Willy Taveras has a 29-game hitting streak going, and he's hitting .340 / .383 / .407 for the 2nd half, which is actually pretty similar to his minor-league numbers. I still get frustrated watching his at-bats because it seems like his swing is way too long, but you can't argue with the recent results.

Chad Qualls has had a disappointing year (4.33 ERA), but some of that might be due to the fact that he's been pitching A TON. He had 79.2 IP in 77 appearances last year, and he's already up to 72.2 IP in 63 appearances this year. The reliever with the next-most innings pitched is Brad Lidge with 60.0.

Scott Barzilla has a cool article up at Astros Daily about a SABR meeting with Tim Purpura. In it Purpura says that finding a catcher to replace Ausmus after 2007 will define his legacy as GM. Pretty strong words.

Brad Lidge hasn't been scored upon in his last four outings and last night he struck out the side to get the save. Part of it might be due to his new two-seam fastball - I can't find the article now, but Lidge said he's been working on the new pitch a lot.