Remember all that talk about Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens bringing a new 'attitude' to the Astros?

The new attitude seems to be one of utmost seriousness.

Don't get me wrong - we NEED to go for it all this year. At the end of this year, we will lose (or should let go of) Clemens, Biggio, Kent, Hidalgo, probably Miller, maybe Dotel, PLEASE Vizcaino, etc...to be replace by The Kids: Jason Lane, Chris Burke, John Buck, Brooks Conrad, Willy Taveras, etc.

But the season is just over 1/4 of the way through, and already the Astros are taking everything really...seriously.

The Chronicle urged the Astros to "Get Angry" today, after Richard Justice advised them to have fun and play the game the day before. I'm more on Justice's side on this one. Maybe it's just me, but the whole team seems a little tight right now. It's hard to play well when you're putting tons of pressure on yourself. That's one thing I admire so much about the Yankees; every year, they've got huge expectations to live up to, and every year they're right there at the end. But I don't know if that's good for every team. Clemens and Pettitte have been awesome so far, but hopefully they're not making the game less fun for everybody.

Houston: Relax. It really IS a marathon, not a sprint, and you simply can't have extreme intensity every single game for 162 games, or you'll go crazy.

That said, here are some minor-league stats on "The Kids" that I mentioned earlier that we might see a lot of in 2005:

C John Buck .290 / .372 / .435, 5 HR, 14 BB in 131 AB.
1B Todd Self .354 / .450 / .543, 15 2B, 6 HR, 32(!!!) BB in 175 AB.
2B Chris Burke .324 / .393 / .495, 12 2B, 5 HR, 17 BB in 182 AB.
2B Brooks Conrad .297 / .370 / .475, 13 2B, 3 HR, 21 BB in 158 AB.
CF Willy Taveras .356 / . 420 / .401, only 5 XBH, 17 BB in 177 AB.

Buck - starting 2005 C
Self - backing up Bagwell
Burke - starting 2005 2B
Conrad - has played 3B and SS - no more Viz!
Taveras - overrated. Singles hitter with a lot of speed. Late-inning defensive replacement and pinch-runner extraordinaire, though.

An awesome win for the Astros tonight: 5-0 over the Cubs. Roy Oswalt pitched great, allowing 3 hits/1 walk in 7 innings, striking out 8, and Lance Berkman continues to crush, hitting a 2-run HR.

This is how games are supposed to go: rely on your best players (Oswalt, Berkman) to get the win.

I'm heading up to Chicago this weekend to visit the younger bro, enjoy Dillo Day, and catch a Cubs-Astros game at Wrigley on Monday afternoon. Can't wait.

What's happened lately?

Well, the Astros have gone 1-3. Lance Berkman has been going crazy, our starting pitching has been a little iffy, Morgan Ensberg is hitting almost nothing besides line drives...

...and I'm getting tired of tennis. I didn't think it would ever happen, but teaching it 4/5/6 hours a day and playing for another 1 or 2 is wearing on me.

The NL Central is now in a 3-way tie, with the Astros, Cubs, and Reds all at 24-18, and the Cardinals only 1.5 games back. Once again we're trying to the best 'Pythagorean' team in baseball (the greatest differential between runs scored and runs allowed) and somehow not make the playoffs:

We've outscored our opponents by 61 runs (233-172).

Cubs? 206-160. (+46)

Reds? 197-206. (-9!!!)

Cardinals? 211-193 (+28)

Why is this? Why do we win blowouts and lose close games?

1. We have a team that (no matter what Jimy Williams wants it to be) is built for the big inning: a couple of walks and a 3-run bomb.

2. Inefficient bullpen usage. When is the better team to use your best reliever:

A) Up by 4 in the 9th inning (a 'Jimy save')
B) Up by 1 in the 8th inning

3. Pinch-hitters. Pinch-hitters come up in a lot of big situations in close games (and should come up even more often for us, since we're carrying Everett and Ausmus), and our "Ace" pinch-hitters, in order of at-bats:

1. Jose Vizcaino, 41 (.171 / .261 / .195 = 456 OPS)
2. Orlando Palmeiro, 34 (.176 / .263 / .294 = 557 OPS)

What can we do? Jimy can learn a few new tricks, Hunsicker could trade for a bat off the bench...or we could get ready for a few more close losses.

Astros 9, Marlins 2.

Lance Berkman and (gulp) Brad Ausmus lead the hitting attack, Wade Miller pitches well enough to win, and we actually work some counts against Dontrelle Willis. He threw a 91-pitch complete game against us 5 days ago; he had thrown 96 pitches through 4 innings this time.

The big news last night was, of course, Randy Johnson's perfect game. I got home at 8 or so, flipped by the Astros game, saw we were up 6-2 or so, and then heard the announcers mentioning that Randy was perfect through 7 innings. So I hurry over to TBS and watch the last 2 innings. Randy was still throwing 98mph fastballs and 88mph unhittable sliders those last 2 innings, and it seemed almost inevitable that he would get the perfect game, which he did, striking out Nick Green and Eddie Perez in the 9th to end it. Randy pumped his fist and pointed to the sky, but his young catcher Robby Hammock did him one better, jumping for joy several times before rushing out to envelop Randy in a bear hug. The funniest thing is that Randy is at least a foot taller than Hammock, so it looked like a little kid running up to hug his Dad. Good stuff. Congrats, Randy.

Jason Schmidt didn't pitch too badly last night, either - he allowed only an infield single to Michael Barrett (on an incredibly close play at 1st, and only after juuuuuuuuuust missing on a 2-2 pitch) and struck out 14 Cubs in a 1-0 shutout.

Oh, and the Yankees lost, 1-0. All in all, a good day to be a baseball fan.

I've got a tennis tournament coming up this weekend, and my first match will be against either: 1) my good buddy Jason - check out his blog, too or 2) a guy I've played about 20 times and beaten once, Robert Bickmore. Urgh.

Oh, and I'm playing doubles with JT, and we're playing the Tate bros. The older one, Matt, played high school tennis with the two of us before playing college tennis for four years. The younger one, Mark, just won the 4A singles state championship. Our goal: to peg Mark. Nah, we'll play hard, and it should be a fun match.

It's a beautiful day outside, so it's time to play some tennis. See ya.

I missed the entire Mets series, but apparently much of it was painful to watch anyway.

Yesterday's loss was especially frustrating, I imagine: 17 baserunners = 2 runs?? No intentional walk to Piazza in the 9th? A waste of a dominant start by Clemens?

Bah.

But to everyone who wants Dotel demoted and Lidge made closer: Calm down.

Octavio Dotel is a better pitcher than Brad Lidge.

He's off to a slow start, has given up 4 HR's in 20 innings when he gave up 9 all of last year, and his control is a bit spotty....

But he has been the best non-Gagne reliever in baseball over the past 3 years. He is dominant, regularly unhittable, and he got beat by the best-hitting catcher in history (easily) last night. It happens. Get over it.

We'll probably lose Dotel next year, and then Lidge will get his chance. That's it. End of story.

We have to get more runs with 17 baserunners. That's the key.

Tonight: Wade Miller at Dontrelle Willis.

This is a big game, for several reasons:

1. Is Wade Miller healthy? There were rumors that he had been hiding an injury last year, and he's looked a little different from start to start this year.

2. Can we figure out Dontrelle Willis? Last year he dominated the league until teams saw him for the 2nd time. From then on he got hammered. Let's see if we can do the same.

This was a playoff atmosphere game, and we seem to lose more of those than we win.

Thoughts:

Tim Redding - I'll give you credit for fighting through a lot of baserunners, but you don't look comfortable at all, and eventually those baserunners will turn into runs. I'm one of your supporters but I don't have much confidence in you these days.

Dotel - You wanted the pressure before the year, so you got it. But if you go walk/triple/walk on the first 3 batters you face (Choi/Pierre/Castillo...ugh), you're in trouble.

Ausmus - Are you really going to turn a DP on Miguel Cabrera? Tag the runner at home, no matter what.

Jimy/Viz - you're all used to this one. After Hidalgo's encouraging bases loaded walk to put us in the lead 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th, and new LHP Matt Perisho coming in to face Lamb, Jimy sends up (Jason Lane, please??) Vizcaino to pinch-hit with the bases loaded and 1 out. First pitch GIDP to 2nd, on a ball that he might have been able to beat out, but instead he'll just lightly jog to 1st base. By the way, the pitcher, Matt Perisho got the win from that one pitch.

Craig Biggio - 0-for-5 with a killer GIDP, and you could have caught that ball in the 9th. Good effort...but make the play.

We face the Mets in a 3 game series, throwing Oswalt / Pettitte / Clemens against Trachsel / Baldwin / Leiter. Sweep?

Oh, and I'm still working on the new blog template, so bear with me. But this weekend, at least, I'm off to Memphis and then Nashville to see some old friends. Take it easy.

Wow! The guys at Blogger did a whole lot of new stuff recently, and now you can post comments. I'm also working on changing the looks of this place, but I'm scared I'll lose it all because I'm not exactly the greatest computer guy around.

But, still, use that new comments thing to tell me what you think.

By the way, if you haven't been stopping by, go visit Aaron's Baseball Blog sometime (link at bottom). It is HILARIOUS.

P.S. If you know me...is my handwriting really 'scrabbly'?

The Astros followed up one of their best games of the year (a comeback 6-1 win to make Roger Clemens 7-0) with a fairly lackluster peformance last night, losing 5-2 to Dontrelle Willis and Mike Lowell. Lowell crushed two solo HR's off Wade Miller, and Willis got a lot of groundball outs, as the Astros were predictably befuddled by his huge leg kick and unusual delivery. Willis was nails against the league his first time through last year, too, but they seemed to eventually figure him out. I assume we'll do the same if we see him again.

Wade Miller pitched fine to everyone but Lowell, but he left with 2 on and 2 out in the 5th (or 6th) with 'neck tightness'. Back at the beginning of the year, Baseball Prospectus said they though Miller might have been hiding an injury last year, and he's had some high pitch counts this year. Maybe we should be a little more gentle with him, or risk feeling the same pain as the Cubs are right now, with Prior and Wood both injured.

Today we have Tim Redding vs. Carl Pavano. This interests me because: 1) I'd like to see another solid start from Timmah and 2) Pavano is dating Alyssa Milano. Just thought you'd like to know.

Oh, new Astros blog added to my links: Throws_like_a_girl. It's awesome, and contains some awesome quotes, like how she doesn't like "oversimplified Moneyball dogma", which is the best phrase ever, and how she also wants to have 10 million of Wade Miller's children. AND she hates Jose Vizcaino. Check it out.

The Astros followed up one of there best games of the year (a comeback 6-1 win to make Roger Clemens 7-0) with a fairly lackluster peformance last night, losing 5-2 to Dontrelle Willis and Mike Lowell. Lowell crushed two solo HR's off Wade Miller, and Willis got a lot of groundball outs, as the Astros were predictably befuddled by his huge leg kick and unusual delivery. Willis was nails against the league his first time through last year, too, but they seemed to eventually figure him out. I assume we'll do the same if we see him again.

Wade Miller pitched fine to everyone but Lowell, but he left with 2 on and 2 out in the 5th (or 6th) with 'neck tightness'. Back at the beginning of the year, Baseball Prospectus said they though Miller might have been hiding an injury last year, and he's had some high pitch counts this year. Maybe we should be a little more gentle with him, or risk feeling the same pain as the Cubs are right now, with Prior and Wood both injured.

Today we have Tim Redding vs. Carl Pavano. This interests me because: 1) I'd like to see another solid start from Timmah and 2) Pavano is dating Alyssa Milano. Just thought you'd like to know.

Oh, new Astros blog added to my links: Throws_like_a_girl. It's awesome, and contains some awesome quotes, like how she doesn't like "oversimplified Moneyball dogma", which is the best phrase ever, and how she also wants to have 10 million of Wade Miller's children. AND she hates Jose Vizcaino. Check it out.

A win is a win is a win, and the Astros just beat the Braves 2-1 in a duel between Andy Pettitte and Russ Ortiz.

The Braves scored in the 4th when J.D. Drew and Johnny Estrada hit back-to-back 2 out doubles, but we got the run back in the 5th after Jeff Kent got a bad-bounce double, took 3rd on a groundout to SS (aggressive baserunning from probably the slowest runner on the team), and scored on a Brad Ausmus sac fly. Then with 2 outs in the 7th we scored after an Ensberg single, Ausmus walk, Vizcaino walk, and Palmeiro walk. Look at that again: 3 of the 5 worst hitters on the team (Everett, Chavez also) drawing walks!!! I love it. That was it - we won 2-1, as Miceli was solid in the 7th and 8th and Dotel dominated in the 9th.

We get a day off tomorrow, which will hopefully be enough to get Richard Hidalgo out of his funk. I wouldn't have thought he would ever slump after his hot start, but his swing his long, he's standing too far away from the plate, and he looks absolutely overmatched out there. Pick it up, Doggy.

The Astros have gone 2-1 since I posted last; Wade Miller dominated as we got the sweep of the Pirates, Tim Redding had his first good outing of the year against the Braves, and we lost a crazy, crazy game to the Braves, 5-4.

Our starting pitching was tough in all three games, but it's the last one I want to talk about.

Roy Oswalt is cruising along through 7 innings, we're up 3-1, and everything looks great. In the bottom of the 8th, Mark DeRosa singles, and Oswalt gets ahead of little Jesse Garcia 0-2. He throws one high and inside, Garcia ducks, and immediately starts trotting to 1st base. The home plate umpire starts walking towards first and throwing up his hands and looking confused. All of a sudden the 2nd base umpire comes over, they confer, and award Garcia 1st base. Replays were inconclusive as to whether it hit his helmet or not; I think it probably did.

BUT HOW THE HELL CAN THE 2ND BASE UMPIRE TELL??????

He's 120 feet away. The home plate umpire is 2 feet away. There is no friggin' way that the 2nd base umpire can make that call. No way. Ever.

Then a sac bunt, a 4-pitch walk to Betemit, a single to Adam LaRoche, and a bases-loaded walk to Chipper Jones. I think Roy probably should have been pulled after the HBP by Garcia. He was clearly pissed off, and couldn't find the strike zone. Gallo and Backe bailed us out of that inning, and then we got off to a hot start in the 9th: Ensberg triple, Viz RBI single, Berkman single. 1st and 3rd, 0 out. An insurance run would be great, right? Biggio K. Everett K. Bagwell weak groundout. The Braves tie it in the 9th off of Lidge with a bloop single to LF and a triple that hit off the chalk on the RF line. Garcia should have been out at 3rd, too, but Everett chose to not cut off Hidalgo's throw even though it was off-line. Then our bullpen got tough again, and didn't allow any runs. Then a frustrating inning in the 10th against ANTONIO ALFONSECA. Kent grounds out to 2nd because he is standing incredibly far away from home plate - he can't even reach the outside corner. Bagwell did the same thing against Smoltz. Are these guys suddenly afraid of getting hit? Why are they standing so far off the plate. Hidalgo's the same way - put a pitch anywhere near the outside half of the plate, and he can't drive it. He's standing too far off. These guys need to fix that, quick.

Then Ricky Stone comes on, strikes out Chipper and J.D. Drew, and gives up a HR to Andruw Jones on a good pitch, a sinker low and away to Jones went opposite field on.

Tough, tough loss. Can't really blame it on anyone but Oswalt - if he can't get DeRosa, Jesse Garcia, Wilson Betemit, and Adam LaRoche out with the game on the line, he doesn't deserve the win. He probably shouldn't have still been in there, though. And we've gotta get another run home in the 9th with 1st and 3rd, 0 out. Biggio and Everett just need to put the ball in play there.

Anyway, today is Pettitte vs. Russ Ortiz, who has been tough on us in the past.

Happy Mothers Day!

I went to another Astros game tonight, and watched in awe as Roger Clemens moved past Steve Carlton into 2nd place all-time in strikeouts. Oh, and the Astros won 6-2, as Jeff Kent, Morgan Ensberg, and 7 walks lead to some offense and Clemens + 9 straight outs from the bullpen kept the Pirates quiet. The only minor damper was Chad Harville came in to pitch the 7th but left after facing a batter due to a strained right quad. He's day to day. Even if he's hurt, we could call up Ricky Stone again...no big deal.

The 'Stros go for the sweep tomorrow: Wade Miller vs. Kris Benson.

I'll go the anti-stats route on today's impressions, since I was actually right there:

Adam Everett is TERRIFIC defensively. It's almost a shame we don't have many groundball pitchers on our staff (only Pettitte), because he's a vacuum cleaner out there. On the flip side, Jeff Kent is not good defensively, and looks slow and kinda bored.

Lance Berkman, for all his muscle and baby fat, has some of the quickest hands in baseball. You cannot throw an inside fastball by him. It cannot be done.

That's all. Oh, and I love going to baseball games. I've been to two and both times I've never made it to my official seat. You just wander around and pick Players of the Game and eat hot dogs and drink beer and I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

Reds 7, Astros 5.

This was a troubling loss. Roy Oswalt wasn't sharp early; he said he felt like he was throwing a 'cue ball' most of the game, and we were down 2-0 early. Oswalt singled in a run in the 2nd to make it 2-1, and then the Astros had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs and Kent, Berkman, and Hidalgo due up. Foul out. Foul out. Fly out. 0 runs. Then Mike Lamb booted an inning-ending double play ball, Jacob Cruz followed with a double, and we were down 4-1. We get a run back after an error: 4-2. Then Raul Chavez doubles in two guys to tie it 4-4, and we pinch hit with...Orlando Palmeiro. Strikeout looking. Biggio doubles to right to take the lead 5-4, and everything looks great. Harville gets two outs, then walks a guy to bring up the only dangerous hitter on their team, Adam Dunn. Jimy (correctly) brings in Lidge, who strikes him out. In the next inning Lidge strikes out the first two batters he faces, bringing up Jacob Cruz. Walk. This brings up Javier Valentin, 3rd catcher for the Reds. He CRUSHES a 1-1 fastball down the middle of the plate. Home run. 6-5, Reds. Dotel gives up a solo shot to make it 7-5, and although Everett gets on bases leading off the 9th, Bagwell, Kent and Berkman all hit long fly ball outs to end the game.

Main annoyance: In a close game, neither Lane or Ensberg get any at-bats. Instead, Vizcaino and Palmeiro both go 0-for-1. Also, you've gotta get some runs with 2nd and 3rd and 0 out. Finally, Mike Lamb is not good in the field. He's a great pinch hitter, but should NOT start over Morgan Ensberg. Oh well...we'll get them next time.

Up next: 3 game series against Pittsburgh, starting today, with:

Andy Pettitte vs. Josh Fogg. I want to see the offense, especially Kent, Hidalgo, and Ensberg, get going. We're going at home against crummy Fogg.

The 'Stros have come back twice against the Reds in the last 2 games, winning both. I really don't know how we managed to win yesterday - I was playing in a tennis tournament, and I had to go play when we were down 4-0....then I come back and we're down 5-3...then I come back again and we WON! On a suicide squeeze by Brad Ausmus??? WOW. Hey, I'll take them how I can get them.

I'm actually going to the game tonight with my friend that I haven't seen in a while, so we're gonna watch as Roy Oswalt tears through the Reds lineup like Jason Barfield at a buffalo wing-eating contest. I CAN'T WAIT. Man, I love baseball.

Oh, and starting NOW, I'm going to start taking notes during every Astros game and posting them here, 'cause I gotta pick it up. Bi-weekly updates just aren't cutting it.

Talk to you guys soon!

The Astros have gone 2-1 since my last post, losing to the Pirates 4-2 (in an Oswalt - Fogg matchup!!??), winning 2-0 behind a combined 2-hitter from Pettitte and bullpen, and winning 6-1 behind Clemens and Lance Berkman.

The bullpen has really stepped it, especially The Alien Inhabiting Dan Miceli's Body. He's been insanely good, and better than he has his entire career, so he might regress a bit eventually, but Lidge and Dotel are awesome, and should remain so, as long as they're not overused.

Morgan Ensberg had a great night last night, going 2-for-4 with a single and a double (both of which he CRUSHED), and a deep fly ball to the warning track in RF. He's just about all the way back, and should become the starting 3B again. Mike Lamb has done a surprisingly good job filling in, but he's more valuabe off the bench as a LH bat and spot starter.

Tonight: Wade Miller vs. Aaron Harang.