There is a disturbing article on Yahoo's frontpage which discusses the possiblity of Tejada being traded before the deadline. As an Astros fan, this trade news is disconcerting: what exactly is McLane trying to do is the first question that pops in my mind. The Astros are four games back from the wildcard, and the division lead isn't that far off either, especially considering the struggles of the Brewers and Cubs. Is it time to mail it in? That is what I'm hoping some of you Astros fans can help me with so I can prepare for the dismantling of the team and/or key pieces of the broken franchise. Our pitching hasn't been that horrible, and my god if Oswalt pitches like he did yesterday, the Astros will at least hover above .500 for the remainder of the season.

Basically, I'm excited about this season but worried about the future -- I can smell a typical Astros 8 to 10 game winning streak around the corner. I heard our farm system is no longer last in the league, but I still don't know much about it. I'm just trying to uncover the motivation for trading someone batting .355. I want to win now. Let's hope McLame get's cold feet.

I say 5 games. Backe is complete garbage, as he seems to mentally cashout sooner than most pitchers when confronted with adversity. What is wrong with him? It's so bad, that positional players are more deceptive and resilient when pitching -- Backe, though, is completely transparent, easily rattled. You would think it is that easy to trade him.  But it's not. Why? I don't know Drayton McClane.

A propos of horrible pitching, I think Roy Oswalt and Backe both mentally checked in at the same loser hotel: The I'm not even embarrassed by my horrible pitching because we aren't really going anywhere anyways, and if we did, no would really care because I'm Roy-O (or Backe).