I made it back from my river trip - on the day I returned, after de-rigging the boat, I ran off to find a newspaper to see how the Astros had been doing. Their last 10 games: 2-8. Ugh. Then I looked up some box scores and saw how the White Sox and Tigers basically obliterated us. Luckily we ran into the Cubs who are pretty bad right now, although the mighty Sean Marshall managed to shut us out yesterday as Roy Oswalt gave up 1 ER in 9 IP and took the loss.

It looks like Mike Lamb has been hot since I left, as he's been getting the majority of starts at 1B with Lance shifting to RF. I guess I can quit stumping for Jason Lane; it just doesn't look like he's going to get much playing time. Waah. Lamb is hitting .332 / .379 / .533 for the season, so you can't argue with that too much.

Before I go any further, read Aaron Gleeman's wrap-up of the SABR (Society of American Baseball Research) conference right now.

I've been watching the World Cup, which is great. The Germany - Italy semifinal was amazing, the France - Portugal semi not so much. I like Italy to dominate in the finals - their defense (especially their captain, Canavarro, and their goalkeeper, Buffon) is unreal and they should generate enough offense to win. Italy 2-0.

I'm heading out again, to Chicago for an ultimate frisbee tournament and then to the Galapagos Islands on a vacation. Sorry about that, it's summertime. If anyone wants to make a post (JT? Barstool?), I'd owe you one. Until then, take care, cheer for the Astros, and have fun.