why Coop would come out and say this. what does it accomplish? i’d think that it would do more to cause his players to press and try to not fail and that it’d be more positive motivation for the opposition than his own team. if he’s just joking and having fun, then that seems to send a message that he doesn’t really believe that his team CAN sweep, which also seems like a bad signal to be sending. the media LOVES to jump on things like this, so at the very least, it’ll be another question that guys have to answer: “what do you think about Coop guaranteeing a sweep?”

the whole thing just seems silly and not well thought out. it’s just another something that smacks of a manager that doesn’t know what he’s doing, which is frustrating. i so want to believe in Coop (mostly cause he’s got a two-year contract and is not likely to get fired after one year, no matter how bad we finish), but he keeps throwing up these head-scratchers.

and for the record, i was fine with going to Valverde with a 3-run lead in the 9th last night. the win is more important than the CG.

It does seem like an odd thing for Coop to say, or any manager for that matter. Even if you believe it, it doesn’t sound so good.

As to the pitching match ups, yes they are better for the Brewers, but Sheets hasn’t pitched all that great since the ASB and he is vulnerable to high pitch counts and sometimes teams that go after fastballs early in the count.

Wandy? I’m a big Wandy fan but if he’s going to play pretty well and pretty poorly at different times, why does he make the appearances against the Brewers the good ones?

Glad we’re missing Roy O as it sounds like he is back on track.

although, I usually manage to avoid big losses as well.

Vegas always lets me go on a small winning streak right before I leave … just to keep me coming back.

Coop’s prediction seems very silly, but considering he predicted we’d win 90+ games, it’s not surprising.

In the Arizona game Saturday night, we are down 4-0, Backe up with a runner at first – WE SACRIFICE! Backe may be “only the pitcher”, but he happened to have the second highest BA in the Astros lineup that evening, trailing only Berkman, PLUS, we’re down 4 runs!

There’s a new name for it – SMALLER than Smallball!

And if you enjoy predictions, I’ve stumbled across an interesting website:

http://www.coolstandings.com/baseball_standings.asp?i=1

These guys show the expected finish and playoff odds, along with some interesting discussions as to how they do the math. Plus, they do NBA and NFL, too – you may be interested to know they have the Texans going 7-9 for the upcoming season with just over a 14% chance to make the playoffs..

But it does seem to fall within a whole body of ill conceived quotes by Cooper which indicate inexperience. I look at the recent faux pax with Cooper’s comment about Bonds, and can imagine the same thing happening here. It seems like he becomes too informal with the reporters and says whatever pops into his head.

 Now I’m not so sure that the 90 game prediction was such a bad idea. If it had any effect, one way or the other, it would appear to have been positive. I can almost buy the notion, put out there by Richard Justice and others, that the high degree of confidence which Cooper and Wade have shown in their players layed the groundwork for the Astros’ recent win streak.

And I thought it was saying “Cecil Cooper Just Fired”. Imagine my disappointment…

Michael Phelps has been amazing, but we’re still in 10th and way behind the leader Ukraine. http://www.realmansolympics.com/

Wrong.