Like I said, I guess it depends on who we get in return. I don't want a one-year rental (Beltran, Johsnon). I would want someone that can make a long term impact.
I believe that right now, almost every facet of the team is performing mediocrely... and you're going to lose quite a few ballgames when your offense, defense, starting pitching, and bullpen all have some problems occuring around the same time. I do believe the players they have are good enough to perform better than this... based on their performance over the last 2 years (regular season and playoffs). Do I think they're good enough to beat the Cardinals? No... not unless every single guy avoids a slump for the entire year (which never happens). The Cardinals also have the best player in baseball, the reigining Cy Young award winner, a potential future HOFer at 3B, a quality bullpen, and gold glovers on the defense... on paper, they probably are the best team in baseball, and are built perfectly to win a bunch of regular season games. But, just like last year, the WC will be there for the taking throughout the season... and until this team falls way out of contention for that, there's no sake in losing sleep right now. And we know that once you make the playoffs, you can throw all that "best team on paper" junk out the window.
Well, sort of, you still have to score runs to win, right now we are just not a good team, given up more runs than we have scored for the whole year. Our bullpen has been horrible, and that is being kind, and Pettit has been awful too......the rest have been up and down, even Roy has not been as good....but still aces ! Roger's fiery attitude is probably missed in the clubhouse as much as his fastball. If you think about it, we lost 2 of our best leaders....Roger and Bags......and the team seems to be much weaker because of it. DD
I believe that more of that deficit should be attributed to the starting pitching, rather than the everyday lineup... we've seen Taylor give up 8, 8, and 7 runs in 3 of the last 4 outings... Pettite gave up a ton... that whole Giants series was bad top to bottom. You can have a great run differential with good starting pitching, but average hitting... but you cannot have a great run differential if those options are reversed (and the run differentials of a lot of big hitting teams: Texas, Milwaukee, Cincy... prove this.)
There are plenty of bats out there if the Astros are willing to give up prospects. Aubrey Huff is struggling and the Devil Rays have an abundance of position players on the rise. I think he could be had relatively cheaply. Reggie Sanders is probably available. It will depend on who falls out of the pennant race, of course, but the point I'm making is that there are always players available.
I don't care if they gave him a basehit .. that was the 3rd error of the night for the Astros ... unbelievable
Dude, it also feels like all those years in the 70s, where we just sucked all year long. Last year was a miracle, and so was the year before.......how many of those do we have? DD
Just once, I'd like to see this lineup: Taveras CF Biggio 2B Berkman 1B Ensberg 3B Wilson RF Burke LF Bruntlett SS Ausmus C I'm so tired of watching Everett bat. As good as he is in the field, he's not superhuman out there. And with our weak outfield, I think this team could really use another bat in the lineup. It's obvious that changes need to be made, and this is one of the few changes that is available.
That's the thing... they don't NEED a miracle this year... if they avoid 6-14 stretches, they're still in contention for post-season play. If you believe that 6-14 stretches are representative of this team... then go ahead and write them off. If you feel they can play better than that, you have to give them that opportunity.
Taveras CF Biggio 2B Berkman RF Ensberg 3B Lamb 1B Burke LF Bruntlett SS Ausmus C One minor adjustment....Lamb for Wilson, and we would agree. DD
You are as good as your record, and right now they are a .500 ball club.....nothing more nothing less. DD
Exactly... which means if they can get more consistent starting pitching, and one less bullpen blowup a week, they can definitely build on that .500 record as the season goes on. If they don't get the good pitching, and the hitting continues to flounder (although it still isn't as bad as last year), they're not going to be a very good team... but I'm banking on the pitching improving over the course of the season.
I would agree with you, but I don't think the team is comfortable with Lamb in the outfield, and Berkman's injuries seem to keep him tied to 1st base.
