6 wins for Roy this season. He deserves better than that. Two consecutive innings with good opportunities to pad the lead but nada. We need 5 more outs w/out giving up anything (assuming we don't score any more) or Roy gets yet another no decision.
Luckily for Reynolds, you can expect one or the other with him. In this case, he strikes out. An art that he is quite adept in...
Great pitching all the way around. Valverede has been getting the job done. Hawkins was nasty. Roy was awesome.
If Roy and Wandy stay healthy all of next season and we find a #3 internally or externally that is better than your typical #3, anything is possible. We can get by with our subpar offense if our pitching is very strong. Roy and Wandy have the potential to be as good as any 1-2 combo in the NL other than maybe Lincecum/Cain if Cain can keep it up.
Should have traded Tejada when he was hitting well and we could have maximized his value. The Astros took too long to decide to become sellers.
It seems like the Cards win every night. I tune into games where they are down 2 or 3 late and they find a way to come back. Great starting pitching, a good closer and now as good a combination of 3-4 hitters as there is in baseball. Oh well...
With Roy/Wandy as the 1a/b, Bud Norris as the 4, and Bazardo as the 5(if he proves he can consistently get to the 6th inning w/o getting blown up), all the team needs is a solid 3 and the start 5 will be set. If Hunter can get back to the type of hitter he was at the beginning of the year, patient and attacking when ahead in the count, the offense will be solid next year. Michael Bourn is going to be even better next year, look for a OBP around .380 and even more SBs b/c he'll be on base even more often. I 2B/3B/SS are the questions for next year, it'll be interesting to see what Wade can come up with to fill those spots.
I suspect that they will work out a reduced salary contract extension with Miggy to play either SS or 3B. The guy is intensely popular here, he wants to be here, and he could solidify 3B with Maysonnet or Manzella coming up to play SS. For 2B, we are stuck with another year of Matsui. After that, you are potentially looking at Maysonnet or Vallejo. It all depends on who is the better hitter. Not ideal, but not as bad as it could be.
I have a feeling they're going to cut bait with Matsucki. No way they accept his play this season as anything but him getting worse.
If Tejada moves to 3rd next season and hits as well as he has so far this season, he'll be a below average 3rd basemen, offensively. That doesn't even take into account his defense at a position that he's rarely played. He'd be an upgrade over Blum (maybe not by as much as one would think) but 3rd base would still be a position of relative weakness. Given our limited options internally and the likelihood of a limited budget available to upgrade our infield, if we can get him for the right price, it may not be a bad idea. At the same time, we may just want to take a cheap option from within and spend any available resources on starting pitching. We have $55 mil tied up in 4 players for next season and Wandy, Bourn and Pence will all likely get significant raises. That means only 7 players will possibly be taking up $65-70 mil. There will be a ton of players needed just to fill a 25-man roster. The economy is bad and attendance is down so I can't imagine McLane spending what he spent this season. If the payroll on opening day next season is about $90-95 mil, that means between $20-30 mil will be spent to sign 18 players. One top FA can cost you that much. The Astros would be smart, in my opinion, to only offer arbitration to players they think will get picked up by another team in order to get the picks. On a related note, I believe I read that Lee's NTC expires after next season. If we aren't in contending mode at that point, maybe an AL team will take his contract off our hands and use him as a DH. I like Lee but not if his salary prevents us from filling bigger needs.
