Sometimes there’s no place like away from home. At least that’s what many Astros fans thought after the team followed a 6-1 road trip with a 1-5 homestand. The can’t-win-at-Enron-Field explanation of what’s ailing the Astros was punctured, though, by a sweep at Los Angeles last weekend. The ineptitude against the Dodgers suggests that the problem isn’t the ballpark, but the ballclub.
By Waldo
Editor’s note - This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on May 25, 2001.
When a team gets off to a bad start, its fans will generally say “It’s still early, we can still turn it around.” I, for one, was guilty of that with the Astros last season. I’m not quite sure how long I allowed myself to use that excuse before I finally realized how much the team actually sucked. The expectations one has for a team can often make him/her blind to the cold, hard truth, and I’m fairly certain that I wasn’t the only victim of that last season (at least, for a little while). (more…)
By Breedlove
Editor’s note - This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on May 24, 2001.
“Leading off for the Houston Astros… Number 7… Second-baseman… Craig… Biggio.”
It’s been awhile since we’ve heard those familiar words. They’re warm and fuzzy and they feel like home… and it will help the Astros win if we hear them again. (more…)
The Astros are among the top clubs in the National League at getting runners on base. Their 13.84 baserunners per game trail only Colorado’s 14.41 and San Diego’s 14.11. With so many ducks on the pond, Astros sluggers have had ample chances to build their RBI totals.
By Breedlove
Editor’s note - This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on May 17, 2001.
With a fifth of the schedule complete and no real production from third base since the early weeks of the season, the Astros began to examine ways to solidify the starting eight. Despite his maturity, great attitude, and a healthy homerun binge to start the year, at .217/.289/.450 with an error every five starts, Chris Truby just was not getting it done. (more…)
In The Baseball Book 1991, Bill James, examining the question of whether Nolan Ryan’s strikeout record would ever be broken, wrote, “Because more batters are using whip-handled bats, strikeout rates are still going up. They went down for several years, in the mid-seventies, but they’re going back up now, have been for several years.”
By Knoxbanedoodle
Editor’s note - This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on May 11, 2001.
The recent explosion of little ball talk on the TZ got me thinking about patterns in the Astros offense over the past couple years. Admittedly, when I started looking into the numbers I did so with the aim of discovering that little balls pays off, that Weaver-ball is overrated and Dierker isn’t getting the most of his offensive tools by standing around and waiting for the three run bomb. Even in a stadium like Enron there is a definite need to occasionally be able to manufacture a run, and, going further, perhaps there is a radical new way to blend the two diametrically opposed styles of baseball into a cool new battle plan. Here’s what I found: (more…)
A little more than 10 years ago, 32-year-old Rickey Henderson was on top of the baseball world. Coming off an MVP season in 1990, Henderson, then with the Athletics, stole his 939th base on May 1, 1991, breaking Lou Brock’s career record. While Brock took 19 seasons and 1,245 attempts to set the mark, Henderson required slightly more than 12 seasons and 1,154 attempts to overtake it.
By Michael N
Editor’s note - This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on May 8, 2001.
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Editor’s note - This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com.
Depending on when this gets posted, Jose Lima’s 2nd “last chance” of the year happens tonight or happened yesterday. Watching the Astros so far this season, I get the feeling that El Burro’s “last chances” are going to resemble KISS farewell concerts. Like KISS, he’s flamboyant, he had limited success over an even more limited period of time, and none of them can sing. (more…)
How did they do?
The Astros streaked out of the gate 8-3 but went 4-9 the rest of the way. The differences between the two halves of the month, particularly on the mound, are stark:
Dates R/G ERA --------------------- 4/03-4/15 5.64 3.83 4/16-4/30 5.15 6.47
