As Rob Schneider  says, "We suck again!" today as we watched our bull pen ruin another outing by Shawn Chacon.  I'm not even going to say that Chacon was good today, but he did leave the game with the Astros ahead... so that's at least something.  Chacon had by far his worst outing of the season after giving up 5 earned runs in 5 innings, but still failed to earn any type of decision.  Chacon is the ONLY pitcher in the bigs with 6 or more starts that has failed to record any type of decision, win or lose... but you can't say he hasn't tried. 

Super Dave wasn't so super today and earned a blown save and a loss by giving up 2 earned runs in 1/3 of an inning.  I never really thought about it much, but it's kind of weird seeing a guy get a blown save in the 6th inning.  I know it happens a lot, I guess I just don't look at enough box scores.  Anyways...  I remember the twins(Dolan and Raymond) on the radio mentioning that Borkowski has been typically pretty good this season when pitching multiple times during a week.  Well, he's pitched in 4 of the last 5 games and earned 2 losses... not sure I would call that good. 

Astros have NO All-Stars
Well, at least no starters.  Think I'm wrong?  Name one?  Berkman?  Nope...  Tejada?  Nope...  Oswalt?  Not after his start to the season.  I know it's really too early to even be talking about the All Star voting, but MLB has opened the balloting(you can vote here ), so I guess it's at least worth mentioning.  There have been a few pitchers that have pitched good enough to possibly earn an All Star ballot, but they all have at least one major thing holding them back.  Wandy Rodriguez has a 2.31 ERA, but he's only recorded 1 win and he's also been injured.  Chacon has a 3.32 ERA and has 5 quality starts, but has yet to earn a win.  Brocail is the only Astros player right now that really has no blemish to his record and could ear an All-Star vote... but then again, he's a set up guy  and has 1 save to his name.  I'm not saying that set up men never make the All-Star team, but it's usually something that's given to starters and closers. 

Berkman and Tejada have been very good to start off this season, but there are players that are better.  Rafael Furcal has hit .069 points higher than his career average and has a better OBP and SLG than Tejada.  You could make a case that Lance would fair no better than 4th in the All-Star balloting for 1st basemen behind Albert Pujols, Derek Lee and Conor Jackson. 

The Astros have an off day tomorrow before facing the Brewers at home on Friday at 7:05 PM.  Astros sit in 4th place with a 13-16 record, 5 games behind the 1st place Cardinals.

1st Basemen

Short Stop