Baseball has arrived! The Astros didn't quite make it for the opening game. Late flight? Maybe tomorrow.
I'd question more the reason to slotting Blum 6th and Pence 7th. Maybe it's so you don't have two serious question marks at the end of the lineup followed by the pitcher. But I'd rather see Pence a little higher in the batting order. If he's more of a free swinger, he's not gonna get a whole lot of good looks in the 7th spot, that is if Bourne can't prove he can get on base consistently. And I'm not about to jump on Pudge after one freakin' game, considering the good Spring he had. His poor at bats after one game certainly doesn't warrant putting him lower yet. Besides, the team's lineup arrangement isn't what killed them tonight. Their best chances of scoring came when Lee and Pence were at the plate and neither did much. Sure Pence may have driven in a run in the 9th, but it doesn't quite atone for his rally killing GIDP earlier in the game.
The reason I would support batting Bourn at 2 is because we did it last year in the 2nd half, and it wasn't exactly horrible. He had a .270 BA or something of that nature. Besides, Pudge's OBP has been pretty poor himself his last few seasons, and you would think whenever he does connect with the ball with his wreckless, power swing, there should at least be a couple of guys on. I would bat Tejada, Bourn, and probably Pence (though he's really not much more disciplined) over Pudge.
You basically swap Ty for Pudge and Ausmus for Blum...Matsui was gone in the beginning, but then we also had Loretta fill in the gaps. This is offense is only better if Pudge doesn't hit like he did for the Yankees last year and if Bourne improves his OBP.
From August to September of last year, Bourne batted 2nd 12 times out of the 54 games the team played, and half of that number came in the last week of the season, when they were pretty much done. Before Lee went down, seems the lineup was set at Matsui, Tejada, Berkman and Lee with an occassional Pence in the 2 hole.
I felt pretty encouraged today. Lee & Pudge struggled offensively, and that is ultimately what cost us today. Bourn looked very good today, as did Tejada. I also liked what I saw from Berkman. I missed the first 2 innings, but the pitching gave us a chance. We'll have to see how the rest of the rotation does this week. I really think our team is on par with the Phillies.
Bourn had a so-so June, July, and Sept... a terrible April and May.. and an absolutely putrid August and when I say "so-so", that's .317, .320, and .338 OBP's. Pudge was .319 for the whole year (though much higher with DET and much lower with the Yanks) Pudge had a below part 2007 and 2005, but '04 and '06 were fine. And yeah, even if you just take his .319 from last year.. I'll take that over Bourn's .288 Sure Bourn could have a good month like he showed last year...but Pudge showed a very good first 2/3 of a season with Detroit, so we could hope for that, too
Pence, too, regardless of where he was hitting. He had a great opportunity to get us back in the game after Zambrano was replaced with Heilman with 2 men on and no outs. He swung at a low first pitch right into a DP.
I forgot he hit into the double play. At least we still scored thanks to Bourn's dribbler. I wish he could have connected on the first swing of his last at bat. It was obvious he was trying to tie the game with one swing.
Yup, he was just in front of it, not too surprisingly. Good deception by the pitcher. The book is out on Pence. He can hit fastballs but not much else. He needs to make some adjustments or last year will be closer to the norm for the rest of his career.
Pence is overated and doesn't deserve the hype. Fans were looking for a new fresh face of the Astros to believe in after Biggio left and Pence is it. Too bad he can't bat worth a damn!
He batted about .270 with 25HRs last year. While not his absolute torrid start to his career, those are still good offensive stats, just not great ones.
especially when soph. slumps are not at all uncommon.. and we can all see the main thing he needs to adjust to. It's just going to come down to his work ethic (which is supposed to be solid) and just ability to adjust to what pitchers are doing to him. If he can do that and improve upon last year, he can still be a very good player. All Star potential given his decent range (I think--haven't really checked that one out) and plus arm
I flipped over during the break in the Rockets game just in time to see Pence's long ball. Good stuff.
If he's trying to replace Biggio, he's doing a great job. His 2nd year OPS was better than any of Biggio's first 5 years. His 1st year OPS was better than any of Biggio's 9 years. Pence's 25 HRs last year were better than any Biggio's first 17 years. Pence at age 25 was also much better than Biggio at age 25.
