I'll be captain obvious here...our biggest problem is the most critical aspect of baseball IMO...making friggin contact...43 Ks through 3 games...7 from Carter...Darvish hung several pitches last night that he fouled off instead of making him pay for it...gotta put the bat on the ball better...starting pitching has been fantastic...maybe we should give up the DH and see if they can make contact...can't be much worse...
Okay, I think we need to back up a little. I'm disappointed that Houston didn't win this series but maybe we wanted more than Houston can give at this point. Or, maybe the pitchers are ahead of the hitters right now. The guys on the radio broadcast last night said, generally speaking, pitchers who aren't familiar with hitters and vice versa, advantage pitchers. We have 9 players who were in an MLB lineup for the first time on opening day. Give the guys a month. Let's see where they are on May 1st before we judge. To make judgements after 3 games may be a bit premature IMO. I'm still optimistic but after all I said the Stros would win 70 games a week or so ago. That's a winning percentage of .432. Even I, being my most optimistic, don't believe they will go .500. If they do yippee! I just don't think they will. All I saw in spring training was an improved team, not necessarily a playoff team--yet.
Alex White is done for 2013. He will be going to have Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow. White was an off season acquisition and the Astros (and their fans) were hoping for White to have some success here in Houston. Unfortunately, he lost the battle for a spot in the starting rotation to Eric Bedard and Brad Peacock but he was going to work long relief out of the bull pen.
Less than two days after getting Travis Blackley from the Oakland A's Blackley will go on the DL retroactive to Friday due to a stained shoulder. The Astros have called up Dallas Kuechel, who enjoyed some success with Houston in 2012, from AAA OKC.
The home town team lost it's third game in a row last night but at least they didn't get shutout. Brad Peacock was having a nice game vs his old team, the A's, when the fit hit the shan in the 5th inning. Peacock struggled but only allowed one run to score but he was pulled for Xavier Cedeno who gave up 6 earned runs while allowing just one hit and three walks. Jose Altuve drove in the Astros 1st run in 23 innings in the sixth but Houston could only manage 3 runs for the game which won't win when you allow 8. Houston did set a record, dubious as it is, of striking out more times than any team in history (53) to begin the season.
The 'Stros are playing the A's again tonight and the score right now is 0-0 in the 3rd with Houston coming up to bat. The most notable thing in tonight's game so far is that that little ol 2nd baseman Jose Altuve is tonight's DH! He's hitting lead off and Marwin Gonzalez is playing second hitting 9th. That's a new one for the books!
The Astros broke their hitting slumps in a big way against Seattle in game two of their 3 game series. In a 22 hit, 5 home run onslaught they pounded the Mariners into submission. After being shutout in what seems like every game since their opening night win over the Rangers the Astros exploded for a whopping 16 runs. Yeah they gave up 9 to the Mariners but scoring 6 runs, 2 in the 8th and 4 in the 9th made it look closer but the final outcome was never in doubt after a 6 run 1st featuring Jose Altuve getting two hits in the inning with an RBI and a run scored. Altuve garnered a career high 4 RBIs on the night and Chris Carter ended his hitting woes by belting two of the 5 homers the Astros hit. J D Martinez, Marwin Gonzalez and Jose Altuve rounded out the other home runs on the night. I wish we had ComCast Sports locally, I would have liked to at least DVRed that game. Eric Bedard had his first start of the season and first appearance since opening night. He went 4 innings giving up only one hit and no runs. Paul Clemens, recently called up pitched the next 4 and he was touched up a little giving up 5 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks and he gave up 3 dingers. All that and he got the win. This seems to be following the minor league policy of piggybacking the starting pitchers. It gave Bedard work and allowed Clemens to get some big league experience. Hector Ambriz pitched the ninth giving up 4 runs but only one earned. It seems Houston's defense took the ninth inning off. Now the Astros can win their first series of 2013 with a win tonight in the finale in Seattle. Go 'Stros!
They are leading tonight 5-1 and hitting the ball very well again.
I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust 'em.
Jim Valvano
Astros win 8-3! They continued their power display with three bombs last night including another from Carter. BTW I just want to point out that Matt Dominguez is a BEAST defensively at third base.
I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust 'em.
Jim Valvano
STOP THE PRESSES! ASTROS WIN 2 IN A ROW! ASTROS WIN 1ST SERIES OF 2013! That's worth noting because after opening night they didn't look like they would win again, or even score a run, until they broke out against Seattle on Tuesday night. Now they have won two in a row and, according to the manager in "Major League", win 3 in row and you've got a winning streak. They are facing the Angels tonight for 3 games so getting to 3 in a row may not be so easy but it seems the Astros hitters, except Brett Wallace, have found their stroke. It looks like Chris Carter has busted out of his slump with back-to-back games where he knocked the cover off the ball. I had insomnia last night so I listened to the game from about the middle of the 6th. A lot of credit needs to be given to the pitchers, for the most part, who have kept the Astros close during their 6 game losing streak. If the hitters are really finding themselves we may have a fun little spring on our hands.
Who would have thought that the Angels would be dragging up the rear in the AL West. I know! How do you win just 2 of your first ten games with Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton in the lineup? Houston needs to keep the pressure on and Lucas Harrell needs some run support. Going for 4 in row---Go Astros!
Win 1, lose 6, win 3, lose 2. Crap, looks like it's going to be one of those seasons. So far Phillip Humber and Lucas Harrell are tied for hard luck starters of the season so far. The past two games really nice efforts went for nothing. At least Houston isn't getting shut out.
BTW I'm sorry I jinxed the 'Stros, people. I just had to dream about a series sweep after Norris lead them to the first game victory over LAA and say it (or post it) out loud. Sorry about that, it won't happen again! lol
Porter demanded patience at the plate after the series with Oakland and Texas, so much so that he benched JD for swinging first pitch and poping up. It appears to have worked. Team is getting much better pitches to hit and guys like Carter and even JD appear to have benefited the most.
The Wallace experiment should be over...Bring up Robbie Grossman and see what he can do at the plate. Move Carter to DH, which is where he will end up eventually anyway. He is a taylor made DH. Grossman in OF, Gold Glover Pena at 1B and Carter at DH is much better defensively and cant be any worse than Carter in OF, Wallace at 1B and Pena at DH. Singleton will be at 1B next season or later this season and Wallace can't hold Dominguezes jock over at 3B defesnively, so why is Wallace still here. Time to find out what a few of these 24-25 year old prospects at the AAA level (Grossman, Elmore, Laird, Parades, Krauss) can do at the MLB level before the real youth movement (Springer, Singelton, Santana, Deshields, Cosart, Torpeano, Correa, Fontana, etc.) takes over starting next season and into 2015.
They played very well this weekend and pushed the Angles to their limit in the last two games. They are not going to win a lot this year but they will be competitive like they were in his series.
I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust 'em.
Jim Valvano
For all you who quickly tired of Brett Wallace's struggles at the plate fear not. Wallace has been sent down to AAA OKC. Coming out of spring training Wallace looked like a player primed for a breakout year but so far in the regular season Wallace has gone 1-24 with 17 K's. The Astros have brought up Brandon Laird who was tearing up the minors to the tune of a .353 BA after hitting .328 in spring training. Also, relief pitcher Xavier Cedeno was send down as well. He has been struggling having an 11+ ERA.
Stros win 3-2! Lets start a winning streak and get this series.
I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust 'em.
Jim Valvano
Humber bombed, Kuechel down (to AAA) and Bedard loses a heartbreaker. What a freaking weekend and it could have been salvaged by one stinkin hit from either Chris Carter or Jason Castro with the tying and winning runs in scoring position both men went down. Carter by K and Castro hit a hard grounder to third in the bottom of the 9th down 5-4. Damn. That's okay, we'll start getting those hits eventually. We just need to stop being the team that breaks other teams out of their losing streaks. Damn. I do find it funny that before Chris Carter got his chance to be a hero the Indians intentionally walked Jose Altuve, the smallest guy on the team (with the best batting average!)!
The Astros are in a pickle and now they can't even beat the team who was the Astros only series win of the season, Seattle. Losing a 7-1 game that probably wasn't even that close Houston has fallen to 5-14 on the season with 2 more games vs Seattle and road games vs the Red Sox and Yankees. Ouch! The starting pitching began the season pretty darn good but they didn't get any run support but now the starters top to bottom are giving up runs like it's a fire sale at Walmart. I certainly didn't expect Houston to compete for a division crown but, going by spring training, I thought they'd be more competative than they've been. Poor Bo Porter, it seems like it's going to be a loooooonnnnng season. If this keeps up cable and satelite customers will pay ComCast Sports NOT to air Astros games!
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