The Astros: Invoking more Charles Dickens

A few weeks ago, Charles Dickens was quoted here in relation to Great Expectations for Carlos Correa.

Is Carlos Correa a victim of Charles Dickens?

Today we will move on to the Tale of Two Cities when looking at this season’s Houston Astros. “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times….” This has been a difficult time for any true fan of the Astros, because every time they get all down about the home team’s performance the team starts playing better. Then as soon as the sunshine optimist fan appears the Astros fall off the wagon and the fans fall off the band wagon.

The only easy role for the Houston Astros’ fan is that of hypocrite. Does any of this sound familiar over the last 4-1/2 months?

  • Let’s get rid of Luis Valbuena. Just DFA him, give him away. (Turned a .183/.290/.540 April start into a .260/.357/.812 slash for the season)
  • Man, Tyler White is great. Great! Roll him out there every day. (Hot two weeks turned into a pumpkin)
  • Doug Fister is a disaster. Why did we pick him up? (After a few early bad starts – has been solid with a 11-7 record and 3.61 ERA)
  • Ken Giles needs to get sent down until he learns what he is doing.  (15 scoreless appearances from Mid-June to early August)
  • Will Harris needs to be the closer for this team. (His ERA is 8 times as high since the day he became closer. Yeah it is cheating that he was 0.34 ERA when he became a closer).
  • We need A.J. Reed and Alex Bregman up here. They will tear it up. (After terrible starts, they are toddling towards the Mendoza line).
  • Just give Carlos Gomez a little more time and he will heat it up. (Well, not sure if anyone really thought that, but some hoped for it).

Now Dan P would never be one of these hypocrites….or admit to being one. Please don’t go back and check any posts or comments.

One question for you. What have you had to eat your words, feelings, thoughts about relative to the 2016 Houston Astros?

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117 responses to “The Astros: Invoking more Charles Dickens”

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  1. Giles STILL scares the devil outta me when he comes in. Gomez looked bad from the get go….it broke my heart when they sent White back down, and I’ve always liked Valbuena and his bat. I was probably one that dissed Fister, but he righted his ship.
    AND…..I don’t know WHAT happened to Will Harris! Gattis is the big dissapointment to me, I really expected him to be a HUGE part of this offense, but doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen. The bad start cost them…..DANG I hate losing especially when the other team in north texas wins.

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  2. Today has been a best of times / worst of times game, Becky.
    Down 2-0 / Up 4-2 / Down 8-4
    Keuchel gives up 2 runs right off the bat / settles down and pitches well / starts getting hit again

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    • Right now Keuchel does not have starter’s stuff. He has the stuff of a middle reliever. It doesn’t stand up to multiple times through the order. He is only a rain out from having an ERA over 5.

      That hurts to say after his 2015 season.

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  3. Let’s get rid of Luis Valbuena. Just DFA him, give him away. (Turned a .183/.290/.540 April start into a .260/.357/.812 slash for the season) – I ate my words. What a turnaround!!. Now I think it is time for him to go and give way to the youngsters, since he is out for an extended time and wont be bak next year.

    Man, Tyler White is great. Great! Roll him out there every day. (Hot two weeks turned into a pumpkin) – I still think White will be a hitter at the MLB level.

    Doug Fister is a disaster. Why did we pick him up? (After a few early bad starts – has been solid with a 11-7 record and 3.61 ERA) – I still think Fister is winning with smoke, mirrors and experience. I still don’t like his stuff and I think 2016 will be as good as it gets for him. Nice pick up on the cheap! I ate my words.

    Ken Giles needs to get sent down until he learns what he is doing. (15 scoreless appearances from Mid-June to early August) – I always thought Gile had the stuff to succeed. First test under pressure. He’s still young and his stuff translates to MLB success.

    Will Harris needs to be the closer for this team. (His ERA is 8 times as high since the day he became closer. Yeah it is cheating that he was 0.34 ERA when he became a closer). – I never thought Harris had the stuff to be closer and I still don’t. Harris is a good low leverage middle reliever. He has no out pitch.

    We need A.J. Reed and Alex Bregman up here. They will tear it up. (After terrible starts, they are toddling towards the Mendoza line). Bregman made up for his week bat early with a great glove at first. He has the talent and will hit at this level. I have never wavered on this thought. I wonder if Reed is Glenn Davis or Brett Wallace??

    Just give Carlos Gomez a little more time and he will heat it up. (Well, not sure if anyone really thought that, but some hoped for it). – Gomez should have been dealt in the offseason.

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  5. The only GREAT thing about tonight was Aluve’s…*1000* hit!!! Raise your glass to the BIGGEST little 2nd baseman in baseball! And we are sooo blessed to have him playing for the Astros!! What a kid!!

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  6. Oh…..and the A’S coughed it up in the 10th……and they gained another game on us.
    We are too far back in the division AND the wild card. Tough to swallow….real tough.

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    • What was even tougher to watch about the A’s loss was that Beltran tied it on a two run single and Becky’s least favorite Ranger was plunked for a walkoff HBP.

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  7. DK hasn’t been right since his relief appearance v KC in the playoffs…that combined with his innings increase means overuse may have caused him to have a dead arm,

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  8. Giles’s K/9 ratio is phenomenal…he should’ve been closer a lot sooner IMHO. He’s been lights out since mid-June, and it’s no fluke.

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  9. I had so many hopes for the team this year.
    Our young closer hasn’t closed.
    Our closer from last year started closing but couldn’t close
    Our eighth inning guy started closing but stopped closing.
    Our Cy Young winner looks like Cy Sneed.
    Our successor to Jon Singleton hits like Jon Singleton
    Tyler White hit like Jeff Bagwell until he got hit by a pitch and then hit like Maynard G. Krebs
    Tony Kemp comes up and plays when he’s not hitting and now he’s hitting so he’s not playing.
    Carlos Gomez started badly and got worse.
    We never had a DH since we’ve been in the AL.
    Our #1 prospect in baseball doesn’t hit when we’re in the race and starts hitting when we’re out of it.
    By the time they think Musgrove is ready, we’re out of it.
    Feliz is so good in the beginning of the year we do nothing with him.
    Collin McHugh decides to crater the year before arbitration and he has lost 2 mph off his fastball this year.
    Pat Neshek’s foot is good and his arm is bad.
    Tony Sipp pitches good for $500,000 and terribly for $6 million.
    Every guy hits well in the minors and then comes up and craters and there is no coach to bring them out of it.
    In a year when home runs are up, our home runs are down.
    In a year when heat is at a premium we throw slower than any team in baseball.
    This year, our team celebrates when Mike Fiers throws a 10-hitter.
    Even though Preston Tucker isn’t playing people still complain about his defense.
    Jake Marisnick decided to show us his new, improved swing five months into the season.
    Colby Rasmus played good the one month we were terrible and terrible the two months we were good. He has completely disappeared off the radar.
    When our pitchers are away birthing babies, the rest of the staff takes off, too.

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    • Rasmus had played well in June. Since then, he took a dive…but keep in mind the same condition he has , has ended careers. (Nick Esasky being a great example).

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      • OP- it’s not just ear infection…it’s the vertigo that’s the issue.

        Speaking from personal experience, I’ve been suffering from it for about a year…

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    • LMAO so honest and so Epic TY OP. We are an organization ripe with mediocrity, and ownership and FO that seems pretty excited about being .500 forever, but wait wait we have the blaa blaa blaa propects in baseball.

      What a dismall 2016 it has been except Tuve’s 1000

      I wish I could say I was shocked by DK’s regression, I have to say many times last year I was amazed at his CY year., How did this soft tossing average pitcher tranfrom himself into CY dude in 2015??? Maybe somehow he will get it back in 2017, which I doubt, I think there isn’t much fear left in the beard

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  10. I laughed out loud with your Maynard G. Krebs shout out! I know you’re serious and it’s just sooo danged frustrating that when things start going bad…..they go VERY bad. It’s too late for us this year, but I’m excited about some of the kids they brought up. There will be more down days before this season is played out, and we will come together on this blog and vent….but it’s still just baseball, and there’s always next year. I just hope our hitters and pitchers will be on the same page next year. I’m sitting in my blue recliner…I’m cool…..and I’m dry. I have to put life into perspective, the people in the state next to ours, are in dire need of just a place to put their head for the night. Sleep tight fellas….you gotta come back out tomorrow to play another game. Let’s get a win!

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  11. On the day Gurriel shows up and has three hits, including a homer and a double, Keegan Yuhl, Chris cotton and Reymin Guduan decide to throw batting practice to the Omaha Storm Chasers. Welcome to Fresno,Yulieski.
    Evan Grills did not throw batting practice to NW Arkansas and Stubbs hit a homer and JD Davis woke up in time to hit two homers as CC kept rolling

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  12. What AJ Hinch said to Yulieski Guriel in the clubhouse on his first day as an Astro “Yuli, this is Dave Hudgens, and he will teach you everything he knows about hitting”.
    What AJ Hinch meant to say to Yulieski Gurriel: “Good Luck with that!”

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  14. I said the Astros should let Gattis walk. Not knowing they were going to suddenly let him catch, I was wrong. Letting him DH, I was spot on.
    I said they should trade Castro, that Heineman could do his job. In retrospect, I was correct. Castro has sucked and so has the pitching staff.
    I said I was glad we had Gomez to play CF. How wrong can a guy be?
    I thought we should have traded Valbuena. Looking at his season as a whole and not in sections, I was correct, except for the fact there was no one else to play third base.
    I thought that with Springer in RF, Gomez in CF and Rasmus in LF we would have a terrific outfield. Oh My God, this crow tastes horrible!

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  15. I wonder if White is hurt? Still sitting on the bench. Glad to see Kemp back in there today! That kid has wings on his feet! Raise your hand if you would have loved to be in the park last night when Altuve got his 1000 hit!! Me!!
    Vewill1….we’re jealous of you, you got to see it in person!!

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  16. Jonathan Mayo tweets that Kyle Tucker is being promoted to Lancaster. Tucker won’t even turn twenty until January, if I remember correctly.

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  17. Didn’t know enough to tell them what to do one way or another, but objected to Gomez trade from start (one of several). Wanted Brad Ausmus for manager but the guy who said “I’ll always be an Astro” took himself out of the running before the running got going. Will always wonder exactly why, except he did say once he was surprised at the “vitriol” of Houston fans. I adore Jose Altuve. He reminds me of Yogi Berra and, yes, I do know he is not the catcher. As to the best of times and worst of times, it seems to me that’s how it’s always been if you’re an Astros fan.

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  18. Admittedly, I’ve been one of the more cynical souls here. My posts have been less frequent lately, simply because I don’t have a whole lot of positive comments to make right now.

    My brother voiced the opinion last night that our utility man is the 4th most productive bat on the club right now. I can’t disagree with that sentiment. We lost a chance to trade Valbuena due to his injury. That did not help as we already look towards 2017. It appears more and more that we’ll be playing out the string as summer leaves us. We’ve tried all kinds of bats out, but for whatever reason, none have hit their weight, except for wispy Tony Kemp. In all fairness, I still have every confidence in Bregman, and pretty good confidence in a couple of the other guys, but alas, they don’t get a real chance to prove themselves on this .500 club.

    Our Cy Young is a shadow of his former self. Tim, he’s not been more effective this year, nor is he more effective right now, nor will he be more effective than Fister, who is today by default, the ace of our rotation. So far we’ve fallen so fast.

    We’ve got some good relief pitchers. And we’ve got some guys we can’t count on. After almost five years of rebuilding this organization, we can’t even come up with an effective lefty or two for the pen.

    But yes, we’ll all be optimistic again soon, once winter is upon us and we look forward to spring and our deep minor league system! But I’m having a hard time not feeling like I’m being hoodwinked. We can’t assume that prospects are going to bail us out and help us into the post season in 2017. Isn’t that what we all expect at this point? Overall, our prospects have not done much at the major league level in 2016. Like I said earlier, I really like Bregman and I’m encouraged by Musgrove, but most of our prospects, even the highly touted ones, are not going to have significant major league careers. That is an historical fact.

    And I’ve said this before too. As long as our owner keeps treating this club as a small market franchise, our GM is going to get pinched on payroll.

    Becky is right though. Life is short. We go though so much in our daily lives that it makes the game of baseball such a wonderful distraction. Maybe I should finally accept the fact that our club might not ever be great. But damn, I’m just not ready yet!

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  19. So much good stuff and honesty up above….here is Dan’s true confessional for eating crow:
    – I thought Keuchel and McHugh were liable to not win 39 games between them, but thought that McHugh would be the one to regress more and Keuchel just not to have the winning luck. Yikes!
    – After Altuve’s regression in 2013, I opined that maybe we should see what we could get for him…..OMG
    – I wanted Valbuena out of here – I understand op that including all this missed time has hurt his value, but frankly he was one of the key players during their hot streak and their hot streak ending coincided with him getting hurt
    – I was begging for them to bring folks like Bregman (who I think will be a very good major leaguer) and Reed (who needs to improve) up.
    – I was really down on Giles – thought he did not have the mental makeup
    – I was happy they re-signed Tony Sipp
    – I wanted Harris to close

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    • Valbuena is the hardest one to peg. He was real good in their good months, but he contributed so much to their badness in the first six weeks, a hole the team never climbed out of.
      As a team they all contributed to the demise, because with three different Players of the Week in the first month of the season, it is so obvious that one guy cannot carry this club. Altuve has proven that so much all year.
      Every New Age stat guy laughs at us OTBG when we talk about batting average, but it’s 4000 ABs into the season and the Astros are #24 in team BA, and that has been a huge factor in us being out of the race. Hundreds of times this season a hit in the right spot would have made a big difference in winning and losing. The fact that we did not hit in those situations comes right back to failure to hit. Failure to hit is the result of guys who cannot hit for average, and that loses games. Look at the teams below us in BA and you have most of the biggest losers in baseball.
      How many times did Valbuena, Gomez, Gattis, Tucker, White, Castro, Reed, Moran Bregman, Marisnick, Worth and Rasmus walk to the plate with a chance to turn the game around and it resulted in failure 4 out of five times, because those guys collectively have very low BAs?

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      • I know he was bad early in the season, but Valbuena with a .260 BA / .357 OBP / .816 OPS just does not belong in the same conversation with the other guys who range from .105 to .231 BA / .150 to .321 OBP and / .255 to .741 OPS.

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  20. Guess I might as well as confess and eat my crow as well.

    – I thought this team would win the division this year and go deep into the post season.
    – I also expected Keuchel and McHugh to come back down to earth but I didn’t expect them to dig a hole so deep they couldn’t climb out.
    – I expected McCullers to stay healthy.
    – I hated the Giles trade.
    – I was happy that Rasmus took the offer and stayed.
    – I expected the kids to play better. And maybe they would’ve-could’ve if they were given more playing time.
    – I hoped Hinch would learn from last years mistakes and become a better manager.

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  23. So, I just turned the game on and watched Fister pitch to 3 batters with the score 0-0. Will someone please tell me how we are not behind 5-0 with the balloons he is floating up to the plate. Everything is slow and between the waist and the eyes.

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    • Close to 5-0 …. sometimes Fister reminds me of the movie Rookie of the Year – when the kid hurts his arm and has to resort to throwing an underhand floater to win the game. Of course that movie had the Cubbies going to the WS, so it was pure fantasy.

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  25. My fear about Valbuena is that the Astros will give him a ton of money this offseason when he is traditionally a poor hitter coming off a career year. I mean, its bad when .260 is a career year, but he is also in an age bracket that sometimes guys just figure it out and have 2-3 fine seasons.

    My other fear is that he leaves us, we get nothing in return, and he at least repeats that .260 and .357 somewhere else while we continue to have a hole at 1B.

    I’ve never thought Bregman would hit well enough to be an everyday third baseman and be an all star. I’m not convinced he is isn’t just what Jed Lowrie would have been minus the injuries – nothing wrong with that but not the savior, and I would like a little more power at third base. VB is my ideal third baseman IF he hits .260 – can hit 20-25 HR and walks a lot while playing above average defense. I just don’t think VB will do that next year. My fingers are crossed for Alex though, he is a hustler no doubt, I hope stardom is in his future. I can imagine a 10 year infield with him, Correa, Altuve and Reed if everyone meets their potentials.

    It was a tough season. So much more hope for a lot of these players. I hope the Astros don’t start abandoning them. I want to see Bregman and Reed and White and Kemp playing every day or near every day the rest of the year, give them the AB’s that are required for adjustment. Don’t do them what has happened to Tucker and JDM and Grossman and Wallace and probably a few others. Some of those names the Astros have gone through lack talent, some were only given 30 days or less of an everyday job before they were dumped. To me this management just misuses young players, doesn’t put them in a spot to succeed, and kills confidence. I’m not even convinced Singleton’s failures would have happened in a better organization.

    Just imagine what might have happened to Springer after his sputtering start if the Astros had been in contention when he was a rookie and panicked and sent him down. Where might he be right now?

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    • I’m not for holding onto Valbuena at some high price, just talking about how he out-performed what I thought he would this season.
      Bregman is only 22. I’m thinking that he will grow some power over time. Right now I just want him to get that BA and OBP up where it should be. SLG should come with time.

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  28. I remember people discussing Markakis during the offseason. Probably something that would have helped this offense and would have been 5-6 mil cheaper than Rasmus.

    Thought about him while reading a few articles about Altuve’s shot at 3000. Markakis actually has a chance at it, albeit he will have to spend the next 6-7 years playing 150 games a year and averaging 170 hits, two things that would seem unlikely going into his age 33 season. Still, wouldn’t it be fun to recognize not excellence, but very goodness, for 17 or so years, if he gets to 3000? Could be the first hall of famer we have in the modern generation that was never an all star, but how do you keep out non-pharmaceutically driven 3000 hits? Got it, Palmeiro probably never gets in, A-Rod may not, Bonds as well,and Rose is Rose, but the rest of the 3000 hit club is there now that Biggio is in.

    Beltre is one decent season from 3000 hits as well, and brings up an interesting discussion. I don’t see how it is possible for a guy to be harder to strikeout at 37 then he was at 27 without some help from his local pharmacy, but I’ve never heard his name linked to anything.

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  30. Why is everyone giving ups? There’s still 6 weeks left in the season and plenty of time to make a run. Oh, who am I kidding? Even the ever optimist myself has given up on this season.

    The boys and I arrived safely into Baltimore and are in our hotel in Philadelphia as I I type this. Heading to the Phillies/Dodgers game tonight and then back to Baltimore for the Orioles/Astros games this weekend. Since there is no pressure anymore we’ll just enjoy beautiful Camden Yards and the greatest sport going.

    I still like the makeup of this team for next year. We have plenty of pitching depth and some legitimate payroll flexibility. It will be interesting to see how this offseason plays out as there are some holes in the offense that will need to fixed.

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  32. Sipp needs to GO, and Hoyt has looked like a bullpen version of Danny Worth since he has been up. I can see why he’s been in the minors so long

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    • Well, I’m coming to Hoyt’s defense here. First of all he pitched more than one inning, and since he was the closer in Fresno so he only did that a few times.
      Secondly, he struck out the guy who walked and scored on the double. He threw a pitch right down the pipe and the stupid ump, who missed calls all day, called it a ball. Castro said nothing, and Hoyt turned toward the outfield with a look that said it all. I could see he was pissed but Castro never made a move to go out and talk to him. The guy fouled off a couple more pitches and finally Hoyt walked him and then got the ball up into the eyes of a batter he shouldn’t have had to face. I thought Hoyt looked good today.
      If you’re down on Hoyt, how do you feel about Fister and Sipp’s performance? After all, they’re not rookies.
      By the way, Hoyt hasn’t been in the minors forever. He was out of baseball for years working odd jobs all over the country, and then pitching for different schools all over. His story is awesome.

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      • I know, just basing this on what I’ve seen since I’ve been up.

        I think my feelings on Sipp ths year have been stated more than once.

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      • The problem with Hoyt is after reading the stories and seeing the minor league K/9 numbers a lot of us had unrealistic expectations. His second inning today actually reminded me of Brad Lidge. When guys weren’t chasing his slider out of the zone he became very hittable. That’s going to be an issue for Hoyt moving forward. He has to be able to locate multiple pitches in the zone or hitters will sit on his fastball.

        I like Hoyt, however, and thought he had a good showing today.

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      • At this point, Hoyt, if anyone, deserves a shot at getting his sea legs underneath him for the rest of the season. Don’t make him feel as if every outing might be his last. By the way Billy, you should check out his history, it really is worth the read.

        Darn Fister though, I was really hoping for him to be traded for something this month. He’s looking gassed now too though.

        But our worst situation presently, if we overlook Keuchel for a moment, is our other lefty. Heck, we owe him for two more years. I hate when guys crap out as soon as they get a nice contract. I’m sure it’s totally coincidental, but the money means we’re probably stuck with him for a pretty good while.

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    • Could Sipp be another salary dumped and written off under the watch of one of the top GM’s in baseball Oh MY. I’m actually waiting for Stromie to be thrown under the bus on DK . McHugh. Mcfister, Mcfiers, Sipp, Harris fading, Neschek, Gregerson fading, and a hurt LMJ. Felliz has regressed on and on.

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    • Sipp took the Astros to the cleaners. Luhnow learns the hard way that there is no way you give a reliever big money when he’s claimed off the scrap heap and pitches better than he ever did. He returns to the norm, leaving you looking like the fool you are.
      Sipp came into the AL from the NL. No one had seen him. His stuff fooled guys at first just like Neshek’s did. Guys figured him out and now they just sit back and wait for their pitch to float across the plate. Sipp is like all the other Astros pitchers who don’t have a fastball. When they get the ball up they get pounded. It’s no problem to sit and wait on an 88 mph fastball. Just wait for it. It’s coming. And it’s gonna be up, because everybody now knows that your pitching coach tells you to pitch up in the zone. Our announcers are saying it over the air.
      Hoyts pitches didn’t get hit today until he put one up in the guy’s eyes.

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    • Nothing. Bring him back next year.

      His velocity is practically unchanged in every pitch. Last year he got batters to swing 37% of his pitches out of the strike zone, this year 32%. That’s fairly substantial and probably is caused by some adjustment hitters made to a particular pitch. This is the first year he is below 50% on fastballs, he probably needs to get back to more 2 seamers. I could do this all day but probably bore you. Point is there are small differences in what he is doing but physically he is the same pitcher.

      He needs to make a few adjustments and chalk it up to a bad year, sometimes it happens to relievers. Noone else is taking the guy, and we are paying the 12 mil for the next 2 regardless, so bring him back. Sometimes a fresh start to a season is all someone needs. Just get back to a better pitch selection because the physical attributes are still the same.

      That still doesn’t alleviate the need for a LH specialist. Someone that lefties hit below .200 on that gives Hinch that weapon in a tough spot. Sipp is not that guy. I would bring him back more in a 6th-7th inning role next year and spot him against lefties as a second option when you have too.

      Matusz was released by the Cubs a week ago. Taking a flyer on him when rosters expand wouldn’t be a terrible look. His velocity is still there, and he has a lifetime .210 BAA from lefties. During the offseason I would look for better, I am just not sure its out there via FA after scouting the free agents coming.

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    • You might as well keep him since you have to pay him anyways. Maybe he is an odd year guy. You ain’t gonna trade him and the roster is about to expand so carry him and see what he has next year.

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  34. Just watched the end of today’s game. The Astros had the bases loaded and nobody out and didn’t score in the ninth.

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  36. The comments by the guys and Hinch kinda told you where they are going into the last 6 weeks of the season. But…..it’s the same tune second verse. I was AMAZED that Hinch put Gattis in with the bases loaded instead of letting Kemp try to get a hit.
    OF course we know how well that worked out. I guess Hinch thought Gattis was gonna hit a grand slam…..but they needed more than 4 runs. Live by the long ball, and die by the long ball. Didn’t even try a squeeze to score a couple of runs. I’ve been in A.J. Hinch’s..corner since he was hired, but DANG some of his moves leave me scratching my head. I don’t want to see him fired, but Luhnow might replace him just to make some noise.
    Ya’ll are probably right about Sipp…..but it’s getting to the point that every time he pitches, he gives up critical runs. It might cost you, but another lefty is a priority next year….both in the rotation and the bullpen. 9 1/2 games back, and if the other team in texas wins tonight we will be 10 games back. Three weeks ago today they were 2 1/2 games back….DAAANG.

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  38. So a different kind of story….on 740 AM this afternoon a man called in and said he wanted to praise the Astros. He had lost his son about a month ago and he said the Astros people and players had been so kind and sweet to them (I’m assuming they had been there when his son was horrible). He had nothing but wonderful things to say about them and I needed to hear that today.
    As we all know through our friends on the job there are many things more important than this silly sport.

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    • The front office is going to have to do better.
      The coaches are going to have to do better.
      The players are going to have to do better.
      We need to add some players and we need to stop asking players to do more than they are meant to, like not asking Will Harris to close, when he was so much better doing what he was supposed to do. Like not letting Gattis DH when he is lousy at it.
      We are used to the endless disappointment. 2017 will be the 55th year we have supported this team. Isn’t it time we, the fans, got rewarded with something other than disappointment and excuses.

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  40. I “think” that little boy was in a wheel chair at Minute Maid, and both Altuve and Correa gave him batting gloves…and Altuve gave him a pair of his shoes. This little boy had been battling cancer for a few years, but the treatments had stopped working. We all have children, and we could not put ourselves in that father’s shoes.
    Thank God that little boy got to meet his heros….nothing in life happens by mistake.
    That little boy was given a gift of pure joy and love, and he never forgot the kindness of those baseball players. Just makes your heart get full! Like I said yesterday, we need a little perspective every once in a while. Becky⚾

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    • Excellent, Becky that you remember this. That sure sounds like the right kid. I was so impressed with the father – he did not have to call in and touch on this subject, but he was so full of gratitude.
      Our greatest nightmare as parents has to do with losing a child. Anything that can help with that pain is a pure gift like you say.
      I like these stories a lot more than immature brutes beating on women.

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  41. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2016/08/17/astros-deeply-impacted-trade-deadline/88921096/
    After reading this story I have to wonder about Luhnow’s excuses for the Astros’ failures. I also wonder why players don’t want to come here. I don’t care for Neshek’s comment about having all the rookies on the team, given the failure of the veterans to play well and win, or his comment about losing Feldman and having to replace him with a rookie. It seems players love to play the free agent game, but don’t care for GMs having to play the trade game when they are fixing to lose a player to free agency.
    Luhnow said we’ve acquired one of the best international free agents of the last decade, who is major league ready. But, apparently he isn’t quite major league ready.
    He said we made offers for everyone who was on the market, but nobody must have liked our offers because we didn’t get anyone.
    But most revealing is the idea that our problems in handing our business when playing the Rangers is the result of no-trade clauses. And here I was thinking it was the result of the Rangers kicking the Astros’ asses on the field.

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    • OP we have an ownership group and FO ok with mediocrity, and operating like a small market team in a big market. 5 years of the plan and we are going backwards so frustrating. What makes it worse is that so many A players don’t want to play for us . It’s not the town or MM, could it be the reputation of how our FO operates?

      We are a long ways from AL Campionship. long ways. I’m a thinking Uncle Jeff and his boys are in over their heads here. I know we have improved the farm and with that we will never be as bad as 2011-14, but big time winners ???

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    • The million dollar question. Why players don’t want to play here.
      Last year the Astros were leading the division yet Hamels rejected a trade here and accepted a trade to Dallas. Opting to play home games in 100 degree weather as opposed to MMs 72 degrees.
      I’d sure like to know the answer.

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    • I don’t know why Luhnow would want guys coming here who don’t want to be here. The condemning tale here is that we’ve had confirmation over time that some guys just do not want to play here. And to me, that’s not something a guy like Crane or a guy like Luhnow is going to be able to fix, because they are the reason why people don’t want to play with this organization. And sadly, as our young talent matures and reaches free agency, without the real hope of a world championship in Houston, guys named Altuve and Springer and Correa will go somewhere else for more money. We might even lose a guy like Springer earlier, if Luhnow thinks he can load up on untested young talent in exchange for one of the best outfielders in MLB. The “Plan” is not working.

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  42. If the plan was to be there in ’17, unless something changes it ain’t gonna happen. As for guys not wanting to come here to play there is definitely something wrong here. It just doesn’t make sense. I can understand not wanting to trade players that we think are going to our starters and be our future but I honestly think there’s something else working here. If I had to make a guess it has to do with the management philosophy than anything else but it could be our on-field management. Something’s afoul in the Bayou City

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  43. Jeff Luhnow’s personality precedes him. Who knows if the guys who turned us down were less than impressed with Luhnow…..or Crane. Hammels case was interesting, it COULD be that he remembers how lousy we were the last few years in the NL….or how bad we were the first two years in the AL. ANY good player, pitcher or position player absolutely wants to get traded to a REAL contender….and we weren’t. We can get angry about it, but it doesn’t change a thing. Would we have wanted Cole Hammels in our rotation? HELL YES!!! But he went a different route……move on.
    Now….if it meant giving up Bregman, Musgrove, Feliz, Martes…to get Archer, or one of the White Sox pitchers….I’m glad Luhnow walked away. I don’t know for SURE what all the other teams were asking for, but you can bet your blue booty, it was at LEAST 3 of these guys. I have never hidden my dislike for the cold calculating GM Luhnow is, and his UNBELIEVABLE bad trades he has made, but for once I gotta agree with him. Unless these guys go out and win every single game left in this season, they won’t sniff the post season…..but I’m ok with that. Let’s talk trades over the winter when cooler heads can prevail, and we’re not making some CRAZY trade just to make a trade. What *IF* the Astros had traded for Hammels. …do any of us think he would get more run support than ANY of our current pitchers have gotten??
    Nope…..probably not. Sorry about the short novel I just wrote, but this team is what they are….seriously flawed, but it doesn’t have to STAY that way! Becky⚾

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    • Great comments, Becky. Besides, other than Hamels, what players did not want to play here? I read the article and I didn’t see any mention of players not wanting to play here.

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      • According to Astros Country article Lucroy rejected a trade as well.

        *Bob Nightengale: The Astros are on the verge of taking a step back. In an interview with Nightengale, Luhnow admitted that Hole Camels’ rejection of the trade in 2015 changed everything for the Astros. Combined with the Astros not being able to close a deal on Jonathan Lucroy, the Astros have been outmaneuvered by the Rangers at the last two trade deadlines. Luhnow:
        So we’ve had two deals not accepted by the player, that has directly impacted us the last two trade deadlines. That’s why I sure wish teams wouldn’t give out no-trade clauses. 

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    • Thank you.

      Our hotel (Hilton Baltimore) is right behind the ballpark. Our room has a view of the field and we could actually watch the game from our room. The pool area is on the 4th floor and has a clear view of the playing field. We may watch Saturday’s game from the pool deck as this is the only game we don’t have tickets.

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  45. Wahoo just turned on the game down 5-1 . Time to get back to the Grand kid and Disney movies . This ship has sunk dang it , so year 6 under Uncle Jeff is going to be it right?

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    • They have a very good manager too. Their starting pitching shouldn’t allow them to be in this position in mid-August.

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  50. Turn out the lights the party’S over……….
    We knew this was gonna happen. When you lose two games to a NL team, that you should beat, then go on a looong brutal road trip, and lose the first game 13-5 it’s over. The shiny new Cuban guy might think “what did I get myself into”!!
    Tim I hope you got some reasonable tickets to these games! The O’S are finally good, and they aren’t gonna let us beat ’em. I’m kinda glad I can’t see them self destruct…..bad enough to listen to it!

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