Despite winning their last two home series and going 4-2 over the last week, the Astros woke up this morning 10 games behind the Cardinals, in third place in the division with 38 games left in the season.
Archive for the ‘Zipper Flap’ Category
What is left to say?
On August - 24 - 2009
Neither a Buyer Nor a Also-Ran Be…
On June - 23 - 2009
There are no great teams in Major League Baseball. Sure, the Dodgers and Red Sox appear to be running away with the the National League West and the American League East, respectively. And certainly, there are T-ball teams with a better chance of making the playoffs than the Washington Nationals. But other than the six division leaders, there are 23 additional teams within 10 games of being in the playoffs. So that’s 29 out of 30 teams with a shot at the playoffs. Twenty-three of those teams are at worst 5 games below .500. Everyone is “in”, at least on June 23rd. In theory, it should make for great baseball, with every team feeling like they are in it each and every game. So the season should be chock full of moments like this past weekend when eleven games were won in the last at-bat.
Who cares about the Rangers?
On June - 16 - 2009
After winning 5 series in a row, your Houston Astros are still in last place. But with momentum. I guess. Read the rest of this entry »
The Future Is Now?
On June - 8 - 2009
The good news…The Astros have won their last three series, including this weekend’s home tilt with the Pirates of Pittsburgh. They’re climbing (ever so slowly) back to .500 and after a pretty bad start to the season are only 5 games back of the wildcard spot in the National League.
Et tu, Cooper?
On May - 28 - 2009
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. In watching the ongoing melt-down that is the career of one Cecil Cooper as manager of the Houston Astros, there are a lot of parallels that come to mind. It’s starting to feel reminiscent of President Richard Nixon’s last days in office or perhaps General George Custer’s final planning meetings with his lieutenants (although we’d probably need to ask Jim R to be sure). Baseball-wise, Cooper is facing adversity both on the field and in the clubhouse. His starting pitching has been sub-par, his offense has been non-existent and his bullpen, supposedly the rock for him to rely on, has been decimated by injury. As a result of all those things (but not only those things), his charges, the Astros are 18-27, in last place in the division and currently in possession of the 3rd worst record in all of baseball. In response, Cooper is traveling down an unfortunate but familiar path for failed managers: fighting battles through the media, particularly with your players. Read the rest of this entry »
Time To Get Offensive
On May - 19 - 2009
After a valiant effort that captured the imagination of sports fans across the city, the Houston Rockets fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in a hard-fought 7-game series this past Sunday. Which, in Houston, meant that both the fans and the media remembered somewhere around Monday morning that Houston also has a baseball team. Unfortunately, that team is the Astros. The ones currently in 5th place in a 6-team division. The ones who are about to open a series with the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers. The same Brewers who just swept the Co-Ardinals to take sole possession of 1st place in that same 6-team division. Uh-oh.