and Kent is hitting over 400 and Beltran over 300......what is my point? My point is that we should have spent money stregthening our lineup....which is the most anemic in the league right now
And the Astros sucked through much of the season last year. So what. We are 8 games into the season. Berkman has yet to pick up a bat. The team is 3rd in the NL in ERA. The supposed real weakness of the team (bullpen) is also 3rd in the league in ERA. You have to give the team some time to settle in, make some decisions and not have knee-jerk reactions to a season that is one week old. Incidentally, the Pirates are more anemic in terms of runs scored . As anemic as the offense is, the Astros are in the top half of the league in average(6th), slugging(6th), OPS(5th) and OBP(4th). They are getting the runners, they just aren't driving them in. EDIT Forgot to mention - they lead the league in stolen bases.
Of course the offense is suspect right now. They are starting two players who have not played past AA, the occasionally start a AAA all star second baseman in LF. They are missing a .300, 30, 100 bat. (They also have higher team stats (except for runs scored) then the Cardinals. On 04/15 - so what?
We'll see what happens...but it took a miracle to even make the playoffs last year.. yes we did okay once we got in them. but it took a miracle to even make them. . and we lost leading RBI guy and Beltran.. so that's why all the worries about the offense.. I was also worried about relief pitching during last years playoffs and am still worried about it. Yes, I'll still complain about Kent because I wish we had kept him in the first place.. we did have the choice.. we had his option. If we get trashed if we blame anything on the team.. can the other side admit that we did NOTHING this offseason. NOTHING... if we don't make playoffs.. can I blame the organization. because they did NOTHING
Is our offense the best? No. Is our offense the worst? No. Is our overall offense as bad as it has been to start the season? No. If for some reason, this continues, will it lead to our demise? Yes. Do I think it will continue? No. Do we need the best offense ever to win? No. Do we even need last year's level of offense to win (which was not the best). No. Is it too early to be either a.) be a doomsdayer after 3 losses, or b.) start printing world series tickets after 3 consecutive wins? Yes. Do we have a better record than some teams with better offense than us right now? Yes. Do we have a worse record than teams with worse pitching than us right now? No. Do fans pay more attention to offense rather than defense and pitching? Yes. Did I ask one too many questions? Yes. Why can't I stop? I don't know... its very easy to type this way.
I still think there's a chance we can sneak into the playoffs.. but sometimes its tough to be optimistic when I see us get so close to the world series. and then instead of taking the next step to get to world series .. we just take huge step back.. If the team is really as good as they were the last month of the season last year.. then losing a few players might be okay.. but I doubt they were as good as they were the last month of the season.. so I worry.
I'll admit right now that the team did nothing (relatively) in the offseason. That doesn't mean it was wrong or right. We have to wait for the season to play itself out. This isn't basketball. Only 4 teams (25%) make the playoffs unlike the 50% that make it in the NBA. Just because a team doesn't make the playoffs doesn't mean the season was a success. I'll withhold my opinion for a while yet. As of now, the clutch hitting is horrible, Everett and Ausmus are horrible and Biggio is playing great (offensively). The defense is adequate but needs to get better and the pitching has been very good, but it's only been ONE WEEK!
nick.. I'm making any of my comments about the team.. based on what I think of the roster before the season started... (out of town until first week or so of May so can't watch games yet).. but I agree that it's too early to know for sure about the team.. I'll be curious to see how they are looking. two weeks after berkman gets back or so .
Last year's team was not as good as their 36-10 finish indicated. At the same time, they were not as bad as the team that found themselves 4 games below .500 in July. In the end, thanks to a long-ass season, everything always evens out... and that's what happened last year. Sure, it was a fluke... but it was also a fluke that they were that bad to begin with to need that fluke.
bobreak.. Normally it wouldn't even be such a big deal. us doing nothing it is just so irritating to be for the first time .. that close to a world series... and instead of taking the next step.. doing nothing in the offseason.
1.) Signed Lance to an extension 2.) Signed Roy to an extension 3.) Promoted Tavares and Scott... two gutsy moves that may pay-off in the end. 4.) Potentially will give Astacio and Wandy some MLB experience... and this will lead to either a promising 5th starter, or potential trade bait to get another hitter. 5.) Got Pettite healthy again. Doing "nothing" for most people means no trades or FA signings... but there's more to baseball than just that. But yes... they may have done nothing to improve from last year.... I will admit to that.
nick.. true, they did underachieve much of last year.. they better not do it again this year though, because they can't expect to have that amazing of an end to a season again.
Agree w/ you totally. They need to play consistent... so far, their pitching is the only thing that that seems to be constant (and that's no small feat). Frankly, our starting pitching was never this good over a 7 game stretch throughout last year... we'd always have a hiccup or two, or three (thanks to a Redding, or a Munro).
We lost to the Mets in 6 games in 1986. Even with Mike Scott pitching it wasn't a given unless he would have pitched a complete game. Dave Smith and Charlie Kerfeld choked like a b*tch.
nick.. heck for me.. even if we kept Kent I'd have been at least somewhat happy. It's not that we didn't get better that I have a problem with, as much as it is that we didn't even stay at the level we were at. The first 3 are at least debatable, so I'll start with the last one. Andy getting healthy again? We signed him last year, how did we do anything this year? I guess on Purpura's resume when they ask him what he did this summmer he can say he got Andy healthy. The others, I guess you could classify as doing something. At the end of last year, I knew Berkman and Roy were going to be an Astros (for at least another year), I guess that's why I don't consider that anything.. being that they were going to be here anyways. But admittedly, resigning them were big moves. Promoting the minor league guys, I'm not sure if that was gutsy or they were given no choice since they didn't sign anyone or keep what they had. I'll admit to knowing nothing about Astacio or Wandy, so won't comment on that.
