I am torn. Berkman WILL hit....so will Lee. The bullpen won't be an unmitigated disaster all year. By the end of the year OP won't be team offensive MVP. History shows us that. But there is ample cause for concern. The outfield defense needs a laughtrack, the pitching rotation is Roy, JJ and 3 guys who have either overstayed their welcome or aren't ready. I know the popular thing to do is to blame the whole thing on the quest for 3000. But I honestly don't think we have Rogers Hornsby waiting in the wings to step in at second...or Mickey Mantle in the OF being held back while Craig takes his cuts. Anyway just my thoughts.
The bad thing is the longer it takes to get that first win, the deeper the hole they will dig and the harder it will be to climb out; the good news is that this is happening at the very beginning of the season and there's plenty of time to overcome this (unlike in years past where it's taken nothing short of a miracle). Not time to panic; this team is a helluva lot better than what they're showing now. For whatever reason they're just now playing like it.
what if they arent that good...what if this team is just below average and this is what they are? only our top 2 rotation pitchers will give us a chance to win and if we dont then the bottom 3 is a crap shoot based on our offense performing above average.
I gave up making predictions about the Astros a few years ago. Their performance always defies explanation. So I'm just along for the ride. I'll ride with them through the ups and through the downs. I'm a fan through it all, but I have no expectations.
Well said. I do have some expectations, however. I want us to realize and play to our potential. If we do that, then we will be okay.
Being nit picky: We have seen the 5th starter. Sampson threw 3 scoreless innings against the Pirated Wednesday night. He gave up 2 hits and had 2 K's.
Way too early still. I think we can worry about the bullpen and the offense, but there have only been 4 games and that is not near enough to see how it is really going to go especially considering the fact that Adam Everett has been hitting better than Lance to this point. What does Lance have 3 singles? That's gonna change
I'd feel more pessimistic if that is actually how we lost the first 4 games... the reality is, we've gotten 4 out of 5 quality starts, and our MVP calibur player has the worst batting average of all regulars. The Lidge/Wheeler hiccups were unfortunate, but we should have scored more runs in both games. In the end, we still have to win games like that... but the sentiment was that the offense needed to be better with the lesser pitching this year. So far, the pitching has actually been better... and the offense worse. Go figure.
Starting pitching hasn't been bad. Berkman and Lee will come around. 21 games left in April: What end of April record would make you guys happy? 15 - 10? 14 - 11? 13 - 12? If we aren't back to .500 by the end of the month... that's when I'll start to worry.. especially with several games against CIN(2), MIL(6), and 3 more with PIT.
obviously its a small amount of games and the big hitters will perform while the weak hitters will falter....the quality starts wont be many coming from the end of the rotation (if history is any indication).
Face it Astros lovers, this team just isn't that good. Sorry. Too many holes on this team. I think they'll be lucky to win 81.
Yea I think they'll tap out at 81 at best. It's not that I don't have faith in them; it's just they're not that good. The offense, aside from Berkman and maybe Lee, were the only for-sure hitters we have. Everyone else was pretty much a crapshoot. The pitching has surprised me though. Starters done a pretty good job pitching.
Well this is by and large the same team from last year and that team finished above average...add some bats to the lineup and conventional wisdom would suggest that they'd be on par or better than last season, barring injury. Course maybe they have been playing above themselves for the past few seasons; the reality I guess is...who the hell really knows with the Astros.
Pythagorean suggests their records are about where they should have been the last three years (in fact, they underacheived by 1 game the last two years, but overachieved by 1 game in 2004). Also, they only won 82 games last year... which is basically average (to me), but then you realize the cards won 83... and won the world series. And looking at all the NL centeral teams thus far... the division is still wide open.
Nor should you count on quality starts from the end of ANY rotation... and don't be so quick to dismiss Sampson (who has rarely looked bad whenever he's taken the ball at this level). As you said... the season will always play out as it should over 162 games. Lance and Lee will perform. Ensberg, Scott, Biggio, and Burke are unknowns. Everett and Ausmus are known.
