The Crawfish Boxes - All Posts

"Stuff" Describes a 7-3 Loss

2013-05-22T04:54:07Z

We tend to think that losses such as these become insignificant parts of our lives. As the day rolls into the next, for most people the game is even less than a memory.

"Steve, whadcha you do last night?" And as Steve takes a sip of water from his wax-coated paper cup, his field of vision engulfed with ceiling tiles which embrace him fully, he'd rather carry on with the day than have to recall something he'd completely forgotten. "Stuff," he says. "Stuff."

For some people the night becomes magical. The person who caught Jimmy Paredes's home run will probably wake up the next morning, look at the ball, and remember what a night it was.

"You know the Astros lost, right?"
"Yeah, but I won."

For some, they'll be leaving the game in some other fashion than when they entered.

"Well, thanks for the Astros game. You really know how to impress a girl on a date, Jeff"
"Sara, wait!"
"I'll get a taxi," she says firmly before storming off into the distance, never to be seen again.

And who can blame her?

As for Bud Norris, it's hard to know what he's thinking. Do you think he's frustrated when the bullpen can't be trusted to keep the lead? Does that even matter to him? Has he become desensitized? Or is his back tightness that removed him from the game more apparent on his mind? Perhaps he's laughed it off by now.

"Hey Chris [Carter]" *sticks tongue out* and laughs.
Carter looks at him, smiling, shaking his head and emitting a slight chuckle.

What's going on in Paul Clemens's brain? Jose Cisnero's? Travis Blackley's? Does the lack of consistent success really cause shock when two more runs are given up, or does it just cause frustration? Clemens gave up at least one run in a game for the first time since May 9th. May 10th for Blackley. May 11th for Cisnero. Is that normal for them? Do they look at tonights lack of success any differently than before? Or do they move on and forget.

"Yo man, did you see that Houston got a Superbowl in 2017?"
"Whoa, really?"
"True story, bro. I don't make this stuff up"

What do you think? Was this game significant for you, or are you already thinking about tomorrow?

Game 46 Preview: Astros vs. Royals

2013-05-21T22:00:07Z

Houston vs. Kansas City, 7:10 PM CT

TV: CSN Houston
Radio: KBME 790 AM
Royals SBNation Blog: Royals Review

Pitching Match

RHP Bud Norris (4-4, 4.32 ERA / 1.54 WHIP) vs. RHP Wade Davis (3-3 / 5.89 ERA / 1.89 WHIP)

Preview

Matt Dominguez put the Astros in the win column last night with his bat and glove. Tonight, the Astros hope to lean on pitching arm for the win. Bud Norris takes the mound after leaving his last start in Detroit early, on May 13. The Astros righty was originally scheduled to pitch on Sunday, but was pushed back for extra rest. Before breaking down against the Tigers, Norris was sports a 3.71 ERA in his last 4 starts. That included a stretch of 15 innings with only 3 runs given up. The question now is how does Norris return from back spasms? Hopefully Norris will continue to do his best work at home with a 3-1 record and a 2.30 ERA at the juice box.

Wade Davis spent all of 2012 in the bullpen for the Rays; his return to the rotation was a major key in the Myers trade. Davis in 2013 has been the definition of up and down, 4 starts allowing 4 plus runs and 3 starts allowing 1 run or less. Looking over Davis' stats, on key point sticks out - Davis behind in the count has an ERA of 8.38 and 2.03 ahead in the count. The Astros will need to continue to be patient at the plate and continue yesterday's season-low 3 strikeouts as a team.

I expect the Astros to come out on top, as both lineups face new pitchers for the first time.

Poll

What is more likely to happen in 2017, when Houston hosts Super Bowl LI?

Tuesday's Three Astros Things

2013-05-21T18:19:48Z

Some things to talk about while Houston's mayor gets involved in the CSN Houston negotiations...

1) Reid Ryan's first day on the job

Monday marked the first day for Houston's newest president of business operations, Reid Ryan. Brian McTaggart has a good story up on what his first day looked like, including mundane first-day-at-a-new-job stuff like getting keys made and setting up a computer.

Ryan has already touched base on a couple of priority issues: getting a TV deal done and making sure Larry Dierker comes back into the fold, along with keeping communication lines open with other former Astros.

Here's a good quote from the story:

"I go back to common sense," Ryan said. "We want the games on TV for the fans. I've been hit on Twitter and people emailing me and at a restaurant last night, saying, 'You've got to help us with the TV deal.' Everybody wants a TV deal. But do they want it for the short-term feel-good [benefit] of having games on TV for the long-term expense of not being able to compete? I don't think they do."

As the story on CSN Houston's cash problems said last week, Jim Crane will take departed president George Postolos' spot on the CSN board, but that doesn't mean Ryan won't be a big part of these negotiations. It's nice that he's got that already on his plate, but I bet Crane is the one driving negotiations now from the Astros end.

Other than that, it sounded like a nice first day on the job. Better yet, there weren't any embarrassing PR gaffes, which is always nice.

2) Has Carlos Pena rebounded?

One of the questions that floated around Carlos Pena before the season was whether or not his 2012 season was due to decline or normal statistical fluctuation. Was he just getting older and losing stats, or was he due for a rebound to 2011 levels?

Well, after the past few weeks, it sure seems like the latter, doesn't it? Pena is walking more, striking out less and hitting for a little pop. He's got his average well over .200 (for him, anyways), and he's contributing something to this team.

Except he's still in a pretty big decline. His isolated power average is down to .126, about 30 points lower than it was in 2012 and a full 100 points lower than it was in 2011. Oh, and that high (for him) batting average? Buoyed by a .316 batting average on balls in play, which is sure to fall closer to his career BABiP average of .278.

Now, there are some signs on his batted ball data that he might just be statistically anomalizing. His line drive rate remains consistent, but his ground ball and fly ball numbers are wildly out of whack with his career. He's got a ground ball rate of 52 percent and has a 37 percent career rate. That could be an explanation for the lower power numbers, and suggests a spike might be in the offing, if it weren't for the decline in his home run per fly ball rate, which is down almost eight percent under his career average and has been trending downward for the past five years.

After all that, Pena is still on pace to post an fWAR number close to or bettering the 0.8 he had last season. Do you know how much he was worth, when converting that win total to free agent dollars last year? $2.9 million, or exactly how much the Astros are paying him this year.

That's your latest reminder that this Astros front office is smart and knows what it's doing.

3) KC shows that prospects not a sure thing

There's a fascinating email exchange up at Grantland about the Royals and can't-miss prospects (thanks, Jordan, for the tip!). What's great about it, to me, is that it brings up a lot of the downside of these "relying on prospect" dreams that the Astros are selling. Yes, the system has much more talent, but what if it doesn't pan out.

Take the case of Alex Gordon, who was the No. 2 pick in the draft and is on his way to having a fine career. It wasn't always that way, though:

And four years later, he turned into the star that we all thought he would be — you can make a compelling case that after Ben Zobrist, coming into this season Gordon was the most underrated player in the majors. But the reason he's so underrated is because everyone remembers the four years in between: the disappointing-but-not-terrible rookie season in 2007, the promising-but-still-not-there 2008, and then a disastrous 2009 and 2010, when he hit .222 with 14 home runs combined, and played almost as many games in the minor leagues (105) as in the majors (123).

Gordon had as little risk as any prospect I've ever seen, and ultimately fulfilled his potential — and yet even he fought through so many struggles that the Royals, and their fans, were tempted to give up on him for a time.

Will that happen to Jonathan Singleton? George Springer? Carlos Correa? How long do we give guys like that before you're clamoring for the next DDJ to take their jobs?

Prospecting can be a dangerous way to build a team, because the bust rate, even for can't miss guys, is so high. I feel like the Astros are doing this thing right, but I look back at the Royals of the past decade and cringe just the tiniest bit.

Heck, the best news there might be that Dayton Moore has been on the job seven years in trying to get the team rebuilt. That means Jeff Luhnow should get about 10 years before feeling pressure, right?

Houston Astros Minor League Recap 5/20/13

2013-05-21T16:00:00Z

Who's On First?

I don't know why, but this line from the official RedHawks gamer for Sunday's Oklahoma City game makes me laugh:

Shane Peterson hit an RBI single, and RedHawks first baseman committed a throwing error later on the play to bring home another run.

"RedHawks first baseman," of course, is Brett Wallace. But he might be well-served to change his name legally to RedHawks first baseman. It has a nice ring to it.

Honey, I'm Home... You Got a Lot of 'Splaining to Do!

Since being traded to Oakland for Travis Blackley, Jacob Goebbert has feasted on Houston's minor league pitching. Through 12 games, he's hitting .349/.423/.605 against his former team after a great game yesterday, in which he went 1/4 with a double, a run scored, a walk, a hit by pitch, 2 RBI, and a sacrifice fly.

Selling the Minors

Minor League Baseball released their licensed merchandise sales list, and once again the Corpus Christi Hooks are among the national leaders. 160 domestic-based teams participate in the venture, and the Hooks have been in the Top 25 every year since they were introduced in 2005. With the sale of the Hooks to the Astros, this is exciting news for several reasons. First, those merchandise sales will serve to boost the team's revenue. Second, we talked about the chance to "expand the brand" in the podcast by selling Astros merchandise alongside Hooks merchandise in the team store. This shows a willingness among the Corpus Christi community to use their dollars in support of their team, and this shows that this might very well be a viable tactic in South Texas.

What Happened Was...

Oklahoma City RedHawks (AAA) - The good news? Oklahoma City hitters struck out only twice. The bad news? Asher Wojciechowski struggled allowing 8 runs (7 earned) over five innings, including three home runs as the RedHawks fell to the Fresno Grizzlies (SFG) 10-3. Fernando Martinez and Brandon Laird both enjoyed multi-hit games, but ultimately they weren't enough to overcome the Fresno bats.

Oklahoma City: 25-18, 1st Pacific Coast League American Southern Division

SS Jonathan Villar - 0/4, K, 2 E
1B RedHawks First Baseman - 1/4
3B Brandon Laird - 2/3, 2B, R,
DH Fernando Martinez - 3/4, HR, R, 2 RBI
CF Che-Hsuan Lin - 1/3, 2B, BB, K, SB
C Carlos Perez - 1/4, 2B, R
RHP Asher Wojciechowski - 5 IP, 10 H, 7 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
RHP Philip Humber - 2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
LHP Alex Sogard - 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K

Corpus Christi Hooks (AA) - If you like offense, this one was a good one. Under absolutely no other circumstances was it a good one. Corpus Christi carried an 11-10 lead into the bottom of the eighth, but a 9-run inning by the Midland RockHounds (OAK), including 3 off of Andrew Robinson and 5 off of Kenny Long. Max Stassi had a rough day behind the dish, as the RockHounds stole 6 bases, with none caught. Darwin Perez accounted for 3 of them. The Hooks fell in this one, 19-11.

Corpus Christi: 25-19, 1st Texas League South

SS Jiovanni Mier - 1/4, BB, K, CS
CF George Springer - 1/4, BB, 2 K, CS
RF Domingo Santana - 1/4, 2 R, 3 K, HBP
1B Erik Castro - 3/4, 2B, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, BB, K, E
3B Jonathan Meyer - 2/4, 2B, R, BB, K
C Max Stassi - 1/4, R, RBI, K, E
LF Michael Burgess - 2/4, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, K
DH Zach Johnson - 1/3, HR, R, 2 RBI
RHP Ruben Alaniz - 4 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
RHP Jorge De Leon - 0.1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, HBP
LHP Pat Urckfitz - 2.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
RHP Andrew Robinson - 0.0 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 K
LHP Kenny Long - 0.1 IP, 2 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 0 K
RHP Matthew Heidenreich - 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

Lancaster JetHawks (A+) - Chris Epps had a great night. Just how great a night is a matter of some question, as the official gamer and a team press release say he "doubled, tripled, and reached base four times," but the official box score says he doubled twice (advancing to third on an error) and reached base four times. Less in question is how well the Jethawks pitching staff fared: That was, decidedly, "not well." The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (LAD) put up four runs in the first inning off of starter Tyson Perez and added three more in the second. The offense fought back, but was ultimately unable to overcome that lead, never mind the three late-inning runs that followed. The Jethawks fell, 10-6.

Lancaster: 24-20, 2nd California League South (1.5 GB)

2B Delino DeShields - 0/1, K, HBP, E
2B Jean Batista - 1/2, R, BB
SS Joe Sclafani - 2/3, RBI, BB, SF, E
CF Andrew Aplin - 1/5, 2B, R, RBI
RF Preston Tucker - 3/3, R, RBI, BB, SF
1B Telvin Nash - 2/5, HR, R, 3 RBI, 2 K
C Tyler Heineman - 0/4, BB, K, E
LF Chris Epps - 2/3, 2 2B*, 2 R, 2 BB
RHP Tyson Perez - 2 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, WP, HBP
LHP Theron Geith - 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
LHP David Rollins - 3 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
RHP Michael Dimock - 2 IP, 0 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K

Quad Cities River Bandits (A) - It started off well, with Teoscar Hernandez reaching on a line drive single and stealing second as Carlos Correa went down swinging. An error put Miles Hamblin on first, with Hernandez advancing to third. He then scored on a Rio Ruiz sacrifice fly. Hamblin got caught in a rundown on a steal attempt, and Quad Cities led after one, 1-0. Not only was that the last run Quad Cities would score, though. It was also the last hit they scored, as Beloit Snappers (OAK) starter Raul Alcantara (Oakland's #11 prospect per MLB.com), backed up by Brent Powers and Ryan Dull, combined to down the River Bandits, 4-1, spoiling a nice start by Mike Hauschild. Of note: Every single Quad Cities hitter struck out at least once in this game.

Quad Cities - 23-20, 3rd Midwest League Western (7.0 GB)

CF Teoscar Hernandez - 1/4, R, K, SB
1B Miles Hamblin - 0/4, 2 K
3B Rio Ruiz - 0/2, RBI, BB, K, SF
RHP Mike Hauschild - 5 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
LHP Colton Cain - 2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, IBB, 2 K, WP, HBP
LHP Mitchell Lambson - 0.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K
RHP Cameron Lamb - 1.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Weekly College Prospects Update

2013-05-21T15:00:08Z

There were a couple of eye-popping innings counts in this week's numbers:

Jacksonville's Chris Anderson pitched 10 innings against East Tennessee State, allowing 2 runs (none earned) and getting a no-decision. It sounds egregious, but he did only end up throwing 128 pitches (90 for strikes), which is on the high side for a nine-inning pitch count, but it was ten innings. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. What are your thoughts?

Arizona's Konner Wade lined up against Trevor Williams and Arizona State. Williams lasted 6 innings and Wade 7, but between them, they threw a total of 241 pitches, including 124 from Wade. This late in the season, teams are generally gunning for postseason berths or championships, but Arizona - despite being the defending champions - are not really in line for postseason play. Does it make a lot of sense for Konner Wade to throw 124 pitches?

Alex Haines, of Seton Hill, pitched 12 innings total this weekend in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regionals. He threw 7 innings against Shippensburg on Thursday the 16th, turned around, and pitched five innings (also against Shippensburg) on Sunday the 19th. In total, Haines threw 171 pitches between the two contests in the losing effort.

Some sources list Tampa's Jon Keller as having pitched thirteen innings, but I can only find evidence of 8.2, which he did in the NCAA Division II South Regional against Florida Tech. I checked all of the individual box scores, as well as his game-by-game results on the team's official website, and that's all I could find.

Also, Mark Appel gave up just the second home run of his season, this one to Cal's Andrew Knapp, a fellow first round prospect. Meanwhile, Braden Shipley spun a gem against Fresno State, with 10 strikeouts, one hit, and one walk through seven innings. He's steadily moving up a lot of draft boards.

Pitchers

Chris Anderson (Jr., Jacksonville) - 10 IP, 8 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 128/90 vs. East Tennessee State
Mark Appel (Sr., Stanford) - 7 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, 108/72 vs. California
Matt Boyd (Sr., Oregon State) - 8 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 113/75 vs. #10 Oregon
Aaron Brown (So., Pepperdine) - 6.2 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 105/62 vs. Portland
Shane Carle (Jr., Long Beach State) - 9 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 13 K, 119/78 vs. UC Riverside
Scott Frazier (Jr., Pepperdine) - 8 IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 126/81 vs. Portland
Jonathan Gray (Jr., Oklahoma) - 6.1 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 103/65 vs. #18 Kansas State
Alex Haines (Jr., Seton Hill) - 12 IP, 9 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K, 171 pitches vs. Shippensburg
Jon Keller (Jr., Tampa) - 8.2 IP, 10 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 127/83 vs. Florida Tech
Dace Kime (Jr., Louisville) - 4.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 80/48 vs. #16 Pittsburgh
Randy LeBlanc (Jr., Tulane) - 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 71/39 vs. UAB
Corey Littrell (Jr., Kentucky) - 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, 102/60 vs. Missouri
Sean Manaea (Jr., Indiana State) - 5 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 81/53 vs. Bradley
Adam Plutko (Jr., UCLA) - 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 102/69 vs. USC
Braden Shipley (Jr., Nevada) - 7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, 96/64 vs. Fresno State
John Simms (Jr., Rice) - 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 100/63 vs. Marshall
Ryne Stanek (Jr., Arkansas) - 7.2 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 123/76 vs. Auburn
Justin Topa (Jr., LIU-Brooklyn) - 6 IP, 11 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 84/60 vs. Monmouth
Nick Vander Tuig (Jr., UCLA) - 6 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K), 109/66 vs. USC
Austin Voth (Jr., Washington) - 8 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 108/70 vs. Washington State
Konner Wade (Jr., Arizona) - 7 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 124/80 vs. #15 Arizona State
Ben Wetzler (Jr., Oregon State) - 6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 97/65 vs. #10 Oregon
Trevor Williams (Jr., Arizona State) - 6 IP, 12 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 117/79 vs. Arizona
Kevin Ziomek (Jr., Vanderbilt) - 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 10 K, 101/61 vs. Alabama

Hitters

OF Aaron Brown (So., Pepperdine) - 4/9, 2B, HR, 3 R, RBI, 2 SB vs. Portland
OF Dale Carey (Jr., Miami) - 3/6, R vs. Georgia Tech
SS Hunter Dozier (Jr., Stephen F. Austin State) - 3/8, 2 R, RBI vs. Texas A&M - Corpus Christi
OF Adam Engel (Jr., Louisville) - 4/7, 2B, 3 R, 3 RBI vs. #16 Pittsburgh
1B Dominici Ficociello (Jr., Arkansas) - 3/7, 2B, 4 RBI vs. Auburn
SS Adam Frazier (Jr., Mississippi State) - 4/10, 2 R vs. #12 South Carolina
1B Ryon Healy (Jr., Oregon) - 2/10, 2B, RBI vs. #6 Oregon State
3B Eric Jagielo (Jr., Notre Dame) - 5/8, HR, 4 R, 4 RBI vs. Cincinnati
OF Aaron Judge (Jr., Fresno State) - 4/8, 2B, 2 HR, 3 R, 4 RBI vs. Nevada
SS Lonnie Kauppila (Jr., Stanford) - 6/11, 2B, 2 R, 4 RBI, SB vs. California
OF Jared King (Jr., Kansas State) - 5/10, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI vs. #19 Oklahoma
C Andrew Knapp (Jr., California) - 5/12, 2B, HR, 3 R, 2 RBI vs. Stanford
OF Michael Lorenzen (Jr., Cal State Fullerton) - 4/11, 2B, 3B, 5 RBI vs. UC Irvine
OF Jacob May (Jr., Coastal Carolina) - 5/8, 2 R, 4 SB vs. Charleston Southern
2B L.J. Mazzilli (Sr., Connecticut) - 5/8, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, 2 SB vs. George Mason
OF Jason Monda (Jr., Washington State) - 3/8, R, 2 RBI vs. Washington
3B Colin Moran (Jr., North Carolina) - 4/10, 3B, R, 4 RBI vs. #7 Virginia
OF Michael O'Neill (Jr., Michigan) - 4/10, HR, 3 R vs. Nebraska
OF Daniel Palka (Jr., Georgia Tech) - 4/8, 2 HR, 3 R, 3 RBI vs. Miami
3B D.J. Peterson (Jr., New Mexico) - 2/6, R, RBI vs. San Diego
1B Brian Ragira (Jr., Stanford) - 7/16,2 R, 3 RBI, SB vs. California
OF Brandon Thomas (Sr., Georgia Tech) - 3/8, 2 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI vs. Miami
OF Austin Wilson (Jr., Stanford) - 2/11, 5 R, RBI, SB vs. California

[Update: After taking warmup throws before Indiana State's MVC Conference Tournament opener today vs. Creighton, Sean Manaea was lifted from his start. This has been a really disappointing season for Manaea after a strong summer in the Cape Cod League.]

Podcast: Astros' Kevin Goldstein Interview And The Corpus Christi Hooks

2013-05-21T14:00:11Z

Sponsored by Leiturgia Communications

TCB Podcast ready and willing to invade your thoughts and tickle your ear drums regarding everything Houston Astros baseball.

Note: Check your podcast subscription you may have to go manually download one of the podcasts. iTunes has a tendency to only download one podcast when multiple podcasts become available at the same time.

TCBP 82: Talking Scouting With Astros Pro Scout Coordinator Kevin Goldstein

In this episode David Coleman and myself are joined by Kevin Goldstein to discuss:

Who the Astros will pick number one in the upcoming MLB Draft
What Kevin actually does for the Astros
How his hire with the Astros came about
The inner workings of scouting
An update on Kevin's weird neighbors

[Direct]

TCB AMP 2: Corpus Christi Hooks Rotation And Draft Trolling

In This episode Brooks Parker, Anthony Boyer and myself discuss:

Projectability of the Hooks starting rotation including: Mike Folytnewicz, Jake Buchanan, Nicholas Tropeano
Chances Foltynewicz breaks with the major league club out of Spring Training next year
How the rotation is being affected by the tandem starting
Draft discussion including: Jeff Luhnow and Jim Crane's trip to Chapel Hill; and the four upcoming Astros workouts for potential draftees

[Direct]

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Next Scheduled Podcast Recordings: May 26, 2013

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If you have an feedback for the show you can email me at timothy.deblock@gmail.com. And a big thank you to those of you that have given feedback in the comments, via email or by iTunes ratings. We really appreciate it.

Astros History: Vince Coleman

2013-05-21T13:00:09Z

Donate to the Houston Area Women's Center

After three years in Germany and then six months in New Jersey, my family moved to Leavenworth, Kansas in 1992 for what would be a three year stay. I almost instantly feel in love with Kansas. The weather was nice. We had snow in the Winter, hot Summers and floods in between. I spent quite a few Summer days making the one hour trip to Kauffman stadium with my family. My mom liked Wally Joyner, I liked Brian McRae and unnoticed on the team was Vince Coleman.

I don't have any specific memories of Coleman when he played for the Royals in 1994 and part of 1995 but I'm sure I watched him play. At 32, Coleman was no longer the player that had lead the National League in stolen bases six years in a row from 1985 to 1990; However, he did have a rebound of sorts. In 104 games Coleman did what he hadn't done since 1990, steal 50 bases or more. Those steals came at a cost to the Royals though as Coleman had a .285 on-base percentage and was allowed to bat 477 times. The Royals were not very good when I had an opportunity to watch them on a regular basis.

The next year Coleman had a bit of a resurgence in his hitting with a .287 batting average, a .348 on-base percentage and a .399 slugging percentage. He still had a below average OPS+ but he also had 26 steals and was caught nine times. He was traded to the Seattle Mariners in August for a player to be named later. Jim Converse would eventually be sent to the Royals and pitch in 12 games games for them, all out of the bullpen.

Coleman would go on to help the Mariners finish first in the AL West by batting .290/.335/.395 with 16 steals and seven caught stealings. Coleman would collect five more stolen bases in the postseason while never being caught once. His batting line was a bit of an eye sore but the Mariners were able to advance to the ALCS where they were eliminated from the postseason by the Cleveland Indians.

Coleman would play two more seasons before finally hanging his uniform up. In his career he stole 752 bases good for sixth all-time.

MLB Scores: Astros 6, Royals 5

2013-05-21T03:17:00Z

The Kansas City Royals were the current incarnation of the Houston Astros in the 2000's. That makes this week's series in Houston much more of a grudge match than it should be, but it also may showcase two somewhat evenly matched teams.

At the very least, Houston showed its propensity for playing one-run games has not ended, though the luck turned a bit on Monday. Thanks to a pair of home runs by Jason Castro and Matt Dominguez, the Astros slid past the Ryolas for a 6-5 victory to open the three-game set at Minute Maid Park.

Castro's blast gave Houston an early 3-1 lead and came on the heels of Jose Altuve's sacrifice fly that broke the 1-1 tie. Dominguez, on the other hand, had a huge three-run home run that erased the Royals own 4-3 lead from the half-inning before.

KC jumped out to the lead thanks to a familiar Astros face. Miguel Tejada drove a Dallas Keuchel pitch over the fence for his own three-run home run in the top of the fourth. Keuchel settled in after that, though, holding the Royals down for another 2 2/3 innings.

On the night, Keuchel threw 6 2/3 innings, picking up his first victory of the season. The lefty struck out six and walked four while giving up nine hits and four earned runs.

The Royals kept making it interesting, though, as they scored another run in the top of the eighth that was charged to Wesley Wright but belonged to Hector Ambriz.

Jose Veras was able to slam the door shut in the ninth, striking out both Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar on 3-2 counts before getting a groundout to first from Alex Gordon to end the game. It was Veras' seventh save of the season.

Oh yeah, and Reid Ryan was pretty excited, as the Astros got a home win on his first day as the new team president.

GIF of the Night

New Astros team president Reid Ryan isn't afraid of foul balls.