Examining the makeup of any contending (or non-contending) team’s roster often leads to interesting side stories. It is easy to be dazzled by the big names, the big free agent pickups, and the flashy trades and to ignore some of the under-the-radar moves that bring value to the team while not requiring high draft choices…

I’ve told this story before. My wife was a bit of a combative teen and would get into verbal battles with her parents. She once told her dad not to worry about her, and he said he was not worried…. he was concerned.

This last Sunday was a typical day for the Astros’ fans this year. We felt good when the team swamped the red-hot D’Backs in the series’ first two games. But after watching future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander give away game three before the first beer was glugged, this crazy feeling continues to come back.…

As anyone who may read this post knows, I almost always link present-day Astro occurrences with some happening in Astros and baseball history after my almost 60 years of fandom. Sometimes I’m sure it may be annoying. “Oh, here he goes again, telling us about the time Julio Gotay pulled the hidden ball trick in…

Note – I wrote most of this before Verlander’s recent loss – so it is not based on that outing. First, here is a statement of fact.

Pitching. Pitching. Pitching. The Astros went 18-10 in August. Despite playing three more games than in April, when they were 10-15, the Astros scored fewer runs in August (119 runs) than in April (121) in a month when they floundered. And this was due to a historically great month of pitching.

As our friends with Monty Python might say, now for something completely different.