Before we start on baseball, it is time for my old man griping. It doesn’t do any good other than allow me to release some internal anger and donate it to you.
Back in the day – the day being a few years ago – I would have a Friday off, which coincided with the Masters golf tournament. It was a lovely, relaxing experience to watch the pros wander around what I believe is the most beautiful course around.
However, this is not back in the day. This is today, and today, if I want to watch any type of live golfing this morning, I need to stream, and I am not going to pay to stream to watch the Masters. Now I can scroll over to the Golf Channel and watch a mix of yesterday’s highlights, golfers warming up on the driving range or the practice greens, and talking heads yapping endlessly. But I’m not.
And to be totally truthful, after a morning free of the Masters, they popped up on ESPN at 2 PM. So, I am only partially upset now.
The other thing bugging me is that more and more I end up doing other people’s work. I’m not talking about the office where we swap around work all the time, and I get paid for my contribution.
No, I went to CVS today to pick up medication, which has become much more of a hobby than I would have believed ten years ago. Normally, I walk up to the counter and tell them my last name and then have them check to see what meds they have for my wife, my son, and me. Yes, I have to tell them names and dates of birth, but that is done quickly with little effort.
But, noooooo. Today I walk up to the counter, and they point to a screen pointing my way. I cannot quickly tell them my information and then pay them for the meds. I have to “touch the screen” and then go through menus and type out slowly (because it is a screen, not a keyboard), first my full name and then wander through a number of screens to pick out my birth month and my birth day to find out they had nothing for me. The screen then freezes for about 20 seconds until it moves on, so I can check the next Peschong, my wife, having to punch in everything from scratch, and then finally for my son.
Now this could be faster for the people who work there, since they can do other things while I am performing their job, but no, they are standing there staring at me – because they suspect I will not be able to do their job. Plus, I have already been griping to them about this new setup.
I like my pharmacy. I like the people there. I don’t like working there.
Time for the Astros.
Is it all over?
Well, of course, with almost 150 games to go and only a 1.5 game deficit to make up, it is nowhere near over in mathematical or real terms. Yet there are reasons to wonder.
- The key to winning this year would have seemed to rest on the backs of an iffy pitching staff. Hunter Brown seemed to be a sure thing and now he is out with a shoulder problem that will keep him from throwing for a “few” weeks (3? 4? 5 or more?) and then a ramp back up IF….he is healed up when he comes back. There was a hope that Cristian Javier might return to his 2022 self. Instead, he seems to be returning to his 2024 injured self with his own shoulder situation. And this happens at the point when the team is supposedly turning to a 6-man rotation.
- And the strain from having less experienced starters and shorter lasting pitchers has shifted to the bullpen where it seems like everyone tossed out there is being asked to pitch one inning too long – an inning where catastrophe seems to occur. And the bigger story in the bullpen has been closer Josh Hader working his way (slowly) back to health and the inability of set-up man Bryan Abreu to take on that role.
- The Astros have already lost a game where they scored 7 runs and 10 runs respectively. In 2025, They were 33-1 when scoring 7 runs or more.
- The loss of Jake Meyers to a back injury would not seem to affect their offense much, but he is a decent bat at the end of the lineup and of course covers a ton of space for the team.
- There is no reason to give up on the team, yet. But it almost feels like when a guy is dating a new woman after a breakup and realizes that the same things that turned him off the first woman exists with the new one. 2026 feels too much like 2025.
Is It Too Early?
Well, of course it is.
- Last year, after 13 games, the Astros were also 6-7, but 2.5 games back. They would slide down to 4 games out after 35 games, but would come back to grab a 7-game lead in the AL West in July and drop down to lose the division by 3 games and miss the playoffs by a tiebreaker. So, there are a lot of good and bad things yet to happen.
- The Astros staff has been able to make lemonade from lemon peels on the pitching side of the club, over and over. The hope is that they can cobble together a decent pitching staff to carry them through the 2026 season. If not, this may be a very long and unsatisfying season.
- Also, the Astros’ pitching struggled the most in Sacramento and Colorado, the two toughest places to park, especially for pitchers without that much experience.
- The early returns on the Astros’ offense are positive, even with a couple of poor outings thrown in here and there. They are getting a ton of players on base, whether by hit or walk, and they are making the opponents’ pitch count climb like the stock market on a day when peace seems close.
Anyways – your turn to comment. Where are you with this team at this very early part of the season?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 