On July 14, 2012, I e-mailed David and Tim to inform them I would be temporarily unreliable as the birth of my first child drew near. As an amateur baseball blogger for a team in "sell mode" nearing the trade deadline, it could have been more convenient timing. I blame the baby. My son was born the day of the MLB trade deadline, meaning I was unavailable to comment on the flurry of trades that occurred that day and during the week prior. Incidentally, this is not a "new-dad-brag" article...I actually have a baseball-related point. After a harrowing week or two filled with feeding, doctor visits, and lots of poo, I was able to notify the TCB bigwigs that I am back in the fold and ready to resume my scheduled articles. The official day of my return was August 13, 2012, almost a month after I disappeared.

Baseball is a crazy sport. On the day I went on hiatus, the Astros were defeated by the San Francisco Giants 3 to 2 in 12 innings. Lucas Harrell and six relievers pitched a nice game despite giving up seven walks. But that's not the interesting part. Only a few days before, the Astros had traded Carlos Lee for a bunch of minor league dudes and signed Scott Moore as a stopgap in the majors. On August 13 when I returned, the Astros lost to the Cubs 7 to 1 after Armando Galarraga was bombed with three home runs in five innings.

Here's the crazy part. These games are only a month apart, but look at the lineups:

7/14/2012		8/13/2012
CF	Jordan Schafer	SS	Tyler Greene
2B	Jose Altuve	2B	Jose Altuve
SS	Jed Lowrie	1B	Brett Wallace
	Brian Bixler	RF	Steve Pearce
LF	J.D. Martinez	CF	Justin Maxwell
1B	Scott Moore	C	Jason Castro
3B	Chris Johnson	3B	Marwin Gonzalez
RF	Justin Maxwell	LF	Fernando Martinez
	Wilton Lopez		Xavier Cedeno
	Fernando Rodriguez	P	Armando Galarraga
	Bud Norris (ph)		Brandon Barnes (ph)
	Brett Myers		Rhiner Cruz
C	Chris Snyder		Ben Francisco (ph-lf)
SP	Lucas Harrell
	Fernando Abad
	Brandon Lyon
	Brian Bogusevic (ph)
	Enerio Del Rosario
	Matt Downs (ph-rf)

Because I was deprived of the opportunity of offering comment on most of the major league roster changes that occurred during this month, I will take this opportunity to use hindsight and the rest of this article to share my thoughts.

Despite the Astros' almost record-setting failure during this month,--what was it, 170 losses in 33 games or something?--It is difficult to claim that the roster was better in mid-July than it is now in mid-August, no matter what columnists in other NL Central cities may think. In fact, I performed a little experiment. I downloaded all the Astros' stats for the year so far and extrapolated them out to 110 games a piece to take a look at their WAR and counting stats compared to each other. Obviously, small sample size applies, but I am not trying to prove the existance of the Higgs Boson here...I'm just illustrating a point. Most of the new acquisitions have outperformed the outgoing players by a fair margin.

Tyler Greene

So Lowrie got hurt and GM Jeff Lunhow traded for Cardinals "AAAA" shortstop Tyler Greene. I put the AAAA in quotes intentionally because his major league sample size of 576 Plate Appearances over four seasons is not enough to define a guy's career. I like the move. Greene was a first-round draft pick* who hit .291/.350/.477 over 1,204 AAA Plate Appearances. At age 28, he likely won't be the next late-blooming Nelson Cruz or even Luke Scott, but even if he hits .260/.330/.400, he is an offensive improvement over Marwin Gonzalez or Brian Bixler. Currently, Greene is hitting .350/.350/.600 with the Astros, which won't continue. His current stats over 110 games project out to a 3.7 WAR, best on the team, and ahead of Lowrie. This trade was a smart move by Lunhow because in the best case, Greene only needed a scenery change and the opportunity to live up to his first-round pedigree. At the very worst, he's a very useful bench player at a presumably low cost.

*Why do writers insist on saying "former first round draft pick"? Did something happen to alter history to make a player be taken in a round other than the first round? I always thought that a silly use of an unnecessary modifier that doesn't actually mean anything.

Steve Pearce

I like the acquisition of Pearce even more than that of Greene. Pearce can play 1B or both corner outfield spots, which already makes him a defensive upgrade over Carlos Lee. He's had little more success than Greene in the majors so far, but like Greene, he has only had about a season's worth of Plate Appearances (659 over 6 seasons) to state his case. However, in 1,296 Plate Appearances in AAA, Pearce hit .287/.347/.497. With the Astros, he's currently hitting .318/.418/.432. It is reasonable to expect his Average and OBP to go down, but his SLG% to rise a bit. Even with a regression to .260/.340/.450, he already is an offensive upgrade over Lee (Lee is hitting .284/.349/.388 with the Marlins). And compare the cost! Pearce is another smart pickup who probably improves the Astros today, with the upside for 2013 rewards.

Brett Wallace

I love me some Brett Wallace. I love that he's gotten in good shape, and that he's been destroying the ball all year. I love that his power seems to be coming around. I love that he has position flexibility and even has played some shortstop. He may never be a prototypical 30-HR 1B, but he finally looks like the guy scouts projected to hit .300 with 20 HR every year. Anthony Gose, the man traded to acquire Wallace, looks utterly overmatched in the majors and his AAA offensive stats are inflated from an extreme hitter-friendly park and league, so Wallace looks to be a feather in Ed Wade's cap, and Lunhow is using him right. There's no doubt Wallace is an upgrade over both Lee and Johnson at this point, and is a big part of the club's future.

The Outfield

I hope J.D. Martinez can figure out what makes him struggle against major league pitching because he is such a dynamic hitter in the high minors. That said, he's been terrible in 2012 and anybody brought in to replace him should cause a short-term offensive boost. I've reached my tolerance limit for Jordan Schafer and his obnoxious antics. Brian Bogusevic is a nice player to have around, but has not rocked the earth this season. But, it sure is fun to see Justin Maxwell providing Three True Outcomes peformance on a regular basis. His home run to fly ball ratio is now a hilarious 22%. Eventually, his production will suffer if he doesn't improve his walk and strikeout rates, but for now I am enjoying the show. I am really glad that Brandon Barnes is finally getting his shot. He won't show up on any top prospect lists, but he has put together a couple really great seasons in a row in the minors and has a legitimate chance to stick around as a late-blooming contributor. From an attitude standpoint, he seems to be the anti-Schafer, which is a welcome change for somebody who tries to cover the team. I'm also happy to see Fernando Martinez back in the majors. He's another guy who has had plenty of success in the minor leagues but has been jerked around so much in the majors that it's impossible to ascertain his true floor or ceiling. I want to see him in the lineup every day, and barring something odd, I'd like to see him next season all year to.

The Pitching Staff

Here's where I waffle. There's no argument that can be made that the Astros' major league team is better off without Wandy Rodriguez, J.A. Happ, Brandon Lyon, and Brett Myers. But from a long-term view, it's good that Dallas Keuchel and Jordan Lyles are getting some innings of experience. It rings odd that Armando Galarraga is on this team at all when there are so many viable AA and AAA prospects who could use the experience and would likely provide better short term performance.

Fun with Numbers

Here are the Astros' players by WAR, with everybody extrapolated to 110 games for hitters and 30 games for pitchers.

Name	G	PA	HR	R	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG	WAR
Tyler Greene	110	367	18	92	18	18	0.350	0.350	0.600	3.7
Jed Lowrie	110	450	19	52	50	3	0.253	0.343	0.456	3.4
Brett Wallace	110	427	22	48	48	0	0.289	0.381	0.518	2.6
Jose Altuve	110	483	5	67	31	25	0.305	0.358	0.423	2.6
Steve Pearce	110	432	0	16	63	0	0.318	0.418	0.432	2.4
Justin Maxwell	110	288	15	39	45	6	0.239	0.315	0.469	2.1
Brandon Barnes	110	293	18	55	55	0	0.188	0.188	0.375	1.8
Jason Castro	110	397	4	33	39	0	0.251	0.328	0.371	1.6
Carlos Corporan	110	342	18	18	55	0	0.275	0.321	0.471	1.2
Chris Johnson	110	440	10	43	49	5	0.279	0.329	0.428	1.1
Travis Buck	110	270	0	23	20	0	0.216	0.284	0.311	1.0
Brian Bogusevic	110	344	6	37	23	12	0.216	0.302	0.314	0.8
Carlos Lee	110	462	8	40	48	0	0.287	0.336	0.411	0.5
Brian Bixler	110	293	6	34	21	9	0.193	0.253	0.330	0.3
Ben Francisco	110	295	10	20	25	0	0.241	0.305	0.389	0.0
Matt Dominguez	110	220	0	0	0	0	0.250	0.250	0.250	0.0
Jordan Schafer	110	403	5	46	26	30	0.216	0.304	0.302	0.0
J.D. Martinez	110	436	12	36	58	0	0.235	0.308	0.373	-0.3
Marwin Gonzalez	110	312	3	33	18	5	0.237	0.286	0.328	-0.3
Chris Snyder	110	377	9	32	36	0	0.179	0.297	0.296	-0.5
Matt Downs	110	237	10	19	19	3	0.208	0.252	0.377	-0.6
Scott Moore	110	413	21	48	56	0	0.246	0.302	0.468	-1.2
Fernando Martinez	110	363	11	11	55	0	0.121	0.121	0.242	-5.5

Name	G	GS	IP	W	L	SV	K	BB	ERA	FIP	WAR
Lucas Harrell	30	30	183	13	10	0	128	69	3.81	3.73	2.8
Wandy Rodriguez	30	30	186	10	13	0	127	45	3.79	3.81	2.6
Bud Norris	30	30	171	7	14	0	175	72	5.23	4.42	1.2
J.A. Happ	30	30	174	12	15	0	163	65	4.83	4.49	1.2
Wilton Lopez	30	0	31	3	1	1	27	3	2.35	2.66	0.7
Mickey Storey	30	0	35	0	4	0	41	12	3.12	3.33	0.4
Brandon Lyon	30	0	29	0	2	0	28	9	3.25	3.32	0.2
Wesley Wright	30	0	19	0	1	0	19	6	2.97	3.73	0.1
Xavier Cedeno	30	0	23	0	0	1	19	10	3.93	4.19	0.0
Fernando Abad	30	0	23	0	0	0	22	5	3.86	4.21	0.0
Brett Myers	30	0	26	0	3	16	17	5	3.52	4.27	-0.1
David Carpenter	30	0	29	0	2	0	27	14	6.07	4.55	-0.1
Fernando Rodriguez	30	0	27	1	5	0	26	14	5.51	4.66	-0.2
Enerio Del Rosario	30	0	30	0	0	0	16	14	7.80	4.70	-0.2
Rhiner Cruz	30	0	31	1	1	0	24	19	7.14	5.18	-0.3
Jordan Lyles	30	30	173	4	16	0	116	49	5.47	5.24	-0.4
Chuckie Fick	30	0	43	0	4	0	30	30	3.60	5.40	-0.4
Dallas Keuchel	30	30	170	3	13	0	73	87	5.29	5.80	-1.3
Francisco Cordero	30	0	25	0	15	0	25	20	19.80	9.30	-2.0
Brian Bogusevic	30	0	30	0	0	0	0	0	18.00	16.10	-3.0
Aneury Rodriguez	30	30	180	0	0	0	180	60	3.00	6.43	-3.0
Kyle Weiland	30	30	172	0	30	0	127	68	6.62	6.49	-3.0
Armando Galarraga	30	30	151	0	23	0	119	119	5.75	7.38	-3.8