The Sporting News ranks all the MLB ballparks from 1-30. MMP comes in at # 22. It seems like the Astros have always placed higher than that in the past. I wonder if a few non playoff seasons also makes your ballpark less awesome? Back to the article- if you're not a cynical kind of person you can look at this as the author's excuse to do a fun "rank 'em" article, and then get some feedback from opinionated fans. The cynic in you may argue that the author does these sort of things to drum up readership by throwing more love at the homeparks of the Cubs, Yankees and Red Sox. Man, I sound bitter this morning! Oh, well. Did I mention that I'm already growing weary of seeing Derek Jeter and Dustin Pedroia on All Star commercials?

Our Astros are outperforming their PECOTA projected winning percentage by a substantial amount at the season's mid-point. They had us pegged at a .432 W%, and we're over 60 points better than that. Don't get too giddy though: Clay Davenport figures we should really be about 35-46. For those who don't have a subscription, Davenport basically takes our Pythagorean record (based on runs scored and runs allowed) and combines that with our strength of schedule to be able to spit out an even more specific projected record at any given point in the season.

Tom Verducci does his mid season MLB report, and the Astros go unmentioned. At 40-41, I have no problem with this. Wait. Scratch that. Wandy Rodriguez is pictured not giving up a hit to Joe Mauer.

Jon Heyman has an interesting award to give out:

Ed Wade Award (NL Worst Executive): Jim Bowden, formerly of the Nationals. His collection of outfielders who can't catch and pitchers not quite ready for prime time has left little doubt that he's the winner (or is it loser?). Word is the Nats higher-ups want to get so far away from Bowden that they don't want to consider GM candidates (or perhaps even managerial candidates) with any serious ties to him.

What a litigious society we live in. I wonder if Tony was going to try this case himself, and if so, would he wear his Cardinals' uniform in court instead of a suit?

Here is a Jason Castro  update. He's not walking, but he's also not striking out that much either. The guy has only had seventy plate appearances though, so let's hold off judgment. Going from A to AA was the big jump for him. If he can hit in AA, he can probably do the same in AAA.

This is pretty cool: a list of Houston's pro athletes and their salaries in order from greatest to least. Carlos Lee makes nearly nine times as much as Mario Williams. One man is a freak of nature type athlete. The other eats a lot of things that at one time existed in nature.