(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
At 36-38 and only two games out of last place in the N.L. Central, the Houston Astros don't exactly seem like a team destined for that long-elusive World Series championship. But when you consider Houston's only four games behind the Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers, who are 41-35, maybe there's hope.
Or maybe we're just becoming joining Cecil Cooper in our misplaced optimism.
They say offense wins games and defense wins championships. In baseball, a good defense becomes great when it knows it can rely on an offense that isn’t so bad it gets no-hit during batting practice.
That being said, I'm still not sold on the Astros winning the Central. At least this isn’t the early 80s, when my Dad liked to refer to Houston as the DisAstros.
Yeah, yeah, I know that Astros manager Cecil Cooper predicted before the season Houston would win 90 games. This means he thought they would go 90-72, 18 games over .500.
Cooper, no doubt the president of the Houston chapter of the Optimist Club, probably also thinks Houston’s not really that humid, or that Paris Hilton would make a great Secretary of State.
About a week ago, I jokingly suggested on this blog that an intervention for Dallas Cowboys owner/general manager/president/aspiring head coach Jerry Jones was in order.
Perhaps an intervention does need to be done for both Cooper and Astros owner Drayton McLane (And, of course, for whoever was foolish enough to advise McLane the Astros’ current ugly uniforms looked “cool”, but that’s a story I’ve dealt with before).
Here’s why I don’t see this as Houston’s year. For one, their starting pitching is shaky. They have two great starters in Roy Oswalt and Wandy Rodriguez. Roy O’s been having a rocky year, something I like to attribute in part to a shaky offense.
After all, how would you do if you knew your chances of winning a game would diminish if you gave up more than two runs?
Rodriguez got off to a great start, giving Houston, potentially, its first great left-handed starter (providing he can break his habit of tipping off pitches) since Mike Hampton’s first tour. Some forget Hampton was very successful his first time around in Houston.
Yes, Andy Pettitte is a lefty who once pitched for Houston, but he struggled with injuries while here.
Sometimes, I think Houston’s problem with starters is that they tend to acquire guys who are, frankly, past their prime. A few years ago, Houston acquired area native Jason Jennings, who promptly flopped while pitching for his hometown.
As for Hampton, as one letter writer told me many blogs ago, it looks as though Hampton was acquired more as a temporary fix while Houston tries to develop its pitchers in the minors.
Brandon Backe has had some good starts, but he’s also struggled mightily—hence his 10.38 ERA. He's been been off and on as an Astros starter, has rejected an assignment to the minors, and may be done in Houston.
In the bullpen, it’s been inconsistent. Some nights they do better than the starters did, and other nights they seem to think they’re pitching batting practice.
I used to loathe Greg Maddux when he’d paint corners and consistently shut Houston down (and, yes, I also suspected umpires would give him a strike zone the size of Arizona). Maybe he’d make a great pitching coach.
As far as the offense goes, it’s definitely been off and on. Some nights it’s great, many other nights it struggles the way comedian Carrot Top struggles to get AT&T to let him do more of those annoying “It’s free for you and cheap for them” commercials.
Currently, three regular players, Miguel Tejada, Carlos Lee, and Hunter Pence, are hitting over .300. Lance Berkman, who will doubtlessly go down as one of the game’s all-time great switch hitters, has struggled this year and is currently hitting .256—an improvement over his slow start.
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