Houston Astros Baseball

Mayday, Mayday...Astros Sinking!

The Astros are 4-15 since May 25th and 3-10 in June. "Houston we have a problem" In case you missed it (lucky you) The Astros capped their disappointing month with a brutal, BRUTAL beating from the Bronx Bombers. Nothing like a 13-0 loss to really get you thinking. The loss, which was the finally of a three game sweep by The Yankees in our house, really shed some light on The Astros weaknesses. Our offense was bad, Roy Oswalt was the offensive player of the game going 2-2 yeah, that bad! Our pitching was just dreadful, nothing new and The Astros looked dead.


So, what's going on? Well, to be honest I have taken the last couple days off writing on here hoping The Astros would win a couple and keep me from sounding like a downer, but let's face it this team will be in last by Tuesday, if not sooner. Let's look at the facts:

When looking at The Astros team statistics from both sides of the ball and comparing them to say a month ago when The Astros could do no wrong there isn't a whole lot different.

The Astros are still ranked well in runs scored (9th/311) and ranked very high in batting average (4th/.264) and again are above average in total bases (6th/979). So, it would appear that our offense isn't to blame for a blunt of our problems, let's look at pitching.

The Astros team ERA ranks poorly (12th/4.50) with our starters alone posting a 4.77 ERA good enough for 13th in The NL. To supplement this information, The Astros rank 10th in quality starts (33) and worst in HR's given up (98). So, it would appear that although we have had our offensive struggles the overwhelming blame should be placed on the pitching staff.

How about the bullpen? The Astros bullpen isn't terrible in terms of ERA, ranking 10th (4.01ERA) and do stand out as having the fewest Blown Saves in The NL(5). So, the bullpen is good then? Not quite, The Astros bullpen ranks 2nd in allowing the most total bases (367) and posts the absolute worst slugging percentage against in The NL (.448) the next closest is St. Louis with .413. You guessed it, that slugging percentage against is a product of allowing the most HR's of any bullpen in The NL(33) . So, our starters stink and give up lots of HR's and our bullpen is ok but gives up lots of HR's, that's a recipe to lose.

So what now? Where The Astros go from here is anyones guess. My guess is that nothing changes for a little while. The Astros have a interesting schedule this month and look to sell lots of tickets during inter league month giving Drayton no reason to change a thing. I think once all this Red Sox, Yankee hoopla subsides and The Astros are left an abundant amount of home games after The All Star Break and Drayton sees ticket sales going down he will be forced to make a move. I am highly skeptical that he would agree to any trade giving away Oswalt, Tejada, or Pence. The other "stars" have no-trade clauses and aren't expected to waive those. So, in the end we may be witness to a pretty pathetic last gasp at regaining the season with a couple mediocre moves to bring in over the hill veteran pitching to try and patch this pitching staff back together, but in the end will have little effect.

What would I do? There isn't much that can be done really, but just for fun...

If The Astros are 10+ games back two weeks before the Trade Deadline (July 31) then I would try and trade Tejada for a bounty of high level prospects. His resurgence year will increase his value and losing his $13 Million salary would be nice as well. To replace him, I would bring up surging Tommy Manzella. Remember last year? Even though the team stunk it was fun to watch the young guys, Tommy can be that, but has a slight chance to stay. Tommy is considered a Adam Everett defender with a better bat.

This year Tommy was hitting very well in AA (.300/.346/.446) and was promoted to AAA. His performance in AAA will determine how loose I would be with Miggy. So far so good, in Tommy's first game in AAA he went 3-5 with a 2B and 3 RBI.

This sounds good and all, but I believe that Miggy some sort of no-trade clause, maybe limited but would have to agree on the team, and getting a decent bounty would be tough for the perpetually again SS. In summary, as Astros fans, we are in store for a long year. Hopefully, we can at least make it interesting.

Ps. The last time that I wrote The Astros stunk we started winning, so cross your fingers.

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