I started following the ‘Stros, and baseball in general, around ‘96 (age 15), so I can’t recall the last time the Astros put together consecutive crummy seasons. Yeah, 2000 was bad, but they had the new park, and it was just one off year.

I have to admit it’s hard getting very excited about an Astros game, although I do want to hear as much of Milo as possible while he’s still announcing. I have a weakness for baseball on the radio, what can I say.

It always befuddled me what it must be like to be a Pirates or Royals or Reds fan, where year after year there’s really nothing to look forward to. I guess this is a sample of it. Bitter!

But looking at the (very) big picture, it’s pretty impressive that the Astros have been contenders for pretty much all of the past 12 years.

What can you do? Just watch and hope for the best, I guess. Undoubtedly many people will quit watching the games. I will still watch them, but perhaps a little more loosely than in the past (e.g., when I came home and saw that the Astros were far behind, I read some stuff and looked at my mail, rather than stay glued to watching the game).

Pick out the little mini-plots and mini-dramas on the team and watch to see what happens. Will Tejada ever resurrect his offensive ability, or is he in permanent decline? Will Bourn ever learn to hit worth a crap? Will Doug Brocail’s arm fall off? Will Randy Wolf pitch well in an Astros’ uniform? Can Berkman get out of his slump and put himself in position for a MVP? etc. Maybe September call up season will be more interesting than usual. Having watched a few Hooks’ games, there are a few players in AA who might be worth a look.

if you view this whole season as a big shit sandwich, then the series wins against teams like the Red Sox and the Cubs are bright spots. we’ve got two Mets series, three more Cubs series, one more home series against the Cardinals, and a home series against the Braves. maybe just taking a few of those will be worth sticking around the rest of the season for.

Pence, Bourn, and Towles will be people I’ll keep paying attention for. our future looks a lot brighter if those guys can start to figure it out a little better. i’d also like reason to believe that Tejada is just having a down year and isn’t really in the slippery slope back end of his career. i guess what i’m looking for is glimmers of hope for next year. we’re going to have a lot of the same faces back, and i’d like to think that with a few tweaks (particularly in the rotation), we can put together a competetive team in ‘09. of course, i’ll always keep watching. i’m just too much of a sports junkie not to keep coming back for more. every game offers a chance at the thrill of victory, and it’s just too tempting, no matter how crappy they’ve been playing, not to tune in.

Usually, when the team is down you can look forward to seeing young players get a shot, raising hope for the next season. You get to evaluate the new talent and speculate on who’s going to make it and the impact they will have. This is especially true for the pitchers.

But as I survey the Astro farm system, I can only despair. I don’t see any serious prospects there, especially pitching. The best of the lot have already had their shot and failed. The Astros are the oldest team in the league, and next year they’ll just be older.

we have consistently started a lineup that gave away 3 of our 9 batting slots. It was, as a rule, Everett, Ausmus, and pitcher. This year we have settled back into the same situation. Now it’s Bourn, catcher, and pitcher. So the offense is realistically not much better. Add to this the disappointing pitching – the overall staff is not as good AND it’s injured – and you have the makings of a last place team. No surprises at all.

Outstanding pitching plus hitting for consistency (a touch of power is nice but not absolutely necessary) have been the keys to success for, oh, a hundred years or so. How long will it take Drayton to figure it out? Answer that question and you have the answer as to when our next contending team will begin to emerge.

The dead bats at the end of the line up hurt the ones on both sides. The batter in the 6th spot is never going to see a pitch and runners on base are not going to score. And the batters at the top of the order will often come up with one or two out and no one on. You can get by with a bad hitting pitcher in the lineup, especially if he can bunt a little, but with two guys hitting .150 in front of him, you can’t even bunt.

Dydalewicz is officially signed (finally… i think there was a false report that he had signed shortly after the draft).

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5907506.html

If I’m not mistaken, Davidson and Seaton (3rd round and Supplemental 3rd round, respectively) are the only two of the top ten picks still left unsigned, and Ortiz (grain of salt alert!) says that at least Seaton is close to signing.

from his blog eariler this week:

“Bobby Heck sent me a text message yesterday saying nothing was new. With that said, however, I have on good authority that Seaton and the kid from the Austin area, whose name is very difficult to spell and I won’t look it up so I can answer as many questions as possible, are close. I will be shocked if those two kids aren’t signed soon.”

Dydalewicz is the kid from Austin he’s referring to.

not sure what caused that. But good to see that he signed. The same Statesman article said that he can throw in the low/mid 90’s.