Sampson went 3.1 innings, giving up 5 hits, no walks, 4 K and 4 runs. He had been hit on the hip by a line drive in the third and I guess it tightened up on him, so after getting an out in the 4th, he gave up 2 singles, then a triple, then came out. Runelvys promptly let his runner score.
Verlander threw 3 innings, gave up 8 H, 2 BB and 6R/5 ER.
heh
Still no word on what Cooper thinks about the 5th starter – won’t know until after Saturday’s game.
Ty Wigginton has 8 errors this spring and Miguel Cabrera, the worst fielding regular 3B in the the NL last year, has 4. Heck even Brad Freaking Ausmus managed to play 3B for 3 innings today and handled a play just fine. When Brad Ausmus outhits and outplays you at third, well, um, this is NOT good. In case all yall curious, Mike Lamb has 2 errors and 18 assists in 79 innings played. Also, in case yall curious, he’s hitting .371/.450/.514/.964. I would LOVE to know why the Organization was so eager to throw Lamb out on his butt… Ah well…
Oh, and Blum isn’t any better than Wiggy – he has 3 errors at third in 39 innings. And Mo Ensberg made the Yankees roster – don’t guess yall want to hear what he’s hitting, do you?
I suppose I should discuss pitching. It isn’t pretty. Guess who has the best ERA of guys left on the roster?
Borkowski – yeah. 2.70. Then comes Wright with 3.00. Then Roy with 3.60 and Backe with 3.86 and then Moehler with 4.30 and Jack Cassel at 4.85 (AND Cassel has been sent to AAA even though he has CLEARLY outpitched Woody Williams – 6 mill has a way of talking, doesn’t it???)
Our new bullpen (this is 3 bag ugly – WARNING!!!)
Geary – 4.76; Valverde – 5.00; Villareal – 7.45; Sampson – 9.71; Paronto – 12.38; set-up man Brocail – 14.63.
Runelvys Hernandez and his 8.31 ERA have been removed from consideration. Dude never regained any form after his TJ surgery, I guess.
I don’t guess yall wanna hear how Qualls is doing, do you? Didn’t think so.
What I DON’T have is the DER – that is, the number that tells the percent of batted balls turned into outs. I would bet it’s about the lowest in the majors with the lead gloves we have in the IF.
sigh….
Tags: Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, MLB, Tigers
Bourn had a hit and a walk yesterday but went 0-5 today, meaning that he is now 2-23 with one walk over the last week, with only five days to opening day. Nice OBP for leadoff. I hope he’s getting this out of his system…
Thanks for pointing out how good Wigginton and Lamb are doing. Wigginton has been my least favorite Astro since the day he joined the team. I guess the current bunch will deny responsibility like they always do by blaming the Wigginton trade on Purpura. I’ve been watching the Astros since 1965, and letting Lamb go and putting Wigginton at 3B is one of the stupidest things they’ve ever done.
I still say that Sampson will be OK. He has had some hard luck with injuries this spring. He still hasn’t really thrown enough to be in shape yet.
mark,
you remember the 3 envelope joke?
well, wade already used up the purpura envelope.
i HOPE sampson will be ok. i think he’s good, but he hasn’t really thrown enough in ST while they were wasting time on the runelvys hernandezes.
sigh
what they have got against that poor guy i just do NOT know. unless it was purpura who signed him…
Will you get off Chad Qualls, Lisa??? He’s an average relief pitcher. Ichiro was 0 fer 21 at one point this spring. I wouldn’t pencil him in for 200 knocks this year….I guess you have this superior baseball knowledge so as to lambast this team at every turn. You (apparently by the grace of God) have a baseball blog. Regardless of your: sex, gender, socio-economic background- I am not impressed by your takes.
You seem to dislike every move this team has made. Perhaps they were risky, but ultimately, will it matter? We had no farm system to begin with. Estrada, Albers, Patton, etc: they weren’t true prospects! True, they were young, but they were not going to turn out to be anything of real value. You seem to be fixated with these “farmhands” of ours. Chris Burke! Oh, wow! A 28 year old positional vagabond! Be still my beating heart. I’ll concede he would’ve been more economical than Kaz,
but what have you seen in him to justify any degree of faith in him. What tools does he have? His average at best defense? His average range? His less than average speed?
I appreciate your assertion that you will NEVER will unenthusiastic about your team. While I appreciate the sentiments, that claim on its face seems to be as empty as Barack’s attempts to rebuff the comments made by his controversial pastor. I mean, you had to make that statement, right? Either way, I don’t come here for information, I come here more as a sadist- it’s entertaining for me to read your constant berating of this team.
dear evan,
i’m not exactly understanding why you expect any person who blogs about the astros, that is, not paid and not connected to the team in any way, to write pollyanna reports. if you think i am being unduly pessimistic, and this team is much better than i will admit, please explain why.
also, i would like to know which baseball analyst of any repute, which, by the way, i HARDLY claim to be, has projected this team to achieve even goodness, let alone greatness.
as for your points -
1 – chad qualls is most definitely NOT an “average” relief pitcher by any definition of the word. is there any particular statistic on which you base that? because in terms of ERA, ERA+, WHIP, IP or any other statistic that i know of, he is better than average and has been every one of the 4 years he pitched. he is, in fact, better than any pitcher we acquired.
2 – as for burkie-poo, well, as i said before ST began, i had no idea whether or not his shoulder had gotten better. before he injured his shoulder, he had an outstanding minor league record for hitting for average, power and was a very good leadoff man/base stealer. he also did a very good job with the bat when he replaced willy in center BEFORE he injured his shoulder. i mean, i wrote about that at least 3 times and you didn’t comment. but the fact is that burke is/was a second baseman, not a LF, not a CF, who has a second baseman’s arm. he’s a leadoff guy, not a 6-hole guy. he never had a chance to play his position in the majors. it isn’t reasonable to complain that he is no pinch hitter or that he can’t throw like hidalgo.
and i am most certainly not calling him another alomar/sandberg/biggio/kent – well, kent has a lead glove and can’t run worth spit but i digress. however, he is and always has been better than kaz matsui outside of coors.
3 – as for prospects, patton was actually considered a decent prospect by every evaluator – not mark prior, but not chad reinecke either. estrada is still with us, but sucks, albers never impressed me (as you should know). the only 3 players i did not want gone were qualls, scott and lamb. i was on the fence about patton. i thought that IF we got rid of lamb and got tejada, THEN we should have gotten rid of wiggy and moved tejada to thrd and kept everett.
4 – as for moves this team made
well, i am a realist. lidge NEEDED another team, so he had to be moved. this organization didn’t like scott and weren’t going to play him except as a PH, and he sucks at that, so he NEEDED to go.
- so i can handle getting rid of them.
- what i can’t handle is getting rid of everett, since we really NEED at least one infielder who can actually play defense. these guys aren’t ichiro having an ofer streak, they have a CAREER history of suckage or at least a 3 year straight history of significant decline in previous at least almost average skills.
- i think swapping lamb for wiggy was flat out stupid, especially because the $$$ involved is essentially the same
- i think that playing a bunch of suckulous journeymen vets instead of our own minor leaguers, who need the experience in a down year is self-defeating
but i tell you what -
if you would like to write a rebuttal, explaining why you think that the 2008 astros are a winning team – and i mean even doing well enough to win this weak-ass division, why the pitchers will be better than they appear/exceed their historical records, why the defense won’t matter – or even why you think the defense is better than i do and how this team will score more runs than they give up, i will post it as an entry, giving you credit with your full name or your first name, or anonymous, as you choose.
even if you would like to write a rebuttal explaining why i shouldn’t point out my team’s glaring weaknesses or should gloss over them or say why weaknesses either don’t matter or can be overcome by the hitting of berkman.lee/tejada/pence, then again, go ahead. i’ll post that too.
lisa
p.s. and by the way, love means to accept as it is. do you REALLY think that pirates/royals fans really REALLY believe that their team can win at the beginning of the season? no, they don’t. but it’s their team anyhow, and they stick by it. they are fans in SPITE of the suckage. or even think about giants fans – their team/farm is in incredibly much worse shape than ours. do you see giants writers blowing smoke up the fans asses? even the ones who don’t blame barry bonds for everything bad? nope. it is STILL their team. and that is how i feel about the astros. win, lose or suck, they are STILL my team.