Yeah, sometimes the all star voting gets it right. But the voting tends to be skewed toward big market teams. Heck, Jose Reyes could win the All Star position at shortstop because he is well known and plays in NYC, even though he hasn’t started the season that well.

You could make an argument that Berkman’s stellar defense this season (best RZR among NL 1st basemen so far) should be taken into consideration. I know most fans won’t take that into consideration, but it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. All four of those 1st basemen are great offensive players, and any one of them would be all star worthy. My guess is that Lee or Pujols wins the vote.

Tejada’s defense (again, according to RZR) has been better than Furcal’s this season. For a position like shortstop, I definitely think defense should be taken into account. Furcal is a good player, but I doubt that his slugging number will hold up in another month or two. Furcal is slugging at an insane pace (listed at .602 by Hardball Times) and it is 150 points or so higher than he has ever slugged in his career. Tejada has more history as a slugger. So, my guess is that Tejada’s offensive stats are more likely to be at this level in early June than Furcal’s.

Sometimes it seems like you really enjoy dumping on the good guys. Not saying that everything coming out of this blog should be roses and sunshine, but geez, have a little balance on the downswing. The fact that it’s debatable whether our shortstop and first baseman are the respective best in the league is a bad thing? Sure this loss is frustrating and dropping four of the last five sounds bad, but how about going 8-4 after our crummy 6-12 start? How about our .500 road trip, something we didn’t do with a lot of regularity last year. How about the fact that the two series we lost were to the two winningest teams in the NL (not that we didn’t have anything to do with that, but still)? okay, maybe i’m stretching a bit, but dude… you’re bringin’ me down. The fact that we SHOULD be better than our record indicates counts for something, right?

if you want to read anything into Coop’s post-game comments (“It won’t happen again. It definitely won’t happen again.”), a reassuring interpretation might be that Borks will not be brought in to a high pressure situation and may not be in an Astros uni much longer. They optioned Cassel yesterday to be able to bring Wiggy back tomorrow. The 5th spot comes up on an off-day, so they could skip it and not need another starter until a week from Saturday. I guess keeping Cassel over Borks or Moehler in the bullpen wasn’t the direction they wanted to go. They may want him to keep making starts at Round Rock to continue to be their sixth starter. I’m fine with that. I do think that Byrdak should stay and either Borkowski or Moehler should go, once Wandy is activated.

Anyway, I’m not intending to dog on you. I’m just trying to deflect some of the negative energy. Keep up the good work and hey… chin up, kiddo (tongue firmly in cheek).

in part, because I felt that poor management of the bullpen cost the Astros a game which they should have won. So, I can understand why people get a negative outlook. It just seems like the pieces don’t come together at right time for this team.

But, on reflection, I agree with littlevisigoth that some positives are out there. The biggest point in the Astros’ favor is that they have played a tough schedule in April, including more road games than any other NL Central teams, and are still within striking distance. Of course, the fact that the schedule will be easier later in the year won’t mean much unless the Astros start playing better. But it does provide a glimmer of hope. For what it’s worth, the Astros are playing below their Pythagorean standing “forecast” which means that they “should” have a slightly better record….sometimes meaning that a turnaround in luck could close the W-L gap somewhat.

I am not happy with those BB:K ratios. Isn’t Lance usually in the top 5-10 in the league for walks? Is he not being as patient this year? And Miggy: that’s disgusting.

but I posted this in the GDT, and just wanted to be sure you guys got the message:

I just wanted to say thanks a lot for letting me talk about your team a little while we played you. You’ve been more than hospitable, and I hope the 3 of you (or so) who also posted at the ‘Pit will feel welcome to return, even when our teams aren’t playing each other.

Now, GO KICK THE BREW CREW’S ASS!!

Berkman (118.50) is the best first base man in all of baseball so far. :p He leads Derrick Lee by 1 point and Pujols and Jackson by 11 points. Tejada is second behind Furcal. 4.5 points behind to be exact. These six players are the only ones above 100 points so far in their positions. Only two players (batters) have more points than Lance Berkman in all of baseball. Chase Utley (126.50) and Nate McLouth (122.00.) And only one pitcher has a higher score: Cliff Lee (125.83)

So there you have it. If we can’t trust our Crawfish Boxes fantasy league, then what can we trust? :p

They’re giving away mesh jerseys to the first 10,000 fans. Anybody have a rule of thumb for how early you gotta get there to get in on the free shit?