Bad day on the mound today for the Stros. From astros.com:

Stros at the plate: “Kazuo Matsui went 3-for-3 with a double, run scored and RBI and Hunter Pence went 1-for-3 with a double and RBI. Edwin Maysonet hit a solo home run to left field off right-hander Chad Durbin in the sixth inning.”

That’s two 3-3 days for Kaz in the past 3 games.  Maysonet showing some pop while vying for that back up infield position, making the decision even tougher for Coop. 

Stros on the bump: “Left-hander Mike Hampton allowed seven hits, seven runs, three walks and three home runs in five innings. He struck out three” From Brian McTaggart of the Houston Chronicle: “The Phillies hit four homers off the Astros, with Wesley Wright giving up four runs, a homer and two walks in one inning to raise his ERA to 3.60. Chris Sampson pitched two innings, allowing three hits and two unearned runs. ”

Tough day on the mound for Hampton and Houston but, those days are gonna happen, just ask Mike Hampton:

“”I’ll have one during the season, too, probably more than just one,” he said. “That’s just part of it. You try to minimize the damage as much as you can, but I made some good pitches at times and there were some times I left the ball over the plate and got hit.” ”

In Hampy’s defense, Coop says he got squeezed a little.

Houston’s Grapefruit League record: Astros 9-18-3

Houston won todays contest against St. Louis 4-3.

Pudge Rodriguez went yard again today.  Hunter Pence and Jason Smith each went 3 for 4.  Michael Bourn walked twice, K’d once, and had the game winning RBI.

Russ Ortiz pitched well today going 5 innings and giving up 1 earned run while walking 2 ans striking out 4. Wesley Wright pitched a scoreless frame.

Make it six in a row for houston, pushing their Grapefruit wins to 7.

Ken Davindoff of Baseball Insider judges each team in the majors on their offseason success.  He groups the teams into 4 categories: winners, winners with downside, losers with upside, and losers. Care to guess where the Astros rank?

If you said losers you are correct!

Davindorf: “Losers: 3. Houston: Despite some internal lobbying, GM Ed Wade wouldn’t even consider a one-year deal for Andy Pettitte”

Andy Pettitte? Really? That’s the reason why we are “losers”?  Would our rotation be that much more stable with another aging hurler?

I guess it was a short column and he couldn’t go in to detail.  If he could have I imagine he would have said that GM Ed Wade was handcuffed by the economic situation facing the Houston Astros instead of the whole Andy Pettitte bit.

Losers? Maybe.  We lost 2 key components to our second half push last season in IF/OF Ty Wigginton and SP Randy Wolf.  However, our pitching staff would still be considered suspect even with Wolf so I think the fact that we swapped Mike Hampton for Randy Wolf isn’t a big deal, as long as Mikey can stay healthy. He likes it!

And Ty? Well, you got me there.  Defensively he wasn’t real sharp but his missing bat is gonna hurt.  I think we start the season with a Blum Boone platoon (poet and didn’t know it) and, if Chris Johnson keeps up his Spring Training Numbers for the rest of March and continues to do well in AAA, he will be our 3rd baseman come June.  Maybe sooner.  Once this occurs, I think the Wiggy Wolf loss is gonna sting less.  Guess we will see.

Also, if Wade can have success with his Rule 5 draftees as he has in the past, Houston’s offseason could turn out better than people currently think.  Lou Palmisano and Gilbert De La Vara are both making a push to make the club out of Spring Training.  And if they can repeat Wesley Wright’s success of last season and make this club better, props to Ed Wade.

Of course, that is a lot of “ifs.”  As of now, Houston’s offseason looks unproductive, but the results of this season will be the true testimony to the clubs offseason moves.

Richard Justice wrote a great article on Houston Astros’ relief pitcher Wesley Wright.  Check it out here.

Also, ESPN’s Jason Grey has an article on Hunter Pence.  Check it out here.

The Houston Astros have signed Michael Bourne, Sammy Gervacio, Polin Trinidad and Wesley Wright to one year contracts. Bourne is expected to earn $435,000, Wright will make $425,000, while Gervacio and Trinidad will be bringing in $400,000 each. Not a bad day for for all four of those players in my opinion.

The Houston Astros got the best of the Pittsburgh Pirates once again as they beat them on Wednesday night. This time it was by the score of 7-4 as the Astros won for the third straight time in the four game series. The Astros continue to play some aswesome baseball as they try everything they can do to get into the playoffs.

Brian Moehler picked up the win for the Astros after tossing the first six innings of the game. Moehler gave up five hits and two runs as he improved his record to 11-6. Wesley Wright had some trouble in the game as he allowed two runs to score as well. Jose Valverde notched the save which was hit 42nd of the year.

Miguel Tejada had the big hit for the Astros when he hit a grand slam in the sixth inning. Tejada led the Cubs with four rbi. Hunter Pence finished with a two-run home run and two rbi in the game while Darin Erstad also added one rbi.

Astros will try to go for the sweep on Thursday. I think they will get it! Astros Blog

The Houston Astros got five shutout innings from Alberto Arias and went onto beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 on Monday night. It was a great start to the series for the Astros as the improved to 77-67 on the year.

The two runs that the Pirates did score came off of Wesley Wright in the sixth inning. He gave up rbi singles in the inning. Other then Wright’s two runs, the rest of the pitching staff pitched great. Doug Brocail, Chris Sampson, LaTroy Hawkins, and Jose Valverde all threw out of the bullpen after Wrigth was taken out. Valverde finished things up in the ninth inning for his 41st save of the season.

All three of the Astros runs came in the fifth inning when they were finally able to get to Pirates starting pitcher Ian Snell. Snell gave up a solo home run to Saccomanno and then Miguel Tejada and and Lance Berkman knocked in a run each with rbi singles.

The offense was lucky that the pitching staff threw the ball so well as they struggled against the Pirates pitchers. A win is a win however, and right now the the Astros need every win they can get.

Astros Blog

Wow what a butt kicking the Houston Astros received from the New York Mets on Monday night. The Astros and Mets opened up a series in New York and it was the Mets kicking the Astros butt by the score of 9-1. Two homeruns from Carlos Delgado fueld the big game for the Mets as the Astros pitchers just didn’t have it going for them.

Three different Astros pitchers combined to give the nine runs. Starting pitcher Brian Moehler was tagged for six hits and four runs in 5 1/3 innings. Moehler gave up the first home run to Delgado who hit a three run shot off of Moehler. Relief pitcher Wesley Wright pitched the next 1 2/3 innings and gave up two hits and three runs including the second three run home run to Delgado. Doug Brocail finished up the terrible pitching night for the team by giving up two more hits and runs in the eighth inning.

There isn’t a whole lot to blog about for the offense as they only scored one run in the game. In the top of the ninth inning, Ty Wigginton grounded out to first base and David Newhan scored.

Astros Baseball

The Houston Astros were unable to beat the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday and take two out of three games in the series as they lose 5-2 in Milwaukee. The Astros were right in the game until the seventh inning when they allowed the Brewers to score two runs and extend their lead.

Wandy Rodriguez ended up with the loss as he was charged with three hits and allowed three runs to score through 5 1/3 innings. Wandy had a problem with is location as he walked five batters in the game. Wesley Wright was charged with one run when he allowed a base runner on and then Doug Brocail gave up a two run home run to J.J. Hardy in the seventh inning.

Both of the Astros runs came in the fourth inning when Geoff Blum and Reggie Abercrombi had rbi singles.  It was pretty bad that the offense played as bad as they did. They should have scored more runs then two as the Brewers scored five runs on only four hits. Just one of those games I suppose.

Astros Baseball

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.

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