The Daily Astros Update

The Astros had an eventful day yesterday.  Here are the highlights:

• Humberto Quintero got a concussion after being knocked in the head by the bat of the Luis Maza.  He was on the field for 3 minutes and 58 seconds before the Astros’ trainers helped him off.  Humberto was placed on the 15-day DL which to me means it was a pretty bad injury.  JR Towles has been recalled from Round Rock.  JR has been playing much better this last month, but I hope Humberto is okay.  I like his pluck.
  > View the footage of the injury
• The Astros were down 6-1 and managed to come back to tie the game 6-6 before losing 7-6 to the Dodgers in the 11th inning.  It was a moral victory and a good step towards legitimacy as an average team.
• Tom Verducci of SI, probably one of the best baseball writers in the world, posted his mid-season awards yesterday.  If the season ended right now, Tom has the NL MVP going to Lance Berkman.  He (and everybody else) still thinks that Chase Utley will win it in the end which I still don’t understand.  I think Utley must have incriminating photos of everyone or something.  You have two guys in Berkman and Chipper Jones who are putting together incredible numbers and they still give Utley the love.  It’s getting old.
• Roy Oswalt announced that he thinks he will be able to make his next start.
• Lance Berkman announced that he is going to be in the homerun derby on All-Star weekend.  Hopefully, Lance will make the same showing he did when he was in the 2004 derby in Houston.  What a great honor to be in the last homerun derby in Yankee Stadium.  It is going to be a magical night and you just know Babe’s ghost will be watching from the cornfields.

Even though the Astros lost last night, I didn’t feel as bad as I have with the losses of a week ago.  They battled back and seem to have a little more chemistry in their test tubes these days.  It’s going to be a tough one tonight, but I am going to keep my fingers crossed.

When you are facing Daisuke Matsusaka, Jon Lester and Josh Beckett, You figure you aren’t going to win a game and you’ll be lucky if you win one.  That’s a rough stretch to go through especially since you are going to be facing a hometown hero in Beckett who probably had to take a mortgage out on his house for the 200 family members to watch him pitch.

Daisuke had a rough outting the last time out on his first stint off the DL, so that was the one you had pegged as the Astros maybe having a chance to take one.

Wrong.

Instead, they beat the hometown hero and the guy who has not only survived cancer but also has the only no-hitter in the league this year.

You can call it all sorts of things.  Curious.  Stupendous. Preposterous.  You could even call it miraculous.

But what you can’t call it is a fluke.  The Astros won those two games behind good offense in one and good pitching in the other.  I find it interesting in today’s Boston Globe that they don’t compliment the Astros at all on the wins, but rather talk about how the Red Sox let the games get away.  That’s a little classless, but I guess you have to remember that these are the MLB champs of 2007.  The only people who beat them are themselves.

No slugfest for the Astros on Saturday or beautiful pitching for Moehler (and Beckett) on Sunday.  It was all about how badly the Red Sox played and that’s just wrong.  The Red Sox didn’t play badly.  If you look at all three games, two of them were close and could have gone either way and the Sox win on Friday was an outright win; no close game there.

The Astros didn’t play badly either on Saturday and Sunday.  They kept the team in the game and managed to pull it out.  They need to build on that and move forward.

Let’s beat the snot out of the Dodgers tonight.

Update on Draft Picks

According to a press release by the Astros on June 27, they are still working on signing several of their picks.

• Jason Castro - The Astros met with Jason and his family at his home and negotiations are ongoing.  “We’re still optimistic that we’ll get this figured out, it just takes time.  There is still more legwork to get done,” Wade said.
• Chase Davidson - The Astros are still working with Davidson, their 5th pick in the draft and a high schooler out of Georgia who is supposed to be stellar with great speed.  No new news on that front.
• Ross Seaton - Seaton is still working on coming to an agreement with the Astros and this one really bothers me.  He is a die-hard Astros fan and has always wanted to play for Houston.  The Astros love the kid and think he has a great future ahead of him.  He is no more than 30 minutes away from Minute Maid Park.  The fact that he hasn’t been signed yet makes me believe that either Seaton is holding out for a whole lot of money or the Astros are really trying to short change the kid.  The only other thing I can think of is that GM Ed Wade and Scout Director Booby Heck have spent so much time outside of Houston, they haven’t had the time to go over to Ross’ house.  I thought that this signing was not only a no-brainer, but also one that would come quickly.

The lesson I learned after last night’s 7-2 win over the Rangers is this: the next time our offense falters, we need one of our pitchers to do something extreme.  We don’t have alot of pitching in our minors, so we need for it to be one of our big name pitchers that we aren’t going to cut.  The only pitcher that really fits that description is Roy Oswalt.

So, Roy… start thinking of something bizarre to kick the team into motion.  Choking Ed Wade has already been used and doing bodily harm to Drayton might actually kill him, so here is a list of possible actions that will cause a controversy, while not really harming anyone on the team.

1. Make a pass at one of the other players.  This will be completely unexpected especially since you are a happily married man with children.  However, it just might be weird enough that it will lighten the mood in the clubhouse.  I recommend Brad Ausmus.  He’s good looking and appreciates practical jokes.  Be prepared to have to defend your orientation for the rest of your life.
2. Lock Cecil Cooper in the bathroom.  Last year, Matt Elliott got locked into a bathroom and the fire department had to come out and save him.  It was embarrassing, but made national news.  It’s sure to let Cecil know how you feel without really causing any issue with your contract.  (They can’t fire you for locking someone in the bathroom, can they?)
3. Blowup in the dugout one day.  Find the best actor on the team and practice a wrestling routine in secret. Then, after you have a really bad outting, the two of you can go to town in the dugout ending up with at least $500 of damage.  (The more damage the better.)  It will make SportsCenter and is sure to get both of you a meeting with the manager.  Then, you just need to be seen hugging a few games later.  If you pick Brad Ausmus, you can also take care of #1.
4. Say something inappropriate in the media.  Do an interview for some small-town media source and “accidentally” mention something about Cooper, Wade or Drayton that is racist, sexist or just extremely inappropriate.  You can tell them after the fact that it was all a set up, but wait for their honest reactions before doing so.

These are just a few ideas of something Roy can do to shake up the clubhouse.  Berkman could also help out with these.  Since he has such a good sense of humor and never really gets mad at anything, it would also take people be surprise.

If we want to continue to get 7 runs by the second inning, then I think national embarrassment is a small price to pay.  And if you can schedule it to be the day before the NBA or NFL draft, everyone will forget about it in a couple of days and just marvel at how good you are playing.

Of course, if the Astros start to play terrible again tonight, then all bets are off.

I leave work yesterday looking forward to a quiet night home watching that Astros and Rangers battle it out.  I come in to work this morning with a Latrell Sprewell kind of story encapsulating my favorite team. 

Here’s the timeline as far as I can figure it:

• June 22, 2008: Shawn Chacon is informed by Cecil Cooper and Ed Wade that he has been moved to the bullpen.
• June 23, 2008: Chacon’s agent informs Ed Wade that Chacon would like to be traded to a team that will let him start.
• June 25, 2008 at approx. 5:30 pm: Cecil Cooper asks Chacon to come to his office and Chacon asks to remain in the dining room for the conversation.
• June 25, 2008 at approx. 6:00 pm: Ed Wade asks Chacon to come to Cooper’s office and Chacon once again asks to remain in the dining room for the discussion.
• June 25, 2008 at approx. 6:05 pm: Ed Wade begins cussing out Chacon who asks Ed to calm down.
• June 25, 2008 at approx. 6:10 pm: Chacon grabs Ed Wade by the neck and throws him to the ground.
• June 25, 2008 at approx. 6:30 pm: Chacon is suspended indefinitely and his career with the Astros is over.

This whole story is just bizarre and I don’t know if anyone handled it correctly.  Chacon should have gone to Cooper’s office.  Cooper shouldn’t have asked him to visit his office an hour before a game.  Chacon should have gone to Cooper’s office when Ed Wade asked.  Wade also shouldn’t have asked Chacon to visit the office an hour before a game.  Wade should have been more of a professional and not cussed out a player. Chacon shouldn’t have grabbed Wade by the neck and slammed him to the ground.

It was a story of escalation that could have been handled better if the parties involved were more mature about the whole thing.  My boss and I get into arguments but he doesn’t cuss me out and I don’t bodyslam him.  Both Wade and Chacon were wrong in their behavior.

What Wade did do correctly was supend Chacon.  He needed to make a statement and this was the correct one.  You can’t let that kind of behavior go unpunished even if you did instigate it.

In the same respect, I really feel that Drayton needs to have a private conversation with Ed about possibly taking some anger management classes and showing some more professionalism in the clubhouse.  This is an embarrassment to the team and I know that Drayton doesn’t care for immature behavior and bad language.  The Astros have always been a class act and I suspect that Drayton wants it to continue to be so.

Can you see Gerry Hunsicker or Tim Purpura behaving in this manner?  I can’t.  Both men were very well-spoken and professional in their job.  Even when the crowd booed Purpura when he was announced during Jeff Bagwell’s number retirement ceremony, he still handled it with class.

I am sad that things turned out this way.  Chacon has been struggling, but he kept us afloat the first two months of the season and, from all accounts, he is a really nice guy who just loves to pitch.  I think he is done for the season and I am sure that he is going to be fined by the league.  Hopefully someone will pick him up next year and he has another shot at succeeding.

> READ Richard Justice’s article about Chacon and Wade

What do you know?  The last few years, we have been the cure to what ails the Rangers as they play like the best team in the league when up against the Astros.  But last night, the Astros actually beat them behind another excellent pitching performance by Brian Moehler.

Moehler gave up one run in the 1st inning and then shut them down for the next 5 2/3 innings.  He looked brilliant and I am so happy about the success he has been having.  Of course, the little voice in my head reminds me that the Rangers have either not seen Brian for a long time or have never seen him, so we have to remember that before we give him the Cy Young.

Lance Berkman had another homerun, bringing his total for the season to 21 and it was an important one.  Without it, the Astros would have lost the game as Valverde let the Rangers get a 2-run shot in the 9th.

This was a good win and the team seems to slowly be getting some confidence back.  I don’t want to jump ahead of myself, but they really have been playing better in the last week.  Even the losses were close ones and they should have swept the Tampa Bay Rays.

Keep your fingers crossed that they can get back up to .500 and 4th place in the division.  (Milwaukee is going to have to go silent if the Astros are going to catch them.  They are playing great right now.)

Draft Talk

I spent some time online last night and updated the Astros Draft page with everyone I could find that had signed.  I also included links to their minor league pages so you can keep an eye on them.  There were a couple that hadn’t signed that had some good articles about them on the web, so I linked them up as well for you to learn more about the players. 

I have found 28 players that we have signed.  I am sure that I am missing a few and I will continue to scan the web to find anymore.

I was really excited to see that the Astros signed Brad Dydalewicz out of Lake Travis High School in Austin, TX.  This kid had a perfect game his senior year and also has some nasty stuff.  He’s a left-handed pitcher with a tremendous upside.  It’ll be great to see what he can do in the minors.

You may not have realized it, but some very important things happened to the Astros over the weekend.

Most important is that they won their first series since May taking two from the Tampa Bay Rays.

Next most important is that they won a series on the road against a team that is 1.5 games out of first place in the AL East.  I’m sure the odds were in favor of the Rays going into Fridays game, so they have got to be surprised that they lost to the worst team in the NL Central.

Another important thing to happen was Stanford got eliminated from the College World Series.  This means that the Astros can now go after Jason Castro in earnest and get him signed.  GM Ed Wade is hopeful that the Astros will have a contract with Castro very quickly.

“[We are] optimistic we’ll be able to get something done in short order,” Wade said. “Every indication we had from Jason going into the draft was he was anxious to sign and begin his career.”

The last important thing to happen to the Astros was probably the one you didn’t even hear about.  One of our newest draftees was on the good-end of a no-hitter.  Shane Wolf comined with Ashton Mowdy and David Miller to throw a 3-person no-hitter for the Tri-City ValleyCats, the first no-hitter in ValleyCats history.

The Astros picked Shane Wolf in the 26th round out of Ithaca College.  He is a left-hander with some good stuff, but nobody expected this in his professional debut.  He pitched 3 strong innings befer being removed from the game.  How does he go up from here?  A perfect game in his next start?

All kidding aside, this was a blip on the Astros radar screen that really opened my eyes.  It only got a little attention on the newswires, but this had to make management happy.  I am definitely going to keep an eye on Wolf, Mowdy and Miller in the future.

> Read more about this game

While the Astros are in no means out of the gutter, they at least had a small bit of sunshine over the weekend.

The Astros have been losing so many games lately, that I have reached the end of the whining.  I am sure all of you are tired of listening to me complain about them. 

I wrote about the draft picks, but I can’t find record of who is being signed lately.  (I sent an e-mail to Greg Lucas to see if he could let me know.  He’s always good about getting back to me and so knowledgeable about the Astros.  Plus, he has a great sense of humor.  I even made him and Geoff Blum laugh out loud during a game once.)  Once Greg gets back to me, I’ll update the table.

I even tried to write about the good things that are happening to the Astros right now, but even that is really pushing it.  (Lance Berkman, Brian Moehler and, uh… let me get back to you.)

I was able to report on the Round Rock Express thanks to complimentary tickets given to be by 3rd-baseman Mark Saccomanno and his lovely sister, Kelly.  In July, I am going to be going to Corpus Christi to take in a Hooks game, so I will send you a report on that.  That gives me 2 days to talk about our minor leaguers.

For the other days, what am I supposed to talk about when we have a losing streak that is not only bad, but embarrassing?  I’m stumped.

Worse, I don’t even have my normal desire to talk about one of my passions.  When the Astros win, I am elated.  And when they lose, I am deflated.  My depression grows and I feel lackluster at night as I see them give up win after win.  I almost wish they would get blown out every night because that is easier to take than watching them lose a close game in the 10th inning after a brilliant pitching performance by Moehler.

I don’t even stop to call my Astros buddies anymore except on open days when we joke that they aren’t going to lose that day.  (Wheeee!)

I am going to be in Houston this weekend for my 20 year high school reunion.  Twenty years ago, the Astros’ future looked bright.  They had great pitching and some young guy named Craig Biggio was just starting his first season with the big league team.

And yet, they were actually looking at another decade before they would reach the playoffs again.  Add several years to that and you are seeing the first ever appearance at the World Series. 

It’s time to admit that we are probably looking at that kind of time for the Astros.  There isn’t a quick solution.  GM Ed Wade has done an admirable job of signing some good people, but it all has to gel to get to the playoffs and I am not sure if this group can do it.  They are too worn down right now and need a shot in the arm to get their spirits up. 

Do you think facing Tampa Bay is going to do that?  I don’t.  Not now and not for the rest of the season.  Lift your beers and toast the month of May, Astros fans.  It might be the highlight of the season.

Before the beginning of the season, I wrote an article titled “How to Be an Astros Fan in 2008.”  I had to reread it this morning in an effort to boost my day.

Going into the season, I was expecting them to play like they did last night when they lost 6-5 to the Orioles.  But in May, the Astros did something weird… they gave me hope.  The pitchers overachieved, the offense played like it should have and Lance  Berkman had one of the most incredible months ever played on the field.  I should have known better and I have no one to blame but myself.

May was a blip on the radar and we can expect more games like last night for the rest of the season.  If we are lucky, that is.  I am fearful that last night will look good compared to what we have coming up.  I am expecting blow outs, shut outs and rain outs; wild pitches, torn britches and lots of stitches; mistakes, bone breaks and roster shakes.

And the rest of the season is going to be as bad as my poor attempt at being clever with words that rhyme.

So if you are an Astros fan, take heart and lower your expectations.  Be happy if we stay around .500 all season.  Be excited if we have 2 guys in the All-Star game.  Be stunned that if we were in the NL West, we would be in second place.

It’s about all we have to look forward to.

General Manager Ed Wade and his scouting team headed by Bobby Heck have been busy, busy, busy.  (Hopefully Bobby has been more busy than Ed.  Ed needs to concentrate on the club right now.)

It is important to the Astros (and their fans) that they make a concerted effort to sign as many of their draft picks as possible.  Not only do they need to shore up the minors, but they also need to look good after last year’s signing debacle.

It’s really hard to find information on who they have signed and who they haven’t.  The last note I found, they had signed 22 players and that was a week ago.  Surely they have signed more than that.  Stanford is still int he College World Series, so the first round pick Jason Castro is still hands-off by the Astros.

According to a small notice in the Columbia, MO newspaper, the Astros signed 11 players on Tuesday, June 10.  Jacob Priday, an outfielder who plays for the nearby U. of Missouri, was one of those signees.  I’ll be darned if I can find mention of any other signees.  I have been going to the local papers and hoping for mention, but either they aren’t important enough, or they haven’t signed.

You would think with as bad as the Astros have been playing that talking about the draftees signing would shed some sunshine over the front office.

Below is a table of the signees I know about, but I am still missing quite a few.  If you know of anymore, let me know and I’ll mark them in green.

I don’t know what to say.

There is really only one word going through my mind right now.  Twelve.

That’s how many games the Astros are out of first place.

I expected them to struggle this year, but this is beyond struggling.  This is “worst team in the division” kind of play.

Starting Pitching

The starters are still overachieving, but let’s be honest… it doesn’t take much to overachieve the expectations that were laid upon them in Spring Training.  Roy Oswalt is not the ace of the team this year and his bad attitude on the mound at the start of yesterday’s game was embarrassing.  Brad Ausmus needs to take Roy aside and have a talk with him.  We need some professionalism and teamwork out there; not whining because you are having a bad season.

Bullpen

The bullpen hasn’t been too bad lately.  However, they could be better.  I guess the best thing to wish for is that they don’t give up any runs.  Ever.  Yeah, I know that it is wishful thinking, but it can’t hurt to mentally shoot for it.  Maybe they have a mindset of giving up as few runs as possible rather than not giving up any.

Offense

Here in lies the majority of the Astros woes.  You can’t win a game without good pitching, but right now even with good pitching, the Astros don’t have a shot.  They lost the series to the Yankees 20-4.  What does that tell you?  Bad pitching and bad offense.  However, the lineup also has the capability to score 20 runs in 3 games.  That’s an average of 7 runs a games.  I don’t think it is out of the realm of possibility.

Managing

Cecil Cooper had a bit of mindfart over the weekend.  He made some decisions that I don’t agree with.  He chose to have Ty Wigginton try to steal second base and he benched Berkman on Sunday.  What?  Both of these were questionable.  I know he is trying to shake things up, but I don’t think Joe Torre would have benched his best player and I am pretty sure he wouldn’t have asked the second slowest player on the team to steal a base.  To me, this is a rookie manager mistake.

The Future

What do the Astros do now?  Pitch better, hit better and play smarter.  Of course, the other 31 teams in the league need to do the same if they want to get to the World Series.  Bottom line is they need to change their attitude.  They need to be aggressive without being stupid.  They need to play like professional ballplayers.