I know it sounds moronic to some people, but since before the season started, I had a feeling this would be the Astros year to go all the way and finally win a World Series. I pick them to win it all, not just the division. GO ASTROS!!!
They'll make the playoffs if Dierker doesn't get complacent, like he did the first game of the Atlanta series.They need to play like every game is their last. For instance, when you're up on a pitcher like Greg Maddux, and your self proclaimed best and deepest bullpen in baseball has had an ample amount of rest, don't put in nelson Cruz and still leave him in after he walks two batters while you have guys like Scott Williams and Dotel sitting in the bullpen. Dierker must have a keener eye when these situations arise. It's not easy for a manager to read these situations, I'm sure, but dammit we can't afford many more games like that.
I find two things very encouraging about this year: 1. The NL is wide open. We've had better teams in the past, but I don't think we've had any better opportunities to advance through the playoffs. There is no clearly dominant team in the NL. 2. We're beating good teams who have good pitching. We just got through taking 2/3 from the Braves who trotted out Glavine, Maddux and Burkett....we knocked Schilling all around Enron...we beat Randy Johnson...we've beaten the Cubs pitchers. This is in stark contrast to the teams that won divisions in the past...those teams beat the hell out of the bad teams, but could never seem to beat the really good teams, particularly when their very good pitchers were pitching against us.
