MVN - Most Valuable Network

Valverde Loses First Overtime Game Of The Season

AND his second in a row, I might could add. He came into the game bottom of the 9th with the score ties 1-1. got an out, then gave up 3 singles and there went the ballgame. Dude isn’t making himself look good for prospective trade partners, gotta say that - giving up game losing hits to the Kevin Millars and Melvin Moras doesn’t shout ACE!!!

Moehler pitched great - 6 hits, 2 BB, 1 ER on a Luke Scott homer, 4 K over 6.1 IP. He’s thrown exactly one bad game as a starter. Hard to believe, but true. Wesley Wright, Chris SAmpson and Doug Brocail (and HE is lookin good as trade bait, too) kept the game tied, but no one but Lance Berkman hit - and his big hit was a solo homer out of the park.

Even the Chron beat writers are noticing that Miggy and Carlos are not gettin it done. Don’t guess I hear Ed Wade talking about how Miggy looks like he’s 25… Using them for trade bait? Don’t see how, but youneverknow.

The fans are starting to get really upset - not just because the team can’t/won’t win, but because there really isn’t a Designated Scapegoat like Burke/Everett around, now that Towles is in Round Rock. So lots of people have focused blame on Cecil Cooper. And yeah, I have to agree that he’s done some strange things and his bullpen use hasn’t been, um, optimal, but the real problem is that the hitters have NOT been hitting with men on base. At the beginning of the year, the Astros came back often to win. Now, if a reliever gives up a run, game OVAH. Just like the bad ol days.

And the farm is empty - AAA is filled with crummy ex-ML Joe McEwing/Cody Ransom type guys who hit their ceiling at AAA. And there really is no one to call up, unless you expect miracles. Which I don’t - I know better.

I don’t know what the Organization is going to do - Drayton has made the VERY bad mistake of trying to increase his profit by not turning on the AC much - in spite of Pam Gardner protesting that the AC is just as low as ever; she must REALLY think that Houstonians can’t tell the difference between 75 and 85-90. Click here to read what Tom Kirkendall has to say about the cooling problems.

Without Biggio to fill the seats, angry fans are just going to stop coming to watch this lousy team. But even IF Drayton could get rid of Carlos and Miggy and Roy for some AAA players/supposed to be ML ready young guys, he still isn’t going to get any Ryan Braun/Evan Longoria/Jay Bruce guys and the fans are going to be even angrier that they are now paying to watch a rebuilding team if every single new guy doesn’t immediately hit as well as Pence did last year when he came up. Look at all the people who already want to get rid of Bourn because of his difficult first 6 weeks - the fact that he picked it up over the past months and is hitting better than anyone else on the team ever since means zero and will continue to mean zero until he hits .300, like the sainted Willy Taveras did.

sigh

It’s like that old nursery rhyme about for the want of a nail a shoe was lost. Drayton didn’t want to pay for prospects, didn’t want to pay for Latin American academies to produce, didn’t want to listen to Gerry - he really obviously thought he didn’t need no stinkin farm didn’t need no stinkin GM - look how successful he was with Clemens. And now look where we are.

The trouble with a Psychobilly Cadillac is that although you might could get it to run for a while, a bunch of spare parts thrown together are going to break down after a while and when you have nothing else available, all you got is a broke-ass coulda been sorta car.

sigh

Jose Ortiz wants to know if we fans are angry. Nope, not any more, although I sure as heck would be if I had bought season tickets and was being forced to watch this lousy team in the sweltering heat. I’m not delighting in the failure of the 08 Astros - don’t get me wrong. I’m just not as upset as I was with the 04 team. Or the 98 team. It will be interesting to see what Drayton/Tal decide to do, and IF they manage any trades, to see what they can get for what we have.

I’m starting to feel like a Royals/Pirates fan. Just appreciate the few wins because that is all you gonna get. And say at least you will win more games than the 62 Mets. Actually, this franchise has never lost 100 games - its worst record is 64-97/65-97 in a non-strike year. Wonder how THIS year’s team will end up. Actually, I think that if this team ends up being worse than last year’s team, it just MIGHT could move Drayton to re-think his stupid attitude about refusal to pay for young players or to go get GOOD young players.

But youneverknow. I’m hoping it will do some good because Drayton, unlike a few other owners, hates losing even if it makes him money.

anyway

Today, It’s Shawn Chacon vs Brian Burres

Chacon actually did quite well in his last start against the AL East - the hitters and bullpen let him down.

He’s 2-2 in 14 GS: 9.10 H/9 IP; 1.65 HR/9 IP; 4 BB/9 IP; 6.05 K/9 IP (how’s that for looking at stats a lil differently?!) His line: 4.69 ERA/1.46 WHIP/.265 BAA/.479 SlgA/.821 OPS against.

In spite of his pitching on the East Coast for a few years, he’s only pitched at OPACY once - gave up 4 H, 3 BB, 1 HR, 1 ER in 6.1 IP.

Jay Payton is 5/9 with a double; Aubrey Huff is 4/9; Luke Scott is 1/8; Brian Roberts is 2/5; Kevin Millar, Nick Markakis and Melvin Mora are 0/3. Yeah, I know. Small sample size.

————————

Brian Burres, age 28, LHP, was srafted in the 31st round of the 2002 draft out of JuCo by the Giants. After a very undistinguished career in the minors as both starter and reliever - 4.11 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 3.65 BB/9, 8.11 K/9 over 616 IP, never reaching higher than AA, he was waived by the Giants after the 05 season and picked up by the Orioles.

One more time I am going to stress that assessing other teams’ minor leaguers and picking up guys off waivers was EXTREMELY poorly handled after Geryy Hunsicker left - and again, THIS time I blame Purpura and the minor league development people, as Drayton isn’t going to quibble about which minor leaguer gets 30-40 K/year. And once more, I am NOT going to hold Ed Wade to the fire and blame him for obeying instructions he was given when he got here about who Drayton/Tal did and didn’t want on the ML team. But I AM going to hold him very VERY accountable for grabbing the Dan Wheelers/Jack Custs off the waiver wires. Unless I find out that Drayton/Tal prevented him from doing that. I know where the buck stops in this Organization, I’m not fooled like too many other fans are.

But I digress…

Burres spent all but 8 innings of 06 in the Baltimore AAA club and did decently, starting 26 games over 139 IP - 3.76 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, o.91 HR/9 IP; 3.69 BB/9; 7.65 K/9. He was finally called up to the ML team last year, started 17 games, relieved in 20 more, and struggled. He went 6-8 over 121 IP - 5.95 ERA, 1.70 WHIP, but kept his homer rate low at 1.07, but struggled with commant, giving up 10.41 H/9 and 4.91 BB/9.

This year, he’s 5-5 in 13 GS and 1 in relief over 75 IP: 89 H, 10 HR, 25 BB, 36 K: 5.28 ERA/1.52 WHIP/.298 BAA/.452 SLG against/.802 OPS against.

Your typical #5 guy.

It sure would be nice to be able to beat the #5 guy. So let’s hope Chacon has a good outing, that the hitters hit, the fielders catch and throw well and the bullpen doesn’t collapse.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 10:51 am and is filed under Chacon, Valverde, Interleague Play. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.