(Insert Joke Here About The Astros)
 

i don't pretend to follow them but i heard on AM 790 that to be competitive in the WILD CARD race they would have to go 45 and 15 (or something close to that). so they dealt for randy wolf and said that he's the answer to spark such an insane 2nd half run. why do the astros count on miracles? it happened once, so instead of calling that the norm realize that IS NEVER going to happen again.

what sucks is that this type of.......baseball........is probably going to continue until hope is completely lost on the team and everybody quits going to see the big names we're wasting. drayton-ball, buddy-ball, the good ole' boy system, all that needs to stop. 8 dollars per beer needs to stop. the jackrabbit mascot needs to be burned on home plate as a sacrifice to the baseball gods who placed a curse upon that diamond when pujols went big fly all over our faces. appease them already drayton, we don't want to go through a kansas city royal-ing.

If it was me I would shop everyplayer over 29 that is not named Lance. Take what you can get. Play as many young kids as you can, I know most will be over matched but at least they will have some fight to them.

The year Bagwell won the Rookie of the Year award, the Astros team was made up of young unproven players, and they where fun to watch. People will buy into it if they players are seen as trying.

I'm amazed that people actually listen to the trash on 790.

I've been to a handful of games this year, and I still love going to the park. baseball in April with the roof open is a treat. Sucks that the product has been terrible the past few years.

I love baseball, and we have a great facility, but I do not have the commitment to the Astros like I do with my Texan PSL, so I will not go to any more games once the pigskin gets booted. I'd rather sit at home and watch college FB than the crap the Astros are rolling out. I might allocate my non-Texans sporting events to the Rockets and Aeros. At least those two products are entertaining.

it's better than listening to rome. i can't do it man, i can't. charlie palilo is good, don't even deny it. i listen to palilo on the way home and the monster show instead of rome whenever i go make deliveries.

i love baseball, always have, yet the way the astros are dismantling right now i had to let them go after about 18 years or so of being an avid fan. basically as far back as i can remember. couple that with drayton, ed wade and his terrible attempts to jedi-mind-trick everyone into believing this team is still good, 8 dollar flat/warm/lite beer, a stadium that i don't really like to go to yadayadayada....

The Astros are pretty painful to watch. It's not getting to get better anytime soon with the mess the farm system is. I don't think it's in McClane's make up to rebuild the team with young players and go through a couple of seasons to mature.

well at the least he could quit acting like the fans are stupid. everyone sees they are struggling, why can't he, cooper, wade, anybody say, "yea, we're a pretty bad team right now with little hope in sight but here are the things we are doing to fix them. 1, 2 and 3. we hope that the inevitable dip in competitiveness isn't enough to drive you away from our ballpark to enjoy the games. furthermore we have burned junction jack to death in honor of the price slashing we have commited for concessions. i mean, food and drink THAT poorly prepared shouldn't be THAT expensive. in addition all the quirks we added into the homerun walls are being done away with because they are gimmicky and silly. also, ed wade has been fired. and drayton has given full control to one of the young, up-and-comer candidates that we should've hired in the first place instead of doing the good-ole-boy system that got us here. we've also changed the general theme of the stadium back to the futuristic ideas we had in the mid/late 90s. i mean, what in the hell does a train, a jackrabbit, and old west themes have to do with an astro? isn't astro kind of short for astronaut? things are going to change starting now!"

okay, since Astros have had a mini turnaround, should give them their profs now, ie. gone from like 12 games below .500 to 2 games over .500 since acquiring two more or less unknown pitchers, actually Roy Oswalk being back seems to be a big boost, and hitters are hitting right now. What are they, now 8 games out of wild card? still possible for them to make playoffs this year if they continue current streak of 16-20 over last 20 games. okay, can be hopeful can't we?

They beat the Reds and Giants, two terrible teams and games they should have won. Am I glad they won, sure, but they are not a wildcard contender.

I think they will have a reality check playing the Brewers. Let's not be like Astros Management and think this is a team that can contend. They are closer to being like the Pirates, Giants and Reds than the Cubs, D-Backs and Brewers.

the dodgers picked up manny ramirez to put them over the top. c.c. sabathia went to the brewers....TEXIERA WENT TO THE ANGELS....like they needed it....

....the astros? oh yea, the stud pickup of journeyman lefty randy wolf. what is their rotation now? oswalt, wandy, backe, moehler, wolf?

so a guy that is pitching his way out of his "stud" title, half a pitcher, a decent AAA guy, a journeyman on a career year, and a journeyman who is doing pretty bad since we traded for him? i guess at least sampson is back in the pen....

ty wiggonton decides to show up for a week and everybody is acting like they knew who he was all along. maybe the free trips around the bases got enough blood into his legs that he'll play defense for a week or two too....

miguel tejada, bumdum pssssshh. i actually feel bad for him...now that carlos lee is hurt no hispanics are showing up for the game. he thought he was part of the racial marketing schemes drayton employs...how cute. speaking of carlos lee, hopefully his time off will be put toward losing that 30 pounds he seemed to gain since he's been here. he was fat before the +30.

brad ausmus is still our catcher. by choice.

go astros. "contend"

Actually I think a strong finish for the Astros is probably one of the worse things that can happen for the team. If they come close to the wild card I don't see McClain making any changes other than adding another high priced vet and a bunch of middle of the road players. The Astros will continue to slowly circle the drain until all you will hera is crickets chirping in Minute Maid.

Well, all fair enough points. Probably adding one stud player wouldn't help put us over the top, maybe it would. Manny is okay, but we had Carlos in that position, of course he's hurt now. Texeiria is good but we got Berkman in that spot. And Sabathia, that would be a boost for a couple months, but he's a free agent, likely off to NYC for next year.

Pitching is for sure our weakest link this year, we knew that in April, too bad this hasn't had someone really step up, but it has been okay to be around .500, which is better than some expected for the year, likely not good enough over the year to get us into playoffs.

Might be a fun off season of changes coming, I hope so. I think changes will happen whether we make playoffs( not likely this year) or not. I always like to see teams try to win and do best they can. Maybe even surprize a few people.

that was more or less to point out that teams who are really contending (acquisitions that make a difference) and teams who are blowing smoke up their fans' butts....like the astros. randy wolf isn't going to be the "over-the-top" guy on any team, let alone this one that is struggling to be 7 games out of the wild card race.

well, I think they have been entertaining this past month and maybe the first month of the season, the middle was pretty bad. like 27-10 over last month or so is pretty good. Tye Wigginton and Jeff Blum are hot at the plate now. Just swept Cardinals followed by Cubbys who have best record in majors. And pitchers ERAs doing a little better over last couple of weeks including the complete game shutout by Randy Wolf and Valverde is being unhittable as a closer right now.

I think Tejada was an upgrade at shortstop.

if we go say 14-8 over last 22 games we could end up at respectable 88 wins, but still likely out of wildcard.

I think we'll go after a few good pitchers in offseason no matter how this ends up. perhaps a catcher and center fielder . maybe a big trade or two. I hope we for sure hold onto Pence, Berkman, Oswalt.

dude, most people would be an upgrade at shortstop over adam everett, much less a former mvp.
drayton is not going after that many guys. he'll go get ben sheets or one other decent pitcher and call it an offseason. just enough to keep people coming back. and given the astros history of terrible trades, i don't think i would be calling for one.

Oswalt had a nice 1 hit complete game shutout last night against Rockies in Denver. Nice to see Roy getting his old form back.

on top of the other things that suck about the astros...


....how many times this year have we heard that "roy is back"? at least 6 or 7. where does he keep going? downhill? is he deteriorating or is it just fun to say that "he's back"?

I don't post on any Astros boards so this'll be my only outlet...

Props to Houston's own (Klein Forest '98) Mark Saccomanno for becoming the 100th player in history to homer in his first major league at bat!

well Oswalt is 14-9 this season and 7-1 since all star break, which means he was 7-8 before all star break. thus the words back from a bad start to the season compared to previous years.

I don't post on Astros anywhere else either, but enjoy watching baseball,
agree the two prospects just brought up helped win game today , pitcher Arias and infielder pinch hitter Saccomano.

i guess, i really only hear stuff about the astros on the radio. occassionally i'll catch a few innings and you're right, i did hear "he's back" more in the early stages of the season but that's still a common phrase for this year. i guess he's just been up and down all season...