I found some sites on the web showing vegas odds on Astros wins at 81.5 games. If Astros finish over .500, that would be a winning bet. Where do you think they will finish?
Perhaps I am confused about the way this type of betting works, but if the Astros finish .500 then they will win 81 games. What do you mean when you say "that would be winning bet"?
I like our chances, and no, its not because I'm biased...I mean, we should have one of the best starting rotations in baseball, period...As for bats, once Berkman comes back, Morgan shows up this year we should be good...Also, I think the youngsters will show up and provide a much needed spark...
ditto, we lost 150 rbi's last year, but I have a good feeling that Scott, Ensberg and Lane will make up for it. Plus, we didn't begin last year with the devil, so we should be projected for close to as many wins as last year.
We have too much pitching not to be above .500 for the season. I don't think we can ball with Cards,Cubs and I think that the Reds may be under rated as they have slightly improved the starting pitching. But that is them. We are going to be an unknown for a while. The young guys like Ensberg, Everett, Luke and Taveras will bear some watching. When Bagwell's bat is working, we will win some games, otherwise we will go as far as the new guys and the pitching will take us. There is too much firepower in the top of this division to think that Berkman, Bags and Bidge can do it alone. Still it's good to see some new blood. I do have to take a shot at McLane here. His meddling is all over the offseason and I think he really hurt the teams chances of being competetive by letting Kent go and orchestrating the Beltran fiasco. If we had at least been visibly active early in the FA market then maybe Beltran would have stayed or at least we would heve had some options on guys like Beltre or Ordonez. And of course the gift contract that he gave Bags a few years ago will be McLane's albatross for the next two years and unfortunately be his part of legacy as much as the winning that has gone on here for the last ten years.
it sadens me to say this, but this year's squad just isn't very good. our starting pitching will be under too much strain to keep the other team to below 4 runs cuz our offense just isn't capable of scoring 4+ on most nights. 70-76 wins is my prediction I really hope I am dead wrong though
