First the crow meal: I regarded them as unwatchable early this year. They were horrible. I spent the first 2 months watching them like my 2 year old watches "scary" parts of shows (not that they are scary, she pretends): with both hands over my eyes, except for a little crack between my index and middle finger, knowing something bad was coming. Well, they have played excellent ball since and I wanted to give them credit for being mentally tough. I don't know if they'll get the wild card, but that's secondary. They have shown a grittiness and talent that will serve the team well for years to come, particularly Tavares and Burke. I never stopped rooting for them but will stop watching them with my hands over my eyes. Now, prediction time. I predict the Astros will take the WC but it's a tight field. There's a cluster of 5-6 teams that could take it. Just on a per capita basis, That gives us a 20% or so chance. I boost that to about 35% when I handicap the field on a subjective talent evaluation. Astros: 35% - premier starting pitching, dominant closer. story of the season for us. This assumes we get a lefy in a trade. NY: 25% - martinez and beltran have the ability to carry the team, and the mets have more offensive talent than they have shown. CHI: 15% - health remains a huge problem, but the talent is there. Phi: 15 - there is talent but this team is a perennial near miss. Fla: 10 - history of success gets them 10%, but the franchise is not gearing up to win. WA: 10 - they have outperformed their talent.
I'll chime in for the crow buffet... I feel terrible for giving up on the Astros on April 23rd when they once again could not score any runs for Clemens (1-0 loss vs. Mulder/Stl). It made me furious and I vowed not to watch a single game the rest of the year. I now offer my sincerest apologies...
I wouldnt say I gave up on the Stros entirely, but it got to the point where thinking about how bad they were playing would make me angry. I avoided reading any articles or even visiting this area of the forums just because it would put me in a bad mood. I should have known all along that it was only a matter of time before they turned it around.
I had just about given up on them too, until my wife started running her mouth. Since she is a BIG Braves fan, that got me running my mouth. I basically told her, that no matter how bad it was, they would still finish with a better record than those punk-azz Braves. Who would have thought that it's on it's way to coming true? There's nothing like having a crap-talking Braves fan to get your Astros Fan juices flowing. I even reminded her of that, since we attended the last game of the Dodgers series before the All -Star break, while we were down. I needed that after that 18-3 fiasco against the Rangers last year.
I could probably dig up at least 10 posts preseason saying we had no chance and we we're best a .500 team. The fact that they could go on a run like this again, missing 3 all stars is making me believe we have that team chemistry like the A's had those few years. They didn't have much offense either, but someone always came up with the big hit. We're doing the same thing. I also didn't expect Morgan Ensberg to be the catalyst of all this. But he's the best 3rd baseman in the NL this year. Props to him and no props to me.
Crow pie is what I'm eating. I said that there was no way they could repeat what they did last year - but they are doing even better. Unbelievable.
I didn't pay as much attention to the Stros when they were slumping but after what they did last year I didn't give up on them either. As for if the Stros can win the Wild Card I think they got a great chance. We're riding our starting pitching but if any of the big three go down that could spell trouble. I certainly hope Oswalt's "Dead arm and leg" aren't something more serious or that Clemens actually starts to feel 43.
