No emoticons for shooting myself in the head. 21-0 so far in 2 games vs SF and the Stros haven't scored a run since late in the last game against the Padres.
No but can someone tell me why Cooper decided to let Ortiz pitch to Rowand after walking Lincecum on 4 straight pitches?
Puma's OBP is back up over .400 as per his career norm while Pence is slipping fast, probably a good 30 points back now. Even in what some people have been calling an "off year," Berkman is far and away our best hitter, statistically.
Pence has now walked one time in his last 17 games and seems to have been getting in a ton of 0-2 counts during that stretch. I don't think it's just the better pitching we've been facing. I almost wonder if somebody asked him to start trying to be more agressive and slug the ball more or something. He hasn't looked the same since around the Rangers series.
Berkman has been scorching hot over the last 2 weeks: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=berkmla01&year=&t=b 1.295 OPS and it probably went up today.
Alright, folks... We're a few weeks away from the July 31st trade deadline. Do we buy, sell or stand pat? Too early to say? National League Central Team W L Pct GB Diff Milwaukee 43 38 .531 - +13 St. Louis 44 39 .530 - +11 Cincinnati 40 39 .506 2 -13 Chicago 39 39 .500 2½ -2 Houston 38 41 .481 4 -40 Pittsburgh 37 43 .463 5½ +6
If we are 4 games out of 1st at the deadline, I say stand pat or try to pick up an arm. Since we aren't likely to be able to pick up an arm...stand pat. When you are a winning streak away from a playoff spot, you don't have a firesale.
Brooks: There is no chance that the Astros are adding anything at the deadline. The budget is already stretched as far as it can go. McClane and Wade have said as much. The Astros will stand pat. You have to assume that this team will come out of the recent slump. Remember too, that the schedule maker have done us a huge favor with the Pirates and Nationals coming into town. Do not forget that the Astros also gain a huge advantage July 9th with the resumption game. (It doesnt make for that nonsense in Milwaukee last year, but that is spilled milk) Lets just hope the Astros get out of this slump. I am really worried about Pence. He seems to reverting back to his old ways. Now that Berkman is rounding into form the rest of the guys have to follow. The Astros will do nothing at the deadline, regardless of where they are. I hope I am wrong. I would love to add a legit 3rd baseman.
While this may be very true and the Astros will not add at the deadline, Drayton has shown over and over again that he will stretch the payroll figure if a deal makes sense. Anybody else remember the Randy Johnson shocker at the deadline?
I hear you, Kerf. I'm well aware of the payroll situation. I actually put together a few posts about it during the offseason. I was just making small talk with my last post... wanted to see what fellow CFs thought we should do more than what they thought Uncle D is actually likely to do.
Brooksball: If it were up to me, I would definitely add a third-baseman. If you look at our lineup, we cant go out and get another bat at any other position other than third and catcher. I would also like to add a starter and a bullpen arm. I just do not have an idea what starters will be available. Add to the mix that the Astros have nothing in the farm system that they can trade. If we are willing to take on additional payroll there should be someone out there, especially in the bullpen. As for the previous poster who mentioned the Randy Johnson trade- That was a completely different circumstance. The Astros were the best team in the National League that year. They were mentioned prominently with some of the other guys that were available at that specific deadline. Hopefully, the Oswalt can pitch like a stopper. However, following a complete game I dont expect Oswalt to get past the 6th or 7th. I am really beginning to think that tommorrow's game is one of the most important games. If they can get tomorrow, they come home with a 4-3 road trip, which really could have been 5-2 if not for a bad inning by Sampson. The importance of tommorrow can not be underestimated.
Check out these OPS and translated OPS figures that Zach Levine put together a few days ago (I updated the numbers for the major league players only as of yesterday's games): Catcher J.R. Towles: .852 Ivan Rodriguez: .676 Humberto Quintero: .578 NL average: .729 Third base Chris Johnson: .651 Mark Saccomanno .645 Geoff Blum .670 Jeff Keppinger .724 NL average: .740 The OPS figures for the minor leaguers represent what they would be expected to do in the majors based on their performances this year at AAA. The numbers are derived from a Baseball Prospectus translation tool. It's not a perfect science and you can come up with an obvious example of this by looking back at how badly Towles' underperfromed expectations during his last stint with the Astros. But it still gives you some idea of what a few of our AAA replacements might be able to do if called up. What we see from those numbers is that both our 3rd basemen and catchers are hitting well below the NL average for their positions. Keppinger is pretty close to average but he doesn't play as often when Blum is around so I'd say that overall, the platoons are just about equally underperfroming at their respective positions. The difference is that Towles at least shows some potential to be an upgrade while Johnson and Saccomanno appear to be downgrades. Regardless of how the Astros do over the next few weeks, I would strongly consider giving Towles another shot with the big club. If he is awful again, we can easily just send him back down. I don't know if Q has any options remaining or whatever but he is simply a horrible hitter. Ausmus and Everett were awesome compared to him. I know he doesn't play much and that he's solid defensively when he does play but if Towles can come up and somehow start hitting to his potential, he could possibly take more starts away from Pudge. So, if Drayton is somehow willing to add a position player, I agree that 3rd is the way to go because we don't appear to have any depth at all at that position in the minors. Johnson just doesn't appear to be cutting it at this point.
WOW! man, we've been outscored sooo badly in this series lol. Who do these guys think they are? The Rangers?!
