I just thought this was funny. That's all. I like the looping gif too.. it almost looks as if he walks down the stairs and then appears again in an infinite string of photobombs. I wonder if he'll make it back to the World Series again. It would be pretty interesting to see Roy pitch against Berkman in the World Series. I want to see if it creates some kind of tear in the space-time continuum.

According to Chicago Breaking Sports (Tribune), Roy has requested a trade..
There are no sources noted, so I don't know if this is true, but it's something that caught my eye as it came down the Twitter feed. I could believe it though, looking at how ugly that 2-6 record is with a 2.66 ERA. And he's gotten what, 4 runs of support in about 40 innings?

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/05/oswalt-requests-trade-from-houston.html

6th Inning

USA 6
Venezuela 7

Jeremy Guthrie started this game and gave up 6!!!! runs in the 2nd inning:

Single, Single, Adam Dunn Error, Out, Double, Out, Single, Double, Double (and then Guthrie was pulled) and Out. 6 runs.

LaTroy Hawkins pitching and he gives up a 3 run bomb as I'm typing this right now. Now it's 10-6... Looks like Venezuela might win this one.

 

Maybe we can muster another comeback.

:(

 

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Club owner Drayton McLane is on his way to Kissimmee, Fla., where the Astros will hold "an important press conference," according to a press release, on Wednesday at 9:45 a.m. ET at Osceola County Stadium.

The Astros did not indicate what the news conference is about, except to confirm it has nothing to do with the pending signing of Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez.

 

That's from the Astros official website by the way. It doesn't say anything else. Posted by Alyson Footer.

Anyway..

Any idea what this could be all about? Important Press conference? Maybe he wants to tell everyone we can still be champions even though we have not won in 17 straight games.

I thought it would be fun to just kinda guess how the standings would look at the end of the 2009 season without doing much research. I want to see if I do better than stat based prediction systems like CHONE just by doing a (slightly) educated guess.  :)

 

NL CENTRAL
Cubs: 94-68
Astros: 87-75
Brewers: 84-78
Cardinals: 82-80
Reds: 75-87
Pirates: 66-96

NL EAST
Phillies: 93-69
Mets: 86-76
Marlins: 80-82
Braves: 74-88
Nationals: 66-96

NL WEST
Dodgers: 84-78
Diamondbacks: 80-82
Giants: 76-86
Rockies: 75-87
Padres: 62-100

AL WEST
Angels: 98-64
Rangers: 80-82
A's: 79-83
Mariners: 68-94

AL CENTRAL
Indians: 80-82
White Sox: 87-75
Twins: 83-79
Tigers: 75-86
Royals: 74-88

AL EAST
Yankees: 100-62
Red Sox: 96-66
Rays: 92-70
Blue Jays: 84-78
Orioles: 69-93

 

 

Another article was posted today with an Astros star calling out PED users. This time Oswalt expresses his anger, saying cheaters could have cost his team wins or even a spot in the World Series. He's pretty cut and dry about his opinion of these guys.

“I feel that going out there natural against these guys that are taking the drugs is not fair to me. They’re already All-Star players and they’re taking drugs. That’s not fair for me. They’re cheating.”

You can read the article here.

 

I may be using the word 'pissed' liberally, but it seems the case to me.

The Chronicle posted an article today where Berkman speaks his mind on A-Rod's admission to using performance enhancing drugs. For course, like always, he goes off players who use PEDs and demands stronger drug testing.

“The problem with this whole sordid mess (is) now everybody (is questioned),” he said. “Even today all of a sudden my name gets brought up in an article about steroids, and I’ve never even been anywhere close to that. What happens is you get a few guys basically throwing a taint over the game and the rest of us are suffering for it.

Anyway, go ahead and see for yourself.

Since we all think Wade and Drayton are full of shit with their $107m payroll figure, I think someone needs to make an easily accessible page here with all the AStros' salary figures. It should have a column for garuanteed money and colomn for garuanteed plus incentives. And then at the bottom it has the totals - one for each the 25 man roster and 40 man roster. For example (i'm making up the numbers)

Player          Salary   Potential Salary       
Berkman     $15m    $17m
Lee               $18m    $18.5m
Minor 1         $400k   $500k
Minor 2         $400k   $600k
-----------------------------------------------
Total (25)      $33m     $35.5m
Total (40)     $33.8m   $36.6

 

I would do myself, but I can only make a fanpost and I have no idea how salary works for guys not on the 25 man roster, but are on the 40 man roster.

Then we can see what the real numbers are.

 

Everyone agrees, Michael Bourn was pretty much a disappointment last year. He was, I believe, one of the worst, if not the worst, qualifying offensive player in the game last season. Since Bourn will be our starting center fielder next season (unless something drastic happens) his production will make a difference to an Astros team looking to compete.

It looks like he could be making some progress. Bourn has been playing winter ball for the Aguilas Cibaenas in the Dominican Winter League. I know it's a small sample size, but it's all we have to go on at the moment.

In 12 games and 50 at bats, Bourn is hitting .360 with an on base percentage of .458. He is OPS'ing .978.  He's got 4 stolen bases and 15 runs scored in 12 games, so he's pretty much turned into the Carlos Beltran of the Domincan League. Well, it is Winter Ball so who knows what that means for his game in the majors, but it should be noted that he hit .255 with an on base percentage of .323 after the All Star Break. And while, that's not exactly good, it IS an improvement over the .218 average and .273 OBP he was sporting before the break. It's a step in the right direction, at least.

How could we not keep Tejada after he has said such nice words:

http://blogs.chron.com/baseballblog/archives/2008/11/tejada_optimist.html

"I'm going to the Dominican next week, but I'm not going to play this year," he said. "Because as you know I want to dedicate myself more to this. I look and feel real good. I'm doing a lot of leg exercises. Right now I'm focused on this. They made me a program for spring training. I hope that Houston sees in me this year what everybody has seen in me so I don't go anywhere. I hope Houston has the same love so I don't have to go. I feel good in Houston and I think that's what I want. I hope that's what Houston thinks."

Just to curb any arguements on this before they start: He was not BAD last year. He was bad for $13 million. As a shortstop, he was a little above average all around. Not great, but still not bad. I would use "good" in the blandest form of the word.

The Dodgers? Are you kidding me? The fucking Dodgers? Seriously? The Dodgers? The goddamn Dodgers? Really? You mean the Dodgers that were 7th in the NL in wins? Worse than the Mets and the Astros and the Cardinals? Those Dodgers? Surely, you jest. So you're telling me (let me get this straight) the fuckin' Dodgers are in the NLCS? The same Dodgers that OPS'd 11th in the league? The team that barely managed to win the weakest division in the league? Might go to the World Series?

We better get a shot of a topless Alyssa Milano orgasming on camera for this.

Add State Senator John Whitmire and the players on the Houston Astros to the group of those taking MLB commisioner Bud Selig to task on his decision to hold the Astros/Cubs games at Miller Park right after a natural disaster. The senator, Lance Berkman and Doug Brocail all going on record and calling the decision outrageous, unconscionable, putting the dollar before the welfare of the player first and say had it been another team like the Red Sox, then Selig would have allowed the games to be played at the end of the season like everyone wanted

Senator Whitmire:

"...it is unconscionable to have the Houston Astros play in Milwaukee on Sunday night when the players and team staff should be in Houston with their families or in other locations where their families have evacuated. "

Doug Brocail:

"And to make us go up and play at North Wrigley like we had to on no sleep, it was absolutely ridiculous. If it was New York or Boston it would have been played at the end of the season. I truly believe that, and I think 99.9 percent of our teammates believe that."

You can read the very interesting article here: Houston Chronicle

The baseball Gods have been shining on us a lot lately, so I guess we can't complain, but they decided that the home series versus the Cubs should be held at Miller Park. The Astros will play one game on Sunday and one on Monday, according to an article on Astros.com. The third will be played at Minute Maid Park at the end of the season, if necessary. This essentially means another home series for the Cubs since Miller Park is within spitting distance of Chicago. It also means that we'll just have to sweep the Cubs on the road again.

Link

Just a post where we can talk about today's games between the Brewers and Phillies and the Cards and Pirates, since there is no Astros game today. I have to write at least 75 words, so here's the Wild Card standings coming into today:

• NL Wild Card
  Team / GB
  Brewers - 0
  Phillies - 3.0
  Astros - 3.0
  Cardinals - 5.0

Yesterday's game between the Brewers and Phillies was postponed because of rain. They will make up the game tomorrow night as part of a day/night double header. The Cards were destroyed by the Pirates and pitcher Malholm yesterday, losing 10-2. Malhoun took a shut out into the 9th inning against them too. That put the Cards 5 games behind the Brewers and 2 behind the Astros.

Today's games include an afternoon Brewers/Phillies match-up (which has already started) and an evening Cards/Pirates match up. For those interested, the Mets are hosting the Braves.

Here are your match ups for today.
Manny Parra (MIL) v. Cole Hamels (PHI)
Mike Hampton (ATL) v. Johan Santana (NYM)
Adam Wainwright (STL) v. Kersterns (PIT) (or something.. who cares?)

The Braves/Mets game is currently in the 5th. Both pitchers are pitching good games, but the Mets lead 2-0.

Happy day. The Phillies chased starter Manny Parra in the second inning after 5 runs allowed. Looks like the Brew Crew is on their way to losing yet another game. (Hopefully) 5-2 in the 5th right now.

For those of you who were sad that Adam Everett got DFA'd by the Twins, well.. he's back with them. It wasn't actually a DFA, but a contemplative outright assignment form... which I have no idea what that means, but he had 3 days to accept... He was on the DL, though. As it turns out, the Twins had to place their 2nd baseman on the DL so they activated Everett.

I really like Adam Everett (even though he couldn't hit worth a lick) and he'd be a good defensive replacement for the Astros next year. Well, he WOULD if he hadn't been on the DL like 3 times this year. I'm not sure if he could be an effective defender anymore.

What do you think of signing Everett next year and have him as a defensive replacement for SS with a move of Tejada to 3rd base late in the game? Tejada would have to learn some 3rd base, but he has a very strong and accurate arm. That would keep the team with a superior offensive shortstop during most of the game, with a BIG increase in defense later in the game when we have a slim lead. (Assuming Everett can still play effectively.)

Ok, let's face it. Brian Moehler has been all that and a bag of chips. (to quote late 90's proverbs. :p ) No one that it was going to happen except me. And to tell you the truth, I kinda just guessed. I said he should be the fifth starter from day one of this season and no one agreed with me. I didn't say that so much because I thought he'd be good, but more like... I thought he would be least bad. :p So the way it turns out, he's been our second best starter of the year. Not that it was hard to do.

So why back someone who hasn't had great results until this year? My favortism towards Moehler started back at the beginning of the '07 season when I read an article about him trying to make the team as a reliever. He was in spring training and it talked about how he told his wife in the next few days he'd either be heading north (back to Georgia or wherever he lives) or he'd be headed west, to Houston. That gave him.. a little bit of a personal feel to me. So I've been rooting for him ever since. That, and he had the best spring training results this year, even though they weren't that good.

As a starter this year he's done this:
ERA: 3.98
Games Started: 15 (Record 6-4)
Oppenent On Base: .315
Walks per 9 Innings: 2.41

They aren't the greatest numbers in the league, but they are damn good for a fifth starter. But the question is this: He makes half a million bucks this year, which is near league minimum. How much money do you think the Astros should offer him next year assuming they keep Backe?

If they pick up one starter in the off season?
If they pick up two?

Looks like management has seen enough of Oscar Villareal in an Astros uniform. At least for the time being. He's been designated for assignment and Dave Borkowski has been called up to take his place.

You can read about it right here.

We all know Villareal sucked, so I won't go into his stats here. Borkowski sucked too... at least while he was with the Astros this year. So what about his performance in Round Rock? Not too shabby. He started one game and got the win by pitching 5 shut out innings.  He took one loss as a reliever in 11 appearances and gave up 5 runs. Those runs were given up in four games so he has seven scoreless appearances as a reliever, twice going more than 1 inning.

As for Quintero (if you didn't see last night's game,) he was hit in the head by a swing by one of the Dodgers batters. He fell to the ground and it looked like if may have knocked him out for a minute. He was eventually helped off the field and will spend the next 15 days on the disabled list.

J.R. Towles, of course, is taking his place. You might argue that he sucked even more than Villareal last time he was here, striking out just about every time he had the bat. He gets another chance starting tonight. He had an OPS of .954 in AAA with a few home runs recently and an On Base Percentage of .380. So maybe that will translate to something decent in the 8 spot.

Oh, and if you haven't heard, Lance will take part in this year's home run derby.

 

Dammit.

He's been pretty good for us. I hate losing him... especially the second time around. David Newhan has been called up to take his place... But Loretta will most likely take over 2nd base duties for awhile, I think. Of course, not every day, but I expect him to play the most. This most likely puts Pence in the 2nd spot. I guess we'll get to see how the line-up change will help us.

Of course.. this still doesn't answer the question on who will leave the team now that Hernadez is going to be called up soon. I guess we'll see.

Here's the article.

Lance Berkman surges forth in All-Star balloting. He's got over a million votes now and it looks like he's going to be the starter in the All Star game. We all know he deserves it, so I'm not going to talk about. I will point you to this interesting article about Lance, Chipper Jones and switch hitting, however. :) If that's not enough Berkman & Chipper talk, you can find a comparison of their switch hitting specific stats here .

Meanwhile, Miguel Tejada takes the lead in All-Star balloting for the NL Shortstop position. He was only about 8,000 votes behind the Marlin's Hanley Ramirez a week ago, but now he's out in front by about 24,000 votes. That's not *very* surprising considering what a big name Tejada is, but Ramirez does deserve the starting nod, based on the numbers so far.

Anyway, based on the latest numbers, stats and the schedule so far... I'd say Carlos Lee (4th in voting) has a good shot at joining the team as a reserve. (He's about 200,000 behind Ken Griffey Jr, though, so I don't think he'll be able to overtake the starting spot.)  Jose Valverde could get selected to the team being a good closer and all... Hunter Pence is 8th in voting for outfielders. I don't think he'll get selected as a reserve, but I suppose it's *possible.* Looks like the Astros could have 4-5 All Stars this year. At least 3, at worst.

In other news, don't know if anyone saw this, but Wandy was a nominee for the latest NL Player of the Week award. Chipper Jones won it, but that's pretty nice to see Wandy come this far over the years. Here's the story if you want to check it out.

Adam Wainright was put on the Disabled List yesterday . That's a good thing for everyone else in the NL Central. It's only 15 days, so I guess Tony only yanked his finger around the other day and didn't break it. On the other hand, Rick Ankiel is back. :(

I really don't know what to say about this. He hasn't been doing too well, but he's had his moments. It's a sad day for sure and I don't know that this move really needed to be made. It's not like Cruz is losing ball games for us. And the guy they called up to replace him, Reggie Abercrombie... well, he's doing well in AAA, but that's AAA. What's a .288 batting average going to translate to up here in the bigs? And how much difference is it going to make? He's had a good number of homers and stolen bases (9 and 14) but again, those are in AAA. And his stolen base percentage is only 70%. Not terrible, but I wouldn't call that very good either. We essentially already have Abercrombie on the team. But his name is Micahel Bourn. I see this as a way to have Michael Bourn start and have him on the bench at the same time. When we all pretty much agree he doesn't need to be starting anymore (at least not in the bigs.) Again, I just don't feel ths move needed to be made. It's not a difference maker.

You can read the full article here.

Lance Berkman was recognized for his achievements on the field by being named National League Player of the Month for May. He hit .471 with 9 home runs and 22 RBIs and yada yada yada. You can read the article for the exact numbers.

Anyway, I was reading the article and it mentions other people who got votes and I started wondering.. who votes on this? It can't be the fans, because I haven't seen anything like this for me to vote on anywhere. And that wouldn't be very fair. Is it the players or coaches? I suppose that makes some sense. But then again, players and coaches (coaches mainly) are known to not really pay attention to stats and vote mostly on word of mouth. Is it sports writers or some secret society of player of the month voters who moved up the ranks of Sharp's finest executive program? I suppose I could look it up, but that would spoil my reason for writing this whole paragraph. And it's a slow day.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but the first results from All-Star balloting for the National League came out a few days ago and Berkman leads all first basemen. He doesn't have many more votes than Albert Poo-Juice, though, so that could change with a slump. This Player of the Month award should help though. That's not a surprise. The surprising thing about the early results is that Astros starters are in the top 5  for every category (top 15 for outfielders.)

WTF?

I feel like the Yankees or Red Sox or something. Tejada being 2nd for shortstops, I can see. Matsui being 2nd for second basemen is a stretch. How is J.R. Towles 5th in the catchers category? Surely there are at least 15 other catchers who are better than Towles. Anyway, you can see the votes by clicking here.

Back to Lance's Player of the Month award... Lance is going to get a 52" AQUOS HDTV. I kind of wonder what the point is behind this. Don't you think he would already have a widescreen HDTV? I mean, he probably has one that's even bigger than that. I know I would if I made $400,000 or more a year. But that's just me.

Don't know if any of you guys have seen this, but my co-worker showed me a site that has pictures of Hunter Pence's (supposed) girlfriend. I'm not going to link to it here because... well, just use your imagination. But you can find them by doing a simple google search. If you do find them, be sure to read the comments below all the pictures. Some people claiming to know the girlfriend have posted on there. Oh, and you might not want to try to find them while you're at work. Some of them could be considered NSFW. :)

There was a lot of talk in the offseason about how the NL Central is one of the weakest divisions (if not THE weakest division) in all of baseball. Well, we're about one third through season and the NL Central is proving everyone wrong with the help of the Astros, Cubs and Cardinals.

Here are the six divisions and their records against non-division teams as well overall records. Team with the best record against non-division teams is listed at top all the way down to the worst, at the bottom.

Division	Win % vs. Other Div.	W-L vs. Other Div.	Win % OVerall	W-L Overall
AL East	.568	83-63	.538	142-122
NL Central	.554	92-74	.524	164-149
NL East	.529	74-66	.515	134-126
AL West	.504	71-70	.502	107-106
AL Central	.442	68-86	.465	120-138
NL West	.410	59-85	.450	117-143

Only three divisions have multiple teams with 30 or more wins:
NL Central: 3 (Astros, Cubs, Cardinals)
AL East: 2 (Rays, Red Sox)
NL East: 2 (Phillies, Marlins)

Only two divisions have NO 30+ loss teams: AL East and NL Central

Amusing note: The AL East seems to be the strongest division so far, but it's no thanks to the Yankees. :)

We all saw it coming and so did Dave. I know I'm one of many who have called for his head for his various poor performances, but it's always sad when someone loses his job like this. Of course, we all know, it had to be done and I totally agree with the move. He just hasn't been very good this year. Best of luck to him.

Borkowski designated for assignment

While he's not techincally out of the organization, here's Borkowski's numbers while he was with the Astros.

Year	W	L	ERA	IP	WHIP	AVG	K/BB
2006	3	2	4.69	71.0	1.31	.257	2.26
2007	5	3	5.15	71.2	1.53	.273	4.27
2008	0	2	6.86	21.0	1.86	.367	2.57

To tell the truth, I've never thought he was very good. Now that he's been DFA'd, I can't say I really see another team picking him up. I guess we'll see.

Found this on Richard Justice's blog.Yes, someone made a song in tribute of the Big Puma. Click on the on the little player to listen to it. You can read more about the sing and can also download it here at this website and even buy a ringtone. :p Apparently they played it sometime during the Thursday night game, although I wasn't watching at the time, so I didn't get to hear it then.

Series Preview: Houston Astros (24-18) at Texas Rangers (20-22)

Overview (3 Game Series)

There are a lot of teams that seem to be clicking lately and you can count the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers among them. The Astros are arguably the hottest team in baseball right now having just won 8 of the last 10 and 11 out of the 13 games they played in May. The Rangers are certainly the hottest team in their division right now winning 7 of their last 10 games. And don't let their losing record fool you. They barely had double digit wins coming into the month of May and halfway through they've doubled that.

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