• Meanwhile, in the history of mis-manging assets:

"The last curveball in the fifth it kind of got me a little bit," Oswalt said of his back. "I was trying to get through the heart of the lineup in the sixth, but I didn't have enough to get through it. We're going to see how it feels tomorrow and then decide what we're going to do. It seems like we're kind of beating the bush right now."

• Meanwhile, in the history of quotes that make you chuckle inwardly:

"After the game, I went to lift weights," Berkman said.

• Then, in the history of quotes that make you chuckle out loud:

[At Morton's steak House] an Astros veteran asked one of the Bengals players to bring their bill over to rookie Bud Norris, who didn't know it was a joke and ended up paying the whole thing.

• Enough with the bad introductions to quotes.  Here's a fitting bit of poetry from the Unofficial Scorer:


There once was a guy named Manzella  Who was really a very nice fella  But day after day  He got no chance to play  And, come on, you're out of the playoff race, Miguel Tejada has a .655 OPS since the All-Star Break, he isn't getting any younger, you know exactly what he can and can't do, and I thought nobody was coming up unless he was going to contribute-ella. [apologies for the terrible formatting]

• BtB shows graphically, then expounds in words, on just how much the Astros have not gotten out of the guys their paying the big bucks to.
• Richard Justice continues to rub in the fact that he's pretty sure Miguel Tejada won't be donning an Astros uniform in 2010.  I'll file this in the folder of things about this team that make me want to slam my head against a wall until I'm too disoriented to think critically about it.
• Finally, I'll file this under things that make me scratch my head and think: What the hell happened:
  • HLP Insert: Justin Bopp from Beyond the Boxscore was kind enough to send this story detailing the Astros' payroll vs. performance graph from their blog.

"I want to play as much as I can," said Matsui, who played in 1,143 consecutive games in Japan, the fifth-longest such streak in the country's history. "I'm not satisfied with 115." [emphasis added]

HLP Insert: Justin Bopp, of Beyond the Boxscore, was kind enough to pass along this graph/analysis which focuses on the Astros' payroll vs. their on field value. Unsurprisingly, it isn't pretty, and their outlook for the team isn't too optimistic. How does an 8 year rebuilding period sound??