Good news:  Berkman and Lee each hit homers, Berkmans first from the left side.  Mike Hampton pitched 6 strong innings.

Cubs 4
Astros 2

Carlos Zambrano pitched just over 6 innings giving up only earned run and striking out 6.  Roy Oswalt went 7 innings and gave up 3 earned runs including a leadoff home run by Alfonso Soriano, his 50th lead off dinger, and another home run by Aramis Ramirez to lead off the 2nd inning.

Houston struggled at the plate logging 8 hits but none for extra bases.  Michael Bourn hit an infield single in 7th to score Miguel Tejada.  Hunter Pence hit a sac fly in the 9th that also scored Tejada, who scored both of the Astros runs.

Matsui 1-3, BB
Rodriguez 0-4, 2K
Berkman 1-2, 2BB
Lee 0-4, GIDP
Tejada 3-4, K, CS, 2 R
Blum 1-3, BB
Pence 0-3, RBI, GIDP, K
Bourn 2-4, K

Good news: Roy pitched pretty well and hopefully will probably settle down on the home run tip.  I doubt Roy is ever going to pitch a no-hitter in his career because he is such a strikeout/pitch to contact type power pitcher. Also, Bourn was 2-4.

Bad news: Pence, Lee, and Rodriguez did not look real good at the plate. I was surprised by how free swinging Pudge is.

Pitching Lines:
Roy Oswalt 7IP, 3 ER, 2 SO, 1BB (0-1)
Geoff Geary 2 IP, 1 ER, 2 SO, 1 BB

Houston takes on the Cubs again tomorrow at 7:05 with Wandy Rodriguez taking on Ryan Dempster.

Houston 0-1

Roy tossed 4 innings in his last start before the season opener, woohoo!, and Chris Johnson isn’t going out without a fight…even though, in reality, he doesn’t have a chance.

Stros at the plate: “Michael Bourn led off the third with a double, stole third and scored on a base hit by Kazuo Matsui. Darin Erstad knocked a solo homer in the sixth. Chris Johnson drove in a run with a triple in the seventh and scored on a Reggie Abercrombie sacrifice fly. ”

After looking at the box score for today’s game, it looks like Bourn was3-3 with a walk. If you are counting that is an OBP of awesomeness.  Keep it up Michael! J-Kepp was 0-2.

Stros on the bump: “Roy Oswalt pitched four innings in his final spring tuneup before Opening Day. He allowed one run on three hits with three strikeouts. Tim Byrdak followed with two innings, during which he allowed one run on three hits. ”

Jose Valverde, Doug Brocail, and Geoff Geary all tossed scoreless frames.

Houston Astros Grapefruit Leage record: 11-17-3

From more on the game visit astros.com

According the Jason Stark of ESPN.com Geoff Geary is on the market.

“ATTENTION SHOPPERS: A few extra parts who are being made available right now: Blue Jays reliever Shawn Camp, Astros reliever Geoff Geary, Royals catcher John Buck, Phillies outfielder Geoff Jenkins. Counting Jenkins’ $1.25 million buyout of his 2010 option, he’s still owed $8 million. The Phillies have offered to pay “almost all of it,” according to one club, but still haven’t found a taker.”

The club could be looking to ship Geary and perhaps replace him with Dilbert De La Vara in hopes of getting someone to play 3rd.

Stark also covers a few more Astros tid bits in the article, including possibles for third base.

Pitchers and catchers officially report tomorrow, February the 14th.  It’s safe to say the off-season is over and Spring Training has begun.  Excitement is in the air.  Before taking a look at the Houston Astros going into Spring Training, let’s take a look at how they fared this off-season.

Ed Wade said on more than one occasion that the teams main objective for the off-season was to retain Randy Wolf, Doug Brocail, and LaTroy Hawkins. 

It was reported that the Astros made Randy Wolf an offer of $28.5 million and three years.  Before Wolf had time to make a decision Houston was forced to pull their offer from the table due to economic reasons.  Wolf has since been pursued by many MLB teams and landed with the Los Angeles Dodgers for $5 million. 

However, Wade was successful in retaining both Hawkins and Brocail who will both play a pivotal roles in the Astros bullpen, which is probably the strongest aspect of their team.

Once Drayton McLane put away his wallet the Astros priorities shifted.  The team was still looking to add a starting pitcher, especially with Wolf no longer an option.  But, for that to happen Wade was going to have to move some payroll through trades.  Ed Wade went into the winter meetings shopping Ty Wigginton and Miguel Tejada.  Wigginton garnered significant interest while teams showed virtually no interest in Tejada. 

Wade came away from the Winter Meetings with a catcher, Lou Palmisano, via the rule 5 draft, and both Wigginton and Tejada still in a Houston uniform.  Shortly after the Winter Meetings the Astros non-tendered Ty Wigginton, again for financial reasons and much to the dismay of Houston fans.  Wigginton has since signed a deal with the Baltimore Orioles, also known as Houston Astros American League team.  (see former Astros on Baltimore Orioles)

The biggest signing the club made this off-season was when they picked up Mike Hampton.  Hampton, a former Astro and Cy-Young winner, signed with the club for 1 year and $2 million dollars plus incentives. 

The rest of the off-season was peppered with minor league contracts, (including David Newhan and Russ Ortiz) and veteran signings (Aaron Boone and Jason Michaels).

Houston managed to avoid arbitration with all eligible candidates:

Jose Valverde signed for $8 million, Brandon Backe $1.55 million, Tim Byrdak $1 million, and Humberto Quintero for $610,000.  All for 1 year contracts.  The club also signed Wandy Rodriguez to a $2.6 Million dollar contract with incentives, as well as Geoff Geary for $1.7 million, both one year contracts.

After the dust settled the Astros are a very similar team to the team that hit the field last season.  Going into Spring Training they are without Wolf and Wigginton but they have added Mike Hampton whowill be key in Houston’s success this season if he can stay healthy.  Houston is also counting on a Geoff Blum/Aaron Boone platoon (or Georran Blooney as a few people have started to refer to the duo) to fill in for Wigginton.

The starting rotation is the most glaring issue for the club in that there are a lot of questions to be answered.  Can Hampton stay healthy?  Will Backe pitch better or will he give up the most dingers in MLB again?  Wandy Rodriguez had a pretty good season last year but he has to stay healthy and develop more consistency. (see Wandy’s home-road ERA the past two seasons.)  One thing the team and Houston’s fans can count on is Roy Oswalt.  Oswalt started off a little rough last season but finished strong.

The Houston Bullpen is possibly the best in the NL Central.  With Jose Valverde, or Papa Grande, anchoring and with Doug Brocail/LatroyHawkins as set-up men, the Houston Pen should fare well this season if they can stay healthy.  Chris Sampson is coming off of elbow surgery and is said to be pitching without pain for the first time since his original stint with the team.  Sampson came to life after being moved to the Houston pen last season.  Geoff Geary and the two left handed relievers Wesley Wright and Tim Byrdak give Cecil Cooper plenty of options coming out of the pen.

The Houston line-up will feature much of the same players as last season, except for Ty Wigginton.  Aside from Blum/Boone filling Wiggy’s spot, I would also look for Michael Bourn to hit lower in the line-up.  If Bourn does well and is moved up to the lead-off or two spot look for Miguel Tejada to drop a spot and Hunter Pence to drop in his spot, probably the 5-hole.

This is all before Spring Training even begins so who knows what will happen.  Houston didn’t have the most successful off-season but they managed to keep a team together and add a few pieces that will give them the chance to contend in a division that has somewhat weakened since last year. 

Spring Training ‘officialy’ begins for Houston tomorrow although Jose Valverde and Felipe Paulino threw bullpen sessions today and Brian Moehler, Doug Brocail, Humberto Quintero, Lou Palmisano, LaTroy Hawkins, Brandon Backe, Geoff Geary, and Chris Sampson all worked out.

I will be celebrating tomorrows holday (No, not Valentine’s Day) with a chili dog and a beer.  Thanks to baseball, all things are right again in the universe.

The Houston Astros had their chances Monday night against C.C. Sabathia and the Milwaukee Brewers but they didn’t come up with the big hits like the Brewers did. The brew crew defeated the Astros 9-3 as Sabathia threw a complete game.

Randy Wolf tossed the first four innings of the game as was pulled after giving up five hits and six runs. Wolf struckout five batters and walked three others. It was not the outing that the Astros were counting on from Wolf that is for sure. The Astros bullpen also had trouble as Doug Brocail, Wesley Wright, Geoff Geary all gave up a run in relief.

Mark Loretta, Ty Wigginton, and Reggie Abercrombie all had rbi’s at the plate for the Astros. As a team however, they left 17 runners on base and struckout nine times. They had the bases loaded late in the game against Sabathia but was unable to come up with a big hit to score more then one run at a time.

All we can hope for now is a win on Tuesday.

Astros Baseball

The Houston Astros played another bad game as they lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates by the score of 8-7.  It was the third straight day that the Astros lost the Pirates and they were swept in the three game series.  Now that is a very dissapointing series when you get swept by the Pirates at home.

The Astros were able to knock out Pirates starting pitcher after only three innings but they just couldn’t take advantage of the Pirates bullpen.  Mark Loretta led the Astros at the plate with two rbi and then five others had one rbi each.  Kazuo Matsui, Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence, Brad Ausmus, and Geoff Blum all recorded one rbi in the game.

Brian Moehler started the game for the Astros and really sucked it up as he only lasted 2 1/3 innings.  Moehler gave up nine hits and six runs and got a no decision in the game.  Geoff Geary ended up taking the loss and is now 2-2 on the year after he gave up three hits and two runs in two innings of action.

So now the Astros will be off on Thursday before they start off weekend series with the Milwaukee Brewers.  The Brewers have been playing some great baseball, so the Astros are going to have to bring their “A” game if they want any chance at winning a game.

Astros Baseball Blog

The Houston Astros headed into the 9th inning with a 3-2 lead but closer Jose Valverde pitched terrible and was charged with six runs and the Astros lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates by the score of 9-3.  That was not the way the Astros wanted to kick off the three game series with the Pirates.  WIth the loss, the Astros are now a dissappointing 46-53 on the season.

Valverde gave up two home runs and two run single in the ninth inning.  He was also charged with two more runs when Freddy Sanchez hit a three run inside the park home run off of Tim Byrdak.  It sucked that Valverde sucked it up so bad when the other pitchers didn’t throw the ball that badly.

Runelvys Hernandez pitched the first 5 1/3 innings in the game and got the no decision.  Hernandez gave up two runs on eight hits while walking two batters and striking out three others. Geoff Geary tossed 1 2/3 innings while Doug Brocail tossed an inning of relief.  Geary and Brocail both did not allow a run score as they threw the ball good.

Carlos Lee led the Astros at the plate as he had two rbi singles in the game.  Brad Ausmus also had a rbi double to contibute.  The Astros just didn’t get the big hit at the plate as they had plenty of base runners on in the game.  The Astros stranded 30 runners on base and struckout nine times.  That is just not getting the job done when you need to come up with a big hit.

Astros Blog

An all-around great game for the Astros tonight.

Brian Moehler pitched an outstanding game. He went 7 innnings, giving up only 4 hits and one run, a solo-homerun to Jim Edmonds. He really had command of the strike zone last night, to bad he couldn’t get the win, he had to settle for the no-decision.

Carlos Lee hit a mammoth shot in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game. The Astros then got two straight hits, but could not muster another run in the inning to give Moehler the lead.

Geoff Geary came in and pitched two perfect innings to get it to the Astros in the bottom of the ninth. Miguel Tejada doubled off Howry to get the inning going. The next batter, Hunter Pence, followed with the walk-off double to seal the game.

It was great to see the Astros come out of the gate and beat the Cubs in this fashion. Hopefully it will swing a lot of momemtum our way. Who knows, maybe this is the start of our patented second half run.

The Astros got on the board early and then scored a total of 6 runs in the game to beat the Nationals 6-4.

Wandy Rodriguez had a good start, giving up 4 runs over 5 and a third innings. He was cruising after giving up 2 early runs, but found trouble in the 6th leaving with the bases loaded.

Hunter Pence was the man of the night for the Astros though. He went 2-3 with 3 RBI’s, including a 2-run homer. Lance Berkman also contributed with a two run double in the fifth, his 30th double of the year. Carlos Lee continued his hot streak by going 3-5 and raised his average to .299. It’s good to see him ripping the ball.

Chris Sampson and Geoff Geary came in and pitched two and two thirds of scoreless innings until Jose Valverde came in to pitch a perfect ninth inning for his 24th save.

All in all it was a good game tonight, especially since it follwed an extremely poor outing last night.