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2011 Astros Bullpen Is Just HORRIBLE

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

I hope all yall had a great 4th of July weekend. We spent the weekend at a family reunion – my mama’s daddy’s family. The kids had a really GREAT time – LOTS of cousins to play with. Lots of junk food to get into that Mami does not let them eat at home. Mami kept sneaking in to check the game – watched the lousy starting pitching and watched hitters squander too many opportunities to drive in runs and gave up after Mills bizarre decision in the 6th with 2 on, no out, to have Corporan sac-bunt and the pitcher swing away. No pinch hitter because Downs was already playing and so was Michaels and I guess you can’t trust CJ. Either that or a certain pitcher wanted to go out and throw 6 innings just to show he could. Then hope that Bourn could drive in runs against a very good lefty pitcher he doesn’t hit well.

sigh

So instead, I was going to write a column about how Mark Melancon shouldn’t intentionally walk batters because it’s been a disaster every time he has. But after looking it up, I realized that he’s only intentionally walked a batter twice – and yeah, both times it led to the losing runs. And actually, the Astros have issued only a total of 25 IBB this year. I thought it was more like a hundred.

I hate intentional walks unless it is to the #8 guy (in front of the pitcher with 2 out) or to some great hitter to get to a lousy hitter (think Barry Lamar/anyone else). It’s sort of like having your cleanup hitter bunt. Yeah, it might could work, but it’s probably not the best idea.

So, let’s take a look at every guy who has relieved for the Astros this year. I’m going to have 4 columns: IBB, runs scored after an IBB whether by that particular reliever or not, # inherited runners and # of inherited runners who he lets score. And I am only counting relief appearances for Aneury Rod and Figgy. Sorry for such a lousy looking chart but I haven’t figured out how to make charts. Really.

NAME………………….. IP ……… IBB….IBBSc…………………..IR……….IRSc

Abad, Fernando…….. 19.2 ……… 0 …….. 0 ………………….. 5 ……….. 2
Carpenter, David ……. 2.1 ……… 0 …….. 0 ………………….. 3 ……….. 0
DelRosario, Enerio … 36.2 ……… 0 …….. 0 …………………. 20 ……… 10
Escalona, Sergio …… 14.1 ……… 1 ……. 0 ………………….. 16 ………….6
Figueroa, Nelson …….. 4 ……….. 0 ……. 0 …………………… 0 ………… 0
Fulchino, Jeff ……….. 27.2 …….. 3 …….. 0,0,2 of 2 ……….. 14 ………..6
Lopez, Wilton ………… 38 ………. 3 ………0,0,1 of 2 ……….. 17………. 10
Lyon, Brandon ……… 13.1 ……… 1 …….. 0 ……………………. 0 ……….. 0
Melancon, Mark ……… 39 ………. 2 …….. 2 ………………….. 10 ………. 2
Rodriguez, Aneury ….. 17 ………. 0 …….. 0 …………………… 3 ……….. 0
Rodriguez, Fernando .. 15.2 ……. 1 …….. 0 …………………… 4 ……….. 1
Valdez, Jose …………….. 14 ………. 1 …….. 3 of 3 + 1 more … 6 ……….. 2

Very Interesting

With Wilton Lopez, 2 of the IBB were to Andre Ethier to pitch to Furcal, who was injured and barely able to swing a bat. The other was to Carlos Pena to pitch to Aramis Ramirez – not sure THAT was the best idea.

With Fulchino, he walked Pujols to pitch to someone else (good idea) and no run scored; he walked Jay Gibbons (lousy) to pitch to Dioner Navarro (lousy) – if he can’t get Jay Gibbons out, well, it’s like not getting Bill Hall out; and then he IBB Chris Young to pitch to a better hitter, Xavier Nady with 2 on – both runners scored, then Escalona let Nady score. I guess it was one of those – he’s hot, he’s not thingys or something.

With Valdez – sigh – don’t even ask.

Looks as if it is not a real too good idea to bring in Wilton Lopez or Del Rosario with runners on. Funny because Lopez was unbelieveable with MOB last year; only 1 of 33 inherited runners scored. It’s too bad we don’t have anyone who can come in and shut it DOWN as Lopez did last year.

You notice that Lyon was never ever called in to shut it down with runners on in the 8th, even though he had done that very successfully last year – 7 IR, none scored.

In case you’re curious about the starters, only the #5 guys haven’t been told to IBB someone – Lyles, Figgy and Aneury. Happ has IBB 2 (like you could tell among all the other zillion walks he gives up), Bud Norris 6, and Wandy and the ol WB 4 each.

By the way,

Astros got swept by the Red Sox – lousy bullpen, lousy hitting with men on base. Also, Astros got kicked by the Pirates who have an almost entirely diffrerent lineup then they did the last time we faced them – only Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker and Garrett Jones remain. The rest of the lineup is all young guys – from their minor league system. Nothing wrong with young guys, as long as they are any good.

Unlike, say, OUR minor league system, but I digress.

No new news about the Astros sale.

Oh yeah – one last thing. I saw something at the game yesterday I’ve never seen before. I watched the worst team in the major league playing at Pittsburgh, in an afternoon game, and you kinow what? That ballpark was absolutely PACKED and there were so many people there that they had folks standing on the walkways and watching. Yes, PACKED. At Pittsburgh – and not for the (swear word) Yanks/Red Sox neither. 

See what happens when you put a decent team on the field and fans have a good reason to hope that the team is gonna get a LOT better thins year and every year afterwards?

Fans go to the ballpark.

Imagine that…

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Posted in Aneury Rodriguez, Brandon Lyons, Enerio Del Rosario, Fernando Abad, fulchino, Jose Valdez, Mark Melancon, Nelson Figueroa, Pitchers, Wilton Lopez | 6 Comments »

5/1/11: Nelson Figueroa Is Sent To The Bullpen

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Aneury Rodriguez will start as the #5 guy.

Not that I’m expecting miracles, based on what I have (I mean haven’t) seen him do in relief. Interesting that somehow, he can manage to go 5 innings for a start, but he can’t pitch multiple innings in the bullpen, but Figueroa can.

Check out Aneury’s AAA stats from last year: 17 GS, 10 in relief over 113 IP: 3.86 ERA/1.35 WHIP – don’t know what his stats were as a starter. 8.4 H/9, 7.4 K/9, 3.2 BB/9

His ML stats this year? 9 games, 8 IP, 9 H, 9 R/6 ER, 2 HR, 4 BB, 7 K, 1 HBP AND he’s let half of his inherited runners score.

Buhbuhbuhbuh Big Deal

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Posted in Aneury Rodriguez, Nelson Figueroa | 1 Comment »

4/28/11: Berkman Hits 3 Run Homer Righthanded To Beat Astros

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Oh yeah – and he Pujolsed a Lidged slider into the upper deck in RF, too. His third 2 homer game this YEAR. Amazing how healthy legs are good for a player’s hitting.

It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL night – sweater weather (really) with the roof open and – what can I say – I absolutely HAD to go, especially because I had a chance to get there early for batting practice and get a look at Lance up close. He isn’t that much thinner, really – believe it or not – and his stance is definitely different than it was last year when he was hurt – it looked that way on TV, but I can really tell in person – knees bent more, more weight shifted back.

Stadium was pretty empty – it had been about half full the previous 2 nights – lots of Cards fans AND lots of Berkman fans. Me, I went old Skool and wore my Ausmus t-shirt. Of course, after the 3rd inning, I had to wear it OVER my sweater. Is that kewl or what – here it is April 28 and it is GOOD weather for outdoor baseball, not Drayton McLane is too cheap to close the roof and we have to all die sweating – outdoor baseball.

Tonight, Nelson Figueroa did a very good job – remembering he’s the 5th starter – and this time, the ump pretty much called strikes strikes, and didn’t call them balls. He gave up 3 walks (only one of em was a problem with getting strikes called strikes), got a nice 4-6-3. And speaking of 4, Freese singled to left in the 4th, Figgy tried to pick him off, the throw went into left, Hall picked it up on the RF line about 90′ down the line and threw a bullet to CJ to get Freese, who ran thorough a stop sign, out. GREAT throw. He had 3 of 5 1,2,3 innings.

He gave up a run in the 5th when Lance doubled on a bullet down the line into the LF corner, then scored on a Laird single up the middle. Figgy gives up walks and singles, seldom gives up extra base hits, I’ve noticed. But you sure nuff can lose getting singled to death. As he could tell you.

And speaking of which – the Cards did the Baseball Bugs conga line (you’ve seen that cartoon) in the 6th. Figgy gave up a 3-2 single to left to Freese, then Uncle blooped one to right, then Holliday singled through the 5.5 hole to drive in Freese.

With Lance coming up, Brad Mills decided to pull Figgy – although he was still actually throwing just as well – and send in lefty Abad to face Berkman. As much as Figgy is no ace, he’s STILL better than Abad and all I said was OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. And sure enough, he hits the 1-0 curve off the wall over the Crawford Boxes for the go-ahead 3 run homer (and this time it WAS the game winning hit – but I’m getting ahead of myself….)

And the singles kept on coming – ABAD gives up a single to Rasmus, a walk to Gerald freaking Laird (Arnesberg goes out – it does NO good) a slow roller to short to Green that goes for a FC, then a single to the PITCHER on a 3-2, then a sac-fly.

Abad out, Fulchino in. And Fulchino gives up 4 straight singles without getting an out.

Fulchino out, Valdez in, who FINALLY gets the last out on a grounder.

NINE runs in 1 inning.

My GAWD. You talk about el sukco bullpen – they made Figueroa look like Clemens. Husby called – asked if I was coming home early. He got hung up on – not that he wasn’t expecting that…

And that was it for Cards runs except for that 467′ upper deck homer by Lance - Aneury Rodriguez threw a hanging slider and Lance hit it further than the one Uncle hit offn Lidge. Only homer I’ve seen hit further in the upper decks was the one by Dontrelle Willis 5 or 6 years ago – and no, I do NOT believe whoever “measured” that shot at only 450′ – please.

Astros hitters hit the ball QUITE well, thank you, and reached on error twice.

Brett Wallace continued his absolutely torrid hitting – he hits leftys just as well as rightys, and sprays line drives all OVAH the place – left, right, middle. Doesn’t seem to be a home run hitter and he’s way too slow a runner to hit triples, but he’s hitting essentially the same as he did in the minors. Even in his prime, he’s no Berkman (in HIS prime) but of course, Lance wasn’t appreciated when he WAS here and he’ll be disrespected now that he’s gone as “fat” or “not a leader” – he seems to be “leading” fine with the Cards – oh yeah, that’s the complaint.

where was I?

Oh yeah.

Michael Bourn hit lots of balls to opposite field, including one to the LF bullpen off Kyle McClellan – who didn’t exactly look ace tonight – 5 runs over 5.1 IP. Michael has reached base in all but 1 of his last 20 games, and that was a PH appearance (against the same *(%*#%! closer whose stuff he couldn’t see the night before – with the same result). He didn’t have any great plays or stolen bases tonight. And no weird stuff like forgetting to go to second on a PB.

Angel Sanchez grounded out a few times, turned a DP, drove in a 2 out run, flew out to deep right. Right now, he’s 31 for 105 with 5 doubles, 1 HR, 1 GIDP and 6 BB – oh yeah, and 16 RBIs FROM THE 2 HOLE – same as Carlos Lee hitting cleanup.

And speaking of Carlos, he finally got a few hits – reached on error E1 – hit a dribbler up the 1B line which the pitcher dropped – an easy out. He hit an RBI double down the LF line – juuuust inside the 3B bag which hit the stands jutting out at a funny angle and he hit a bloop to right. Which is more than he had done with all those popups, especially with MOB!!!!! for the past few weeks.

So anyway, Sanchez is gonna get benched for Clint “A-Rod” Barmes (or is it Tulo redux) and Mills is keeping Clank hitting cleanup because he “is confident that Carlos will get out of his funk” – has NOTHING to do with the fact that he almost certainly has no choice in the matter seeing as how Carlos is making 19 mill.

Hunter Pence – being aggressive is good and bad. It’s good when he runs through the stop sign at third and scores on Carlos’ double to left that takes that funny angle off the wall when the throw home is offline. It’s bad when he swings at 2 pitches waaay out of the zone then stares at the one down the middle with bases loaded when the Stros are trying to come back 6 runs after the Cards 9 run top of the 6th. It’s even worse when he is out at the plate trying to score on a pitch that didn’t bounce far enough away from the plate with bases loaded, 2 out in the 8th (and yeah, I know Hall was up and you shouldn’t expect miracles twice in 1 series)

CJ had a 430′ homer off the LF wall – hit in between the 99 and 01 flags for a 2 run job. He hit the ball very well every AB and hit 3 of them to opposite field – the last one fell for a double, but he was stranded. This is good – he doesn’t look lost. Of course, I am considering who was pitching. The Cardinal’s bullpen is almost as bad as ours. Bet TLR wishes he wasn’t so quick throwing Chris Perez away. Well, no he doesn’t. TLR is NEVAH wrong (see how Scott Rolen has failed everywhere he’s been since he and TLR got divorced 4 years ago…)

I guess that last year was The Year Of The Pitcher, This Year it is The Year Of The Bullpen Suckage.

Hall went 1 fer 4 with a single and run scored. AND he had that great assist to get Freese at 3rd.

Quintero went 1 fer 3 with a reached on error E5 and a run scored. He also made another throwing error – was trying to throw out Rasmus stealing and the throw hit him and bounced into CF and Rasmus went to 3rd on the throw. Other than that, very solid fielding tonight from everyone, including Carlos. Yes, Carlos, who caught a long fly ball at the LF bullpen that he wouldn’t have gotten near last year. Or the year before. Or the year before that, neither.

The guys went 5 fer 18 with RISP and left 24 MOB. It’s not that the Astros aren’t hitting (for once) but that the pitching has been teh sukc. And so has the fielding. To be nice about it – 27 errors over 25 games. Uck.

And tomorrow night, the Brew Crew is in town and we face Shaun Marcum again. And Corey Hart is off the DL and ready to lust after the Crawford Boxes…

Oh yeah – and when I got home, was Husby-doo watching The Draft Report? Heck no, he was watching Astros Live.  Why yes, Alyson Footer WAS on tonight. HowEVAH did yall guess?

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Posted in Berkman, Bill Hall, Brett Wallace, Chris Johnson, Fernando Abad, fulchino, Hunter Pence, Jose Valdez, Nelson Figueroa | 17 Comments »

4/22/11: Bad Pitching + Bad Fielding = Brewers Beat Astros

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

What an absolutely terrible icky ballgame. It dragggggggged – lasted almost 4 (swear words) hours

Gallardo wasn’t as ace as we’d seen him in the past, but he didn’t have to be, thanks to Astros fielding incompetence and failure to drive in runs with MOB waaay too many times. 

No GIDPs tonight, but striking out or grounding out with 2 outs = not good.  And speaking of DP, Pence turned one on Braun, catching his drive, then throwing out Weeks at first. VERY nice.

The HP ump made Doug Eddings and Angel Hernandez look like Jim Joyce. Nelson Figueroa kept throwing strikes, but the *(%&! ump wouldn’t call anything below mid-thigh a strike and absolutely nothing on the black – and after 2 batters had been walked with no outs in the second, Arnesberg went out to the mound – Figgy was trying to not to show he wasn’t happy – I mean, what could the guy do besides throw it down the middle, and the ump went out and Arnesberg must have said something about the ump having a substance problem or needing glasses because he got tossed and then Brad Mills ran out and Cowboy Joe West tossed HIM. Click here for the video.

After that, the HP ump was somewhat less obnoxious, but not much and Figgy got hammered. Gave up a 3 run homer to Ryan Braun, showing that he deserved that extra 105 mill and 5 more years, and gave up a homer to the PITCHER. He lasted 4 innings and left in the 5th with 1 on.

Abad came on to pitch, got Fielder to hit a perfect DP ball to Sanchez, who plays it badly and they only get Braun at second. Then McGehee hits a grounder to Bill Hall, who misplays it and it goes for a “single”. Then Kotsay lines out to Hall, who has got Da Prince leaning waaaayyy off second, but he throws the ball past Sanchez, so instead of 3 out, AGAIN, men on second and 3rd. Then – good grief – Yuni Betancourt singles to left, Clank makes a throwing error but it doesn’t matter because he couldn’t have thrown out McGehee at the plate anyway. Poor Abad. Valdez comes in and gets the last out.

You don’t want to hear the rest.

But I do want to mention that CJ is completely lost at the plate – no timing, stance is screwed up, he looks worse than lost – 2 Ks on pitches out of the zone and a weak groundout with 2 on 2 out. He got pulled with one of the pitching changes and replaced with Matt Downs, who didn’t do any better. And actually, I was glad that Downs was there because 2 balls got hit down the LF line that went for doubles – he actually got a glove on 1 and I thought it was an error, but I guess not. So CJ at least won’t be blamed for those 2 run scoring doubles.

But fortunately, Clint Barmes, the hitting savant, is gonna be coming back soon and this will solve everything. Question is, who will go down when he gets back – and yes, he WILL immediately displace Sanchez. Inglett, who has been essentially useless is the only LH bat and we all know you GOTTA have one of those because rightys can’t hit rightys. So either Sanchez or Bourgeois is going down – we all know it can’t be Downs cuz he Fast Eddie’s boy.

Speaking of hits, I do have to say that Bill Hall hit a triple high off the CF wall, then scored the run. Quintero had a GREAT night – went 3 fer 3 with a walk, scored 2 and drove in 1. Brett Wallace has continued to hit – went 3 fer 5, scored one and drove in 1. Clank went 1 fer 5, drove in 1, scored 1 and stranded 3. He really has no business hitting 4th any more, but 19 mill speaks louder than results.

sigh

Fulchino came in and got the last out in the 6th and Melancon came in for the 8th – gave up a walk and 2 singles but managed to not let any runs score this time.

I guess I should say something about – I’m glad we didn’t get shut out.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Let’s hope we do better tomorrow – but Shaun Marcum has looked absolutely shutdown so far and I’m not as hopeful as I might could be…

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Posted in Nelson Figueroa | 5 Comments »

4/16/11: Chris Johnson Homers And Astros Beat Mat Latos

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

Looks as if Mat Latos might could have come off the DL a leeeetle too early because the Astros knocked him around for FIVE runs – we barely knocked him around for 5 hits between his last 2 starts against us. Well, OK, today it was 4 hits, 2 walks = 5 runs over 6.2 IP, which is impressive for the Astros, gots to say that.

CJ hit a 2 run homer, walked, drove in 2 runs and scored 2. What a relief. Probably to him, too. He made 2 very good plays and THIS time, he didn’t screw up and overthrow an IF hit to third. He’s learning and I sure am hoping Mills was serious about him being the starting 3rd baseman and it wasn’t the death knell “vote of confidence”…

I read that Towles didn’t catch because his ankle was bothering him – he fouled balls off it twice when he was catching Wandy. Ok, I saw it myself, they aren’t making that stuff up. You know me, always rooting for the underdogs.

Brett Wallace had his first ofer day in quite a while, but that’s OK – he’s definitely improved over last year and I am hoping that the coaches have figured out that he can NOT run, and won’t be sending him home to die time after time. When it comes to pinch running, guess we’ll have to pull Wallace, put Clank at first and Bourgeois/Michaels in left.

Pence had a double, drove in a run and made a really stupendous sliding catch to end the game and save the butt of Brandon Lyon. Who needs his butt saved far too often for a closer.

Clank had a single and scored a run and Angel Sanchez went 1 fer 4 with an RBI – the way he’s playing, gonna be very tough to justify pulling him out of the lineup and putting in Clint Barmes – I HOPE.

Downs went ofer (with an error that allowed a run to score – fortunately, it ended up not mattering) as did Q and Figgy.

Speaking of Nelson Figueroa, he pulled himself together tonight, went out and threw 6 innings of 6 hit, 2 walk, 3 run/2 ER ball. In 3 of those innings, he had 1,2,3 out. He finally was pulled with 2 out 2 on in the 7th – one of those had reached on his error – and Melancon got him out of trouble.

Fulchino setup and had a 1,2,3 inning. Lyon came in to close and as usual gave me high blood, getting an out, giving up 2 straight singles before getting a FC then a blessed popup.

Wilton Lopez, by the way, was put on the DL as apparently he can’t “pitch through” pain and needs some time to heal. They will finally put a pitcher on the DL after he is hurting so much he gives up runs instead of gets outs. Just thinking about Chris Sampson and the way they screwed with him angrys up my blood – and now, he is apparently OOB, don’t see him in the minors neither. What a waste. sigh.

Anyway, we called up Jose Valdez, RHP, who gave up 8 hits, 1 HR, 5 BB, 3 ER over 9.2 IP/10 games in ST. At AAA, he gave up 3 H, 3 BB, 1 run over 3.2 IP. Seems a little walkeriffic, but, youneverknow. Hope he knocks em out.

Check out my old entry from draft day 2007 – see how many guys ever made the majors since I wrote it back then.

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Posted in Chris Johnson, Hunter Pence, Jose Valdez, Mark Melancon, Nelson Figueroa | 6 Comments »

4/11/11: Angel Sanchez Hits His First ML Homer But Astros Lose To Cubs

Monday, April 11th, 2011

Figured I’d give Angel his props, seeing as how he isn’t real too likely to hit lots of em…

Let’s see, where to start – Well, I guess with Figueroa. He was as bad with Quintero as he was with Towles. First inning, 27 pitches, single, walk, K, popup, walk, double, out, 2 ER. Second inning, 21 pitches, lineout, groundout, single, triple, single, out, 2 ER. Third inning – 15 pitches, 3 outs (can you believe it???!!!) Fourth inning – 25 pitches, K, GO, single, SB, single, single, WP, great play by CJ to get 3rd out. 4 IP, 8 H, 2 BB, 2 K, 5 ER, 88 pitches = teh sukc. (Last start, 5.1 IP, 11 H, 1 BB, 10R/6 ER)

Good news: Del Rosario, Abad, Melancon, Wilton Lopez and Lyon each pitched 1 inning AND DIDN”T GIVE UP ANY HITS OR RUNS!!!!! Yes, you read that right. FIVE no hit innings of ball from the bullpen. If I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Next, CJ started the game, walked, singled, scored the first run, made 3 outstanding plays, including an inning ending LODP 5-4 to end the 5th after Enerio Del Rosario gave up 2 walks and grounded out to end the 7th, leaving 2 on. For his trouble, he got pulled after the 7th with Joe Inglett taking over 3rd.

Ryan Dempster was almost unhittable for 6 innings, giving up a single and a walk in the 2nd, then striking out the side in the 3rd and the first 2 in the 4th before getting a groundout. That slider was simply wicked – tons of checked swings. He gave up a run in the 5th when CJ singled, was grounded to second, then scored on a Matt Downs pinch hit single.  He wasn’t sharp in the 6th, giving up a single, then 2 walks to load the bases, but got Joe Inglett to ground out to first on the first pitch – after two straight walks, too.

I’ve watched Dempster for years and have noticed that when he goes bad, he goes bad FAST because either the slider has flattened out or hangs and he gets slammed. The box score says he struck out 9 – I thought it was like 15. Anyway, he struck out Quintero to start the 7th, then gave up a pinch hit homer to Bill Hall which hit the RF fowl pole (hey, chicken sandwiches for everyone with a ticket) then on a 1-1 count, he hung a slider to Michael Bourn, who he had already Kd twice, and Michael teed off on that sucka and hit it on the yellow line in RF (it was reviewed and definitely did not go OVER the yellow line, so I’ve got no complaints) then very next pitch, he sends a fat one in the dead center of the strike zone to Angel Sanchez, who sends it 350′ into the Crawford Boxes. And when you give up a homer to Angel Sanchez, it is time to go nightnight.

In comes John Grabow (ex-Pirate, lefty) who walks Pence, gives up a single to Carlos, then Brett Wallace and CJ make outs, stranding them.

Lefty Sean Marshall comes in for the 8th, Inglett gets his first hit of the year, sending a line drive juuuuust over the glove of the second baseman, Q sac-bunts (not sure why seeing as how the guy he couldn’t hit is gone), Hall singles, then Mike Quade, the Cubs manager pulls Marshall, sends in Marmol and goodnight Astros.

Final score 5-4.

Good news: CJ had a great game with glove and decent game with bat. No errors. Bullpen doesn’t give up any runs. Jason Bourgeois gets his 3rd stolen base. Astros get 10 hits and 5 walks.

Bad news: CJ gets pulled so Joe Inglett can play more. Inglett strands EIGHT runners, and the Astros strand 12. Astros strike out 15 times total. Also, stands looked almost empty on TV. Official attendance 20,175 – I don’t think that even half of them showed up and it was a BEAUTIFUL night.

Tomorrow, it’s a reliever making his starting debut for the C*bs vs the ol WB, so lets hope that we don’t do the usual Astros thang and make him look like Lincecum.

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Posted in Chris Johnson, Nelson Figueroa | 3 Comments »

4/6/11: Nelson Figueroa Can’t Hold A 4 Run Lead And Astros 0-5 To Start The Year

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Again.

I’m looking for good stuff to say, in light of Figueroa giving up 10 R, 6 ER – 3 errors and Abad let 2 of his inherited runs score. 11 hits, only 1 walk, no HBP.

Lessee – the guys scored 4 runs in the first. Bourn walks, Sanchez singles, Pence Ks, Clank up, double steal (yes, you read that right, Angel Sanchez actually managed to not get thrown out stealing) walk, Hall Ks (he wore the sombrero AGAIN), Wallace walks in a run, CJ singles home 2, JR drives in 1, then Figgy singles, but Bourn Ks with bases loaded.

There was a great 2-5-4 GIDP (screwed up sac-bunt) and CJ made a really good play to his left. Pence made a great catch. Melancon was nails.

long silence

sigh

You don’t wanna hear how many guys got left on base by Pence and Clank and Hall. Sancehz made TWO errors and failed to throw anyone out THREE more times, including Brandon Phillips twice – once at home, once at first. Are we missing Tommy Manzella yet? Towles made a throwing error allowing a stealing runner to take 3rd. CJ made his first throwing error of the year – and he had been doing sooo well, too.

Abad looked awful – let both runners score. Enerio Del Rosario looked like icky poopoo as well.

I suppose I can say – well, at least we haven’t been shut out. And the Red Sox and Rays are still winless, too.

Tomorrow’s game isn’t being broadcast, not that I’m gonna miss anything but more pain.

Yes, I’m going to Opening Day. There will be fireworks, win or lose, and Wandy is usually sharp at home.

And speaking of Opening Day, it STILL hasn’t sold out – the team is now running a promo – buy an Opening Day ticket, get a free ticket to the Padres game in a few weeks. That tells you plenty. No, it’s not just the economy – I never see people wearing Astros caps or shorts any more. People have stopped caring because the owner has stopped trying to win.

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Posted in Enerio Del Rosario, Fernando Abad, Mark Melancon, Nelson Figueroa | 12 Comments »

3/30/2011: We Are Your Sorry-Ass-Tros

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

This was the only Exhibition Game at home this year, and I figured they’d start with this year’s starting lineup, and as Husband had no trouble getting hold of a couple of free tickets, off we went. Yes, he wasn’t thrilled. No, he didn’t grumble, well, until the 4th inning, but that is getting ahead of myself.

We got downtown  about 6:30 and there was plenty of free street parking – not a good sign. A few brave scalpers were trying to sell some tix, but not getting much of a response. We sure nuff saw a lot of Red Sox t-shirts and jerseys. Well, there weren’t a LOT, but compared to the number of Astros jerseys, there sure were. I didn’t hear any Boston accents, neither, in case you’re curious.

I figure that all in all, about 10,000 people showed up – maybe 15,000 at most. No excitement in the air, no tables full of hucksters and only one table with some poor guy trying to sell season tickets and being ignored.

I suppose I’d better mention the new scoreboard – Drayton spent money on that instead of some good player, but I digress. It’s HD and sure nuff looks pretty and it will make all those between innings ads a lot easier to see. They keep both lineups posted on the sides – the printing is small and people who need glasses to drive will need glasses to see the board. Good is that they now have a sign below the board announcing strike velocity and pitch. Bad is that they put the sign with pitch counts in RF in small, hard to read print; the sign in LF is much better. And speaking of LF, they now have a screen in LF so that people in RF and bullpen seats can see what everyone else in the park sees on the big screen.

I’m not sure how it enhances FAN experience, but it sure nuff enhances Value Of Minute Maid Park SALE value.

The Pressbox is gone (they were the best seats in the house) and have been replaced with some Very Expensive Club Seats which they are selling with a “license” and a 5 year must buy season ticket book. I didn’t see anyone sitting in those seats. I’ll have to ask Justice where the 2 or 3 people who still cover the Astros are now sitting…

It was a great night for baseball, though. Especially if you like outdoor baseball and were smart enough to bring a coat because it got COLD after the sun went down. Very little wind, no humidity.

Bad news is that the game was played by DH rules and all I can say is that I absolutely HATE having to watch junior league ball. Yes, I’d rather watch the pitcher “hit”. bunt or K – as that would have been more interesting than watching Joe Inglett, this year’s version of Jason Smith, strikeout or LODP. (Line into double play). But I’m getting ahead again.

So, this year’s Opening Day lineup is:

C: Towles/Quintero (I can NOT believe they are giving Towles another chance)
1B: Brett Wallace
2B: Bill Hall
SS: Angel Sanchez
3B: Chris Johnson
RF: Hunter Pence
CF: Michael Born
LF: El Perezoso (the sloth) who, believe it or not, is even fatter and slower than last year

Backup OF: Jason Michaels and Jason Bourgeois (who can also play 2B – cain’t nevah have too many second basemen floating around)

Catcher – wonder how many ABs they are gonna give Towles THIS time for him to show he’s gonna hit .300 before they send him down and bring up Carlos Corporan/Brian Esposito – 40? 50?

Backup IF: Matt (Power-Aid) Downs and Joe Inglett. I knew that Sanchez would have to break something for Manzella to make the team – told you that BEFORE ST began that he wasn’t going to be on the ML team no matter HOW he did in ST. Good fielding on a goundball pitchers team is not important. But I digress…..

1st inning: Nelson Figueroa and his 87 MPH fastball on the mound. He throws strike 1 to Jacoby Ellsbury, who hits a grounder to Sanchez’ right. Sanchez, who isn’t real too particular fast, scrambles after it and gets there too late to throw out Ellsbury. Dustin Pedroia up – Figgy can’t locate the FB, can’t throw the slider for strikes and he strolls to first. Oh, forgot – Figgy didn’t even bother to glance toward first when Pedroia was up and Ellsbury takes a lead halfway to second and wanders over there on the third pitch, which was 0-2, by the way, a called strike, then a foul – Figgy couldn’t finish the job. And of course, Towles didn’t snap throw to first to keep Ellsbury honest because he didn’t want to distract Figgy from throwing strikes. I think.

Where was I? This is gonna take a Looooong time. Sorry. Anyhow, Carl Crawford, Houston Boy, is up and smacks a clean single up the middle and Ellsbury trots home. Men on first and third, Adrian Gonzalez up (yeah, the guy from the Padres who “had” to be traded because he couldn’t be re-signed when his nice cheap contract would be up in 2 years) and he hits a high popfly down the RF line. Clank lopes over and pulls up to watch the ball drop about 10′ inside the foul line and another run scores. Clank is loudly booed – and he deserved it. This was easily distinguishable from the Youuuuuuuuuuuuuk calls, by the way. Youk took 2 called strikes, then hit a fly to shallow center, on which Bourn made a nice running catch.

I notice that the Boston hitters are all good at not worrying about 2-strike counts and that their waiting for a pitch to hit paid off more often than not. Of course, they can actually HIT the pitch to hit, which helps. But I digress. Ortiz walks on 4 straight balls, JD Drew takes a called strike then walks on 4 straight balls and the 3rd run scores. Only 1 out, yes. Jarrod Saltalamacchia – you remember him – former Braves prospect who was traded to the Rangers for Mark Teixiera and crapped out at hitting, then was traded to the Red Sox and is now the starting catcher – he hit like crazy in ST. And he raps a clean single up the middle after fouling off a curve and the 5th run scores.

Really. 5 runs, 1 out. Then Marco Scutaro lines to Sanchez, who feeds the ball to Hall to pick Drew off second, but the AAA ump (we had 4 AAA umps – either that or there are 4 new umps whose names I have not heard before) missed the call and the DP. But the next hitter grounded out to first. 35 pitches, and the inning was mercifully over. Actually, the ballgame was over, but I digress.

Josh Beckett was the Boston pitcher – came into the game with a 9 something ST ERA. He’s Boston’s 5th guy, believe it or not – heard tell he didn’t like to throw anything but FB and they got hit a lot and not just by the Yankees/Rays neither. But tonight, it was like the 03 WS Game 6. He got 2 weak popups and a groundout – and hit Sanchez with an inside FB.

2nd and 3rd innings: Figgy locates the FB, finds his slider, and it’s 2 quick 1,2,3 innings, AND he gets Ortiz swinging and Drew staring to end the 3rd. Aw RIGGGGGGGGGGHT, I think. But Beckett is sharp – Wallace grounds out to first, Hall strikes out (he does that a lot) and Inglett flails at 3 straight pitches. Then CJ pops out, Towles lines out hard to first and Bourn Ks on a 2-2 fastball.

4th inning: Here we go again. Figgy loses his grip. Salty singles up the middle. Scutaro singles to left through the hole. Ellsbury hits the first hard hit ball of the game – a double to deep right that Pence has to chase – he bobbles a little, then double clutches and doesn’t throw the ball in immediately – not that it would have stopped the run from scoring, or Scutaro from getting to 3rd. Pedroia walks on 3-2, Crawford singles through the hole to right, AGon loops a single to right, Pence catches it, means to throw home but Sanchez grabs it to keep Crawford at second. Pence didn’t have his head in the game.

Sox 8 – Stros – No Hit. Sox score 8 runs on 7 singles, 1 double, 4 walks. Not even 1 deep fly ball

Figgy out, Jose Valdez, RHP in. He’s got FILTHY stuff – gets Youkilis and Ortiz swinging, then Drew hits a weak popup. Valdez is a 27 year old AA pitcher we got in the Berkman trade and all I can say is that if he pitches like this at AAA (where he’s going) he’s gonna be up here the first time someone goes down. ST stats – threw 9.2 innings over 10 games, gave up 9 hits, 5 walks, 9 K, 3 ER, no homers. Oh yeah – Sanchez, Pence and Clank down on 12 pitches, nothing hit hard or well.

5th inning: Eneury Rodriguez in – he’s the Rule V guy we got from the Rays. We’re keeping him (so far) on the 25 man roster: He comes in, gives up a single, then a grounder to short for a FC (Sanchez is slow for a SS, have I said this) and no time for a DP. Ellsbury singles to right. Pence makes a very nice running catch, but is slow to get ball from glove to hand and he doesn’t throw in time to keep Scutaro at second. But Crawford grounds out on 3-2, so no runs score. Wasn’t very impressed with stuff, as I was with Valdez. Meanwhile, Wallace hits a grounder to exactly the same spot that he did in the second, the hole between first and second, but this time he beats it out for an IF single and at least we won’t get no-hit. Hall hits a ball HARD to deep center, but it’s caught. Inglett then lines right into a DP at 1B and Wallace is instantly tagged out.

Inglett, by the way, is 32, is a lefty, has played in 313 games over 5 seasons since 06, has NO pop, has a career .744 OPS – .286/.345/.397 and has played 2B and the OF over the past 2 years – he has only a couple of innings at short and third.

We up – Beckett out after 61 pitches and our old friend, lefty Dennis Reyes is in. Yeah, he’s been around for a looonnnng time – came up with the Dodgers in 97 and has traveled throughout the Al and NL – spent the last 2 years with the Cards – throws a lot of balls. Which he proceeded to do – CJ bloops a single to right, Towles flies out to deep right, Bourn pops out to left and Sanchez GO to 3rd.

6th inning: This game is boring – and is dragging onnnnn. It’s almost 9 and I KNOW Husband wants to go, but he KNOWS I want to watch all the relievers and he smartly says nothing. He can’t even complain about the cold because I’m wearing 2 sweaters and heavy jeans, so I’m fine, and he doesn’t get cold at 60 degrees. But he’s bored spitless and goes into the concourse to get a soda and chat up the food service folks. Who sez males don’t gossip?

Forgot – the Designated Driver free soda promotion is still on. ONE good this about this here ballpark.

Where was I? Oh yeah – Enerio Del Rosario pitching – he’s the guy we got from Cincy last Sept – traded him for $$$ but doubt it was real too much – he threw a total of 20 innings, giving up 14 runs/9 ER, no HR, 8 BB, 8 K. This spring, he threw 14.2 scoreless innings (HOW did I Miss THAT?????) over 12 games with 9 hits, 9 W, 11 K, 2 R, no ER. And tonight, he had FILTHY stuff. I was absolutely delighted. He got AGon flailing, and 2 weak GO from Ortiz and Youk.

7th inning: Wilton Lopez in, Sanchez out, Matt Downs at short. Matt Downs can NOT play short, I say to Husby before Wilton throws his first pitch. Wilton, by the way, best I know, is this year’s setup 8th inning guy. He had a great ST – 10 great scoreless, 1 lousy 3 run inning. So anyway, Wilton pitching to Mike Cameron, our old nemesis from the Padres, Mets and Brewers who Ks a lot and has a love/hate relationship with the Crawford Boxes. So Cameron hits an easy grounder to short that my 8 year olds could have scooped and thrown to 1B in time to get him out, but Downs promptly bobbles the ball for E6 – I mean, the words were hardly out of my mouth about him being suckage at short. So then Salty hits a tailor made GIDP ball back to Lopez who throws to Downs at second, who barely manages to hold onto the ball before dropping it and he can’t turn the DP. Lopez, however, is a True Gentleman and instead of running over and punching out his GM (such fond memories of Shawn Chacon – he WAS right about both Cooper and Wade) for shoving such an inept SS down his throat because he has a superb slugging percentage of .350, he grits his teeth and Ks the next 2 batters.

8th inning: Brandon Lyon, who uck-sayed all ST (you don’t want to hear the numbers) gets 3 quick outs – although out #3 is a very hard hit ball to deep left center on which Jason Bourgeois makes a very nice catch.

What’s this, you say? I haven’t mentioned Astros batters in a few minutes. Well, yeah. I am not into pain. I will say that to my stunned amazement, Clank hit a 98 MPH Fb from Daniel Bard up the middle for a clean single and lumbered down to first; also Matt Downs hit a clean single to left off some minor league guy named Clayton Maxwell.

9th inning: Gustavo Chacin up, trying to beat out Fernando Abad, who has had the ST from He!!, for the LOOGY spot – Ryan Rowland-Smith has already been DFA. He Ks the first batter, then walks PH Varitek (not sure why he’s till on the team – he hasn’t been able to hit the ball in 3 years – makes Ausmus look like Piazza 99), then Cameron FO to center. I turn to Husband – well, I say, only 3 hard hit balls tonight and here we are down 8 runs. So Daniel Butler (I looked this up when I got home, don’t have an I-phone) who is supposed to be 5-10 and was undrafted but signed with Boston in 09 and spent last year killing the ball at the Sally League and A+ is up and he swings, looking bad at the first pitch, takes a ball, then smashes the next pitch over the tracks – yeah, the ball hit the outer edge of the wall before bouncing down into Crawford Street.

Kid might be small. But he hit the ball. Over the Wall.

I turned to Husby – well, I said, guess Abad is gonna be the LOOGY.

Few notes: A few Red Sox fans got tossed from the field box level behind the Visitors Dugout in the 6th inning – first time I remember seeing someone get tossed since the 04 All-Star game. (Yes, I know that security has helped a few, uh, substance affected fans from the upper decks over the past years, but it hasn’t attracted much attention and today’s toss sure did.) The Red Sox fans were VERY loud. I asked several dozen of them if they flew in from out of town (like Cubs fans do) and they all said no. All but 5 had no doubt about it Texan accents and the other 5 did NOT have a Bahstin accent. Suuuuuuuuure they all been lifetime fans. Let’s say I definitely feel for the few remaining Jays/Orioles/Rays fans. I am not physically capable for feeling anything resembling sympathy for Yankees fans except for the people who really REALLY need to go to the bathroom during the 7th inning stretch and the cops won’t let them out of their seats while someone screeches GBA.

sigh

I don’t know how to put this nicely, but this year’s slogan “We Are Your Astros” is kind of not a good idea because no one wants to identify with hopeless suckage.

They announced during every half inning that tickets are still available for Opening Day. This is NOT a good sign. Even last year, they had sold out for Opening Day by the time the team showed up for exhibition games. AND they ALSO announced there is a trifecta ticket package for sale – a ticket to Opening Day/Rangers game/Red Sox game. This means the Red Sox games have not ALREADY sold out as they did the LAST time – I mean, I think they were already gone by Opening Day. This is NOT a good sign – the Astros are not taking any sort of advantage of their Houston sports team rivals (Rockets/Texans) not being any good and yes I know there is soccer and hawkey but I meant the kind of teams that get the majority of face.

Opening Day is a Friday noon game. I think I remember when Opening Day was a Very Big Deal and they always did it in Cincy. Maybe I just remember my Mama telling me about how it was practically a National Holiday and really, this weekend is all about the College Basketball Finals (and the underdog teams in it and how Duke/Other Big Name Teams crapped out) – and it will be here in Houston so it’s a good thing that opening Day is up in Philly because I would bet that with the tournament going on, Opening Day wouldn’t draw flies.

Drayton had better get offn his high horse and sell this dreary, listless team like FAST (apparently, he’s asking a LOT over market value) before the Mets/Dodgers officially go up for sale, bcause he sure nuff can’t promote THIS team as either up and coming or even “competitive”, let alone interesting.

Yes, I AM going to April 8th Opening Day with Mama, how did you guess? Keeping me out of the Ballpark is like keeping a alcohol addict away from a bar/likker store.

No, I will not be nagging poor Husby to come with me for the few games I am going to bother to go to. This has gotten to be like a chick-flick kind of thing where you go with your gf and her 2 kids who have never been to a ballpark once they start the – kids in free with adult ticket – promo next month. I don’t know how many season tickets they have sold this year, but I would guess it is waaaaaaaay down from the 20K+ it was only a few years back.

I know how the Pirates fans felt after Barry Lamar left Pittsburgh, where he was unloved and unwanted and 3 years later, they realized that the Barry/Bobby days weren’t nevah coming back…

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Posted in Enerio Del Rosario, Nelson Figueroa | 13 Comments »

Astros End 2010 Season With A Win As Nelson Figueroa Pitches Second Shutout Outing

Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

Yes I did go to all 3 games to close out the year. I hate October unless the Astros are playing for something besides golf games (WHY??? are baseball players so into golf? Which is about as exciting as watching paint dry. But I digress…)

Friday night – date night with Husby-doo. I was a little worried because the roof was open, but fortunately, the sun was weak and we were on the 3rd base side and there was a little breeze besides. I guess I should call this game – the home plate ump refuses to call almost any pitch below the mid-thighs or anywhere near the outside corner as a strike. Bud walked SEVEN, and I went home and looked at gameday, just to make sure I wasn’t completely crazy, and I wasn’t. Bud did his darndest to adjust, but the Cubs had the sense (unlike the Astros, but I’ll get there in a minute) to not swing at much.

He gave up only 2 runs, one by a Castillo smash off the LF bullpen with Bobby Scales, who is VERY fast scoring from first (he walked) and the other on a fly ball to right by Casey Coleman, the PITCHER, on a ball that Pence TOTALLY misplayed. He twisted and turned on his way to the ball like – well, like a guy who didn’t know which way to go. Not that it would have mattered if he had caught it, because losing 1-0 isn’t real too different than losing 2-0.

The Astros swung early and they swung often – they went to a 3 ball count exactly 3 times, and one of those was a walk to Castro. CJ has slumped badly since the beginning of the Washington series, and he’s swinging at almost every single pitch. Bagwell has been working with him, I guess, trying to get him to go the other way and it is helping him ground into double plays. Baggy walked a LOT. The Astros are last in walks in the NL, and last in OBP, gee, what a surprise. Bourgeois, Kepp, Clank and CJ all went ofer, and you ain’t gonna win like that.

And Saturday, it was grrrrls night out – Went with Lil Miss and Mama and a few of her gf – and for once, the Box was pretty crowded (Biggio bobblehead giveaway, natcherly)so we got to Watch J Happ not be able to find the strike zone – and THIS time, it wasn’t all the ump, although it sure nuff was to the first batter – THREE pitches called balls were right in the strike zone. But tonight, Anderson Hernandez was playing second – what IS it with playing this guy so much?? He’s this year’s Matt Kata. I hope to gawd that he’s NOT on next year’s team, and if he’s not, why on earth not get as much playing time for Tommy Manzella and Angel Sanchez as possible?

JA sure as heck wasn’t helped ANY by his fielders (and it WAS nice to see Wallace at first even though it was NOT nice to see Clank in left – why the heck can’t he get some time off and have Bogusevic play??? (guess that comes from the GM/owner) because if is not like Clank has been tearing the cover offn the ball these past few weeks. I don’t know why I even bother to complain about Clank any more – he’s making 19 mill, he’s playing no matter what. In the second inning, one out bases loaded, a ball is hit to shallow left – he ambles over to get it and of course 2 runs score. If it had been either Bogusevic or Bourgeois playing, they would have gotten to the ball a LOT faster and they ARE capable of throwing accurately, and HARD, and the runner might could have been held at third. And Baker isn’t the fastest guy and I doubt he could have scored on Ramirez’ flyout – too shallow.

But the worst fielding happened in the 4th. First, CJ overthrows the ball on what should have been a dead easy 5-3.  I’ve groused about him getting errors because Clank makes Prince Fielder look like John Olerud at 1st. But this one was flat out, no argument about it inexcuseable. He’d better work on that throwing, because 18 errors in half a season is not ok. (It IS OK if you are Miguel Tejada, being paid 14 mill, but I digress…)

Next hitter hits a little nubber to the 3rd base side of the mound – this is a play in which the catcher is supposed to get the ball and throw the runner out, unless the pitcher is an ex-infielder like Backe – pitchers are almost never gonna get that ball and make the play. But both he AND Castro hesitated – doesn’t Castro scream something about I’LLGETIT!!! so there’s men on first and second, no out. Next hitter hits one of those popups to shallow center and Bogu is good but not Bourn. Hernandez SHOULD have gone back to get it, but he didn’t even bother to try. Sanchez didn’t really go there either. Not sure if Kepp woulda gotten it, but Tommy sure nuff would have. And naturally, 2 pitches later, grand slam and the Astros are down 8-0.

Really, the end of the game.

Remember how the Cubs fans wanted Zambrano OFF their team, but he had too big a salary and he’s emotional, or something?

He looked like his usual Zambrano self and the Astros, as usual, swung early and swung often. taking 13-14 pitches/inning. Through 6 innings, the Astros went to a 3 ball count only once, and that was a walk. Only twice did a hitter force Zambrano to throw at least 6 pitches in an AB. Same crap, different day.

In the 7th, Z lost a bit of control after Pence ROE5, walking the next 2 hitters. Then CJ got a FC RBI and Brett Wallace hit a 2 RBI double. The boy is determined to go out with a bang, so he won’t necessarily get poopoo-canned. He’s got exactly zero left to do at AAA. Good news is that for the second day in a row, the Astros bullpen gave up zero runs.

And today was family day. All of us went – wasn’t exactly tough to find seats together, couldn’t have been more than 15,000 people actually THERE. We didn’t have seaeson tickets, so we couldn’t go down to the bullpen and meet n greet the players and get autographs. But we wouldn’t have gotten there in time anyway, thanks to it being tougher and tougher to get 4 kids ready to GO. So we got there in time for me to see someone warming up who looked righty – NO WANDY!!!!! and there I was in my Wandy shirt, hoping he would throw a shutout to finish off the year, but no, it was Figgy (found out from someone else in the section that Wandy had pulled something. ?rib muscle? and so no Wandy.

sob

But Figgy was absolutely teh awesome. Really. Honest. In 6 innings, he went to 3 ball counts TWICE (not counting the IBB) and he struck out EIGHT, gave up 5 singles and a double down the line and no hard hit balls. I was a little disdainful of him shutting out the Reds’ bench last week, but today, he faced the Cubs regular lineup and he was absolutely NAILS. Looked as if he coulda pitched the 7th, too.

As for the guys, even with Clank in left, no fielding effups, CJ threw easily, accurately (WHY??? does he have these throwing problems????) and Tommy Manzella, at short, showed why he is a REALLY good glove man. FANTASTIC play on a ball in the hole (Blum and Sanchez wouldn’t have made it) and another AWESOME play on a ball up the middle. He also drove in 2 runs with 2 RBI singles and also walked. Going out on a very high note.

And he’s going to go and play winter ball, too. Good. Because I want to see him hitting at least as well as he did his last year at AAA – he’s improved every year he repeated a level, and not everyone is gonna hit like Hanley Ramirez – not that he’s even an average fielder there. But I digress…

Bogu played center again. He and Bourgeois play pretty well there, but they ain’t no Bourn. We get so used to Michael, it’s hard to not criticize other guys for not being him. And those guys are waaaaay better than Jason Michaels. I guess I should say that Bogu took the golden sombrero. However, it took a minimum of 7 pitches to get him out and he went to 3-2 counts twice. Pence did nothing, Clank hit an elcheapo into the Crawford Boxes and CJ singled, scored the first run, GIDP and grounded out.

Good news is that Wilton Lopez and Fernando Abad and Brandon Lyon all went out and threw scoreless innings. Meaning that the bullpen had a scoreless series, which is great.

So the 2010 Astros end up 76-86, 2 games improved over last year. I’ll do the autopsy on this year’s corpse over the next few weeks. I won’t be writing every day, but will try to post on days in which there are no games.

Congrats to the Rays for winning the NL East (they’re my AL team because of the huge number of ex-Stros). The Yecchs take the WC and go to Minnesota. They’ve always, and I mean always beaten the Twins in the playoffs, so let’s hope the Twins this year have their Astros-Braves 04 year. And speaking of Braves, congrats to them for winning the WC. Guess they went out and won one for the Chipper.

so to speak.

Congrats to the Giants, winning on the last day of the year. And here I am remembering 04 and Brandon Backe beating the Rockies to win the WC the last day of the year. The most incredible, most intense game EVAH. Really, screaming fans inside and OUTSIDE the ballpark. I miss it. And the last 4 years of massive September suckage, starting with The Year Of The Biggio Primadonna-ship – I’m tired of this. I want to go back to the playoffs where we belong.

No idea what on earth we can do over the next few years because frankly, we have no Buster Poseys anywhere in the farm. And Ed Wade’s forte is finding relief pitchers, not position players like Burrell and Andres Torres (he finds Anderson Crappy Hernandezes and Matt Hit-o-phobic Downs – although I DO gots to give him some cred for Angel Sanchez, who is most certainly not any sort of heavy hitter…)

Sorry so long – Posnanski length without Posnanski quality.

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Posted in Bud Norris, J.A. Happ, Nelson Figueroa | 17 Comments »

Nelson Figueroa Shuts Out The Reds Bench While Carlos Lee Provides The Offense

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Guess Figgy wanted to go out on an up outing. He did, throwing 70 of 104 pitches for strikes, only walking 3 (none intentional) – hey, that is great for Figgy – and scattering 6 hits over 6.2 innings and THAT is good for Figgy too. He hasn’t made any secret of wanting to come back next year, even though he would probably not be the #5 guy to start the year, but a long reliever. Not sure what is happening with Moehler, but we’ll see.

Where was I?

Oh yeah. After all the celebration last night, Dusty Baker apparently decided to celebrate play playing a lineup consisting of Johnny Cueto and bench players. Which is actually a good idea from Cincy’s viewpoint, giving their tired guys some well deserved rest before the playoffs – and they will probably face Philly and they are gonna need all the rest they can get, seeing as how Reds killah Roy-O is gonna face em.

Good thing, too because The Astros only managed 2 runs against Johnny Cueto, as usual, stranding too many. Carlos must have read my stuff because he doubled home Keppinger in the first and was stranded by CJ. He singled to lead off the 4th and CJ went and GIDP – if Carlos ain’t gonna do it, SOMEbody gots to pick up the slack… He singled to start the 7th, went to second on CJ’s infield single and alertly went to third when Alonso tried to get him out but overthrew (gee, it’s like he was 30 again) and scored on Wallace’s groundout.

CJ is going through an adjustment and looks as if he’s trying to go the other way more – one of the reasons he’s GIDP more the last week or so. But he has GOT to stop swinging at changeups in the dirt or he won’t see much of anything else.

Castro and Wallace are working on their stuff, which is fine with me, they need to. Hope they are going to play winter ball along with Tommy Manzella, who really has just GOT to because Sanchez is going to play winter ball in Puerto Rico. I’d just like to see Bogusevic out there more, especially if they really DO mean to move Clank to first.

It was good to see Wilton Lopez come in with a man on first and 2 outs and get out lefty pinch hitter Jay Bruce. Yes, you read that right, a RIGHTY pitcher got a LEFTY hitter out. Imagine that!!!!

It was great to see LEFTY Abad come in and get out THREE RIGHTYS – Brandon Phillips, Rolen and CF Chris Heisey.

Hopefully, Brad Mills will see that leftys can hit division game winning homers off leftys (ahem) and that righty pitchers get leftys out ALL THE TIME and please put an end to this changing pitchers every other batter.

Lyon made it, uh, interesting, giving up a single up the middle to pinch hitter Laynce Nix – with Drew Stubbs as a pinch runner. And Stubbs coasted into second with a SB as Castro dropped a pitch. And then went to third on a groundout. So it’s a man on third, 1 out, but Ramon Hernandez had the decency to hit a grounder right in front of Castro, so Stubbs couldn’t score, and then MVP to be (he SHOULD be) Joey Votto grounded out to Wallace. Yet ANOTHER case of a righty getting a lefty out.

Tomorrow, rubber game against Arroyo, who has already beaten us twice this year, then home to face the Cubs for the final series. Don’t think real too many Cubs fans will be flying down, so it should be fun.

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Posted in Carlos Lee, Nelson Figueroa | 1 Comment »

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