All this makes it relatively amazing that we are in the middle of the pack as far as win-loss record.
There have been a few games recently where we've faced a pitcher that is locked in and Bourn still had a big game. That was a terrific AB. He got into a hitter's count then stayed back and smacked the ball the other way. If he can further cut down on the SOs next season, that would be fantastic.
Pence has overall been an average NL RFer this season from an offensive standpoint. I say that in a positive sense given his struggles since the first 2 months of the season. He has 20 dingers and 59 RBI and an above league average AVG, OBP and OPS. He's increased his walk rate and decreased his SO rate this season. He'd probably have another 10-15 RBI if Cooper wasn't hitting him 6th so often. If he can eliminate a couple of those holes in his swings, he may still be the player we hope he can be.
Remember all the complaints about the Everett-Ausmus blackhole in the lineup. Believe it or not, Matsui-Coste is worse.
Dang, Qualls is in pain. I think he jacked up his knee falling down. I can't believe how slow our team is beyond Bourn, Pence and Matsui.
In his past several postgame interviews, Cooper has looked extremely subdued and depressed, almost like a man that wants to be put out of his misery. Yea, I understand losing will do that to most people. Regardless, who thinks he'll make it to the end of the season? I know McLane said he's going to reevaluate everything after the season but I wonder if he'll be able to wait that long if we go on an extended losing streak. He did fire Garner late in a season, didn't he?
Damn Brooks. Posting it up eh? lol. I'm glad to see the young guys playing though on the offensive side of the ball as well. Most of our pitching prospects suck that we called up but the offensive side has yet to fully suck so maybe some good bench material in the bunch.
Funny thing is, outside of Bourn, the fastest players on the roster are pitchers - Brandon Backe and Mike Hampton.
Garner *and* Purpura. The published rationale was something akin to, "why wait until fall to start over? Let's give the new regime a month of the regular season to see what we currently have and then have the entire offseason to move in a new direction." Something like that, anyways. I'm not sure Wade's had time for us to really know how well he's done. All I know is my favorite team SUCKS. Hard. And they've sucked for a couple years now. Pooh on "late season runs" against inferior competition. The schedule basically flipped this year; tougher teams in August, and they're 11-16 to date for August. If you SUCK for half a year, then you SUCK. If you get your crap together in time to get at or barely above .500, you're solidly mediocre. *Yay*. How very exciting. While I'm ranting, let me just get some more off my chest (at the risk of whining like an Internet baby). The Bagwell-Biggio Astros were a blue-collar, hardworking, play-the-game-the-right-way bunch of guys who kept winning 90 games and going to the playoffs. We got spoiled to quality baseball, quality efforts, boring post-game interviews, and lots of W's. Now, we got a bunch of FAT, SLOW, T-shirt-making, excuse-lobbing freaking TITTY-BABIES. Not running out grounders. Blaming the coach. Blaming Bud Selig. It's really hard when my life-time favorite team has a bunch of players I really can't stand. Sacks of crap, they are. (Of course there are the exceptions.) Gotta love Roy O whining to the media. Bags and Bidge would get in your face with no camaras around and sort that crap out. Roy cries to the camara (himself taking half of the last three years off) and nothing changes. At this stage in his career, Roy Oswalt is a whiny, inconsistent #2 pitcher who is being paid like a #1. Phooey. This team sucks. I love baseball, and I love my Astros, so I will continue to follow and listen/watch. But they suck. They just suck.
Our two best seasons we have sucked half the year. The barely over .500 Cardinals won a World Series. To me thats exciting. What I hate is the great letdown teams of the 1990s, when Bagwell and Biggio forgot how to hit in October.
