I agree with Roy but Roy hasn't done much this year to talk big either. Drayton needs to wake up and smell the whatever and notice this team is dropping quickly and if Drayton doesn't do something next season, this team is already dead in the water for next year.
In other news Brad Penny has been released. He won't sign here considering he can sign with a contender(Dodgers?) for the same minimum contract. As bad as he pitched last year and so far this year, he is an upgrade over what we have now if we can sign him after the season is over.
Cat, You often cite Lidge's injuries as justification for his poor performances but you won't do the same for Roy? Until the disc problem, he was on a tear and hasn't looked quite the same since coming back. Yea, he started this season poorly but he had it going again before the injury. He could have hung it up for the season but instead decided to fight through the situation and pitch. The guy has been the model of consistency over his career and will probably go down as the best pitcher in Astros history. I am a little shocked at some of the things he's said recently but I wouldn't be so quick to call him a whiner and criticize his performance on the field. Yes, he's underperformed this year as a whole but given his track record, I think it's understandable for him to have one off year by his standards. It just shows he's human. Berkman has made his share of silly comments but he's one of the classier guys in a game largely gone bad. Roy is one of the good guys, too, as far as I can tell. I'd rather have a couple of whiners as my cornerstone players than a couple of roiders or prima donnas.
Apparently, Roy's concerns about team morale were legit: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/6589411.html
Totally agree with this. Cat, its understandable that a player gets frustrated and speaks out time to time.
Cat knows a lot more about baseball than I do but I just don't see where he's coming from on this one. Maybe he can shed more light on why Roy deserves ridicule.
WOW, I leave for a week and the Stros manage to get worse and more disfunctional then before lol... JeromeSolomon Wow. Astros GM Ed Wade says if Oswalt wants to call out teammates, “He should name names." ... (per Jesus Ortiz) Either Roy is desperate to win or, my guess, Lobbying to get traded out of HTown?
Where does Roy expect morale to be now? This team has no shot in hell at making the playoffs. They have had a pitiful second half of the season and fallen out of contention. There is no miracle happening this season in the second half. These guys are done and they know their done. They can draw morale from knowing they still make millions of dollars to play a game...but competitive morale is low because they cannot win with any consistency.
Moehler is pitching a beaut. But then so did Wandy and Roy was hardly bad. Can we hold on and win this one?
Despite getting in trouble and racking up pitches early, Carpenter has a good shot to pitch 7 and get the win. This is looking the like the World Series against the White Sox... getting swept but losing the games by just a handful of runs. Edit: Carpenter is out but he's still in line for the win.
Bourn and the Astros just got robbed. Bourn was safe. Moehler also got squeezed badly on a couple of pitches early in the game. One of those pitches came right before the Holliday HR. Another one that was even worse ended up not hurting us.
These umpires anticipate the call too much. See a routine ground ball and decide it's out if caught before it's even thrown.
Keppinger strikes me as pretty slow but I'm pretty sure he's a little faster than Lee. He may have not been hustling or it may have just been deceiving.
