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Stros 2008 Season Review, Part Five: Season Recap and Report Card
The Stros 2008 season has been over for over a week now, so it's time for my final review of the 2008 season (prior 2008 season reviews are here) and my grading of the Stros players for the 2008...
Stros 2008 Season Review, Part Two
Through 40% of the season, the Stros' record is precisely what you would expect from a club that struggles to maintain National League average performance -- 32-32, including 15-16 in the second fifth of the season. That's about the...
The Lidge deal
New Stros General Manager Ed Wade's first major move was to end Brad Lidge's career with the Stros. Wade traded Lidge and utilityman Eric Bruntlett to the Phillies for CF Michael Bourn (a Houston native and former University of Houston...
The Chronicle's vacuum of baseball analysis
It may be football season, but that doesn't stop Chronicle sports columnists from continuing to bludgeon us with their seemingly insatiable capacity to analyze the Stros and matters relating to Major League Baseball badly. First, there is this blog post...
Stros 2007 Review, Part Ten: Season Recap and Report Card
It’s been a week now since the Craig Biggio Farewell Tour drew to a close during the final eighth of the Stros’ disappointing 2007 season. With the end of the season, the tremendously successful Biggio-Bagwell era in the history of...
Does Jose de Jesus Ortiz research anything?
Is shooting from the hip a Houston Chronicle requirement for covering the Stros? As noted in earlier posts here, here, here, here, here and here, the Chronicle's Stros beat writer -- Jose de Jesus Ortiz -- incongruously struggles with analyzing...
The Stros' legacy of bad trades
This earlier post explored the possibility that Stros management got snookered in the trade for pitcher Jason Jennings because of possible undisclosed arm problems. After serving a stint on the disabled list with elbow inflammation earlier this season, Jennings has...
Stros 2007 Season Review, Part Four
So, now that the Stros are done with that, where does the club go from here? As the Stros (34-47) reached the halfway point of the 2007 season, that's the question confronting the owner Drayton McLane and General Manager Tim...
Damaged goods?
Don't you know that an eyebrow or two was raised around town with the following disclosure deep within Jose de Jesus Ortiz's Chronicle article today on the return of the Stros off-season acquisition Jason Jennings from a bout of tendonitis...
Playing well?
As noted here last year, the Chronicle's beat writer for the Stros, Jose de Jesus Ortiz, regularly reveals that he doesn't really understand the game even after covering it for 10 years and writing a book on the subject. Here...
Evaluating the Jennings deal
The Stros made their second big off-season acquisition on Tuesday as they acquired Denver Rockies ace and former Baylor star Jason Jennings and journeyman pitcher Miguel Asencio in trade for CF Willy Taveras, promising starter Jason Hirsh and mercurial starter...
Checking in down at the Stros farm
The all-consuming football season in Texas tends to blot out news on virtually any other sporting front, but the fall is also an important period for development purposes in professional baseball. And with the Stros currently trolling the expensive free...
Stros 2006 Review, Part Ten: Season Recap and Report Card
With the League Championship Series matchups now set, it's time to put the Stros 2006 season to rest. At least the Stros' late season surge was fun while it lasted, but it ended in the same manner as too many...
The best and worst of the Stros
As the Stros play out the string of the 2006 season amidst the beginning of the football season, the Stros' lone slugger -- Lance Berkman -- quietly reached another milestone in his quest to become the best hitter in Stros...
Jose de Jesus Ortiz said what?
As the Stros playoff hopes fade with each passing loss, the Chronicle's Stros beat writer -- Jose de Jesus Ortiz -- continues to show that he does not truly understand baseball and, as a result, has become a conduit of...
Another Stros problem
The Stros won at San Diego last night, but a situation during the game highlighted another among the many problems with this particular Stros team -- manager Phil Garner. Now, don't get me wrong. Garner's less-than-average ability as a Major...
The Huff deal and the state of the Stros
Does anyone else get the impression that there is some serious gripping going on over in the Stros management offices? What prompted the latest evidence of discontent was the Stros announcement yesterday that they had traded a couple of marginal...
Stros 2006 Review, Part One
This is my first periodic review or the Stros' season in my third straight year of blogging the club, and the first 10% of the season has has initially justified my generally rosy pre-season outlook. The club has burst out...
Batter up! Stros 2006 Season Preview
It's Opening Day today in Houston as the Stros take on the Marlins this afternoon at Minute Maid Park, so it's time for my annual preview of the Stros upcoming team and season (last season's preview is here). Let's first...
"Slugger"?
As the Stros continue to troll the used car lot of free agent hitters during this off-season, Chronicle Stros beat writer Jose de Jesus Ortiz reminds us that he relies on Stros press releases rather than objective research in this...
The Stros' top ten minor league prospects
Major League Baseball's winter meetings take place in Dallas this week, and that's the time that the major league clubs really get serious about proposing and making free agent acquisitions and trades of players. Inasmuch as the Stros are definitely...
Willy Taveras should not be the NL ROY
I understand that the Stros' public relations department wants centerfielder Willy Taveras to be the National League Rookie of the Year, but why does the Chronicle lap up such nonsense with unqualified support? As noted in this previous post, Taveras...
The Stros' ride to the World Series
As you prepare to watch for Game 1 of the 2005 World Series tonight, take a few minutes to review the previous posts set forth below that chronicle the Stros' improbable and highly enjoyable run to the club's first World...
Does Phil Garner read Clear Thinkers?
This NY Times article from over the weekend contains the following blurb from Stros manager, Phil Garner: Phil Garner praised the Astros' owner, Drayton McLane, for his willingness to re-sign Carlos Beltran after his scintillating 2004 postseason, but he said...
Stros 2005 Review: 2005 NLCS Preview
So, after vanquishing the Braves for the second straight season in the National League Divisional Series, the Stros (89-73) face a 2005 rematch of the thrilling 2004 National League Championship Series against their arch-rival -- the St. Louis Cardinals (100-62)....
Stros 2005 Review: National League Division Series Preview
Didn't we just preview a series between these two teams? For the fifth time in less than a decade, the Stros and the Braves -- two of the most successful National League clubs during that era (see this timely Wall...
Stros 2005 Review: Stros enter the stretch run
After almost writing off the Stros' playoff chances a couple of weeks ago, a couple of future Hall of Famers turned in the type of remarkable performances that might just make the difference in pushing the Stros into the National...
Stros 2005 Review: It's not looking good for the Stros
Despite the best pitching season in the club's history, the Stros' (72-64) chronic lack of hitting is making it increasingly unlikely that the team will be able to win enough of their final 26 games to secure the National League...
Willy Taveras
The subject of the sixth segment in our ongoing series about the key Stros players (previous posts here, here, here, here, and here) is Willy Taveras, who represents a good example of how people who do not examine the facts...
Willy Taveras statistics
Willy Taveras YEAR AGE RCAA OBA SLG OPS AVG HR RBI SB G 2004 22 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 1 10 2005 23 -12 .330 .349 .679 .294 3 27 31 130 CAR -12 .330 .348...
Stros 2005 Review: Player myths and the Stros' playoff chances
The bloom is officially off the Stros' (63-54) streak after the lowly Pirates (51-67) took two out of three from the Stros over the weekend, including the last two in which the Stros could not manage a run. Ouch! Thus,...
Stros 2005 Review: Checking in on the Stros
Since last checking in on the Stros (60-51), the club has cooled off a bit, losing four of their last seven games. However, the Stros come home for their longest homestand of the season on the uptick, as Jason Lane's...
Stros 2005 Review: Checking in on the Stros
When journeyman Eric Bruntlett (-5 RCAA/.262 OBP/.333 SLG./.595 OPS) jacks a three run yak in the 14th inning to pull out a Sunday afternoon win and finish off a 7-4 roadie, you know it's time to check in on the...
Stros 2005 Review: Checking in with the Stros at the halfway point
What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, this post about the Stros reflected the overwhelming pessimism that surrounded the team -- the hitting was lousy and the pitching staff was reeling from the loss of Wade...
Checking in on the Stros
My son Cody and I attended the Stros' (33-40) Sunday afternoon game against the Rangers (38-35) and enjoyed the 10-inning 3-2 win behind the solid pitching of Andy Pettitte and the game-winning single of 3B Morgan Ensberg. The Stros have...
Stros 2005 Review: Checking in on the Stros
Okay, so it appears that I was wrong in my prediction about the Stros this season. The Stros (12-19) are already 8 games behind the Cards in the National League Central race and struggling to stay out of last place...
Stros 2004 Review: NLCS Series Preview
The Stros and the Cards tee it up tonight in Game 1 of the NLCS in St. Louis, and it you go by the statistics from the season to date, the Cards should win in a cakewalk. However, statistics are...
Stros 2004 Review: Stros-Braves Playoff Preview
The media is all aflutter with the fact that the Stros have never beaten the Braves in three previous playoffs (in 1997, 1999, and 2001), but that fact is irrelevant to the current series. Only five of the Stros' 25...
Stros continue to tease
Raul Chavez improbably drove in a career-high five runs, Jason Lane went 3-for-4 with and scored twice, and Morgan Ensberg went 4-for-5 with two runs scored as the Stros hung on to their slim playoff hopes with an 11-7 win...
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