What a game. I wish I could have been there tonite as well. Two walkoffs in a row! The Astros need to go 9-2 on this homestand.
Notice once Everett left, the offense picked up. I believe Everett should never return to this lineup again.
Yeah, I'm sure Everett leaving the lineup is the catalyst for Lance Berkman, Craig Biggio, Mike Lamb, Eric Munson and others suddenly finding their power strokes.
Aren't we further under .500 since Everett went out? So, the offense picks up, but that still doesn't equal more wins... in fact, at least 2-3 of those bullpen fiascos involved several fieldable ground balls to short. Who knows where we'd be right now... but Everett being out hasn't helped the winning.
I hope AE isn't inserted right into the lineup if our guys are still hitting like this when he's healthy. Use what works...and these bats are currently working.
But the pitching and defense is at an all-time low... and the team has lost more games as well. I'm not saying that not having Everett is the reason for that, but clearly the "more hitting is all we need" argument doesn't = more wins.
I agree his defense would be nice, but I don't see any reason to just yank on the current players just to get him back on the field. (atleast none of our current fielders) They're bats are just too nice right now, once one of them cools off then sure. Now, if we could just get some damn pitching going.
I like this new style of play. It's a constant battle to see who will win, our pitching or our batting? *YAWN* Who wants to go back to well-pitched games where you're kept in it all the time whether you score 3 or 12 runs? I think the answer to that is pretty self-explanatory. sincerely, - 2002 thru 2006 Dallas Mavericks (yes, they played baseball)
First of all, Loretta was and will be in the lineup on most nights, regardless of Everett. It's simply a matter of where he'll play, not if. Secondly, you'll find that over the long haul, the team can "pitch" a little better when it has one of the best defensive shortstops of our generation behind them.
Especially when you figure that their three best pitchers (Oswalt, Jennings, Sampson) rely heavily on the groundball outs... and then you add Qualls' sinkerballing style out of the bullpen that leads to plenty of groundballs. Jenning's ball is really moving tonight... hopefully the annoying injuries (tendinitis) are going to be behind him.
They've finally come down from the Biggio high and are playing like the real bad team that they are. Man, and how about all the Biggio memorabilia commercials? I sure didn't take them long to come out with stuff to pimp with Biggio's name on it.
