Houston Astros travel to Arizona for Weekend Set
by Evan Hochschild on Jun 12, 2009 3:00 AM CDT
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PrintHouston Astros at Arizona Diamondbacks, Jun 12, 2009 8:40 PM CDT
For today, we can use this post for an all day sounding board, trade-rumor mill, and game thread. First, the low down on tonight's starting pitchers:
The 2.33 ERA that Danny Haren boasts leads the National League. He has almost a 9 K/9 ratio, and has a near 8 K/BB rate. He has started twelve games and has a total of eighty five innings pitched. That works out to over seven innings averaged per start. Take all that into account and then note that he has a record of 4-4. The biggest reason why he has those scant four victories is because he is getting the least amount of run support of any NL starter that has pitched at least eighty innings this season. Such is life. Such is baseball. It's not fair. The handsome gentleman just inches above Haren on your computer screen doesn't have near the stats that Haren does, yet has the same record. Kudos to you, Mike Hampton.
Back to that AZ offense. I don't mean to make it sound like they're terrible at scoring runs. There are a handful of NL teams that are worse (the Astros among them), and there are a number of bright spots in that group. Justin Upton for instance, has drawn comparisons to Ken Griffey, Jr. and is in the midst of a breakout sophomore campaign. Felipe Lopez, a first year D-Back, has performed well at second base and at the top of the AZ lineup. Third Baseman Mark Reynolds, when not striking out at an astoundingly high (39.2%) rate, is a masher in the middle of the order.
On the other hand, Stephen Drew has been injured and is just rounding into form at shortstop. Chris Young has seemingly regressed every season in centerfield, and Eric Byrnes is proving everyday that his 2007 season was a fluke. Reynolds, Drew and Upton provide power, but few others help that cause.
Their rotation on paper is as good as it gets: Haren, Brandon Webb and youngster Max Scherzer make up a talented and power heavy top three. Jon Garland is a serviceable fourth starter, and Doug Davis rounds it out. With Webb limited to just four innings pitched this season, and Garland suffering through a trying season, their starting pitching hasn't been able to compensate for the lackluster offensive production.
The Diamondbacks have reason for optimism though, as their farm system is still solid. It recently produced the crop of players that won the NL West in 2007. That fact is probably little consolation to the fans of Arizona, who have heard about this highly touted group of youngsters for years, but has failed to produce anything meaningful besides that 2007 playoff run.
For this three game series, the Diamondbacks have the pitching advantage in Game One. The Astros should like their chances with Roy Oswalt facing Jon Garland in Game Two, and Game Three between Brian Moehler and Billy Buckner is a toss up. Houston has never faced Buckner which usually seems to a bad thing for Astro hitters. When two last place teams meet up, pride is often times on the line, and I'm hoping the Astros build on recent successes during their time in the desert.
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In exactly 5 hours and 38 minutes...
I will be leaving to catch this series… It is a yearly adventure I have been making a tradition. I would love to see Berkman hit 300, and Tejada 2,000. Lets hope that hot air inflates our offense over the weekend.
A Walk Is As Good As A Hit.
May your loyalty be rewarded
with a three game Astros sweep!
"Lee, a drive to left field. Here comes Pence from second trying to score. The throw to the plate and Pence is … safe! Now a quick throw to first and they get Lee on the force – that’s 7 to 2 to 3 for those of you at home keeping score….."
Hey, looks like Wes Wright is back up with the big club
Here’s his stat line from Round Rock:
4 G, 9.1 IP (were they trying to stretch him out to handle long relief or something?)
2.89 ERA, 4 H, 7 BB
It’s a small sample size, but the walk rate there seems high, and the K rate a little low. He managed to limit the runs allowed, so he’s got a nice ERA, but his FIP is a not-as-pretty 4.06.
I suspect that call up is temporary, until Valverde finishes his rehab appearances.
Fulchino pitched so long that he is likely to be unavailable today, and Sampson may be unavailable too, given his frequent use over the last few games. So, the Astros need another reliever in the immediate future.
I was hoping that the minor league stint would put Wright back in good form. But his minor league pitching still isn’t as consistent as I would have wanted. I notice that the Astros gave Wright a start in one game, and I imagine that is just part of giving him as many innings as possible. The Astros probably felt that Wright needed to face more consecutive batters to get into a groove.
You said "trade rumor-mill"
is there anything substantative going around, or is it just the guy in Seattle saying that Hawkins would look good in a Mariners jersey and mad rantings about trading Matsui and Blum for a No. 2 starter?
There's the very low probability rumor of
Miguel Tejada to the Cardinals. The speculation is at the bottom, and like the Hawkins-Twins rumor, is simply another team considering the possibility of making a play for one of our players. No real indication of Astros’ interest. The Tejada deal is unlikely on so many levels…we don’t have a good replacement, we’re not dead in the playoff race yet, he’s one of Wade’s guys, Drayton likes him, he has a large chunk of salary remaining, and the Cards are division rivals.
Then there’s Peter Gammons talking out ofhis butt about sending Tejada to the Red Sox. The annoying and delusional Sox fans love the idea because they have this crazy notion that they’d be doing us such a favor that we’d give him up for some AA nobody.
And what’s hilarious about Gammons’s made-up flights of fancy is that he made his statements about Houston after his colleague Buster Olney managed to actually talk to Ed Wade about trade possibilities:
There has been speculation of late about when the Houston Astros might start to unload players. “We’re not there yet,” Astros general manager Ed Wade said. “We went through this last year.” And you remember what happened: The Astros stunned the baseball world by trading for veterans such as Randy Wolf. From there, the Astros went on a big run and nearly made it to the National League playoffs. So no, Wade is not close to making a decision on whether Houston, now five games out of first place, will be a buyer or a seller.
I think Gammons is just saying who might be interested in him
and not necessarily speculating a trade. the comments from Boston fans are certainly stupifying. why would the Astros move Tejada just to move him? i doubt Drayton would discard a guy that he perceives as a ticket draw type just to save a partial season of salary. he’s never shown himself to be just a money dumper. it would take Wade convincing him that it’s a sound baseball move, in my opinion, and for damn sure Lugo will not be coming back in the deal.
this is why I don’t bother to speculate on specific trades with other clubs that i know nothing about.
unless the Astros get torn a new asshole in the upcoming interleague series, the schedule shapes up to potentially have them near or above .500 before the break. six of the nine series before the ASB are against teams currently with losing records. i seriously doubt they’ll be sellers of anything big.
by littlevisigoth on Jun 12, 2009 3:45 PM CDT up reply actions
the Cardinals' scenario is the most unlikely.
But the article about the Cardinals putting Tejada on their list of potential trade targets illustrates something I have said before. The Cardinals view Tejada as a utility type player, according to the article. I think this tells you that other teams do not view Tejada as a pure shortstop anymore. Also, if the Cardinals look to trade for a hitter, they are unlikely to make trades which hurt their farm system, at least according to recent comments by their GM. The Cards most likely will look to trade someone out of their surplus of outfielders (like Schumaker, Duncan or Ankiel), and that is a poor match for the Astros, who don’t have an opening in the outfield.
I think other teams view Tejada as somewhat better than a utility player, more like the utility guy who is in the starting lineup 85% of the time, whether it be at short or at 3B (I’ve even seen fans asking whether he can handle 2B), maybe kind of like we viewed Blummy at the beginning of the season.
I keep looking at our SS fielding numbers on fangraphs, and find it difficult to figure out why we rank 3rd from the bottom when in comes to fielding. We look to be around average (maybe slightly below) in every category except for Range Runs Above Average (RngR). Which is weird because we’re right there at the median when it comes to RF/G, and a little below the median when it comes to RF/9.
I’ve got to admit that defensive stats still give me trouble.
Dewan's + / - defensive values for Tejada are very bad this year.
-3 moving to his right; -4 straight on. -5 to his left. -1 balls in the air (thanks, Carlos) for a total of -13. This is on Bill James on-line. As for Range Factor per game, that is not a very good defensive range measure.
FWIW, the SBN Cardinals' blog talks about the Tejada rumor....
and they say “pass” on Tejada. The viivaelbirdos article is here. I think they are a little too pessimistic about Tejada’s offensive potential, but they make the interesting point that his power is almost exclusive to Minute Maid Park at this point in his career.
tejada for bucholz
GET IT DONE WADE!
by EveryHoustonTeamRox! on Jun 12, 2009 4:42 PM CDT up reply actions
Twins beat the Cubs today
One of the Twins runs scored when, with one out and men on first and third, Milton Bradley catches a flyball in the outfield and TOSSES IT TO THE FANS IN THE STANDS! Runners tag and advance a base. The runner on third would have scored on the sac fly anyway, but Bradley made it an easy jog to home plate.
Couldn’t have happened to a better team.
Here’s the replay. My favorite part is about halfway through when the Angry Cubs fan finishes booing and he sits down and explains what happened to his kid.
that's fantastic
I love having them in the division. Not because they really have any more of these moments than any other team, but because their fans’ reactions are priceless.
Your friendly neighborhood Dreamshake mod.
I recall when Jason Lane did the same thing in 2005.
He threw the ball in the stands, thinking it was 3 outs, and it cost the Astros a run. I also think that Lance Berkman has done that in his Houston career.
I remember that the media asked Phil Garner afterwards if he had yelled at Jason Lane. He said he hadn’t said anything to Lane, because he figured that Lane would be punished enough by the media. Garner said that Lane would never want to let that happen again after he sees it replayed over and over again on ESPN.
As I watch "Astros Insider" on FSN....
The have a rundown of some good minor league performances this week. I was particularly intrigued that Lo appeared in 3 games, pitching 3 innings, giving up no runs. I thought he was injured.
Lo was just moved up to AA....
most of you know that, but I figured I should mention it, just in case.
Hopefully
Lo’s success will encourage Drayton to go after more international amateurs.
Your friendly neighborhood Dreamshake mod.
D-Backs take a 2-0 lead against the Astros.
Mark Reynolds hit a blooper with two outs that popped out of Pence’s glove. Then 2 runners came around as Pence tried to go get the ball. What irritates me is that the lead off hit of this inning might have been catchable by a 2d baseman with better range. Keppinger took only a few token steps toward the ball.
Which brings me to….why hasn’t Maysonet gotten a start lately? Cooper hasn’t started Maysonet since Edwin made an error in the first game of the Cubs’ series.
re: Maysonet
His last game was the 9th, and before that his last game was the 6th. That’s a lot of days off for a guy who’s batting was as hot as Maysonet’s (of course, he’d cooled off from his hot May during the first week in June, but he was still batting a respectable .286 for June when Coop put him on the bench).
Punishing him for the error seems highly irrational, but it’s Coop, so that doesn’t really mean anything.
not only was Maysonet hitting well...
but setting aside that error, he has played well on defense at 2d base. He appears to me to have much better range than Keppinger.
Maysonet
Doesn’t seem to fit in Coopers plans. One of my beefs with him is that he slots players what he thinks they are and rarely changes. He sees Kepp as the better starter more experienced player, and he sees Maysonet as a career minor leaguer…IMO He won’t change that view point.
"now you chunkin' in there.."
unfortunately, you are probably right.
There is no question that Cooper loves veterans, and will always take them over rookies.
I think you've hit on a great point here
It could have been that he was trying to get the vets some playing time, so he benched Maysonet for a little bit. And then 3 days later, when he went 0-for-3, it was just confirmation for him that Maysonet’s bat had cooled off.
Also, I think he may be expecting Matsui back soon, and he may be trying to avoid looking bad by replacing Maysonet with Matsui when Maysonet was playing so well.
Astros get a hit from Lee in the 2d...but no score.
Berkman K’d on three pitches. Blum seemed to get crossed up on a hit and run with Lee and K’d.
Bourn looks bad on that K.
Bourn had a bad day at the plate yesterday (a good day in CF though). He seems to be struggling some with his bat right now.
I'm starting to think that our best chance is to start taking as many pitches as possible
in an attempt to get to the bullpen early. Not likely with our particular crew of free-swingers, but one can hope.
Yikes….just looked at the pitch counts
Hampton’s already up over 50, and Haren’s only sitting at 35.
Any idea who’s available in long relief tonight?
3-0 now.
Reynolds doubles on 3-2 count, after Hampton walked off thinking he had struck him out (appeared that he did). Then Upton doubles.
Reynolds must love seeing the Astros come to town.
He started off the game with a lucky hit that should have been caught by Pence. Now, he is 3 for 3, and that lead off double was well hit. I think JD is right….Reynolds is one of those hitters who you want to keep from getting on a roll.
Coop brings Kata in to play 2d base.
I wonder if Maysonet will be sent down so that Kata can stay on the roster when the Astros make their Matsui move?
Might not be a bad idea
if it gets Maysonet more consistent ABs. I hate to see him lingering on the bench.
This inning is starting out like a disaster movie.
Backe allows a hit, then a ball ricochets off Backe’s glove, Tejada tries to bear hand it (why?), and can’t get a grip on the ball.
Puzzling lineup moves on the scoreboard at Chase Field
Backe’s in the 6 spot, Kata in the 9-hole; But Backe’s spot in the lineup is coming up this inning.
Gameday has Backe in the 9 hole, Kata in the 6, which makes a whole lot more sense.
JD say: maybe Cooper thinks Backe is a better hitter than Kata.
I doubt that is the reason…but it is probably true.
Reynolds with a 3 run HR.
All I had to see was Backe put his hands on his head when he hit it…and I knew.
Reynolds would be on a path to be a bigger icon than Babe Ruth if he could hit against the Astros all the time.
probably a few of the D-Backs’ hitter would like that. the idea of 11 runs fattening up their weak offensive stats sounds good to them.
Backe's fastball is sitting at 87-88 mph.
In Backe’s old days with the Astros, his fastball was in the 90-92 range. It’s hard to see him gettting back to the Backe of 04 and 05 (not that he was that great then) if he is going to be a 87 mph pitcher.
Haren's taking the infield defense into his own hands tonight
He’s done a great job of making those stabbing lunges off the mound to get the out at first
Haren with a 2 hitter...
I supposed I shouldn’t get too upset with the Astros’ play in this game, when you consider how unlikely it was that they could beat Haren. That’s one way of rationalizing it.
Haren pitched a great game
So a tip of the hat to him.
This was yet another game where a couple of DPs killed any momentum we had.
JD points out that all the runs the Dbacks scored were 2-out runs, so if the balls bounds the other way just a bit, the game could be a lot closer
Bradley...
it gets worse. Lou Piniella, asked about Bradley’s bonehead play, said, “if you ask him, I’m sure he is embarrassed.”
Bradley said, no, he isn’t embarrassed. “That’s life. Sue me.”
That will go over well in Cubbie-land.
by the way, I hadn't really watched the video of Bradley's play until now...
I didn’t realize he went into that little pose after he caught the ball, and before he threw it in the stands.
That was an embarassing moment on so many levels
And afterward, when he realizes what he did, he spits, and a visible bit of it lands on his chin.
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NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chicago
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0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Cincinnati
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0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Houston
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0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Milwaukee
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0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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Pittsburgh
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0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
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St. Louis
|
0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | Lost 0 |
(updated 2.14.2012 at 12:03 AM CST)
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