The Orioles have caught the Astros at 9-21 while facing a tougher schedule but are currently losing the 2nd of a double-header.
We scored 8 runs in a 4-game series against the D'backs. The Brewers scored nearly that many in 1 inning against them tonight and 17 in the game. We've scored 11 runs total in 8 games this month.
The Astros are dead last in every significant offensive category except for slugging, which we lead the Mariners slightly(despite them playing in an incredible pitchers park). We are also below average in pitching. All this despite a near $100 mil payroll... The amount of sucktitude that's necessary for this to happen is immense. Looking at what the Padres have done despite selling everyone worth anything makes it even more agonizing.
We knew this team would suck - that was a given based on the moves that have been made over the last few years. But the team should not be this bad. When the top 4 in your lineup are: Bourn Pence Berkman Lee You should score some runs. This team has something like 6 regular, every day players batting around 0.200 or worse. That's just on the players - these guys all have career histories and have never been this bad. Basically, everyone on the team is having a career-worst year, and in many cases, by far their career worst years. If there were any good reason to tank in baseball, you'd have to look into whether they were intentionally sucking, because there's just no logical reason for them all to individually be this bad.
I agree... just a perfect storm of sucktitude that has gotten all of them at the same time. Which will likely lead to the inevitable "they all get hot at the same time", which will have this team scoring runs in the future (of course by then, the pitching will likely start to be mediocre to bad). The Astros have often been "all or nothing"... don't know how, don't know why... same thing happened with the mid 2000's playoff teams, as they were likely always hot (36 and freakin 10) or all cold. Nary a sign of consistency.
I missed the game so I don't know the answer but was planning on asking why Jim D has not bee on the broadcast. Did I miss something with him?
Steve Sparks, he does our postgame from time to time. Journey men knuckleball pitcher during his time in the bigs.
But Berkman and Lee are both aging and on the downside of their careers. Yes, they should be better, but all the risk here is to the downside. Pence is what he is, and while Bourn is doing better, no one expects him to improve much on last year's number. Then Wade goes out and signs another old guy like Pedro Feliz and relies on minor leaguers (Manzella and Towles) not known for their hitting. Basically, we were in a situation where we needed a couple of aging guys to keep hitting or we're screwed.
I just got finishing watching the game on DVR. I thought that was probably Oswalt's best performance of the season along with his game against the Cubs. Even in his last outing, where he only gave up a solo shot to Upton, he was getting into pressure situations throughout the game. He made 1 bad pitch today to the pitcher of all people. Mills and Q had legitimate gripe to get into it with the ump but Oswalt is a fast pace pitcher. I wonder how much that delay affected his rhythm and concentration. He looked ready to get out of the one tough situation he faced all day. Still, at least they got him off the hook, even if took a fielding error to make it happen. If Hairston makes that standard play, Oswalt and the Astros probably take yet another loss.
Certainly - the offense wasn't going to be particularly good, but it also shouldn't be historically bad. Sure, Lee and Berkman are aging. But Lee showed no signs of decline last year - his numbers were virtual mirrors of his career averages. Berkman was slightly below, but still above 0.900 OPS. As of yesterday, both of them and Pence (who's an 0.800ish OPS hitter) all have OPS's lower than Adam Everett's career OPS. Right now, a team of 8 career-average Adam Everett's would outperform our lineup. Even knowing the problems and the holes and the aging, if you had the choice before the season of our lineup or 8 Everett's, there'd be no question you'd assume our lineup would not only be better, but worlds better.
