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I thought it was interesting during yesterday’s game when Jim Deshaies was trying to put a silver lining on the first week of the Astros 2009 season. He was talking about the Washington Nationals and the fact that they had yet to win a game. He continued to talk about the strife in the clubhouse having already seen the resignation of the GM. I had to smirk sarcastically during this brief analysis as I didn’t see much difference between the Nationals and the Astros, but JD was trying to find something to keep the fans spirits up as the Astros were on their way to losing 7-0 to the Pirates in a game that was in danger of being a 1-hitter.
Seven days and we only have one win matching the Astros start in 1984. Don’t forget that Houston has only scored 26 runs and has struck out 36 times. But the bigger concern at the moment has to be the pitching, especially the awful start by Brian Moehler.
| Date | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | K |
| Apr. 8 | 1.2 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Apr. 13 | 2.1 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 4.0 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
JD would probably state that Moehler is progressing positively from the first game to the second. I do not feel the same. One of our starters has only pitched 4 innings meaning that our bullpen has been picking up alot of slack which is never a good sign.
Perhaps most distressing about these stats (other than the amount of runs) is the low strikeouts. One strikeout from your number 3 pitcher? Unacceptable. The question now is are the Astros going to give him one more start, send him to Round Rock or release him outright?
Releasing Moehler outright won’t solve the problem as we really have nobody in the system to take his place. Backe isn’t close to coming back and Jose Capellon hasn’t been very good at AAA. Felipe Paulino has pitched well with a win and a 0.00 ERA, but is he the solution? What about free agents? There is probably somebody out there who would do better than Brian, but we would need to pick him up soon so he could learn the system and get in game shape. (Hopefully, he will already be in pitching shape.)
This is all just conjecture at the moment and I don’t think there is a solution to the Moehler problem. However, if Brian doesn’t pitch better in the next game, the Astros have got to begin looking elsewhere.
