From Boston.com

On how losing Mills and Jed Hoyer affects the franchise entering 2010:

Francona: “I think inevitably these types of things happen when you have good people. Theo’s got a lot of guys in his office that are . . . this isn’t going to be the only guy that turns into a general manager. Ben Cherington is going to be next. And Mike Hazen. There’s guys that are good. Brian O’Halloran. You can name a pretty good list down there. That’s inevitable. Losing Millsy, sure, it puts a dent in what we do. But you kind of hope you lose people. They’re your friends, and they get respect from industry, and they get asked to move on. Our happiness for them far outweighs our concern with filling their spots.”

On whether he can replace the dynamic that he shared with Mills:

Francona: “Well, I hope so, but you don’t take 30 years and cram it into six months. That’s just not realistic. But we’ve got a lot of good coaches here, and not just at the Major League level, but also in our player development system. In the next couple of days, Theo and I will sit down — and we already talked a little last night — we’ll talk a little bit more today and tomorrow. One of the important things to think about is staying in the organization. I have some friends that I think are really good baseball people that aren’t in the organization. Is that the best move? I don’t know. Theo and I need to sit down and talk about that. There’s some really good people in the organization. I’ve been here long enough now [to know] that sometimes you need to stay in the organization and promote. It’s healthy, and again, we’re hiring good people. Sometimes they need to be recommended for their jobs also.”

On whether any other Sox personnel will follow Mills to Houston:

Francona: “I think Millsy is in the process today of trying to get some thoughts together on his staff. I think it’s a possibility, but I don’t think it’s a probability.”

On what’s harder, Mills leaving or Mills’s family leaving:

Francona: “Oh, my one daughter — I should probably keep her name out of it — she sent Millsy a note right after his press conference and said that ‘You’ve ruined my dad’s life.” [Laughs.] It wasn’t congratulations. We’ve been close for a long time. Millsy, Rhonda [Mills's wife], and their kids, they’re the nicest family in the world, and anyone who comes in touch with them knows that. Millsy embodies a lot of what’s right in baseball. So for him to get this opportunity, it’s pretty neat.”

The Cubs have scored 35 runs against the Astros in 4 days. That’s enough talk about that. Let’s look at something more encouraging.

Since my July 7 post, there have been 3 promotions (Wikoff, Martinez and Migl) and statistics have changed quite a bit. Brandon Wikoff has really fallen off and now appears to be the draft pick most in need of work, but he was just promoted, so let’s give him some time. JD Martinez continues to smack the ball around even after being promoted to Tri-City. I am really starting to like this kid, but there is still plenty of time for him to come back to earth. Another player to notice is center fielder Brian Kemp. He has the most runs and hits of the draft picks and also the most at-bats. Mier is still doing well and keep an eye on Grant Hogue who has 10 stolen bases.

Hitters (as of 7/30/09)

Lefthanded Pitcher Spencer Hylander is having a good season. He’s 3-1 with an ERA of 2.25. BJ Hyatt is not doing so good. He’s 1-1, but has an ERA of 11.77. Brandt Walker has been interesting. He has the most walks at 22, but also the most strikeouts at 20. Pitchers
(as of 7/30/09)

When your star pitcher goes out of the game with an injury in the second inning the day after an extra inning game, you figure that you are doomed.  That’s how I felt when Oswalt left the game with a lower back strain.  I figured there was no way the Astros were going to have enough relievers to pull out a win.

Though I will admit that I had a brief feeling of deja vu back to the 6-man no-no that Houston had against the Yankees a few years ago.  If you’ll remember, Roy left the game in the second with a groin strain and the bullpen came through in a big way.

Who knew that the bullpen was going to have another good game?  It wasn’t a no-hitter and they did give up 6 runs, but they were pitching with a short roster and they needed to win to keep Houston in the mix in the NL Central. They got the job done and the final score was Houston 11 – Chicago 6.

The Astros are now 2.5 games out of first.  (St. Louis has won 2 in a row.)  They are also 2 games behind Chicago who is second in the division.  They have two more games against the Cubs in this series.  Do the math.

Not to be ignored, Houston is 3 games behind the Rockies and the Giants for the wild card lead.

Hampton (6-7) needs to continue his strong showing tonight and beat the tar out of the Cubs.  He is going up against Randy Wells who is 6-4 and had a very good start in his last game.

Tomorrow scares me.  Russ Ortiz, who has not pitched well, is going up against Kevin Hart who is 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA and looks pretty good.  The money is on Hart, but maybe Ortiz can pull a rabbit out of his hat.

Jiovanni Mier Update

Mier continues to impress in Greeneville.  His strikeout number is a little concerning, but he has plenty of time to work on it. It’s good to see the Astros’ top pick being so successful in his first year in the minors.  He’s 18 years old, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue.  He has had some issues on the field, but nothing to worry about.  The future looks bright at shortstop

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Kerfuffle means disorder and the word was used in an article in the NYTimes.com today by Joe LaPointe.  I don’t think I have ever seen that word used in modern-day print, so I had to use it in the headline.  I also had to use it because it perfectly describes Russ Ortiz’s performance on Saturday.

Russ continues to struggle on the mound and ended his appearance yesterday in the 5th inning in a 10-3 loss.  He gave up 6 earned runs and never seemed to get into a comfortable zone.  It was a disappointing start and I wonder how much time Ed Wade is spending on the phones trying to find a number five pitcher.

There is a player at Round Rock that might be worth looking at, but he would only get one start before the trade deadline.  Yorman Bazardo is 9-4 with a 2.76 ERA, 71 strikeouts and a 1.09 WHIP.  His stats look good and he can’t be any worse than Ortiz was yesterday, can he?

Without a bonafide #5, the Astros are going to really struggle to win the division.  They are 1.5 games out of first and still 3 games out of the Wild Card lead.  The Cubs are actually playing really well right now, so Houston needs to stay vigilant.

One thing we can hope for is that St. Louis seems to be making alot of moves on their roster and sometimes that hurts chemistry more than it helps get more wins.  They traded away Chris Duncan whose father is pitching coach for the team and I have to think that there are some players in the clubhouse who are not happy with that move.

I expect that they will make one more big trade before the deadline.  There are some who feel that they are in the run for Roy Halliday.  If they get him, then it makes it even more important that the Astros find a solid #5 pitcher.  The addition of Halliday would boost the Cardinals to be the NL favorite for the pennant and Houston would have to set their sites on the Wild Card.  That won’t be easy and the current rotation isn’t going to cut it.

2009 Draft Talk

It’s been awhile since the Astros signed a draft pick, so at this point, I usually assume that the unsigned players will remain unsigned.  Houston has 16 picks that are out there; most of them at the bottom of the draft.  There is one high pick, Geoffery Thomas of Stephenson High School, that is unsigned.  Thomas had a pretty phenomenal season in 2009 going 3-2 with a miniscule ERA of 0.51 and 48 strikeouts.  I can’t find much about him on the web, so I don’t know if he has chosen to go to college.

New York is in Houston this weekend for a 3-game series and the Astros are seeing a team who is a shell of who they should be.  Of course, being a lifetime Astros fan, I have no problem with the Mets having problems winning.

I have not been a Mets fan since 1986 and I do not expect that I will ever be a Mets fan.  Every time they crash and burn is a good time for me. So forgive me if I don’t feel sorry for the other team from New York.  Or don’t forgive me.  I really don’t care.

That being said… I think the Astros will lose tonight.  Why?  They have to face one of the best pitchers in the game: Johan Santana.  He’s 11-7 this season with a 2.92 ERA.

The Astros can win this game if they can get Santana benched. Johan is averaging 6.5 innings per start, so he probably won’t pitch a complete game tonight.  That means that the Astros will get the relief core and the Mets relievers have a 3.65 ERA.  That isn’t a terrible stat, but they are beatable.  In the last 30 days, they have had a 3.78 ERA.

There is another issue though.  Mike Hampton is pitching tonight.  He has been pitching well lately, but I hold my breath whenever he takes the mound.  If the good Hampy shows up, we have a shot.  If the bad Hampy shows up, it isn’t going to matter when Santana gets pulled.

Slew of Injuries

The Mets have 11 people on the DL; one less than the Padres.  And we aren’t talking about backup players.  They have big time starters on the bench.  No chance for Carlos Beltran to be booed.  Their first baseman is some unknown while Delgado is recuperating.  Two of their three closers are out, so no chance for the fans to cheer Billy Wagner.  Two starting pitchers are out.  And the list goes on.

This is not their year.  And yet, they are still trying to trade for Halliday.  Either they think they have a shot at the Division once they start getting some of these players back, or Omar Minaya is even more idiotic than I thought he was.

Just Perfect

Congrats to Mark Buehrle on his perfect game yesterday.  I was especially thrilled as I picked him up for my fantasy team off of waivers at the beginning of the season.  I got 15.5 points yesterday from one player.  The phrase of the day was “suck it”.

The final score should have been 10-1 in favor of the Astros.  Instead, it was 11-6 in favor of the Astros.  Yes, Houston won, but it was an embarrassing win for the bullpen.

Wandy was masterful going 7 innings and giving up one early homerun to Mark DeRosa.  He continued his hot streak against Albert Pujols who went 0-for-3 and is 3-for-23 against Wandy in his career.  Who knew that we had the magic Pujols bullet in our pocket?  I didn’t even realize Albert struggled against anyone.

After Wandy left the game, the Astros were leading 5-1.  By the end of the game, the bullpen (Poronto and Wright) gave up 5 more runs.  Lee got his grand slam in the 7th, but the shame was already there.

There is no excuse for the bullpen to give up 5 runs in an inning.  If it wasn’t for Carlos, the team would have been in trouble and on their way to a highlight reel of things not to do if you are a reliever.  I had flashbacks of the game where Billy Wagner blew it against the Phillies back in the late 90s.  Against a good hitting team like the Cardinals, 9 runs suddenly didn’t seem like an unbeatable hurdle.

Luckily, Cooper got Poronto out as fast as he could.  Chad obviously didn’t have it going on as he was leaving pitches up and practically telling the batters what his next pitch would be.  He ended the night with a 108.00 ERA. Egads!

Tonight, the Astros go for the sweep behind the capable arm of Roy Oswalt with Berkman on the bench for pinch hit duty (strained left calf).  If they can win tonight, then they will be 1 game out of first. Don’t forget that at the moment, they are only 3 games out of the Wild Card.

It’s an important game and would be a great way to prepare for the Mets who come to town on Friday.

>> Read Richard Justice’s great article today about the Astros gearing up for the second half

The Astros were back home last night and facing the division leading St. Louis Cardinals.  This is an important series for Houston.  Before the game started, the Astros were 4 games out of first place.  With the 3-2 win behind a 3-run homer by Carlos Lee in the 4th, Houston is now 3 games behind the Cards and 1 game behind the Cubbies.

Brian Moehler was masterful giving up only 2-runs in the 4th inning and improving to 5-0 lifetime against St. Louis.  His fastball had some great movement and he ended the night with 5 strikeouts.  The bullpen made things interesting, but got it done in the end and Valverde picked up his 10th save of the season.

It was a solid win and an important one.  Even more important was the fact that the Astros defense continues to be impressive.  They have raised the bar and need to keep it at that level for the rest of the season.  It has made a difference on the first games of the second half.

The St. Louis paper, which always has great, unbiased analysis the day after, had a telling paragraph today.

“The Cardinals’ first visit to Houston this season is just in time to see the Astros getting traction for another second-half surge. The win put them above .500, at 47-46, and three games back of the Cardinals. Lefty Wandy Rodriguez starts tonight and ace Roy Oswalt goes Wednesday. Runs could be rare, which magnifies Monday’s lack of them.” – Derrick Goold

I continue to wish that the Astros wouldn’t wait until the second half to make their surge, but at least this year, they don’t need to make up 20 games.  One of these seasons, I would really like to see them stay at first or second the entire season.  I think it would help alot of heart patients.

The Astros needed to make a statement when they came back from the All-Star break.  They needed the world to know that they were for real and they wanted to win the NL Central.  Unfortunately, they were going to have to make that statement against the team with the best record in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles.

However, the best record in baseball doesn’t necessarily mean the best team in baseball.  The Dodgers have been beating up on the other teams in their division and I feel that the NL West is greatly overrated.  The Dodgers are beatable.

Right from the start on Thursday night, the Astros showed that they meant business.  When reviewing the first half of the season, I was alarmed by the amount of errors the Astros had especially Miguel Tejada.  No team is going to make it to the playoffs with such terrible fieldwork.  It seems that the Astros brass was also concerned and perhaps one of them had a long talk with the team.  Houston has made some incredible plays on the field in the past two days and they seem more determined.

Then, there is the starting pitching which has overachieved this season.  Wandy Rodriguez and Roy Oswalt were on a mission as they took the mound and they did not disappoint.  Wandy won on Thursday 3-0 and Roy pitched a complete game last night to win 8-1.  (It should have been 8-0, but Pence lost a ball in the sky and cost the Astros a run.) By the end of the game, Oswalt’s pitches were actually getting better.  His fastball had Manny Ramirez doing a doubletake.

“Nobody said this was going to be easy,” said Ramirez. “We were up against one of the best pitchers in the game, and he pitched a heck of a game.”

Today, we have Mike Hampton who has been pitching better of late and a good start could mean that the Astros will take at least 5 from the Dodgers this season.  Everyone else in baseball has been having problems with Los Angeles, but not Houston.  This will go a long way towards announcing to the world that the Astros want to make the playoffs.

Keith Olbermann had an interesting post today about the All-Star Game. While I am not sure I agree with it completely, it is still an interesting take.

>> Read the article

On July 12, MLB had its annual Futures Game showcasing some of the best prospects in baseball.  The Astros had two minor league players participating: Catcher Jason Castro and Pitcher Chia-Jen Lo.  While Castro is having a great season, Lo is not, but the Taiwanese pitcher was invited to fill out the World roster. The World ended up beating the US 7-5 with 4 runs in the top of the 7th

Lo pitched 1 inning, had 1 strikeout and gave up 2 walks that did not turn into any runs.  Not a stellar performance, but definitely not the embarrassing one that the losing pitcher, Trevor Reckling (Angels), had.  He ended the night with a 40.50 ERA, a loss and a blown save for two-thirds an inning of work.

Castro had an awesome game!  He had 2 at-bats, 1 hit, 1 run and 3 RBIs with a three-run homer in the bottom of the 5th inning with 2 outs.  It was a really great showing and further solidifies the Astros having found their catcher of the future.  He is tearing it up at Double-A.  So much so, that I now think it wouldn’t be a surprise for him to be in Triple-A by the end of the season.  He may be on the fast track to the majors for 2010.

Normally, I don’t like for players to be promoted so quickly, but he is really not having any problems in Corpus at the plate.  Of course, it depends on what he is doing behind the plate as well.  When I watched him play against San Antonio in June, he seemed to handle the pitching staff just fine, but had some problems guarding the plate.  He also had an issue throwing to third.  However, this was only one game and I would need to see more before I could make a decision on his catching prowess.

There is one thing that annoyed me about the Futures Game and it is that Castro didn’t get the MVP.  As per usual, they gave the MVP to someone from the winning team, and that’s the right call.  I guess I am just annoyed that if the US team had won, Castro probably would have gotten the MVP and it would have been nice for the Astros to get some recognition.

Everybody take a moment today and pray to God, Allah, Cthulhu or follow whatever ritual you believe in and ask him to please keep Drayton McClane from trading Jason Castro to another team for second half help.  Of all of the players we have in our minor league system, this is the one we need to keep the most.