Except for Josh Anderson, Coop decided to play all the vets who have stunk it up all year with MOB. Naturally, Luke Scott sat. I am seriously tired of Biggio. I am seriously tired of watching Loretta at short. I noticed that the stands weren’t even half full. Coop, the crowd wants to see the winning team you sent out there last night.
Matt Albers was a little shaky when he started, walking Rickie Weeks, who has been walking more than Barry Lamar since he came back up from the minors. Weeks promptly took off for second and supposedly great defensive catcher Quintero throws the ball into center and Weeks goes to third. Dillon chops a ball to short and Loretta nabs Weeks at home. With a man on and only 1 out, Albers hits Braun on purpose (remember him playing Barry Lamar after hitting a homer offn Matt last times) – this is one of those men/honor thingys that supercedes actually WINNING the effing ballgame. Anyway, Prince Ks and then Corey Hart hits a high FB to the LF bullpen scoring both runners. Bad news when you start off behind 2 runs in the first inning.
Matt gets 1,2,3 innings in the second and third, but then…
In the 4th, Matt runs into bad luck. Corey Hart hits a ball to left that Carlos almost gets (hey, he’s trying, FINALLY) and then Gross hits one of those slow rollers to right. Pence sees Hart making for third and airmails a throw to the bullpen fence that allows Hart to score and Gross to go to second – if Pence had thrown to second, there would have been men on first and third, no outs. But a run scores. Then with Estrada batting, Matt throws a slider that Q doesn’t block – wrongly called a WP, reallyeally a PB, in my opinion, and Gross goes to third. Estrada FO to Pence and Gross scores. Hardy then hits one of those balls up the middle that neither Loretta nor Biggio can get to (why bother) and that is all she wrote for Matt. Borkowski came in and got the next 5 outs.
When he saw Steve Randolph coming in to start the 6th, Husband said – well, I see that Cooper’s thrown in the towel already. But Randolph throws 2 scoreless innings and got hitters to swing at more than a few pitches out of the strike zone – STILL has trouble locating that FB.
Then McLemore came in and threw 2 innings, giving up only 1 solo homer.
Matt Albers has good stuff but he has GOT to keep that baseball down because no matter the pitch, he gets hammered when it gets up there. He doesn’t have enough velocity to throw high cheese.
As for hitting, well, same old story about leaving guys on base.
First inning, Josh Anderson kept his hit streak going with an opposite field single. Then Biggio GO – should have been an easy 3-6-1, but Fielder, no Bagwell with the glove, screwed it up. Then Lance GO. Anderson on third – sure enough, no getting the runner home. Second inning – Albers on first one out, Anderson walks – this means he reaches base in 8 straight PA. And naturally, neither Biggio nor Berkman can score the runners. Same old veteran stuff.
5th inning, Anderson gets an infield single. 9 straight times on base. Awesome!!! And naturally, 2 on 2 out, Biggio just grounds out. And he actually thinks he could play a few more years (according to his interview on mlb.com) – and he has the most negative RCAA on the team – yeah, beating out Brad Ausmus.
6th inning, 2 on 2 out,Wigginton pops out. (Which reminds me, before I forget, Wiggy has been looking a LOT better with the glove than his stats showed, Pirates fans or D-Rays fans thought)
8th inning, Berkman walks, Lee hits a ball off the LF wall, but had stood to admire it for a second, suddenly realized it wasn’t going to go out, and didn’t even make it into second – and he would have been picked off first if the relay had been accurate. 2 on, 1 out, Pence Ks and Loretta GO.
And Coop, Luke Scott is NOT a pinch hitter. He’s like 3 fer 25.
And before I forget, Drayton says he expects to have a GM by the end of the week. You think he had someone ALREADY picked out? I think he had someone picked out BEFORE he wasted everyone else’s time with those interviews. And I have a bad BAD feeling it will be either Ed Wade, Ruben Amaro or Bob Watson. Bad BAD feeling…
Tags: Brewers, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, MLB
Why should Lee start trying now? I’d understand if he’d tried when it mattered but was dogging it now that it doesn’t, but jeez.
jack,
i think that coop said something to him in that players meeting
but who knows, it’s not like coop is gonna be able to sit him for any length of time or something. and he isn’t tradeable.
every ranger fan i talked to about him said that carlos was lazy as heck in the OF and on the basepaths, just like we’ve seen all year.
it’s what i remember about him when he was with the brewers too
but it’s the modern game. you hit 300 no one cares if you can’t field for spit…
Oh, I have to cut him some slack because his numbers with RISP are so good. If they weren’t, or if Scott’s were better, I wouldn’t be suggesting that Scott get some starts in left (or Pence gets moved to left). I’d be asking why if hadn’t already been done, regardless of Lee’s 100 million salary.
“And I have a bad BAD feeling it will be either Ed Wade, Ruben Amaro or Bob Watson.”
Don’t we all know it’s gonna be one of them? My money’s on Wade… Bleh.
if (PLEEEEEEZE oh Lord, NOOOO) we get stuck with ed wade/ruben amaro, i am going to publish a few emails i got from phillies fans
i have yet to find a fan who got anything good to say about either one of em
i was hoping for cooper until i heard bud selig open his mouth. now i know he WILL be here next year and sometimes you got a bad situation and can’t nothing be done. just like i was almost hoping in 05 that we wouldn’t come back so garner would be gone sooner.
it is a different world in the GM world since bob watson did it last over 10 YEARS ago. he hasn’t even been in a front office doing something else. and he is pretty darn old to take on such an incredibly stressful tough job like that.
i have NO idea how drayton could POSSIBLY become MORE involved in running the astros than he already is, but what can i say???
before all yall want to DFA adam everett and get “someone else” please tell me who this “someone else” should be. and all i can say is if they sign loretta to play short full time next year i will resign my astros fan card. he is without question, no comparison, the absolute worst SS i have EVER seen. EVER. i adore eckstein, but he is hurt waaaayyy too much. who else is a FA who has this magic bat?
the guy i can’t see wasting a roster spot on is ausmus. and i am thoroughly disgusted with quintero and far as i am concerned he isn’t even UP to raul chavez. when pitchers hate throwing to a guy there is a reason (woody and wandy, to name the 2 i KNOW about)
as for burke, i want them to put him at second, let him leadoff and let him play for the first half without exception. he was fine last year, remember? so he had one bad year. i don’t want loretta breathing down his shoulder. actually, i don’t want loretta back at ALL. i’d rather have bruntlett as utility guy. he’s better anyhow.
i’d like to see towles and munson catching.
this team sure as heck isn’t going to win next year and i do NOT want to play guys who should retire. like ausmus. and i luuuvvvvv ausmus.
I share the bad feeling about the GM “search.” I’m guessing it will be Amaro. I really don’t understand why Bob Watson would even be interested, given that he has a pretty good job that he could keep pretty much as long as he wants it.
No one would be happier than I would to see Amaro as GM in Houston. No way I want him anywhere near the Pirates.
I am praying everyday (and Im not a religous fellow) that Cooper is not given the manager job. I have a very bad feeling that he has been rubber stamped for it with the Seliq kiss of death already being put out there. Coop is just Garner lite. He sat next to Garner and had input in all those stupid bone-headed no sense decisions that Garner was famous for. Coop is as much of the problem as say Poopoora was (well thats a stretch) – Why fans are rooting for Coop to be our next manager is beyond me. I wonder if most people pay attention nowadays. Burke at 2nd, Coop manging, Luke getting more of the shaft (if he’s even around) Wiggy at 3B, Everett at SS and next year is going to be one long year, AGAIN… I guess I can only hope that Drayton doesnt give Coop a multi-year contract.. See I found something positive to root for.
BTW – On the positives, seeing Pence getting a solid year under his belt and getting to watch him play will be fun. Hopefully he learns to take better routes and hit that cut-off man. That should be priority # 1 for the coaching staff in the off season. Fix these few negatives with Pence’s game. Getting to watch Towles mature will be fun. It would be amazing if he progresses enough to make the team in 08′ much less start. He is still fresh and has a lot of learning to do but if he truly has potential I would rather watch him play and learn than watch Ausmus for another year. and please no more Quintero – He should be a done deal. The young pitchers will have more experience and should be heading in the right direction and if they can get Wandy’s head fixed so he can compete on the road we could have a young solid pitching staff for the near future.. The new GM neads to completely rid us of Lane, Palmeiro, Moehler, Q and IMO Everett – I know all about Everetts glove but what dead weight he is offensively but somebody has to field for us so they need to get someone from the outside to play SS – Thanks for the place to vent Lisa – great job as always
Cooper is highly regarding in Milwaukee circles, but I don’t see him as a manager…seems too mild mannered for me–a good Mr. Spock, but not a Captain Kirk.
Lisa,
I know the rap on Wiggy wasn’t good as far as defense, but minus a couple of miscues I’ve actually been somewhat impressed. No, he’s not the best. BUT, he certainly has been steady. His offense is consistent, too. What do you think?
skip,
the stats i read, the comments i got from pirates/drays fans all let me believe that wiggy was grossly sub par as a 3B and a horror show at second.
i think he gets anything that comes right at him, hasn’t bobbled balls, throws great. i am going to, at this particular time, reserve judgement on range. i was quite impressed with that one grab he made yesterday. that was the first tough play i saw him make
if everett comes back as the ss next year then i won’t worry much about wiggy’s range to his left because adam will get everything that’s hit
as for offense he’s a dead pull hitter fer SHER. i’m not expecting mo ensberg 2005, but hey, at least the fans haven’t hated him from the getgo
I didn’t know Eckstein was a FA after this year… I wonder if he could play third…
Glennbo- People can and have statistically demonstrated that Everett’s defense more than makes up for his bad bat, making him a somewhat above average shortstop. If statistics don’t convince you, then listen to the conventional scouts; Garner/Purpura didn’t seem to care whatsoever about statistics and they still had him playing every day at short.
n other words, experienced managers and players, as well as stat gurus agree that Everett is worth it. And that’s more than good enough for me.
Did anybody else notice, on the double-play ball Biggio hit in the first inning that Fielder muffed, that Fielder tagged Biggio with his glove while the ball was in his right (throwing) hand? Isn’t that sort of thing the Skipper’s job, along with assuring the team is PREPARED to play baseball?
The hardest part of moving to Portland for me was my life-long love of baseball and the Astros. The current state of the team and rather bleak outlook portrayed for next season is little comfort.
My love affair with the Stros won’t end just because the Stros are messing around. When Hardy hit that slow (5-6 bounces) up the middle (hopping over Albers) neither Biggio nor Loretta appear in the FSN broadcast of the play. Maybe those two have some MLB in their tanks, but it’s ludicrous to think the duo can play on the same infield on a winning ballclub.
jack
you are correct about everett and in fact i have written about that and provided links more than a few times.
lots of people forget that stopping runs is just as important as creating them
in fact one of the things i am going to look at is the numbers of runners who reached base before and after everett went on the DL. i already wrote on how this severely affected chris sampson
- jastro,
actually that is the job of the frst base coach.
sorry you can’t see the games in person. it is why i will always cherish 2004 when i got to see every game…
it is too bad that they are making them so expensive that we can only go on the 2fer tuesdays or really any other day that we can pick up tickets for cheap from the scalpers
and correctamundo about neither biggio nor loretta getting anywhere near a bouncing ball up the middle. it has been that way ALL season. i miss adam
Obviously, the first base coach would be blocked from viewing that bad tag on Biggio by Fielder, but the dugout had front row seats.
Cubs are P Od that the Astros changed the rotation, proving further why Coop initially said he wouldn’t play the young ins out of respect. In a way, I agree. But, I also think now is the time to watch some of them or get their feet wet. I go back and forth.
Sorry, Cubbies . Ya pay yer nickel, ya take yer chances.
jastro, no i don’t think the 1B coach would have been blocked – they object to stuff like that
skip,
yeh, we might could have won if we played the younguns. and i doubt they would have won if woody pitched
it’s not like this is a good team…
there has to be someone out in this BB world that can play above average defense at SS and hit better than .190 – Hell Brunlett is not that much of a defensive dropoff and he hits .50 points higher than AE – .50 over the course of the year is around 75-85 hits. Everett doesnt save that many and how many of Brunletts hits would be doubles – If anything AE would be saving singles so the differnce is even bigger. BTW – I do not think Brunlett is the answer for the Astros at SS but neither is Everett – If Everett was in a line-up that could afford a very low BA shortstop then it would be fine but we are not that team and we need production out of everyone
glennbo
adam everett hits better than 190 – you thinking of lane. bruntlett is a TERMENDOUS dropoff from adam. and, by the way, adam saves 25-30 RUNS a year.
you see, it isn’t just singles, it’s double plays. just see how many DP didn’t get turned this year. oh yeah, and relays from the OF – see how many of THOSE didn;t do any good.
if guys don’t get on base they don’t score. most ss don’t field like adam or hit like arod