In one of those self-assignments, your loyal writer spent a bit of time comparing what most of the main Astros did in 2023 vs. what the ZiPS projections on Fangraphs say they will do in 2024.

New Astros manager Joe Espada has a wide and varied background in baseball that leads to doing almost everything but managing teams. He was both a college and a minor league player, spending most of his time in the minors with Oakland, but also playing for St. Louis, Colorado, Florida, Kansas City, Texas and Tampa…

Billy Wagner Billy Wagner falling five votes short of the Hall of Fame was a bummer, but not as big of a bummer as when Craig Biggio fell two votes short in January 2014. Here is a doubleheader column by Brian Todd and me when that happened.

Well, this blog post has taken more zigs and zags than the Texans’ Devin Singletary sniffing out the end zone.

The Astros bullpen has been the focal point of concern for fans and pundits heading into 2024. The rotation has concerns relative to performance, but there are plenty of folks who have done it before – Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, J.P. France, Jose Urquidy, and Hunter Brown with Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis…

With all apologies to the Ghost of Charles Dickens – we are going to take a look at the upcoming 2024 season through rose–colored glasses….and then through Roy Orbison’s black sunglasses. We are going to look at the everyday lineup, the starting pitching, and the bullpen with a best-case scenario and a worst-case scenario view.

Looking back at this golden age of Astros baseball (2015 to now), the best position player free agent signing had to be Michael Brantley and one of the best overall. The Astros built so much of their team from within or by blockbuster trades with a few free agent signings sprinkled into the mix that…