I apologize for the long absence.  I have landed a sweet new job that unfortunately sticks the fresh crop of employees to the graveyard shift, so I have been trying to catch up as much sleep as humanly possible.  Now that I'm back to a somewhat even keel, let's talk a little Fantasy Baseball.

There hasn't been much joy in Mudville as of late, as the mighty Casey has been striking out pretty consistently.  Especially if that Mighty Casey I'm referring to is either Chris Johnson or Bill Hall. There have been a few pretty ugly series that the Astros have played, leading to a NL worst 14-23 record.  On the bright side, we have been witness to the emergence of a few shining spots in our roster that we can use to build upon for the future.  Long after Carlos Lee and Bill Hall and Brandon Lyon are gone, there are a few exciting younger guys.  We all knew the Astros weren't going to contend this year, so let's look at the brightside!

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Just as a preface, I spent Opening Weekend in Detroit to attend the wedding of my cousin Aaron (hello if you are reading this). I basically missed most of the Astros playing time while I was gone having to settle for a few Detroit Tigers games instead.  I really missed my Astros.  After frantically checking MLB.com the minute my plane touched down at Metro Airport (approx. 12:30 p.m. eastern) I followed the game until I was able to race to my hotel room and put ESPN on to see the Astros take a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth with my Fantasy Closer Brandon Lyon taking the mound.  Here comes my first save!  The Astros start the season 1-0!  We beat Roy Halladay!  And then I threw my pillow at the TV much to the disdain of my wife who explained, "Baby, it's only the first game of the season".  I almost dropped him just out of spite.

I think it's safe to say all Houston Astros fans can come out of their bomb shelters now. We have achieved the first win of the season, and have a better record than the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays to boot!  That being said, it was a rough first week for the Hometown 9 in regards to Fantasy Baseball.  Season Standings after the jump.

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Welcome to a new feature at TCB!  AstroBrit and I will be providing weekly Astros Fantasy Baseball coverage.  Even if you are not a fantasy junkie like myself, there is a lot to be said about fantasy analysis of players.  If you are not familiar with the Fantasy Baseball structure, I suggest you read this link.  A lot of strategy is involved in fantasy.  Think of yourself as the GM of your very own baseball team.  If I were Ed Wade for a day, how would I go about putting together my team, especially sans salary cap?  And there's the added benefit of drafting from the top of the pool, as opposed to rookies and rental guys.  Instead of breaking down the entire league, Astrobrit and I are going to cover the Houston Astros specifically. 

Our Astros Twitter League (if you care to follow along, I will post twitter handles at the end) drafts on March 28th.  I have put together my pre-season Power Rankings of Astros players.  To be completely honest and fair, the Astros do not  rank very highly in Fantasy, as opposed to guys like Hanley Ramirez or Albert Pujols.  However, some of the guys in our organization do rank as "sleepers" or "high-risk high-reward" kind of players. 

Submitted for your approval, my 2011 Astros Fantasy Baseball Power Rankings (Top 10)

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I had a dream the other night.  Long after the roar of Football season being over, hope springs eternal with the glimpse of Baseball starting once again.  In that dream, Lance Berkman was a St. Louis Cardinal, and Prince Albert was playing 1b for Your Houston Astros!  And for some reason, it didn’t feel strange, or wrong, or out of place.  And I thought about it all day, and spoke to many people (luckily I work in an industry where I can talk about sports all day long) and I kept finding myself arguing the same point over and over again.  Why don’t the Astros make a play for Albert Pujols?

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A 12 year old that can throw 103 mph?  Daniel Stern as the barely coherent hitting instructor (seems pretty logical that the team he’s from is the Cubs)? Gary Busey as a pitcher on the decline?  The Cubs suck?  Sounds like a classic to me!  Of course, "Rookie of the Year" in no way stands up to movies like "Field of Dreams" or "A League of Their Own" or the great all around "*61" (and I love Barry Pepper as Roger Maris), but what is it?  A great kids Baseball Movie. 

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The Winter Doldrums of Baseball have grabbed ahold of us all.  It’s approximately three months until Spring Training begins and baseball fans, such as myself, have to pass the the time until then.  Sure there are a few other distractions out there, i.e. the NHL, NBA, College Football and Basketball, or of course, that other game *cough NFL cough*.  So what is it that you guys do to pass the time until the Houston Nine get to trot back out on to the field for what may be a turn around season?  Cue overindulging optimism!  Here is what I have found helps me out…

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Twitter is one of those cultural phenomenons.  I use the social networking site on a daily basis whether it be sports related or just random brain droppings.  Essentially, Twitter is the Facebook status update broken down to 140 or less words.  I find it’s a quick way to fire off a thought into the blogosphere without having to put much thought into it.  Sometimes it can be humorous, sometimes it can stir a little trouble, as is the recent case with Celtic Kevin Garnett calling Charlie Villanueva a "cancer patient".  Regardless, Twitter is a powerful tool that can be used to stream of conscious to the masses.

A few of our Houston Astros have Twitter accounts.  Hunter Pence (@hunterpence9) uses his Twitter account to connect to his fanbase, often giving out coupons for Buffalo Grille or giving away signed bobbleheads (awesome by the way) and even giving his followers some insight into his Fantasy Football team.  Former (sigh) Astro Chris Sampson (@csampson43) uses his to a lesser extent, to help advertise his baseball academy, or occasionally sell a used car.  I would like to imagine that someday all of the Astros would have a Twitter account.  I wonder what would happen if they could tweet while in the midst of a game…

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Dear Mr. McLane,

I wrote an open letter to you earlier this season in hopes that you might actually read it and possibly take a few of my suggestions to heart.  After all, I am merely a fan of the franchise and long for nothing more than our Houston Astros to finally bring a World Championship banner to Minute Made Park.  I do realize that a few of the points that I made were actually implemented (i.e. the Roy Oswalt/Lance Berkman trades) but I believe that those were necessities that would have been carried out regardless.  Therefore, I will offer up a few opinions and suggestions as a fan.  The boys that write for Crawfish Boxes are far more suited to go over the X's and O's as far as statistical data, minor league prospects and so forth than I am, so my goal is to just call it like I see it.

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In a sad turn of events this afternoon, Ace Pitcher Roy Oswalt was handed his first loss of the season against the Texas Rangers bringing his record to 11-1.  Giving up 2 runs (on an RBI double to Josh Hamilton and an RBI single to Ian Kinsler) Oswalt's ERA for the season took a mighty jump to 2.61.  Roy battled mightly striking out 8 in 8.2 innings pitched but sadly the solo HR hit by third baseman Miguel Cabrerra was not enough to keep our boys in it.  Joe Morgan said himself, "The Wizard pitched a great game, but the offense didn't have what it took against Star of the game, Kevin Millwood".  Is it time to trade Roy?  The Astros are 64-5 on the season and can ill afford to lose any ground on their 24.5 game lead in the NL Central.

Oswalt has been nails for the Astros this season, winning 11 games in only 13 starts.  His strikeout count is already at 105 for the season and averages 9ks per game.  The Astros have averaged 12 runs per game up to this point in the season but could only muster a single run in the outing against their cross state rivals.  The Astros did however win the Silver Boot Series by a margin of 5-1.  First Baseman Lance Berkman went 1-4 with a double in the 5th that rolled right up the middle all the way to the wall but was stranded by the as of late slumping Carlos Lee, who went 0-4.  Carlos has gone 0-8 in his last 2 appearances bringing his batting average this season to .486.  Cabrerra's solo HR brings his total to 25 on the season, still behind the club leader Lance Berkman (40) and Carlos Lee (38).

Okay, enough fantasy land.  I am a video gamer and at the beginning of every season, I break out the previous season's Xbox baseball game and draft/trade the best team I possibly can: taking Ed Wade's job for a season.  And lemme tell ya, it's not the easiest job in the world.  I was fortunate this year (due to the highly overvalued MIguel Tejada and Jose Valverde) that I was able to pillage quiet a few teams to yield the following lineup:

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Sitting around at the local pub recently, some buddies of mine (writers of KategorieH.com) and I had a discussion that played out like this:

"Mariano Rivera really has the best Closer song of all-time.  When Dustin Pedroia hears 'Enter Sandman' don't you think he gets a little wet in his road greys?"

"Yeah but 'Shippin Up to Boston' sounds like Jonathan Papelbon is ready to go strike out the sides, or kick some teeth in during a brawl."

"Trevor Hoffman: 'Hells Bells'.  Nuff said."

"Jose Valverde during his tenure as an Astro with 'Ladies and Gentlemen'.  You knew something was about to happen.  And maybe not always bad!"

And then Ms. Alyson Footer posted a blog that broke down the walk-up songs for each of our Houston Astros.  I perused the list, snickering in some spots, shaking my head in others.  What the list lacked was meaning behind their choices.  Why exactly does Jason Michaels prefer "The Big Show" theme when he bats?  Well, I'm here to tell you Crawfish Boxes readers, I have a theory or two...

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  There are quite a few things that Minute Made Park and Fenway have in common: Baseball games are played there, they both have bleachers and a scoreboard, hot dogs and beer are served regularly, and to be completely honest, that’s where the similarities end.  Even the way fans react to the game in progress is completely different at Fenway.   As an observer, I was quite taken aback.

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