As you all know, the Astros just sent J.R. Towles down to AAA Round Rock due to his ineffectiveness at the plate and brought up Humberto Quintero.  The Astros still have at least one player (in my opinion) that they need to make a move on... they need to either send Bourn down to the minors and get him some steady playing time where it's not going to kill the big league team, or keep him on the Astros as a bench player.  I suggest sending him down.  Bourn needs playing time but we can't afford him to get that playing time with the Astros.  I mean he is supposed to be our lead-off hitter of the future, but his OBP is about .100 below what a good lead off hitter should be.  He doesn't take enough walks and he strikes out WAY too often.  When he gets on base he's fantastic... he even leads the NL in stolen bases.  He just doesn't get on enough to be of any use as a lead off hitter.  Like Towles, his defense isn't a problem.  He can play big league defense... he just can't hit.  You can see his full stats below.

I wouldn't have as big of a problem with Bourn staying on the Astros if they didn't have a better option... but the problem for Bourn sits on our bench.  His name is Darin Erstad.  Erstad has been pretty good in his limited at bats.  Erstad in just under 1/3 as many AB's as Bourn has 1/2 as many hits, 2 more RBI's, 10 less runs scored and exactly as many extra base hits.  Not bad for a guy with 140 less at bats. 

So what do you think?  Do we continue with the Bourn experiment?? Or do we try and field the best team we can possible and start the better player?

With 45 games in the past, I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the way the season is going... especially after seeing how badly the season started off.  The Astros currently sit in 3rd place in the NL Central with a 25 and 20 record, just 2.5 games behind the 1st place Cubs.  Guess who's coming into town for 3 games starting on Monday?  The Cubs!!!  Unfortunately the Cubs are on a little hot streak and enter Monday's game with the Astros with a 8-2 record over their last 10 games.  No worries though; I have faith that we can take a 3 game series from them. 

I can't remember exactly how the saying goes, but someone smarter than me once said that the key to having a productive season is to win most of your games at home and to play .500 ball on the road...  Well that's exactly what the Astros have done so far over the season, winning 11 of 17 games at home and 14 of 28 on the road. 

What's the deal with Michael Bourn all of a sudden...  after stealing 18 bases in a row without being caught, he has now been caught 3 times in a row!!!  If he can't hit, can't get on base, and can't steal bases... WHY IS HE PLAYING!!!!  I know I'm being over the top and actually just echoing the sentiments of some of the people on the blog... but Bourn really needs to show some improvement..  but then again, maybe he has started showing a little...  He is 4-12 in his last 3 games which is pretty good... then again, he went 0-17 in the 4 games before that.  Cooper just moved him back to the lead off spot for today's game because he said that Bourn swung the bat well over the last couple of games....  well maybe that's because he's more comfortable batting 8th!!  Bourn's OBP is .297 on the season which is at least .50 lower than any decent lead off hitter is... meanwhile, Erstad is sitting on the bench with a .313 avg.  I understand that the Astros need to see what Bourn can do... but I also understand that he has done little to nothing to help the team offensively this season...  and that bothers me.

Lance Berkman...  It's nice to end any conversation about the Astros with Lance Berkman... it just makes me happy.  Lance Berkman is having a "decent" May...  Decent as in a .625 OBP, 1.065 SLG and .565 AVG to go along with 8 home runs, 19 RBI's and 4 stolen bases!  Heck, Bourn only has 5 stolen bases this month!  I filtered all major league players to just show the month of May, and this is how Berkman stands.

**note, these stats are through 5/17/08, so you may see some differences with the numbers above.  Also, these only include players with 50 plate appearances**

• 1st in BA at .579, next closest is Clint Barmes at .435
• 1st in OBP at .642, next closest is Chippers Jones at .508
• 1st in OPS at 1.765, next is Dan Uggla at 1.566
• T-2nd in HR at 8, Dan Uggla is 1st with 9
• 2nd in RBI at 19, Soriano leads with 20
• 1st in runs scored at 21, Dan Uggla is 2nd with 20
• T-4th in doubles at 7, Brian McCann leads with 9
• 1st in TB at 64, Soriano is 2nd with 56
• T-1st in extra base hits at 15 with Uggla

Stats don't lie...  Why he is still hitting 1st is beyond me.

Finally we get at least a small glimpse of the Roy Oswalt that we have missed so dearly.  I'm not going to say that Roy-O was the best that we've ever seen him... but he looked much closer tonight to the Roy-O of old than he has the past 3 games this season.  Roy had a pretty good curve ball tonight.  I specifically remember the curve ball he threw to Burrell in the 3rd inning that started out about mid chest and dropped almost to the dirt; Burrell swung and missed and then just stared out into nowhere with a grin on his face, knowing that he was out-classed with that one.  The fastball on Roy was running anywhere from 91-95 (or so said the my20 radar) and he had pretty good location, striking out 4 batters. 

Oswalt finished the night by going 7 innings with just 5 hits, 1 ER and lowered his ERA from 9.00 to 6.65. 

On the other side of the ball, the Astros were a little lacking.  The Phillies actually out hit the Astros 6-4 but were unable to cross the plate after the 1st inning.  Michael Bourn had a great game tonight.  Starting off in the 1st inning, he forced a bad throw by Utley at 2nd and was safe at 1st on what was ruled a hit.  Then (even though he was showing signs of pain... not sure what that was about) stole 2nd and scored on line drive off the left field wall by Carlos Lee.  In the 5th inning, with 2 outs and no runners on, Bourn hit a blast down the right field line that hit the foul poll to give the Astros the lead and eventually the win.  I'll admit, I was pretty shocked that Bourn could hit the ball that well... it was a blast!

I can't go on without mentioning the stellar performance by Wesley Wright and Doug Brocail in relief for Roy...  After Roy left in the 7th inning, Wright came in and struck out the side and then Brocail came in and struck out 2 to earn his 1st save of the season.  I'm really happy that Valverde wasn't available for tonight's game...  I'm not sure if I could have taken him on the hill again after last nights fiasco. 

This pretty much happens every year and I doubt we'll go through the entire season with out it happening again, but who do you think will be the 1st Astros starter to lose their job due to poor play?  Last season we had both Brad Lidge and Chris Burke lose their starting jobs pretty early in the season.  Who will it be this year? 

*note* I'm including Valverde in this, even though he isn't technically a starter... but he is the "starting" closer... so it fits in my opinion.

Not exactly the ending we all hoped for, but a win is a win; and a win on a walk-off shot is exciting...  but I would have rather seen Wandy get the win that he earned after going 7.1 innings of 3 hit ball.  You don't get much better than Wandy did tonight.  Wandy struck out 6 and didn't walk a batter allowing just 3 Cardinals to touch 1st base before he left.  Wandy is hands down my player of the game.

Now, my Game Hero has to go to Miguel Tejada who saved Jose Valverde by going yard in the 9th, opposite field style to win the game for the Astros, 5-3.  Tejada was also 2-4 on night. 

Other Notables

• Lance Berkman, came back from a "pain in the neck" to go 1-3 with a home run.
• Carlos Lee, finished off the back to back jacks in the 7th and also went 2-4.
• Michael Bourn, 2-4(raising his avg to .250) with 2 stolen bases; that makes 6 on the year. 

And the downside of the game... I have to start with Valverde who totally ruined the excellent game by Wandy by blowing the save in the 9th and taking away Wandy's win, as well as giving up 3 earned runs.  If he's going to be a dominant closer.. he can't give up runs.  His ERA is now 11.25!!!  It needs to be closer to 3.25.  Hunter Pence is another downside.  Hunter has looked like he does indeed need to go back to Triple A by going 0-4 tonight with 3 strike outs, lowering his average to .171.  Not exactly the guy who led the team in avg last season(of those with 100+ runs).  I think he'll turn it around though.

Listening to the post game interview with Cooper, someone asked if Cooper learned anything tonight concerning Valverde... Cooper just responded with "I learned that will go with Valverde in the 9th inning if he's available".  Not really what I wanted to hear...  Sounds like blind faith to me... blind faith in someone who hasn't proven to be faithful...  We'll see how it goes. 

One of our readers went to some of the pre-game activities and e-mailed me a few pics.  The pics are from "Kelly", but I"m not sure the name on the blog, so I'll leave it at that. 

I guess we'll have to jot this one down as a loss to be blamed on the pitching staff.  The Astros offense produced as advertised scoring 7 runs behind 12 hits, but unfortunately, the pitching staff couldn't hold the lead.  Roy Oswalt, the Astros bone fide Ace of staff had another rough outing going 6.2 innings and giving up 5 earned runs.  The most surprising thing for me?  No strike outs?  Roy is a contact pitcher, but I still expect him to chalk up 3 or 4 strike outs a game.  Him having a zero in the K column is bothersome.  Roy said he felt fine, but "just didn't have it."  Well, Roy, that's 2 straight outings where you "just didn't have it"... any more and you'll have me pretty worried.  Another thing that Roy doesn't seem worried about is the "temporary twinge" in his right bicep that occurred during the 6th inning.  It may have been temporary, but any type of pain in my star pitchers arm seriously worries me... call me over dramatic if you will; but it bothers me.

***News Flash***  Wigginton was charged for his 1st error this season... he's no longer a gold glover... what a shame...

Offense wise, the Astros were strong.  Carlos Lee(who has been having a pretty terrible season so far), went 3-4 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI to go with a 2 run dinger in the 4th.  Very happy to see this out of El Caballo.  Erstad also had a strong game after coming in relief of Lance Berkman(who left the game early due to neck spasms; listed day to day) by going 2 for 2 with 2 runs scored and an RBI.  Having someone who can do this off the bench could be a very good commodity in the long run.  Other Astros with multiple hits were Ty Wigginton who went 2-3 and Michael Bourn who went 2-5.  Pence(1) and Bourn(4) also swiped bases during the game.  If Bourn keeps this up, I may nickname him "Swiper" in which the only defense would be to say "Swiper, no swiping; Swiper no swiping."(for those of you without kids, it's a reference to Dora the explorer... sorry).  Bourn is now on pace for 108 steals this season... I know... meaningless, but still fun.

The battle between Cy Young hopefuls was won by the reigning NL Cy Young winner in Jake Peavy.  Peavy had basically a perfect night going 7 full innings, allowing just 3 hits and no runs while striking out 4.  That's just part of the story, as Peavy also went 1-1 at the plate, with 2 RBI's and drew a walk to be the hands down player of the game. 

Oswalt on the other hand, was a different story.  Roy battled all night long, but through his own admission, didn't have a feel for any of his breaking stuff and used mostly fastballs.  Roy, known for using few pitches to get through innings ended his 5 1/3 innings with 114 pitches. 

"To keep the pitch count down, you have to have breaking pitches to get guys out front," Oswalt said. "That's one of the reasons my pitch count got up so high. I was throwing fastball after fastball after fastball. I was trying to mix in the four-seamer and two-seamer. It was 20-pitch inning after 20-pitch inning.

"I kept looking up, trying to have a quick inning ... if you don't have a breaking pitch where you get guys on first pitch, second pitch, out front where they have to respect the fastball, they can sit on the fastball all night."

Roy just had an off night...  his fastball was pretty good, causing foul ball after foul ball from Padres hitters, but they basically knew what was coming on every pitch.  Any big league hitter, sitting dead red on fastball, is more than likely going to be able to hit even the best pitcher.  Roy ended the night with 5 1/3 innings pitched, 11 hits, 3 ER's and 6 strike outs to go with 1 walk taking the loss. 

Best Astros Player
I would say the best Astros player was Bourn.  He started off the game with a hit and then stole 2nd and then drew a walk later in the game and stole again.  He also made a damn nice running catch with bases loaded late in the game to save 3 runs from scoring.  Runner up would be Tejada who went 2-4 and made a couple of slick plays in the field.

Best Padres Player
Peavy.. and it's not even close.  For those of you who are fans of FanGraphs, Peavy's combined WPA (on the mound and at the plate) was .515.  The next closest player was Iguchi for the Padres at .77.  Iguchi had a nice night at the plate going 3-5 with a run scored and 2 doubles. 

One thing that can be pretty evident in after going through most of spring training for the Astros is that we can score some runs... but unfortunately... we give up a bunch as well. 

The Astros started off good today scoring 7 runs in the first two innings, but then the pitching (starting with Chacon) slowly gave it away.  Chacon went 5 innings today, but gave up 6 runs.  Not really what we were looking for from who looks to be our 4th starter.  Wright (who had been terrific in his last few outings), earned a blown save by giving up 2 runs in the 9th inning to send the game into extra innings. 

Our leadoff man, Michael Bourn went 0-6 today with a strike out lowering his spring average to .258.  Jose Cruz continued his good spring with a 2-5 day and his 3rd home run of the season. 

Next up, the Astros go up against the Tigers at 5:05PM CST tomorrow, sending Chris Sampson to the hill against Justin Verlander.  This looks like Sampson's last chance to earn that 5th starters spot. 

Astros spring record is 12-14-1