WOW! I just watched the highlights of the game, amazing play by eric! I love it! SO awesome to hear all those fans being heart broken, when they thought their team had gotten it done.
Brightside - I know you're a noob and a freaking posting machine, but you're one of the few new guys whose posts I enjoy reading. Keep on rocking and rolling brother.
Dude, you have tivo... f'in use it you moron. Lol, jk... you shouldn't have fallen asleep old man, you missed a goodie. Lay off the cosmos at dinner.
What has Orlando Palmeiro got to do to have Phil Garner acknowledge his play? Orlando went 2-3 with a walk last night, raising his average above .330 for the season and even higher than that in recent weeks. Chris Burke's last game was another typical 0-4 game where he looked overmatched in every situation at the plate, not to mention his horrid AB in the ninth inning last night. So, against a fairly solid right-hander tonight, it's Burke playing and Palmeiro on the bench?!? This is one of the most amazing things I've seen in some time... does Burke have compromising pictures of Purpura and Garner or something? How he makes it into the lineup against righties ahead of guys like Palmeiro is incredible.
I just see it as trying to keep everybody in the mix, and keep the chemistry that has been working oh-so-well over the last 2 months. Also, we'll always have Orlando to pinch-hit (where he's probably even more valuable) if this is a close game late.
I could understand keeping everybody in the mix if we were facing a long line of righties where Burke might not get many starts. But we're playing a lefty tomorrow in Halsey, so that's an automatic start for Burke then... so I don't see what possible motive Garner has for using him tonight. I know he has "potential", but at some point the Astros need to recognize that he's not going to reach it this season and start giving more PT to better options. I'd actually like to see Bruntlett get a few more starts in left to see what kind of numbers he could produce on a more regular basis.
so not only does biggio have a son named conor, but the dbacks have a new player with the first name conor. i don't think i've ever seen that name (at least not that spelling but maybe i'm just weird). i feel like i've run into some bort name tags.
I totally understand what you're saying... I was just trying to come up with some sort of reasoning behind what Garner is thinking. I guess he doesn't want it to seem like its a strict platoon situation (Burke only sees lefties), and overall he's been giving Lamb and Palmeiro a ton of starts against all the righties the last couple of weeks. Letting Chris try to hit some quality right-handed pitching is part of his development, and the more exposure he gets, the sooner he can get "there"... even if that won't happen till next year. I predict by October (or if the team starts slumping offensively again), you'll strictly see a platoon-type situation with Orlando getting the nod against all righties... and Burke/Bruntlett getting the lefties.
i like the thought of having palmeiro off the bench as a pinch hitter. however, i do agree that bruntlett should get a few more starts in place of burke.
Well, here's Burke's chance to shut me up for a while... bases loaded none out. C'mon Chris, get it done!
bases loaded, no outs. i've always maintained the astros are the worst franchise ever in this situation. prove me wrong boys. plus we always seem to manage to have our worst guys up with the bases loaded. burke, ausmus, astacio? may as well be me, Nick, and The Cat. hey, burke with the sac fly. about as much as you could hope for.
seriously, did anyone not see that coming? edit: and again, other teams play their guys way up the middle and we don't. if we were in the field, that's gets into the outfield b/c we'd have everett halfway to third.
No hit, but he did a good job with the sac fly. That should help his confidence somewhat. With Ausmus, however, we should have squeezed.... or as Baggy says, "We should have Ausmused."
I'll eat a little crow for that one. Pleasant surprise... he waited for a pitch he could do something with and got it to the outfield. Excellent job of situational hitting... I don't think he could've done that a month ago. That said, as soon as you get optimistic, there's always Brad with the reliable 6-4-3...
