Astros Notes:

According to the Houston Chronicle Fernando Nieve will start against the Diamonbacks on Friday, as Brandon Backe flies back to Houston to get his elbow examined. In case Backe is out for a long time we've got Nieve or Zeke Astacio (6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K at AAA so far) ready to go.

People on various Astros message boards are clamoring for Jason Lane to be benched. To which I say: small sample size, bitches. Lane has already drawn 10 walks this season in 29 AB after drawing 30 all last year. His increased patience (it doesn't hurt that teams are probably pitching around him to get to Brad Ausmus either) will help him a ton in the long run. He'll hit. His OPS (635) is still higher than Willy T, Ausmus, or Everett. By the way, Ausmus, Everett, and Taveras have combined for 0 extra base hits in 89 at-bats so far. Yikes.

The Astros are in town (or as close as they can get) this weekend for a series against the D-Backs. All the games will be on TV here, so I get to watch them all at my local sports bar. Woohoo!