Astros have lost 20 of the last 27. Dam. Everett breaks leg. Dam. Can't find a middle infielder who can hit .250. Dam. I'm guesing Jennings is headed for the DL again. Dam. Welcome Chan Ho Park. Dam. The baseball gods hate Houston. :bncry:
jennings winless as an astro. carlos' fatazz kills the only defense up the middle we had. now a better bat in loretta takes over but his range is negative. this should be good. i read this a few weeks ago:
I just want to think the Astros and their fans for such a wonderful trade! I never thought I'd see the day when the Rockies would sweep the series on the road from any team much less the Red Sox. I really can't believe how they've turned it around in recent weeks although I really don't know what to expect for the rest of the year. Keep in mind that the Rockies vs Astros are only a few weeks away! I will say that after years of bad trades and bad free agent signings the Rockies finally got one right! I might not be able to call them the Colorado Rookies before too long!
Folks living close to the Dell Diamond have been warned to put their cars in the garage and keep kids and pets indoors this evening. Chan Ho Park is starting for the Express.
Pence is on his way to being a big time player. I figured he would do OK, given his athleticism and consistent hitting at every level. I never thought he would be this good though. For the record, I still hate the Tavaras trade, and will always hate it. There's virtually nothing that can happen for me to not hate it. I've actually been impressed by Carlos Lee in left. He's about as fast (slow) as advertised, but he takes really good angles to balls, and has an above average arm.
Ho pitched 6 innings last nite for the Express. Gave up 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 BB, 4 SO, 2 WP. Lost to Randy Keisler who pitched 7 innings, 6 hits, 1 run, 8 SO, 3 BB. Also, Nick Stavinoha (.287, 9 HR) went 2 for 5 with a ribby for Memphis. Interesting story in today's paper about Rick Ankiel who played outfield for Memphis last nite. He's trying to make it back to the bigs as a hitter. You may remember him in 2000 pitching for the Cards in the NLDS. With a 6 run lead, he threw 5 wild pitches in the 3rd inning. Career absolutely melted down after that. I looked him up and found that he signed outta high school for $2.5 million. Finally, in 2000, he allowed 7.05 hits per 9 innings. That was second in the league to................Chan Ho Park.
ankiel had been tearing it up and was almost close to a call-up a month or so ago. gotta respect a guy with that much moxy. he told them to stop using him as a pitcher a few years ago then moved to left. hes hanging in there at least. tough transition though.
Nashville's Manny Parra threw a perfect game against the Express last night winning 3-0 in his second AAA start. 8th perfect game in PCL history. He threw 77 of 107 pitches for strikes and hit 94 mph on his 106th pitch. 11 strikeouts.
The Jennings/Taveras-Hirsch-Buccholz trade still sucks. Now that I've gotten that out of my system, it's looking more and more like Hunter Pence will be the future face of the Astros and could be a legit superstar. Walk-off HR, after a galliant relief outing from the bullpen, capped off by Albers getting out of a monstrous jam. And is it just me, or is Biggio swinging the stick a lot better without the pressure of the silly non-record? Like I've said many times, the Stros are a great team to watch sometimes. Tonight was just awesome though. I can't believe they're 10 games under .500.
Still hate this trade. I'm pretty sure Purpura should be fired because of this move alone. Imagine Pence in right, Taveras shaded towards left, and having more than one guy in the line up with some speed. Oh, and a couple pitching prospects that seem better than the damaged goods, one year rental of Jennings.
