The Houston Astros come into tonight's game with a 22-17 record and sit just 1 1/2 games out of 1st place in the NL central behind the 1st place Cubs(23-15) and the 2nd place Cardinals(23-17).  The Cubs face a struggling Padres team tonight at 7:05PM and the Cardinals face the Pirates at 7:15PM.  If things work out as I hope they do, the Astros could actually find themselves in 2nd place, just 1/2 a game back of the Cubs. 

 I'm sure most of you read Astros.com quite frequently, and if you don't... you should.  But in case you missed it, there is a pretty good mailbag by Alyson Footer this week.  Usually I think the questions asked range from ignorant to who cares, but this week... the questions are pretty good.  If you haven't checked it out, give it 2 minutes of your life and click this link.  The questions range from moving Bourn out of the starting lineup, to moving Jose Cruz Jr. off the roster. 

I've got some bad news for those of you calling for Nieve to possibly get a chance in our rotation this year... it's not going to happen.  Brian McTaggart of the Houston Chronicle reports that Nieve is being moved to the bullpen for the rest of the season.

Nieve, 25, has been diagnosed with a deviated septum, which along with his asthma and severe allergies has been making it hard for him to sleep at night. The lack of rest was making it difficult for him to pitch deep into games, too.

 Nieve, who tossed two scoreless innings Sunday in his first relief appearance of the season, saw several specialists in Houston the first weekend of May and has been put on different medication. He will have to undergo surgery at the end of the season to repair the deviated septum, a common physical disorder of the nose.

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Well, that's kind of a downer, but look on the bright side... at least they know what the problem is now and can hopefully alleviate it.  Maybe he'll have a chance of breaking the rotation next year.