The New Season

The team looks better than I expected. Better defense and really good offense. We have pitchers too!!! Woody looked acceptable today.  Runelvys Hernandez looked like someone who is about to retire one way or another.

Hope to go to Fan Feast with a couple of my kids this weekend. One will wet his pants to meet a few Astros. May have to carry a change of clothes for him.

One More Week

Just one more week until spring training begins. Should be interesting. Our double play combo will need translators to communicate at all. Our pitching staff will probably have a revolving door for a while.

My sons were playing a baseball game on the Wii a couple of nights ago. the game ended 32-30 after 6 innings. Might be a foreshaddowing of this season.

On the positive side, the Bill James formulas predict we will win about 83 games and Ty Wigginton delivered his baby without dropping it our throwing it into the stands.

Here Comes 2008

The Astros published their reporting dates for spring training this week. Pitchers will report on Feb. 14 and position players will report on Feb. 19. Ty Wigginton will report on Feb 28th, since he is not really in either group.

This will be a weird year. Ed Wade, the new GM, has pretty much gutted the team from last year. I understand why he did it, by it really hard to say goodbye to players that have become like part of my family. Everett, Lamb, Luke, Lidge, Ensberg, Qualls, Lane and Burke. Plus the guys we were looking forward to getting to know, like Troy Patton and Josh Anderson. If they try to trade Backe or Ausmus, my wife will personally hunt down the responsible parties. My son asked if they were going to trade Berkman after he criticized the degree of turnover. After the Grocery Man ditched Billy Wagner after he criticized the team, it is not an idle question.

The offense will definitely be better, even if Miguel Tejada has a "letdown" this season. Pitching will be a work in progress. The left side of the field will be a huge gaping hole defensively. Tejada is average, but he is replacing the best glove man in baseball at short. Carlos wasn't as bad as his reputation in left field, but he is still way below average. Wigginton looks like a first baseman playing third out of necessity (which he is). 

I have not broke out the Bill James formulas yet, but my hunch is that we will be about where we were last year. Good enough to make noise but not good enough to win. Good enough to fill seats and turn the Grocery Man a tidy profit but not good enough to stretch the payroll.