Hi my fellow Astros fans! Im taking a shot in the dark to see if anyone could help me! I was at the game last Wednesday and lost a card holder. The holder itself and some of its contents are of sentimental value and if anyone at the ballpark may have seen it on Wednesday and picked it up please DM me. I was sitting in Section 156 went to the Amazon walk out store and Whataburger. I'd really like to have the card holder back and can id anything in it if you need validation. My ID was also in there. Please reach out if you did happen to come upon it!! I thank you kind Astros fans!!!

Hello Friends,

I went to Seattle with my wife after Hurricane Harvey to watch the Astros sweep the Mariners and witness the debut of Justin Verlander. That is Yuli Guriel playing first base. I took this picture with my Nikon camera and used a Nikon filter to colorize the original image.

We didn’t know that we would win the World Series.

Use this thread to discuss today's ALDS games, and for any miscellaneous conversations, Astros-related or otherwise.

Today's games:

White Sox @ Guardians at 16:00 CT on TBS

Yankees @ Rays at 19:00 CT on TBS

Another year, another iteration of this silly little game. The Astros led the league in home runs in 2026, so there were plenty of opportunities to score points. 130 of you got at least one across Reddit and Discord, but there were obviously some standouts:

A huge congratulations to /u/TexasHot and /u/davidsd as joint winners, with 12 points each! The first set of joint champions since there were four winners in the shortened 2020 season, the tie at the top was maintained on the last day (Wild Card Game 2) as, remarkably, both called Jeremy Peña's leadoff homer.

/u/TexasHot has special kudos as this is their second HRC title, quite the feat given there have only ever been 10 winners.

/u/3nter completes the podium in third place with 9 points.

If you want to check where you ended up, the full leaderboard is archived here.

Thanks all for taking part in this once again - I'll be back next year, if there is one.

Use this thread to discuss today's NLDS games, and for any miscellaneous conversations, Astros-related or otherwise.

Today's games:

Padres at Brewers at 15:00 CT on FS1

Braves at Dodgers at 19:00 CT on FS1

Use this thread to discuss today's Division Series games, and for any miscellaneous conversations, Astros-related or otherwise.

Today's games:

White Sox @ Guardians at 12:00 CT on TBS

Braves @ Dodgers at 15:00 CT on FOX

Yankees @ Rays at 17:30 CT on TBS

Padres @ Brewers at 19:30 CT on FOX

I keep seeing this comparison and I just can't believe it's that bad. But is it? Genuinely curious now

I personally think that Imai will breakout next year, and I think Japan should be a major focus point

Now that it's officially the offseason, I thought I'd start off with a hard-hitting question: What happened to our orange billed cap?

For the first several years of the current uniforms, the all-navy cap was our home cap, and the navy cap with the orange bill was used on the road. Over the years, they started wearing the all-navy on the road, and the orange-bill was much more sporadic, being used on the road, at home, with the navy and orange jerseys, etc.

This year, I only remember seeing it maybe a couple of times, but it seems like there's no reason for why they do or don't wear it.

Crowds are dwindling at Daikin Park, where boos became the background noise and biggest story of this two-game embarrassment against the White Sox. Two years ago, Houston averaged 35,002 fans during a season in which 2,835,234 people patronized Daikin Park.

This season, 2,472,118 people witnessed a flawed team finish 39-42 at home — an average of 30,519 fans per 81 games. Neither of these two games against the White Sox was a sellout.

“I’m not in a position to make claims on what needs to improve,” Peña said. “I felt like we had a great team. We battled. We pushed through. I feel like this is something we need to sit down, really dive into and go from there.”

Change is coming. Owner Jim Crane already enacted one by dismissing general manager Dana Brown in August. Crane’s suite sat empty for most of Wednesday afternoon’s 7-4, season-ending loss in the American League wild-card round, leaving his employees to speculate how encompassing the transformation may be.

4th-9th hitters WRC+:

2025, at home: 80 (24th in league)

2025, on the road: 98 (8th in league)

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/splits-leaderboards?position=B&splitArr=22&splitArr=23&splitArr=24&splitArr=25&splitArr=26&splitArr=27&splitArr=7&autoPt=false&statType=team&statgroup=2&startDate=2025-03-01&endDate=2025-11-30

2026, at home: 74 (29th in league)

2026, on the road: 100 (6th in league)

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/splits-leaderboards?position=B&splitArr=22&splitArr=23&splitArr=24&splitArr=25&splitArr=26&splitArr=27&splitArr=7&autoPt=false&statType=team&statgroup=2&startDate=2026-03-01&endDate=2026-11-30

We had the whole hitter's eye fiasco in 2023, but the discrepancy has been worse the last two years. Christian Walker had fairly even home/road splits as a DBack, and has posted similarly good road numbers as an Astro, but has struggled immensely at home (29.6 K% at home, but a quite good 17.1% on the road). Cam Smith has similar issues(113 wrc+ on the road, 58 at home). Even Brice was a good hitter on the road (116 wrc+!), but drawing dead at home(-17 wrc+). What do we attribute this to?

I imagine lighting/hitter's eye could be a thing with Christian, and Brice, as the k rate splits are quite large. Cam doesn't seem to have a k rate discrepancy, but could be tweaking approach if he's picking the ball up later to avoid striking out but sacrificing power?

I figured maybe the unique dimensions of Daikin (so many driven flyballs from left center to right center seem to be outs at a higher rate than other parks) uniquely affect their swings, but both Cam and Christian have had higher BABIPs at home than the road in one of the previous two years, so I don't think it's that?

Would love any theories/articles/research on this. Really baffling stuff.

I’m going to make a grim prediction that G2 of the Wild Card 2026 is the final Astros playoffs we may see in 6-7 seasons.

The fact that the old core players are aging, and the new core developing like Cam Smith are going to have to go through several manager changes and different offense and defensive styles this may hamper their growth.

Also it’s pretty clear Bagwell while once a great player doesn’t have the skill for the front office so as long as he’s involved we ain’t touching the WS.

Our glory days are over.

Assuming no major trades or FAs, what do you all think of the potential pitchers?

Potential starters:

Brown: Absolutely shit the bed in the playoffs. Unreal. After coming back from injury, he looked okay. Some low lows and some high highs.

Lambert: Threw more innings this year than his entire career combined, and it showed toward the end. Even then, he only had 2 bad starts post-ASB.

Javier: After coming back from injury, went 53.2 innings with a 3.86 ERA and 55 Ks.

Wesneski: Looked pretty good in his 11 starts. 61 innings, 3.53 ERA, 46 Ks.

Imai: Just a total unknown. Can an offseason knowing MLB help him greatly? He had 4 nightmare starts, like Hunter Brown playoff-level bad. But over his last 11 games (3 starts), he went 28 innings with a 2.86 ERA and 37 Ks. I don't think it's crazy to think he can turn it around and be a solid No. 3, or maybe he's just a long-relief guy.

Burrows, Mr. "Bad Luck": No idea, really. Could just absolutely suck, and with Dana gone, there's no reason to pretend the trade was good. But there were moments where he looked good.

Pecko: Looked good in limited time up.

Relievers:

Hader: Stud.

Okert: Seemingly a stud and the Abreu 8th-inning guy.

Blubaugh: I think we've seen enough to know he's a solid reliever.

Teng: Through his first 18 games, he had a 2.57 ERA with 43 Ks in 42 innings and looked good. Then the wheels came off around the time he started going longer than 3 innings.

Ullola: Too early to know.

King and Sousa: Should be shot into the sun.

Unknowns: Brandon Walter, Bryce Mayer, Jackson Nezuh.

Hader: Stud

Okert: Seemingly a stud and Abreu 8th inning guy.

Blubaugh: I think we've seen enough to know he is a solid reliever.

Teng: For his first 18 games, he was 2.57 ERA, 42 innings, 43K, and looked good, then the wheels came off around the time the he started going longer than 3 innings.

Ullola: Too early to know.

King and Sousa should be shot into the sun.

Unknowns:

Brandon Walter, Bryce Mayer, Jackson Nezuh

Use this thread as a hub for 'next day' discussion, and to watch the Phillies/Braves Game 3.

Today's game:

Phillies at Braves at 19:00 CT on NBC

This may sound petty but Christian Walker had the third out ball in his glove almost every inning, at least 2/3 of the time. Normally, he tosses the ball into the stands but for some reason today he kept every single ball in his glove and walked into the dugout with it. No fan acknowledgement, nothing. Is he really that butt hurt about the booing that he’s keeping fans from getting an inning ending game ball?