Lamb is hitting worse than both of them, and Palmeiro is thriving in his role - and the last time he was in the rotation as a part-time starter(cause he's never been a regular lineup player), he did poorly. Also, Houlton is not very good. There's a pretty good reason we let him go.
On my way home from class tonight I got to here a little of the radio broadcast. They were discussing letting Houlton go. I believe Ashby made the point of ho whe was really leaving the ball up and inside to hitters. He talked about how he could get guys out at AA with that type of stuff, but once MLB hitters saw him enough they would smoke his high hanging pitches. He said he felt like that was a major reason why he was not protected.
I'm happy with Burke's hitting streak, showing me he's improving by a great deal over his early season. I hope Lane can get back to what he was doing early in the season. But I'd much rather have their potential bats in there giving us a chance than have Lamb's poor D out there with a not-so-great bat so far this year...and Palmeiro's weak bat out there instead of giving us an option off the bench.
On the contrary, with Lane and Burke, you have the potential of something special. Palmiero and Lamb might be "proven" hitters, but it's nothing special there. As Kaleidosky said, with those two in, you're looking at some pretty scary defense. Burke made some nice plays lately in the OF, proving that he's adapting to the MLB's style of baseball. He's also starting to steal more bases as well as getting more hits. Burke has always been a nice hitter wherever he played. I believe it's only a matter of time before he gets on a hot streak. However, you can't have a hot streak if you don't play every day, especially if you're "young."
Nobody likes that batting average... but I can remember each of them making a difference in the games we win/lose in many of the games over the last two weeks. Burke with his hitting streak... his 3 steals in one game... his huge RBIs vs. Cincy. Lane with multiple homers in Colorado... one in Cincy... and then his 3 run BOMB against the Padres after they intentionally walked Morgan. He also was our 2nd best run-producing hitter in the month of June, behind Ensberg. Additionally, as was posted, Orlando is our best pinch hitter right now. He drove in the go-ahead run last week at Cincy... he's hitting close to .330... I definitely think he deserves the occasional start (as opposed to Lamb), but I don't want to lose his bat off the bench (nor do I think he's an everyday player either). In the end, I was just basically confused at your logic that "now that we're winning, lets give some other players a try...", when in reality, when you're on a streak like the Astros are right now... you really don't want to tinker too much with anything.
i went to the game last night, and it was great seeing the Dodgers punished for walking Berkman to get to Ensberg! As for the reception for Kent- we were sitting near the bullpen in right field, and it truly seemed like a good mix of boos and cheers from our perspective. I heard plenty of boos, but there were some people standing up to cheer him as well. Anyway, let's hope we see some more run production for Roy than we got for Roger last night. He clearly wasn't having his best stuff, but I can't complain about a starting pitcher giving up 2 runs in 7 innings of work.
Maybe they were boo-ing cause we no longer have him or maybe they were really boo-ing Purpura for botching his re-signing over a measily 1-2 million and a guaranteed second year? Or, maybe they were boo-ing cause Kent's comments in the paper about how he felt with Purpura taking over...we wouldn't be as good because of the change? The point that Kent failed to factor in to his whole argument about how we would be worse than the season before is we might have had Beltran re-sign at the time and, had he re-signed, we should have been equal to or better than last season's team(with the thinking at the time before Beltran's disappointing season so far). Maybe we still are better since it is so early and we're clawing back? But, Kent apparently discounted what he could contribute to the Astros to make the Astros better than last season's team had he re-signed. I'm not sure I follow his logic with Clemens, Pettitte, and Oswalt on the mound. I think his better chance at a playoff run would have been to come back but Astros management saw to it what should have been minor differences became the dividing factor. He was ours to re-sign until we lost him. Whatever...I do what I want . Boo for the sake of boo! My nachos are cold...boo!!!!
why did oswalt have to throw a fastball on 0-2 on that one guy? that let the whole inning explode. and now we manage to ruin the double play and give up a run all at once. thankfully kent strikes out.
Finally .500 Who thought we would be here so fast after starting 15-30? Not I, but happily wrong. Here is to hoping the team can make a run at the wild card in the 2nd half. DD
WHOOP! Man, I'm loving this! Back to .500 baby! We are in good shape now. I love going to MMP. Will be there tomorow too!
If only from the begining of the season we took advantage of that luxury by giving them some run support...throw in Pettite who hasn't pitched bad and if they were playing like the are now we would be in a lot better shape.
