I guess I better say it right up front – we got shut out for the second day in a row and we looked really bad losing. No hitting and 3 errors. I COULD say well, at least we lost to the best team in baseball and not 2 in a row to the Pirates, like we did last year. But what for? It don’t make me feel better.
I been staring at this here computer screen for an hour, trying to think of what to say besides what we all already know
- the pitching sucks
- the hitting sucks
- the fielding sucks
- the coaching sucks
- the managing sucks
Maybe I’ll let Jason Bay of the even worse than we are (yes it IS possible) Pittsburgh Pirates do the talking (per Alan Robinson, AP):
“I think this core of players here has taken some strides, but I think you might have to bring in a lot of people to get to the next level,” Bay said. “Different faces might be the answer. We’ve hit a fairly low point, and I’m sure everybody has trouble sleeping.” Bay acknowledged he is pressing at the plate to produce because of the losing streak. He also might be feeling the pressure of the Pirates’ campaign to get him elected into the starting lineup for the All-Star game — since the campaign began, his average has dropped from .315 to .286, and he has only one homer in 16 games.
“I definitely know at times I am (pressing) — every at-bat is big,” Bay said. “We’re all looking for that one big hit.
“It’s starting to get a little unbelievable. Until we get a lucky break, a lucky bounce, get off to a great start in a game, I don’t know what the answer is,” he said.
So here I am complaining that my team sucks.
And this particular year, seems that ALL the NL teams are sucking and that the AL has more and better hitters. It happens. I just don’t want to hear that this means that the NL should go to a DH. All those years that the NL was so much bettern the AL, there wasn’t all the talk about how the AL should drop the DH. It is part of a move by too many people who really DO believe that the ONLY important or interesting part of a baseball game is offense, preferably just walks and homers. Might as well hit offn a tee and get rid of fielders and award points based on how fast the ball travels and where it lands.
Getting back to MY team, as my mother the stat geek sez – I don’t want to hear ONE freaking whine of complaint out of your mouth unless you have a solution.
Hoo boy.
Well, we got a 90 something million payroll (I am not counting Roger because he MORE than pays for himself.)
And 17 mill of that going to Jeff Bagwell, who can’t play. So I don’t think we can really add much more payroll.
I would think that maybe we should change both the pitching and hitting coach, since whatever they’ve done has NOT worked.
You can’t get rid of/bench expensive guys who suck. You know who I mean.
We can’t get rid of Eric Munson for ANYONE because he is Phil’s little pet.
I don’t see anyone in AAA or AA who looks like a great lefty bat, except maybe Luke Scott, and he didn’t hit ML pitching last year, did he?
I don’t know if it’s a good idea to turn the starters in AA and AAA who look pretty good into relievers and throw out the ones we got now – heck, except for Sampson, I don’t know if they can get ML hitters out – and he mostly got Cubs out – not exactly a selling point.
Trades?
Who for who?
sigh
I’m not happy – but I don’t see what we can do to get this team better. Yall welcome to suggest anything…
Except getting rid of Chris Burke.

Yeah.
The first place Detroit Tigers. Wasn’t it just like 2 years ago they were 41-121? Guess their owner decided he didn’t like being a laughingstock. It didn’t help that their farm system had sucked for a dozen years, that their only piece of good luck was that Juan Gonzalez turned down their 7 year 140 mill offer, and that their first round draft picks, um, weren’t good, and that their biggest “name” was Dmitri Young. Getting Carlos Guillen from the Mariners for a bag of chewing gum helped – along with signing Ivan Rodriguez as a FA.
Once Rodriguez broke the ice, it helped land a few more guys – Magglio Ordonez (who was out most of last year), Troy Percival (who got permanently hurt), Ugie Urbina (who never came back from assault and murder charges in his home country). But it bought them some time for their young guys to develop – Maroth, Bonderman, Ledezma, Robertson, Ramon Santiago, Brandon Inge, who did MUCH better at 3B than he did as a catcher, and Omar Infante. Marcus Thames, picked up off the scrap heap 3 years ago, has been VERY good, and Chris Shelton, who the Pirates stupidly didn’t think was worth protecting on their 40 man, was taken in the Rule V draft (and this guy hit like Barry in the minors, too – they just didn’t think he could play defense anywhere – yeh, right – no wonder the Pirates suck…) Alan Trammell, who had done a decent job with a truly terrible team without decent players for 3 years, was fired – so I hear, because both Ordonez and Pudge didn’t respect him and wanted him gone, so Jim Leyland, who had been working as a scout since he quit on the Rockies after 1 year of his contract in 1999, was hired. And so far, so good.
Right now, they have the best record in the ML at 51-25 and just finished a 3 game sweep of the Cards.
Well, this is gonna be tough. VERY tough.

Let’s compare team RCAA (from Lee Sinins www.atm-reports.com)

TIGERS  ……… ASTROS

Marcus Thames†††††††††† 21  Lance Berkman†††††††† 24
Curtis Granderson††††† 20  Morgan Ensberg 13 (and this is in spite of his long slump)
Magglio Ordonez†††††††† 16   Chris Burke†††††††††††††††† 10
Carlos Guillen†††††††††††††† 11  Mike Lamb††††††††††††††††††† 4
Chris Shelton†††††††††††††††† 4   Eric Bruntlett††††††††††††† 0
Vance Wilson††††††††††††††† 2  Craig Biggio†††††††††††††††† -5
Alexis Gomez†††††††††††††† -2  Jason Lane††††††††††††††††† -5
Omar Infante†††††††††††††† -2   Eric Munson†††††††††††††† -5
Ivan Rodriguez†††††††††† -2   Orlando Palmeiro†††† -5
Brandon Inge†††††††††††††† -5   Preston Wilson††††††††† -7
Ramon Santiago†††††††† -6   Brad Ausmus†††††††††††† -10
Craig Monroe†††††††††††††† -8 .. Willy Taveras††††††††††† -15
Placido Polanco††††††† -10 .. Adam Everett†††††††††††† -16

Total:†††† +31 .. -17

————–

Well, everyone KNOWS the Stros aren’t hitting. Steve Phillips on BBTN says we need a better lefty bat (duh) and thinks we should go get Cliff Floyd (yeah, right) – what a Mets homer he still is. Like we need a guy the Mets don’t want no more because he’s just about at the end of his career and is hurt all the time. Or Jacque Jones, who can’t hit lefties, is in the first year of a 3 year contract, and is an even worse fielder than Preston Wilson.
Palmeiro and Munson aren’t exactly lighting it up, are they? Like I’ve said before, I’d sure like to try Luke Scott again. Even though I know hell will freeze over first before they replace Preston.
But maybe we need a better hitting coach – several of the Tigers are having career years – Marcus Thames, Granderson, Vance Wilson – and Ordonez and Guillen are healthy. And all of our hitters are doing worse this year…
The Astros haven’t really been a good hitting team since 2001 and we’ve been winning with pitching. But this year, the bullpen, so great last year, is simply sucking. (And it was even BEFORE we went back to Comisky.) Let’s look:

†††† Player††††††††††††††††††††† G†† GS†† W††† L††† SV††††† IP†††††† H††††† R††† ER††† HR†† BB††† K†† ERA†† WHIP††† BAA†††††
†Russ Springer††††††††† 31††† 0††† 1††† 0††††† 0†††† 26.0††† 18†††† 9†††† 9††††††† 4††††† 7††† 21††† 3.12††† 0.96††† .194†††††††††
†Dave Borkowski††††† 19††† 0††† 1††† 0††††† 0†††† 34.0††† 30††† 14†† 14†††† 3††††† 9††† 32††† 3.71††† 1.15††† .236†††
†Trever Miller†††††††††† 27††† 0††† 0†† 2††††† 0†††† 21.2†††† 23††† 10†† 10†††† 5††††† 8††† 24††† 4.15††† 1.43††† .274†††
†Dan Wheeler††††††††††† 33††† 0††† 1††† 5†††††† 1†††† 32.0††† 31†††† 15†† 15†††† 2†††† 11†† 30††† 4.22††† 1.31††† .256†††
†Chad Qualls††††††††††††† 37††† 0††† 3††† 2††††† 0†††† 41.1†††† 37††† 20† 20†††† 6†††† 12†† 24††† 4.35††† 1.19††† .245††††††
†Brad Lidge††††††††††††††† 36††† 0††† 0††† 2†††† 19††† 34.2††† 30††† 19†† 18††††† 3†††† 20† 50††† 4.67††† 1.44††† .229†††
†Fernando Nieve†††† 15††† 11†† 2††† 3††††† 0†††† 67.0††† 67†† 36†† 35††† 14††† 21†† 45††† 4.70††† 1.31††† .260††