The Rangers beat the Astros with a walkoff double by Rougned Odor last night. That hit came off of Astros reliever Ken Giles. After the game, Giles vented about both this game and about how the Rangers have totally owned the Astros of late, having lost all seven meeting between the clubs this year:
The writer of that story, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle, noted something in the Rangers’ clubhouse this afternoon:
Ken Giles' comments from last night are posted on a big monitor in the Rangers' clubhouse under "Quotes of the Day."
— Jake Kaplan (@jakemkaplan) June 7, 2016
Even though the words are on a video monitor, I think we can still call it bulletin board material.
Giles may be correct in the sense that some analysts or scouts or armchair GMs may think, in the aggregate, and on paper, the Astros are the more talented team. In the abstract I tend to think the Astros have slightly more talent, I guess. But that’s a characterization that requires all kids of qualification and agreement on terms. Who may be better over the next several years vs. who is set up better this year. The weighing of offense and pitching. There are all manner of subjective factors.
It’s the stuff of preseason or pregame analysis, though, not the stuff of postgame analysis. When you got beat -- and when you’ve been beat by one team as many times as the Rangers have beat the Astros -- they’re thoughts that are both beside the point and better left unsaid. At some point the subjective assessment of “talent” must give way to the objective assessment of “better.” The Rangers are right now and have been all year, better than the Astros, full stop.
But nice job making the bulletin board, Ken.
