I agree. But that said, the Astros really have nothing they can improve on from a FA perspective. Ed Wade is not Morey. He's not going to pull hidden gems out of his ass. In fact, he's the anti-Morey of FA because not only does he only sign bad FAs, he overpays for them. So arguing about whether we can sign players is irrelevant. In the end, the Astros are nothing without a replenished farm system. That is the beginning and the end of our problems. With a farm system that produces young star players, FAs will come. Wins will come. Fans will come. Players will play better with a better atmosphere. But everything starts with the farm. And I really wish Drayton would literally pick a lot more BPAs, the players everyone else skips due to signability issues, the Scott Boras clients that scare people off. And also heavily invest in scouting domestic and overseas. When you have a lot of great prospects, some of them WILL pan out. And they'll be the true cornerstones of our next run at the playoffs.
Has any team gone winless through the first month of the season? It's a record the Astros might can break. Are they as bad as they look? And they have a 100 million dollar payroll? Oh my!
rpr mentioned on the previous page that the '88 Orioles started 0-21. But they actually got their first win on April 29. If the Astros finished the month winless, they'd be 0-22. I wonder what the worst record is for a team with a $100 million payroll.
The nearly identical AVGs and OBPs stood out for me. It's only been 6 games but we've been a low OBP team for years and it isn't going to get any better this season. To top it off, we don't slug the ball. We were near the bottom of the league in that category last season, as well. Relatively speaking, we are a singles-hitting team that can't draw walks. Only Lance Berkman is likely to finish above league average for his position when it comes to OBP, assuming he gets healthy at some point. Pence has an outside chance after showing an improved eye last season. Despite Bourn's improvements at the plate, I still think that he'll struggle to be an above average OBP guy. Despite Lee being a very good overall hitter, he doesn't get on base at a good clip because he likes to attack a lot of balls outside of the zone. He has a pretty good, if not great, eye but seems to prefer to go after those balls instead of taking his walks.
you're not surprised by this, right? we're all aware our favorite team sucks, and it will take a couple years (or more) to build her back.
ya no they weren't. It *was* just a one-year hiatus from suck, but it was a year in which they hit well nonetheless. Beltran had a decent year; MoBerg hit out of his mind; Berkman was *great*; Kent was pretty good; Bidge was pretty good... I'd kill for that lineup right about now...
guilty as charged! my apologies to the other guy -- it *was* 2004 where we were pretty good at the plate.
The embarrasing stat of the day.... @brianmctaggart: The five walks the Astros have through six games is second-fewest in that span since 1952 (1967 Giants had four).
Wow, my son in his 3 9u games over the weekend had as many walks individually as the Astros as a team do. He will appreciate that stat for what it is worth.
has any other team run the gamut of pitchers that we have in quality? I understand it's been 7 games.. but still, 6 incredibly tough starters mostly right? And it's a bad team. The combination sucks. But if we had faced a pair of 5 man rotations through 10 games, i'd venture to say we'd have had 2 wins even without lance? maybe that's just stupid hope..
