Well all yall, something happened today that has absolutely NEVER happened before. Yes, I turned down SIX free tickets to see an Astros ballgame. And to tell you the truth, I would have turned em down even IF they came with all the free bottled waters we could want, which would be LOTS. You see, we’re not even downtown and it is 104 in the SHADE and downtown it would be a GOOD 140 and NOT in the shade, and I can’t imagine how hot it must have been in the Box.
And dragging 4 kids downtown, trying to find SOME place to park in the middle of a business day, walking the long long distance in 140 degrees from the parking lot to the Box, then trying to not die from ovreheatedness, spending our weekly shopping money on a zillion bottles of water every couple minutes and
NOPE
Not even if Bradley Awesomeness his own self was there to tell me I’m the hottest chick EVAH because all he would get is one of Those Looks and me telling him like DUHHH - it’s like a million degrees up there in the cheap seats. (And yes, I know that a GOOD 5 thousand souls braved the hellish temps to watch the game in person – must say I didn’t really see any Royals jerseys/caps out there…)
It’s so hot I even got up early in the morning – like I am talking 5 AM early, so as the team would be a cool, refreshing 88 degrees, to walk the Dogsss and get dinner (chicken salad and pasta) ready and into the refrigerator and cut up a lot of fruit and put it in the fridge. The poor Dogsss have been so hot today, they actually came over to get sprayed with the hose (along with the kidz) to get cooled down before going to lie on the cold concrete in the garage.
And speaking of hot, Lee was hot, Berkman was hot, Wesley, Sampson, Hawkins and Valverde were hot, the defense was not.
How can I put this – Keppinger is just as much a lead glove at 3rd as he was at short last year, Miggy’s fielding has descended to his 2007 levels and Quintero has 5 errors over 18 games and 4 of those errors have led to a run (AND he has allowed 8 SB and has 1 CS.)
sigh
Carlos scored 3 of the 5 Astros runs on a single, a double and a walk. Berkman hit the exact same outside 1/3 FB to about the exact same spot in the Crawford Boxes in the second and the 6th inning. Actually, when he hit the second one, I thought it was a replay, at first.
I guess Coop will stop pulling Carlos Lee when the Astros are ahead in the 8th or 9th about the time He!! freezes over and will use Maysonet only if Matsui and Kata are both on the DL and a lefty is pitching. Like last year, Miggy is AWFUL in the 3-hole, but I guess forget putting him back in the 2-hole where he was successful.
grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Anyway, tomorrow night, Wandy faces Verlander. I’m not as worried about Wandy shutting down the Tigers as I am about Verlander no hitting the Astros. He had a terrible first 4 games, but since then, he’s been nails, with his only bad game vs the Cards 10 days ago (Uncle gave him a thorough spanking, I would guess. It’s what he does.)
Verlander, since April 22, has started 11 games over 74 IP with 2 CG: 56 H, 22 BB, 93 K, 4 HR, 15 ER - and that is a 1.82 ERA/1.05 WHIP.
And yes, you read that right – he has 11.31 K/9 IP, so maybe the heat won’t be so bad dues to all the fanning goin on down there…
Tags: Houston Astros
Nice title.
Second verse, same as the first.
Lance is still one of the two best offensive producers on this team, but will doubtless continue to be vilified for his low batting average.
Quintero has to go. I used to say he deserved a chance, but he’s used those up. He’s a AAA lifer.
Maysonet continues to get passed over by guys who have OPS down there with the pitchers, even though he’s 6th on the team. This is out of hand.
BUUUUUUT, nice game by the Astros. Glad they could salvage one despite such lousy defense. Welcome back league play!
Lance had a super day and hope he continues to hit very well as we definitely need his big bat.
I am afraid Quintero is not going anywhere and overall i think he has done a fairly good job in his backup role. The stros are 7 and 3 in his last 10 starts, one including catching wandy against the cubs in which he threw 7 strong innings giving up only 1 run and 5 hits and SO 6.so much for wandy not being able to pitch with Q behind the plate.
Also Quintero has hit well in his limited role hitting .302 and driving in 9 runs in which 7 were clutch hits and crucial in 4 of our wins.
so don’t hold your breath while waiting for him to be shipped back to AAA.
you are dead right about quintero not going any where because the only other option is towles and cooper HATES him.
that doesn’t mean quintero is any good. wandy does not LIKE to throw to quintero – doesn’t mean he is not capable of it. and if you look back at the last time q caught him, wandy was very sharp and there wasn’t the problem with quintero’s usual lousiness at framing pitches
and teams will get rid of .300 singles hitting catchers if the pitchers hate throwing to them enough (see mitch melusky – or even johnny estrada with the brewers)
Once again, the fixation with batting average. His OPS is .692 because his OBP is just 13 points higher than his batting average. That’s an embarrassing number. His OPS sandwiches him between Mike Hampton (.708) and Russ Ortiz (.690). Still higher than Pudge, but Pudge has a higher slugging percentage and a better OBP compared to BA that will sustain his stats, unlike Quintero when (yes, I do say WHEN) his batting average drops. He only has 53 at-bats, which is why his BA was able to drop from .325 to .283 and rise back to .302 in just a matter of two games each.
And you mischaracterized what Lisa has said. She never said Wandy couldn’t pitch to Quintero, she said he didn’t like to.
Poor baby wandy, and poor towles, coop just hates him so, almost makes me want to cry, aside from the
fact that towles had a good shot and he SUCKED, hit a lousy .137 in just over 50 starts. now you talk about a AAA lifer, thats towles, does hit pretty good there, and there is where he belongs.
and yea you might say i have a small fixation with batting avg. like you call it, I still would rather be hitting .320 than .235, but i guess thats not good.
Yea austin i do understand how the number of ABs or lack of them has an effect on how an avg. can go up or down and how much it may fluxuate.
austin i just love how you see so many things as embarrassing. a leadoff non-power hitting player that has struck out some 56 times or so to this point, now thats embarrassing.(bourn).
Towles had a good shot. You’re defending Quintero’s .239 batting average in 444 career MLB at-bats and saying Towles had his shot with 197 MLB at-bats. Might I also mention that Towles is better on defense and is five years young than Quintero. If anyone has had his shot, it’s Quintero. Again…the inconsistency is amazing.
I agree that a guy hitting .320 is better than a guy hitting .235, but I don’t know anyone hitting that high or that low that we’ve been discussing. So, I don’t even follow your point there. MY point is that there’s a heck of a lot more to stats than batting average.
And I agree, 56 whifs is bad. However, I’m willing to give him some leeway because he’s young, has shown remarkable improvement from last year to this, is second on the team in runs scored, third in on-base percentage (which is what a leadoff hitter is supposed to do), plays phenomenal defense and has THREE TIMES as many steals as the #2 guy on the team. Again…there’s a little more to it than the one stat you gave.
there is a lot more to it than any one stat that might be given. so many little things that are done in a game that may contribute to winning that are often overlooked by more spectacular things such as moving the runner up, drawing a 2 out nobody on base walk that keeps an inning alive and may lead to a run or more, beating out an infield hit to keep an inning going. Just finding a way to get on base so someone can drive you in and get all the credit for an rbi, hitting the cutoff man or throwing to the correct base.
I not nieve to know theres a lot more to it than than the one stat i gave, but there is a lot more to it than some of the arguements or explanations you give also. BOURN has done a tremendous job and has turned things around this year and has hit very well in the clutch and is i think the best defensive centerfielder in the Majors.
I also think hunter pence has really improved this season in so many areas and he does so many of those little things that i mentioned that contibute to winning that are often overlooked.
bourn and pence if nothing happens i believe will become the heart and soul of the astros in the future, and if we can ever get rid of wade and coop so we can get somemore youngsters to help them.
Well, at least we agree on the need to get rid of Wade and Coop. I don’t know how far we’ll ever truly come until Drayton is gone, but those two would definitely be a start.
In the first inning, check out the wild called strikes Verlander got. Sheesh. Pretty impressive that he smoked Hunter with two fastballs straight down the middle. Young guy just couldn’t handle ‘em. Carlos, though — what a disappointment. Guy on third with less that two outs and Carlos is waving at balls all over the place and out of the strike zone. You expect better than that from an $18M/year veteran.
getting rid of wade won’t do a damm bit of good UNLESS drayton is FINALLY willing to hire a baseball man and STOP INTERFERING. and for some reason, i don’t think he’s there yet…
i don’t know whether or not it is wade’s decision to keep/use erstad/kata/michaels instead of maysonet or any other minor leaguer, but if it is him as well as coop, then they can BOTH get lost
at least we DO know that wade wasn’t the one who picked cooper
and at least so far, best i know, most of the trades i didn’t/don’t like were determined by drayton and i will NOT fault a man for obeying his boss – one of the reasons i STILL don’t throw as much mud on purpura as many others do…
I hear that Maysonet makes really good coffee and has it ready for the vets after the game.
i have to give berkman a lot of credit, he as been on base 7 of his last 8 plate appearances,with 2 hrs 2 singles and 3 walks, 4 rbis and 2 runs scored. he seems to really be seeing the ball very well, and i may have been too hasty in saying that he is on the decline. I want so much to be wrong about that cause this team really needs berkman’s bat, he has always been the main catalyst in our offense; and a solid berkman makes this team a lot better.
my hat is also off to wandy tonite for being tough and hanging in there after a very rocky start to give us 6 good innings and a chance to win the game which we did. i thought overall it was a good team effort and many players contributed to the outcome.