Really? You could’ve fooled me! Pitchers and catchers report, and we get nothing. Position players report . . . nothing! Everyone’s pussy-footing around the new manager, saying all the right things and showing up for camp early (brown-nosers!). This all leads to Spring Training reports with all the incite and pep of Alan Ashby’s play-by-play. Yawn.

I know ST games mean nothing, but I’m wasting away waiting for someone to actually throw a pitch in anger!

The Power Station

Naming rights issues mean that, rightly or wrongly, the name “Enron” is stuck on the Astros’ crib for a while. The nickname EFUS is a derivative of that name, and needs to be retired. I always thought it was a little contrived in any case ? and I have bad memories of it as I was laughed off the air by Charlie and Rich when I suggested it to them in my one and only appearance on Houston talk radio. (more…)

By Gene Elston
Editor’s note - This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on February 19, 2002.

Here’s a tip-o-the-cap to baseball franchises avoiding the use of corporate names on their ball parks!

It’s like a waft of fresh spring air, to tradionalists like me, to hear as the baseball season returns, the names: Wrigley Field, Dodger Stadium, Veterans Stadium, Busch Stadium, Fenway Park, Comiskey Park, Yankee Stadium and Skydome. (more…)

By groovydude
Editor’s note - This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on February 18, 2002.

The movie Eight Men Out was on TV tonight, and I watched it. Again. This movie is the story of the 1919 World Series and the Chicago White Sox, later known as the Black Sox, who conspired with gamblers to fix the Series. Watching Eight Men Out reminded me of Ted Williams. (more…)

Baseball statistics measure performance, not ability. Performance obviously results in part from ability, but baseball statistics also reflect randomness, or luck. A player might bat .310 one season and .290 the next without any appreciable decline in ability. In 600 at-bats, the difference between .310 and .290 is 12 hits, one every 50 at-bats or about every two weeks. Clearly chance alone might explain such a small discrepancy.

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Going back to the well a second time in the space of a week is pretty ambitious. It’s not really that soon, though, as my debut effort had been written for about a week before K&S got it up on the site. There was a delay while they made room for me in the database - suddenly Dierker’s recent quote about shoveling ten pounds of (manure) into a 5-pound bag seems relevant. Of course, Breedlove went for two columns in as many days, and look what happened to him! The “Brushback” feature doesn’t even get a link on the front page any more.

Franklin

The Astros kissed off their very un-special, lefty specialist this week. Unable to get out hitters of any orientation, Wayne has languished in the Astros system. The only thing of note he’s done is to cause some of the TZ Popes to get all in a tizzy about his presence on the 40-man roster, exposing some of the potential talent on the farm to the Rule 5 draft.

Hipolito Pichardo takes his place, ensuring that the tizzyness over unprotected prospects will continue. (more…)

To break the trend of previous MVP Award recipients, I have decided to increase my presence on the site rather than disappear into the miasma. Kev and Scott have foolishly granted me this corner of AstrosConnection forever England, and I intend to use it. At least twice.

What can you expect? Well, there’ll be shite-loads of nugatory humor, exegeses on all things Euro, fuliginous pop culture references, catechization of the Astros and grandiloquence out the ying-yang.

Let’s start with the Astros, shall we? For almost the entire off-season, all we’d seen the club do is say “TTFN” to some talented, some not so talented but useful, some talented, useful but injury tainted free agents?and Scott Servais. In return they gave us cult hero C.J., fellow Meaty-Cheesy Boy T.J. and a bunch of never-wases like Tripp Cromer. (more…)

Last season the Brewers shattered the major-league club record by striking out 1,399 times, eclipsing the mark of 1,268 set by the 1996 Tigers. As power-hitting has come to dominate the game, increasingly more players are swinging for the fences with whip-handled bats that generate tremendous speed over the plate. Coupled with changes to the strike zone in 2001, the result for the Brewers was lots of home runs and lots of strikeouts.

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By Neil T.
Editor’s note - This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on February 5, 2002.

I promise this has something to do with baseball, and not just my children. Bear with me.

I have two children. Austin is my daughter. She’s 15 and she’s Ivy League smart, very pretty, and very talented. She is more fun to go to a baseball game with than anyone I know. She yells with joy at every strike and despises the wave. (more…)