Astros Fan Signing In [aka all things ASTROS thread]

Welcome to I Love Baseball! Please Introduce Yourselves!

I died with along many Astro's fans when they lost that epic game to the Mets in 86.

Enos used to do some side line reporting for Astros TV broadcasts back in the late 80s. He has a high, scratchy voice that is none-too-pleasant to listen to.

Dwayne Murphy also of the A's used to cock the bat up high like Jose Cruz Sr. and Cabell, but he didn't also have the high leg kick like Jose. Cruz's batting stance was weird all the way around.

Puhl's batting stance was the inverse of Brian Downing.

d00d! You're as bad as those hoodlums over on the other Astros boards I post on.

Since when does one blown save mean it's time to start callig for the closer's job? Lidge blew one last week in Atlanta so right now they're even in that department, with Lidge having fewer opportunities. I'm not taking a side either way as far as who has better stuff, it's just that Dotel has been here longer and filled in for Wagner in 2000 when he had surgery so that's who the job got handed to. Last year, there were folks saying that Dotel should be closing over Wagner (not a lot, but there were some). It's like the college backup quarterback syndrome. If a team loses one game, suddenly everybody is calling for backup to start. The problem is, if that happens, then the starter becomes the new backup and the issue just reverses itself.

The Mets whipped Clemens in 2002 (on a Shawn Estes HR, no less).

Lidge has better stats in almost every available pitching category... Why wouldn't you want the better of the 2 pitchers to close the game?

(this is exactly why i love MVP 2004).

*cough* Dan Miceli, 2 scoreless innings.

Dotel, 20.0 IP, 3.60 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, .214 BAA, .310 OBPA, .347 SLGA, .767 OPSA, 29K/10BB = 2.90K/BB, 13.05 K/9
Lidge, 22.0 IP, 2.45 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, .171 BAA, .247 OBPA, .289 SLGA, .537 OPSA, 34K/8BB = 4.25K/BB, 13.91 K/9
Miceli, 25.1 IP, 1.78 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, .240 BAA, .274 OPBA, .307 SLGA, .581 OPSA, 27K/4BB = 6.50K/BB, 10.03 K/9

Now, if we can only do something about the Cincinnati juggernaut.

http://www.rightfieldsucks.com/hecklezone/berkman.htm

And according to the Houston Chronicle, Berkman ran out to his position in left field yesterday and made a wide circle along the fence with his hand to ear, imitating Sosa's ritual. Did anybody see this?

Actually, I kinda like The Cincinatti Juggernaut. It's very imposing.

I think I need to start a Reds thread before I get on the Astro fan's nerves.

Marquis Grissom is somewhat of an underrated player. I think he had a good year last year partially because he was healthy for the first time in a couple of seasons.

The person in a lineup that has a real hard time in the NL is who is batting 8th. That guy really gets pitched around.

berkman's got a .500 OBP and is tied for 16th in the NL in runs, and i predict he'll drop from the T-3 RBI slot as he's pitched around more and more, unless HIDALGO reverts to 2000/2003 form.

gygax! will be interested to hear about Brad "Luby" Lidge's outing last night. Brought in the get the final out of the 7th, he gives up a lead-off triple in the 8th when Biggio badly misjudged a drive by John Olerud (to be fair, it was a rocket hit right at him, which is just about the toughest play to read in the game). Lidge then proceeded to coax a pop-up out of Bret Boone and then strike out Scott Spiezio and Dave Hanson.

As I am NOT a sabermetrician, not particularly, but... Re Aurilia, whatever lineup change was made -- you think I remember? -- can't possibly account for that fluke year. In Kent's case, he appears to have returned in '02 to a level he'd established before his slight off-year in 2001. Grissom's OPS is 47 points higher than last year, not much of a diff for a third of a season.

I trust all those math guys who've never found a correlation.

Protection Study (Baseball Archive):

http://www.baseball1.com/bb-data/grabiner/protstudy.html

Jeez, the Astro fans are really packin' that All-Star ballot box... voting for anyone besides Berkman and Kent is naked homerism (not a Brad Pitt in "Troy" ref).

Stats to back that up later... or not.

And we're allowed some naked homerism this year because we're hosting the darn thing! Although the truth is, the Astros haven't had a home game in a week and a half, so there are some other folks out there voting for the Good Guys.

Everett's having a decent year but doesn't look among the top 4 NL SS to me. 7th in VORP and 3rd in Zone Rating. No case.

2002 Jeff Kent splits:

batting 3rd (ie, in front of Bonds)
AB: 279
BA: .333
OBP: .387
SLG: .667
OPS: 1.054

batting 4th (ie, behind Bonds)
AB: 343
BA: .297 (-11%)
OBP: .354 (-9%)
SLG: .484 (-27%)
OPS: .838 (-20%)

I think you're greatly undervaluing his 15 SACRIFICE BUNTS!!!

I dunno 'gax, I think the anti-Protection crowd would say you haven't isolated the looming presence of Bonds as THE reason for those numbers ... Didn't know you were talking about lineup splits *within* a season. I'm underqualified to analyze (maybe if I read that article I linked)...

After looking at this:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting?split=0&league=nl&season=2004&seasonType=2&sort=avg&type=reg&ageMin=0&ageMax=99&state=0&college=0&country=0&hand=a&pos=ss

my conclustion is the Royce Clayton should be the All-Star starter. Wait, did you say he plays for Colorado? In that case, let's go with Jack Wilson.

Also, I think I need to get off the "Barry Larkin is Done" soapbox I've been on for the last couple of years. Among shortstops, his numbers are very respectable.

Dotel, 31.2 IP, 3.13 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, .216 BAA, .299 OBPA, .397 SLGA, .695 OPSA, 46K/14BB = 3.29K/BB, 13.07 K/9
Lidge, 38.1 IP, 2.58 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, .170 BAA, .255 OBPA, .304 SLGA, .559 OPSA, 62K/13BB = 4.77K/BB, 14.56 K/9
Miceli, 40.1 IP, 3.79 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, .258 BAA, .293 OPBA, .377 SLGA, .671 OPSA, 40K/9BB = 4.44K/BB, 8.93 K/9

Nice outing from newly acquired Pete Munro starting in Pettitte's slot in the rotation. 6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Final score: 5-0 Astros. Bagwell homered. #429 lifetime.

Good: Brad Lidge picked up a save tonight.

Bad: He gave up a home run in the process.

REY ORDONEZ PLEASE GO AWAY.

Is this how gygax! envisioned Lidge taking over the closer job?

Nice catch by old man Biggio out in left field today, it saved a run.

And Biggio's was with nobody on, so it probably didn't save a run. Still, it was a gutsy play.

????

TOO DAMN OLD.

And the kicker is that he's been the only Astro to stay immune to the team's Reznorian Spiral at the plate. His average has hovered around .300 all year and has never dropped below .295. His HR pace is about what it has been troughout his career. So you can't very well bench his ass.

I haven't seen highlights and the game recap is a bit vague. A Cubs board I visit said he and the ump had ahold of each other's shirts.

Bob Watson's going to need an industrial-sized In box this week.

With the Cubs loss tonight and Astros win, they are now in the lead of the Wild Card by a 1/2 game.

I wouldn't put money on them staying for the next few days looking at their projected starters in the next three games. Clemens and Oswalt will start again this weekend. Then again, they are playing the Pirates, so they have a shot at keeping the streak alive with the dreg starters.

Cincinnatti has been the rag doll of every team in the pennant chase. Their pitching has turned to complete suckola and it wasn't very good to start.

If you mean the wild card race, I think you're confusing them with the Mets (or the Win Howes?).

I think Berkman is edging toward MVP Runnerup contention.

Say what you want about Frank Robinson, the Expos are at least giving teams a game. They definitely are not cutting the Cubs any easy breaks and the Cards recently had some close games with Les Expos.

Boston v Houston, a Kerry vs Enron Series??

there were a lot of 'god is on our side' postgame interviews coming out of that clubhouse.

The Astros employ the majors' only full-time team chaplain. Good for the them, I say.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=1888427

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/hou/news/hou_news.jsp?ymd=20041101&content_id=908765&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp

However, this has the potential to get worse later on. If and when he decides to be a GM again, I have a feeling he could do some real damage for a team like the Yankees or the Cubs that would offer him a lot less payroll restraint.

Y'all should hope this means Ausmus is gone.

http://astros.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/hou/news/hou_news.jsp?ymd=20041105&content_id=910780&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp

that's surprising.

2004 1.90 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, .174 BAA, 6W-5L, 29 Saves, 8HR (8% HR/IP), 30BB (2.58BB/9), 157K (14.93K/9, 5.23 K:BB)
2005 2.29 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, .223 BAA, 4W-4L, 42 Saves, 5HR (7% HR/IP), 23BB (2.93BB/9), 103K (13.12K/9, 4.48 K:BB)
2006 6.53 ERA, 1.84 WHP, .266 BAA, 0W-2L, 12 Saves, 3HR (15% HR/IP), 17BB (7.40BB/9), 28K (12.19K/9, 1.65 K:BB)

It is indeed a small sample size.

Lidge had 23 walks last season, and only 17 so far this year. At this rate Lidge will only issue 6 walks the rest of the season.

And the same with homeruns: 5 HRs last season vs. only 3 HRs in the past 7 weeks. This small sample size dictates that Lidge will only give up 2 more HRs for the remainder of the season.

BASERUNNING
SB: P Wilson 2 (5, 2nd base off T Armas Jr/M LeCroy, 3rd base off T Armas Jr/M LeCroy); E Bruntlett 2 (2, 2nd base off T Armas Jr/M LeCroy, 3rd base off T Armas Jr/M LeCroy); W Taveras (6, 2nd base off S Rivera/M LeCroy); C Burke (3, 2nd base off S Rivera/M LeCroy); M Ensberg (1, 2nd base off J Rauch/M LeCroy)