All series talk goes in here. DO NOT GIVE PLAY-BY-PLAY! If you need PBP try Yahoo, ESPN, or Sportsline. 6-5 Wandy Rodriguez, LHP (2-5, 4.53) vs. Jason Hirsh, RHP (2-5, 5.10) 8:05 on FSN 6-6 Woody Williams, RHP (2-7, 5.50) vs. Woody Williams, RHP (2-7, 5.50) 8:05 on FSN 6-7 Roy Oswalt, RHP (6-4, 3.20) vs. Taylor Buchholz, RHP (2-3, 5.55) 2:05 on FSN
Hirsh and Buchholz and those 5+ ERA's are clearly the missing link to this team... If we don't pound them, and win at least those 2 out of the 3 games, then I will start the inenviable process of looking more and more forward to 2008 than the rest of 2007.
Seriously, if Oswalt doesn't beat Buchholz (oh, the irony), then the BBGs have clearly decreed that this is not our year.
I'm definitely looking how he's doing... he's still a "weak" singles hitter --laying down the "suprise" bunt single and hitting the ball weakly while beating out the throw. He's got the 5 doubles, and the still high strikeout-walk ratio. Unless he starts working counts, that OBP will go down to his career norm.... but he certainly still has that speed. But suprisingly, he's already been caught stealing 8 times for his 13 steals. (actually, its not that suprising... he was picked off, or close to being picked off, quite often in Houston and it effected the types of leads he'd get. In the end, he steals bases more because of speed than instinct).
Except I was basing my comments on Willy T on two-plus years of play, while "how he's doing now" consists of two months.
Well I hope we sweep, hell I hope we can just win a series. Purpura will get a close look at why Willy T was a guy who they never should of let go. He will make Garner and the pitchers nervious just as he would do to the Cards in 05. Well here is to taking it to Hirsh tonight as I for one want this guy to fail now so my team does not look stupid.
Taveras was benched (in favor of Chris Burke) for three of the six games in the Cards' 2005 series because of ineffective offense.
Didn't want to start a new thread for this, but I hope the author doesn't have as much inside info as he purports!! Astros probably won't re-sign JJ due to $$
I'd be suprised if the Astros made that decision already... especially since Jenning's future salary is still yet to be determined, and will largely be impacted by the rest of his performance this year. The Astros may also be expecting bigger things from Patton, or the need to allocate that money for position players they're going to be cutting lose (bigger arbitration money to Ensberg, Everett, Scott may not be in the works). Its also interesting to see that the Rockies fans apparently don't like the trade now (after seeing that Hirsh is indeed a 6'9 "finesse" pitcher)... so if people in Houston don't like it, and people in Colorado don't like it, who does?
Nick, I tend to agree with you. I just think it's sad that something like this if floated out there and is the top baseball headline on CNNSI.com's Truth and Rumors Jennings, when healthy, has pitched well (not great) for the hometown nine so far. I hope the addition of him and Berkman to our line-up will help us get on a nice little run here going into the All-Star break.
ERA+ 2007 Wandy: 93 Jason: 134 (though admittedly an especially small sample size) Taylor: 80 Jason: 87
I love Willy T, but the fact that he had the greatest player in Astros' history breathing down his neck makes losing him much, much easier. Spoiler For the slow people, that's Hunter Pence of course.
