Well, except for the first inning, we certainly didn’t see Astros clogging up the bases, no indeedy. Yessiree. Bobby Seay got through his 3 hitters with 10 pitches; Miner through his 3 with just 9, Grilli mowed through 4 hitters with 11 pitches; Bautista needed only 6 pitches for his 3 hitters and Todd Jones and his 10 ERA needed 12 pitches.
Isn’t it WONderful how they just whacked away at the pitches? None of that waiting for something crap like Mo Ensberg – good riddance – used to do!!!!!
And you notice that now that the boys are back home, they didn’t make any errors? Which proves right there that the defense is just fine. No problem.
Wandy gave up 7 H (2 HR) and 3 BB, yielding 5 ER in 4 innings. No problem.
Woody gave up 5 hits (2 triples to Miguel slow as molasses Cabrera) and 5 ER in 3 IP. No problem.
Wesley Wright and Geoff Geary didn’t give up hits, walks or runs. See, the bullpen is great and we won’t miss old Chad whatshisname who gave up home runs, a rarity among relief pitchers, as we all know.
The team looks to be in wonderful shape and I am SOOOO excited about our team and the winning season we will have. In fact, I fully expect us, with our great lineup, to win the Central and beat the Mets, Braves and NL West for the pennant.
Opening Day tomorrow!!! Astros caps – check. Astros shirts – check. Me and brother and my friend and 7 kids between us – check. Kids stuffed FULL of pancakes/eggs/sausage/syrup/milk/water IMMEDIATELY before leaving for the park – check. Husband taking the puppies to the shelter – well, I’d best not be coming home with tired wired kids and find out he, um, uh, forgot/didn’t get around to it, uh, gonna do it tomorrow, uh, um, ….
Tags: Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, MLB, Tigers
It’s funny because Cooper is so big on not letting our pitchers give up walks, but he apparently doesn’t care whether our hitters make opposing pitchers give up walks.
It is going to be a looong season me thinks for the faithful fans. But only 163 games before it is over and maybe we start to build the farm system back. I am only 56, but am afraid I will never see us in the playoffs again at this rate. How did these guys get to the major leagues with these kind of defensive skills? I know small sample size, early in the season, still getting the kinks out.
Check out the depth charts for the Phillies, Twins, Orioles and D’Backs. I recognize a lot of names there. It looks like I am going to suscribe to mlb.com so I can watch the Twins games. I sure do enjoy watching the fielding skills of Adam Everett. A very interesting statistic to watch this year will be how many runs are made by our SS and 3B positions this year.
How do we track that this year Lisa. Maybe you could get something on the blog like last years hit meter for Biggio. It could be the WiggyMiggy Run meter. Looks like Carlos will be getting lots of grounders to work on and Bourn and Pence better shade it a bit to left. I see that Luke Scott is maybe going to start in LF for Orioles and the D’Backs are going to play Burke everywhere. Oh well shouda, coulda, woulda.
Play Ball!!
jack,
if the OPPOSING pitchers give up walks, then OUR hitters will walk and that is called “clogging the bases” and that is not “aggressive” and that will lead to our hitters turning into mo ensberg. and you know what happened to HIM…
steve,
far as i know, i can’t get weekly updated info on defense stats like runs given up, but i surely will check into it. it is an interesting thought.
a LOT of people refuse to believe that defense has anything to do with winning or losing ball games. they don’t see that turning batted balls into outs has anything to do with how a pitcher pitches, let alone the score of the game. batting average is what counts. PERIOD.
i think i will also do a end of month look back at the players the fans wanted gone, plus lamb and scott. also do a end of the year summary…
but then again, you know, it might could be that the players who went elsewhere did how they did BECAUSE they went elsewhere – perhaps the hitting/pitching coaches were better for them…
and now, off to get the kids ready.
FSSW was playing the Astros last night, here in Dallas (stupid Dallas) !?!? It was a pleasant surprise, until I started actually watching the game…
Anyway, I watched as much of the game as I could stomach. The Astros pitching looked terrible. Man, if Roy gets hurt this year, they are in deep dog dirt. Woody needs to face facts and hang up the cleats – he’s done. Great guy, but he’s done. The scary thing is this – if they start losing pitchers left and right, who do they have in the minors that they can trade to get more pitching? They’d have to trade Berkman or Pence or Towles to get any return, and fans certainly wouldn’t like that. This might be the worst-run franchise in the big leagues, and unless Wade can make some kind of miracle trade in the unforeseeable future, they are going to be bad for a long, long time.
WOODY GOT RELEASED!!!!!
Once again JDolla$, your ignorance is shown. Look no further to the town that you currently reside in to see a more poorly run MLB franchise.
Once again, Evan, your ignorance is shown. I’ll take Texas’ chances for fielding a better team in the near future over Houston any day. Do you even know how highly rated the Rangers minor league system is? Look into it, pal. Meanwhile, enjoy this season, because the future in Houston is pretty freaking bleak.
Any positive effects won’t be shown until 2009 at the earliest in Texas.
Where’d your PhD come from again, JDizzleDolla$?
From yo momma.
Uh, 2009 is next year, genius. What’s the state of the Houston franchise in 2009? Their only hope is overpaying for about 3 FA pitchers, since they don’t have anything in their system after all those trades.
Meanwhile, Texas has Main, Beavan, Kiker, Feliz, Harrison, and Hurley – and that’s just the top tier of pitchers. They’ve also got Teagarden, Salty, Max Ramirez, Chris Davis, Andrus, Duran, Borbon, and Angel Beltre – all of whom are projected to be at least good major league position players.
Face it, you’re talking bollocks.
Ebonics aside, your point is valid. But to say that all of those guys are going to come up to the majors and succeed is ridiculous. Anyways, the Rangers franchise has been among the worst in baseball for a decade, so it’s about time they do something right.
True story. It only took a decade for you guys to get some real hope, and its still just that…hope.
Uh, we were talking about the future – or at least I was. To then bring up the past as evidence for your argument is a red herring. It’s just like an Astros fan to think and argue in that manner. Of course, everyone including me knows that the Rangers have sucked for a long time, and that Houston went to the WS a couple of years ago. Der.
And Texas doesn’t need every one of their blue-chippers to pay off big in order to succeed. If only 20% of those guys is as good as advertised, they’ll be pretty awesome.
I guess we’ll see.
And “ebonics?” WTF are you talking about, dude. You’ve been sniffing too much of that Houston smog.
1)If Drayton would balls up and create an RSN, Houston could easily become a MONEY franchise, then a lot of problems would be solved.
2)Towles, Pence, Paulino, Backe, and Sampson are pretty good nucleus to build around. Manzella is not to shabby either.
3)Two good drafts can restock the farm and this organization can remain stable.
Stephen -
Listen to yourself. You sound like a… well… a Rangers fan.
JDolla, the fact of the matter remains that you are now a Dallasite. As such, it is your perogative to: drive a leased 90s model BMW, think of yourself as being better than you truly are, live in a cookie cutter suburb and cheer for a terrible baseball team. Furthermore, my citation of the Rangers past ineptitudes was in no way an effort to bolster my argument concerning their prospects/future success. It was simply meant to degrade an organization that is as flawed as your arguments. From their overpaying of players such as Chan Ho Park to Kevin Millwood to Adam Eaton, to their payroll destroying signing of A-Rod, etc, etc.
And yes, I would associate any person who includes a dollar sign in the name as utilizing some sort of street language…i.e.- Ebonics. If you need anything clarified for you, whether it be baseball or shapes, colors or anything else really difficult, do not hesitate to ask.
woody out
I wish I could chunk $6,500,000 in to the air like nothing. Ballerness.
Way to go Sampson.
joel,
i wish i had that kind of $$$ my own self…
and i hope the rest of all yall can come back and do that
RANGERS SUCK
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ASTROS SUCK
stuff for the sliver boot series. it could use a little livelying up
You make some pretty ridiculous assumptions, Evan. You want to know about me?
1. I am an Austinite who happens to only be living here because I’m working on a degree.
2. I own a late-model Honda (for the gas mileage), and have never owned a luxury car in my life.
3. I live in a neighborhood that is 90% Latino, and I only think of myself as being as good as I actually am, which isn’t great.
4. My arguments were not flawed, and unlike you, I actually provided evidence in support of them, instead of employing red herring and ad hominem attacks.
5. I repeat the argument that I started with – despite the lameness of past Rangers exploits, I maintain that the Rangers are still headed in a much better direction than the Astros, which is undeniably true. For you to reject that by citing their past failures is bad logic.
6. You obviously don’t know what Ebonics is, so you should look into that before you embarrass yourself any further with stupid claims about it.
7. I have a $ in my ID for IRONY, but of course that’s too subtle for you, I guess.
See, you didn’t know as much about me (or anything else) as you thought you did, did you?
All you did was prove my assertion right… just another semi-moron from Houston – guess you fit in nicely there.
BTW, I never said that Dallas was a great place to live, only that Houston is full of morons, and the Astros fan base is a bunch of idiots, generally speaking. You’ve done nothing to change my mind about the latter, that’s for sure.
Take it easssy brother. After tomorrow, I anticipate coming here about once a week, and never posting. It is however, fun for me to mess with people such as yourself.
And by “messing with people” I guess you mean talking crap about what you know not of, displaying your ignorance.