Darrin Erstad has been a very solid addition to this club. Here's a guy who can play a competent CF, bats from the left side, is a veteran, and has more of a stern/fiery personality that this team sometimes needs compared to the easy-going, joking Tejada-Lance-Lee combo. Last night's rally doesn't get going without him. Bourn should be back today, but I won't have many worries if any of our other OF'ers go down with a solid guy like Erstad as a replacement.
The "Ed Wade sucks" crowd looks foolish. The bench looks really good so far. The additions in the lineup look good, and the offense is SUPER improved. I can't credit him with the starting pitching...but there was no starting pitching to be had on the market. I love the Wright and Brocail additions to the bullpen. Jury is still out on Valverde, but I hope he's getting some confidence back now. If Blum just could field a position (or Wigginton would come back) we'd be golden! The Astros are going to compete with the Cubs for the NL Central. Yeah, I said it. And they're not going to lose 100 games.
You are such the bandwagoner!!! If the Astro pitching can keep this up, they even win 100 ngames The delusions of April are upon us
yeah, i'm just getting on board the Astros train now. everyone knows how i really don't follow the 'stros much at all unless they're winning. i didn't even like them until 2004. i don't mourn the close of every season and celebrate the start of every spring or anything like that. my favorite possession isn't a st. patty's day astros hat. dude, i DEFINE astros fan. i may not be much else at all...but i'm definitely an astros fan. put it on my tombstone. (on the day after the astros won their first pennant, i put an NL Champs pennant on my grandparents' -- who LOVED LOVED the 'stros -- tombstone.)
Really, weird. I put an Astros' pennant on my grandfather's grave as well. He was a big Braves fan. (There's no way I was going to let a little thing like death get in the way of some good-natured ribbing.) Seriously, though, the man was the greatest baseball fan ever. According to my father, back when every weekend they'd have an NL game on one network and an AL game on another, my grandfather would have his two televisions in his bedroom set to each game, and he'd have the Astros on the radio. He'd be fast asleep, and the uninitiated would think he wasn't paying attention. But if you asked the score, he'd wake up and tell you everything you wanted to know about what had happened all three games.
The guy inherited a pretty bad situation, but made the best of what he could. Anybody expecting him to find a top tier pitcher to fill a slot in the rotation (this season) must have been delusional. Before the season started, I thought he made solid moves and definite upgrades to the bench and to the lineup and some much needed tweaks to the bullpen. It's nice to see the offense finally coming around (after a few weeks of nothingness). You go back to last year, would this team have ever won a game like last night's? And even if the starting pitching doesn't hold up, if the offense continues to do what it is supposed to do, the team we'll remain completive and could be in great position to either trade for a pitcher, or better yet, just wait till the offseason and sign a fa (since we wouldn't have to give up anybody in an already thin organization).
So far the Chacon signing looks great. He leads the league in quality starts (5 for 5). This is the signing that Keith Law referred to as "ugly" when given a choice of "good", "bad", or "ugly". Thus far, outstanding value for 2 million. As solid as there bench is, they have been atrocious at pinch hitting. 2 for 30 for a .067 average and a .200 OBP.
More credit to Wade: Not going overboard to sign the likes of Jennings or Colon. You can't make something out of nothing.
well, he essentially did with chacon. the guy was pretty much left for dead and he pulled him off of the scrap heap at the end of spring. all those crappy pitchers to choose from to fill out the rotation, and he seemingly picked the right one. pretty impressive.
The "BIG 3" all came through w/ RBI's yesterday. Just the way it should be. Lets keep the streak ALIVE! Go 'Stros!!!
benches clear! Obviously Wainwright was trying to stick up for his caddy.... but Ausmus is no idiot, and he's pissed about almost getting drilled in the hip intentionally in a situation where "retaliation" really wasn't neccessary. Hopefully Wainwright will lose a little composure.
pence botched that one... let bourn take it (who had position and was clearly calling pence off) and you potentially get pujols at the plate and at the least prevent duncan from moving to 2nd.
