Houston Astros Regular Season Thread

Andy Pettitte made his return to Houston for the last time as player for this weekend's final series (thank God!) of the season. On Friday night Pettitte was honored as the Astros gave Pettitte a plaque with his 2004 Astros jersey in a pre-game ceremony honoring the Houston native. On Saturday night the 122 year old Pettitte squared off against Clemens who started for the Astros. That's Paul Clemens, not his old buddy Roger. It was a night that Pettitte was able to turn back the clock and, in his last outing (presumably) before he hangs up his glove and cleats, he pitched a complete game 5 hit, one run gem against the Astros. It wasn't like Pettitte was left in because the Yankees were blowing out the Astros. On the contrary, Paul Clemens did his job pretty well too. He went 5.1 innings giving up one earned run and after he was pulled a runner he was responsible for scored when catcher Matt Pagnozzi faked a throw to second with the bases loaded and the ball slipped out of his hand and spiked on the ground. The ball rolled far enough away so that Eduardo Nunez was able to score from third. That run was ultimately the game winner for the Yankees.

Pettitte, who is really 41 was humble and appreciative of the crowd as over 37 thousand fans showed up for Pettitte's final game. The crowd cheered when Pettitte came out for the ninth inning and after the final out was recorded Pettitte was cheered again. Pettitte hugged his teammates who came out of the dugout and the bullpen to congratulate Pettitte to the delight of the fans who were chanting, "Andy, Andy". The Astros players and staff also gave Pettitte a standing O in front of their dugout. It was an awesome night where Houston enjoyed one of the largest crowds of the season and were treated to a really amazing performance by a home town guy in the final game of his career. A class night for all concerned.

 

Here's a bit of that aftermath of his victory last night.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSpq6PjiQ1A

 

On a bit of a down note the loss last night was a season high 14th straight loss for the Astros who have really stunk up the place over the second half of September. They have found every way imaginable to lose games often jerking defeat out of the jaws of victory. They haven't played bad but they have played stupid and Matt Pagnozzi's error in the sixth is indicative of that. So, Houston is currently 51-110 and unless a miracle happens today they will end up 51-111. A new low water mark established for a franchise that never experienced a 100-loss season until three years ago. Now they have endured three in a row. We can only hope better days are ahead.

The Houston Astros season turned out to be far worse than I envisioned way back in March. I expected a better team on the field this season based on the torrid hitting the Astros showed in spring training. Unfortunately, it was all smoke and mirrors and the offense wasn't near what it was in the spring. Carlos Pena was a bust and Chris Carter was a feast or famine player who finished the season hitting .223. The Astros were beyond anemic at the plate setting new benchmarks for strikeouts in a season. They ran into a buzzsaw of teams who were chasing playoff spots in the last two weeks of the year that resulted in a season high 15 losing streak to end the season. The streak did allow Houston to ice the #1 pick in the draft next summer which is the only thing Houston won all season.

The whole pitching staff turned over the reins to the young guys with rookies and 2nd year players manning the starting rotation and most of the bullpen from mid August until last Sunday. We saw the arrival of a healthy Jason Castro who became Houston's only All-Star rep and he won Player of the Week honors twice during the year until a knee issue sidelined him in mid September. The call up of future players on the Astros roster gave a glimpse of the better days ahead especially with the pitching staff. Jonathan Villar came up in August and started out hot as a pistol but he cooled off and got hot and ended the year ice cold. His batting average fluctuated from the 300-ish range to the Mendoza line. He will need to be more consistant and it looks like he would be better off hitting 8th or 9th rather than lead off. The bullpen needs help and we need a true closer. More than anything that was true for most of the season was that the starting pitching wasn't bad at all. They just got no run support. It's sad that the best hitter on your team is a 5'3" second baseman. Jose Altuve is good though both at the plate and the field but he and the rest of the lineup needs to learn to play without their head up their backside. Absolutely bonehead errors plagued this team all season but moreso in late August and September. Stuff you should have learned in little league. Bo Porter needs veteran leadership to help him and on Monday owner Jim Crane and GM Jeff Luhnow said they were looking a spending more money on players to fill holes now that there is a nucleus of young players to build around. The Astros payroll in April was about $23 mm dollars but after dumping Bud Norris, Jose Veras and Carlos Pena the payroll on September 30th was a little over $13 mm. They need to unleash some cash and put get better than they got in Pena and Chris Carter. The last thing Houston needs is another .220 hitter who strikes out 200 times a year.

 

Here's a recap of the month of September; Houston went 7-20 ending the season with 15 straight losses including losing 5 straight series and being swept in 4 straight series. With the many and varied ways Houston found to lose games it's a wonder Bo Porter didn't go postal on his locker room. It will be interesting to see how Houston begins building for 2014 beginning with the winter meetings in December. Is Jim Crane really willing to part with big bucks to bring in quality every day players? I sure hope so.

Bye-bye 2013. I'll enjoy the playoffs and I will try to put the nightmare of the Astros season out of my mind.

I too high higher aspirations for this team. I knew we would not be contenders but expected to win 60-65 games. That being said we kind of caught some bad luck...AL West played the NL Central for Interleague this year and STL, PIT, & CIN all made the playoffs. We played 57 games against playoff teams and another 19 against the Rangers who were one game away from the playoffs. Luhnow has already said the bullpen will be addressed this winter. Houston as a team blew 52% (29-62) save opps. Now that also counts a player coming in in the 7th or 8th inning in a technical save situation, but the point remains that this team had their chances. If we could cut that number down by a third (to the league average) thats 10 more wins for this team. The emergance of Cosart, Villar, Oberholtzer, and Hoes; Castro turning into the player we thought he'd be when we drafted him; and Matt Dominguez showing some pop gives me hope that next season we will be where I envisioned this rebuilding process to be at that time. No doubt that some of the rookies wont experience the same success next year when teams have a book on them but the higher end prospects are still waiting in the wings.