier in the season. Odorizzi missed a little more than a month. McCullers will be ready to go in spring training.
It is perfectly possible he could need a second surgery. It isn’t common, but it does happen.