Its hard NOT to put Edmonds at the top of the list. Was trying to think of some more this afternoon: Tom Glavine - Didn't he have a 7 or 8 year undefeated streak against us up until this year? Ryan Klesko - Not so much lately, but after MMP openened, he was just as impressive as Edmonds was against us at home. Aramis Ramirez - Didn't come to mind immediately, but he has quite a few dingers against us over the last 4 or 5 years, including a 3 HR game. Andre Dawson - I remember when he hit 40+ dingers back in 1987, he had quite a few of those against us.
I had his name on the tip of my tongue earlier and couldn't remember. Local guy who seemed to play with a chip on his shoulder against us.
I remember Dykstra killing us frequently, but not Hernandez. but I didnt follow the Stros till 86/87.
The list should really start and end with Edmonds. He is THE Astro-killer. The other guys have either had fluctuating success against us, or they never got a chance to hurt us in the playoffs.... I call those guys Astro-beaters, Astro-harmers, and Astro-thorn in sides... but not killers. Meanwhile, Jim Edmonds has done BOTH with severe regularity (consistently hurt us every year, and do the same in the playoffs). He has never had a bad season against us since he joined the Cards in 2000, and his ownage of MMP has me wondering just exactly what he'd do for a season if he played all his home games in this place (of course, I wondered that about Jeff Kent as well before he joined the Astros... but Edmonds has a much bigger sample size to work with). In addition to his bat, he's hurt us just as much with his glove. He robbed what could have been the hit that propelled us to the World Series last year... that, in my mind, is the greatest play ever made against the Astros (its better than Weiss'). He also seems to glide under the ball with ease in the expansive CF at MMP, he's thrown out countless runners at home plate, and I don't think the guy has ever made one gaffe, miss-throw, miss-communication, or just dumb luck play against us. And when you realize that the Cards got him for Adam Kennedy and Kent Bottenfield... its enough to make you want to walk over to Anaheim and scream at every one of those bumbling idiots (although, they did win a WS this decade before St. Louis and Houston did... so they can't be all bad).
Don't forget Kevin Brown. He's the reason the much ballyhooed 98 squad led by the Big Unit couldn't get past the pads.
Edmonds is the worst, but you can't leave Pujols and Rolen off the list. They seem to hit our best pitching as if they knew what was coming. Edmonds is good against other teams, but he owns the Astros every year. Just thank God the guy is getting old enough to retire soon.
The one who always puzzled me as an Astro Killer was Francisco Cordova, when he was with the Pirates. He did nothing against anybody else, but he would shut the Astros down everytime he faced them. Didn't he have a no-hitter (I think it was combined, with another pitcher?) against us?
Besides Leyritz there was another Padres mostly backup catcher who owned us. Tim Flannery maybe. He hit like .200 against the rest of the league and was like Babe Ruth on Roids against us.
