Carlos Beltran was good down the stretch...not great. Kent hit well...Bagwell came on and hit well...Berkman started slow and then hit well down the stretch as well. Beyond that, their bullpen started pitching far better than it had been. And they found a legit lights-out closer. They had injuries in the pitching staff that seemed to be miraculously filled in by guys with names like Backe and Munro...who won big games when I never would have expected it. It's not a zero sum game. You don't subtract Beltran and Kent...and say that's it. We won't be leaving their positions wide open this season. Two others will be fielding their positions this season. Biggio will be at 2nd....Taveras will be in CF. They will post SOMETHING. So you're not merely subtracting all those RBI's or runs scored from last season. And hopefully, you're getting more power from LF than you did last season. Particularly when Berkman gets back and Lane moves over. And in the end...fine. If you say they suck on paper...if you say they just don't have talent...fine. But don't try to use an 8 game sample size to substantiate that.
And Kent had 22. Beltran had 21 RBI's the month before and scored 22 runs in September. Without Beltran and Kent, how far do we go in the playoffs? Not far.
Without Clemens, Berkman, Bagwell, Lidge, Backe, Oswalt, or Biggio, would we have made the playoffs? NO.
you're right. it's over. turn it off. stop watching. and stop posting about it here. if something happens, we'll let you know.
i was referring to last year ( in response to another post about LAST year)....why does everyone insist on taking things out of context?
well..we don't have beltran and kent this year...soooo.....and you've made it quite clear what you think that means.
Yes--as long as the guys who are on this team to *hit* actually do. Why does everyone in the lineup have to hit .333/90/25? How in the hell did the '82 and '87 Cardinals ever win anything? For example--last April and May's horrible offensive woes were not due to Ausmus and Everett. They were due to the great hitters in the lineup not hitting great. Not even hitting well. How hard is that to comprehend?
Since Biggio's move was purely defensive, youre comparing Tavares and Jason Lane to Beltran and Kent. Even assuming the very best, Tavares steals 42 bases and scores 121 runs, how do we replace the 40 home runs and 100+ RBIs from Carlos Beltran. No way Jason Lane hits 27 hrs and 100+ RBIs. In baseball, most games are decided by a run here, a clutch hit there. You replace 1 superstar and 1 very good all-star with a promising 1 dimensional rookie and a platoon player - that's the difference between an 85 win season and a serious contender.
We've made the playoffs before with some of those players - and always failed - because of hitting. Except Brandon Backe can hit better than Randy Johnson so maybe we have a chance now.
1. You don't necessarily have to replace those runs if your pitching is better. It's not like a team hits a certain number of runs and they're automatically declared a winner. That's not baseball. If you've improved defensively...and you've improved pitching...then you don't need as much offense to win. It's more of a luxury at that point. 2. Don't forget to add in the "superstar" starting pitcher who wasn't with us for about 3/4 of last season. Oh..and don't forget to add in a closer for a full season who can actually close out games.
yeah...and kent's production the year before didn't even get us to the playoffs. that b*stard!!!! this is baseball...not hoops.
Jeff Kent's stats so far this season: Avg: .419 - beats anybody we got HR: 2 - tied with Bagwell for most we got RBI: 11 - The top RBI man on the Astros has a whopping 4 RBI.
The curious stats are the Astros production in other stats don't seem to line up to their anemic run output. We're 10th in BA, 5th in OBP, 11th in SLG, 7th in OPS, 2nd in steals (all MLB ranks)...that shouldn't add up to 29th in runs, but it does. I'm not saying we're a good offensive team, but we really should be scoring more runs than we have been. This team misses Lance. He makes everyone around him better- I don't want to fully judge the offense until he's back, but we were fine with Everett and Ausmus last year.
The team is HITTING great, they are simply lacking scoring... and that will eventualy cure itselft. Our number 1 and 7 hitters aren't going to hit .100 the entire season, they'll eventually start producing no matter who is filling the spots. Pitching wins world series over offense nearly every year... and has done it three out of the last four. The Diamondbacks, Angels and Marlins all won with pitching... so don't say it can't be done. Our offense is going to produce just fine and we will be a middle of the pack offensive team with a top of the line pitching staff and late relief. Feel free to ask the Cardinals how their season is going right now with big bats and no pitching.
Biggio brought up a good point during the pre-game. If we're still in it come all-star break (and I think even before that...early June), McLane will make the deals to bring some bats in if it looks like we need them. I know most of you will say he's too cheap to do so, but you can't argue with history.
What history tells us is he rents players for 2 months. That's not exactly taking on a huge financial risk. I doubt most people even remember Randy Johnson wearing an Astros uniform. Im not saying we should go out and spend like the Yankees. However, part of the legacy of his cheapness extends all the way down the pipeline to how we draft players. Why did we draft Phil Nevin? Was he really the #1 rated player that year? Why did we draft Tony McKnight? Why did we bother drafting Drew Stubbs? The draft and follows are nice but we aren't always going to strike gold with the Darryl Kiles and the Roy Oswalts. The minor league draft is a crapshoot, even moreso than other sports. However, when signability determines who you draft, that's not a long-term recipe for success. It's obviously not limited to only the Astros but as a fan, it's always nice to pretend your owner's #1 priority is to win.
I have no idea about McLane's budget and how it pertains to who we select in the amateur draft. I was simply posting that McLane's got a good history of bringing in players in the middle of a playoff race. So, we should hope that our well above-average starting rotation can hold up the bats until that time.
