Anyone else notice how Jason Lane pulls his head out on every swing?? That is so frustrating to watch. Still love Taveras. His speed on the basepaths should help us for seasons to come.
i think he just needs a tweak...he's trying to kill the ball with every swing. i haven't been a big fan either, but he has a nice swing. he just pulls his head so far out, there's no way he's gonna hit it. and that's part of why he's hitting hard line drives foul down the left field line over and over again.
Didn't we fire Tom McCraw a few years ago when the Stros were in a similar slump? Gaetti is on the hotseat. The good news is that it will be very easy to get Astros tickets this summer.........
I went to the Round Rock game. Somewhere along the way, this organization stopped developing superb hitting talent. I think our next big run producing hopes are probably in A ball right now. Seattle's AAA prospect was something else. 19 years old (allegedly), topped out at 97 with great movement at 94, and his slider and change up were just nasty. Very Dotel like, even how he looked on the mound. The difference being, he throws how Dotel threw as a setup man not the one who got lit up as a starter. We just don't have offensive talent. McCraw was working with Bagwell, Berkman, Biggio, Kent, and Beltran for awhile. Even Hidalgo had a couple big seasons. Biggio is still producing, Berkman is coming off injury, Bagwell may be finished, and Kent and Berkman are gone. I'm curious to see what Purpura does with this team.
Garner is just now calling a team meeting? I think we should fire Garner and the hitting/pitching coaches. Bring back Derker or something. Why the hell not? These players are underacheiving out the ass in my opinion. Maybe this will motivate them? I doubt releasing Duckworth is going to motivate anyone cause he has always been on the bubble.
are they underachieving? who specifically is underachieving? not the starting staff. not biggio (you freaking punks!) ensberg probably is bagwell is hurt...i guess you could call that underachieving limited sample size on berkman the bullpen has been ok the rest of the guys are in their 1st or 2nd season, for the most part ausmus looks like ausmus they're certainly not OVER achieving. but i can't blame this on Garner. and, no, this is not the FIRST team meeting.
This team's not underachieving, they just suck. Everett and Ausmus have never been able to hit. Bagwell is done. Ensberg is having a good year for Morgan Ensberg. Berkman is just coming back from surgery so this is his Spring Training. What has Lane ever done on the Major League level? Tavares is having a solid rookie season. Biggio is the only hitter playing great. A can't see a new coach being able to make these guys any better. You can't polish a turd.
IMO you cant blame the coach and you really cant blame the owner. The payers still have to produce and right now the hitting is just pathetic. Bags is out, Berkman is still mending and the guys who need to have excellent years are not. I do agree that Gaietti should look at Lane`s swing becuase he is pulling his head out everytime and cannot hit a curve or a slider to save his life
I agree. I think we should all be thankful that this is the first real rebuilding year the Astros have undergone in the last decade-plus. If McLane does nothing with the available money he'll inevitably have in the offseason, then we can start b****ing. This past off-season, he was just caught in a Catch-22, IMO. But I really don't want to rehash that.
What FA will be available next season? If Clemens retires and so does Bagell that's going to free up an additional $36 million to bring in new players. Just think, we could have signed two Beltran's and still have had some money left over. I'm not for the Astros just blowing all of their money in one offseason though. Spend the money on the right players not just any player.
You guys are all wrong. Mclane is 10000000000000% to blame. He puts on his best good ole boy bull****-grin and says the right things, but he only cares about the bottom line. It's time for uncle drayton to sell the team.
All teams, unless you're the Yankees, ultimately care about the bottom line. If Drayton were truly all about $$$, why would he sign the core of our franchise long-term? Why would he allow mid-season trades to be made for the club? Why would he offer guys $100 million contracts? In the end, a lot of you don't like how "public" Drayton is, and that's fine. St. Louis has the same budget problems as we do... its just that they found lighting in a bottle w/ Pujols, and they stole Rolen from the Phillies... credit Walt Jocketty for that. Chicago has an even bigger budget, and they've squandered a ton of talent over the years. But, you don't even know who those team's owners are... because you never hear a word out of them. So, if you hate Drayton for being a "man of the people", fine... but he has not done any less than the owners of his team's direct competitors (in market size). And in some cases, he's done more.
