Astros @ MindSay

^{Ed Wade and his brother Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, out to shake up the 'Stros in 2009.}

Since he obviously doesn't have half the baseball knowledge that I do. How'd he get a GM gig while I'm forced to work offshore? Over the winter meetings he didn't impress me with his Rule 5 picks. Yesterday the Astros non tendered Ty Wigginton & Reggie Abercrombie, while resigning hometown guy, Brandon Backe. Wigginton hit .285 with 23 homeruns last season while missing time due to a jacked up thumb and something else. When Carlos Lee went down with a broken hands towards the end of last year Wigginton filled in out in left field. Backe, even though his a Galveston born local guy, pitched like shit last year. He gave up more HR's than anyone else in the majors. Houston's pitching is in desperate need of help, but keeping Backe around isn't what I had in mind. Neither is Jeff Fulchino, Gil de la Vara, or Tim Byrdak. I'm not sold on Mike Hampton having a good year and I doubt Moehler will come anywhere close to being as decent as he was last season.
Regardless, I can't not watch the Astros. So I'm getting ready for a loooong season. Maybe we can do something crazy and sign Derek Lowe. Maybe.

The family went on a drive through the country today. The country is pretty much a 10 mile stretch of backroad that takes you from Cypress to Tomball. Cypress and Tomball were at one time, I imagine, separate little towns. Now, for all practical purposes, they're just the northwest side of Houston. But anyway, country drive... We come around into Tomball on Hwy.249 and see a Goodwill store, so hell yeah we're gonna stop. This is one rockin' ass Goodwill. We found a telescope for 5 bux. I think it's missing a lens and some other pieces, but at $5 it's a steal. The telescope actually would have been useful tonite because you were supposed to be able to see the Hubble telescope and the ISS pass over Houston tonite, but it was cloudy as hell so we didn't see shit.
I also got a book entitled Baseball Hacks that details putting statistics into a database to gain better insight into player performance and trends that may or may not be present. Its all part of a lovely thing called Sabermetrics.

I'm having a snack. Pan Dulce and a Dr. Thunder. Tasty Stuff. Also catching up on the MLB Hot Stove Reports.
Lets see whats going on, shall we?
Mike 'I'm Always Hurt' Hampton is in Houston to take a physical. If everything goes well with that, he'll be signed to a one year deal. So it looks like Randy Wolf will sign with some other team. Oh well, he did ok in Houston but had a pretty lame year as a whole. I guess giving Hampton a chance isn't a real bad idea as long as his contract is incentive based, given his injury prone history. Oswalt was shaky the first half of last year and, I hate to say it but, Backe was awful. Wandy was hot & cold all year. And, there's no way Brian Moehler comes anywhere close to repeating his numbers from last year. It's no secret the 'Stros need pitching so hopefully this turns into a good move.
Centerfielder Michael Bourn is doing some good in winter ball, playing for the Aguilas Cibaenas. He's hitting .300 with an OBP of .394 in 22 games. He also has 5 stolen bases and 14 walks. He really needed to improve in getting on bases and strking out less. It'd be good if he can keep these numbers up.
Last year's first round draft pick, Jason Castro, was selected to the Hawaii Winter Ball All-League team. It's nice to see him doing well but he's still a few years away from the big league level. With that being said the Astros are looking to make a deal for another catcher this offseason. Humberto Quintero will probably start the year as the #1 guy but I don't think Towles will be ready to play backup just yet.

According to a report in Tuesday's Boston Herald, the Red Sox are getting ready to present a serious offer to Clemens, who turns 44 in August. Included in their offer is a DVD video for Clemens in which Red Sox fans plead for the right-hander to return to Boston.

 

The idea for the video came from team chairman Tom Werner, a Hollywood producer who knows a thing or two about putting together a quality show.

 

Clemens became a free agent in December after the Astros declined to offer him arbitration. The Astros could have had to pay Clemens upwards of $25 million, and he is not eligible to return to the Astros until May 1.

 

Clemens has said he would like to pitch in the upcoming World Baseball Classic and then see how he feels about a possible return for his 23rd season.

 

The seven-time Cy Young Award winner got his start in Boston in 1984. He won 24 games in 1986, the year the Red Sox lost to the Mets in the World Series. He also had two 20-strikeout games during his 13 years in Boston.

 

Clemens left the Red Sox for the Blue Jays after the 1996 season. Former Red Sox GM Dan Duquette said at the time that he believed Clemens had reached the twilight off his career.

 

Houston, TX seemingly doesn't get too much credit and recognition, even with the fact that it is the fourth largest city in the US. But it seems like the year 2005 changed all that. I think it's safe to say that we're back in the map; for now, at least.

I was reading the wiki pages for Houston, TX, which made me think of a few things to copy and jot down as some of the city's memorable events.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Houston had a total population of 1.9 million. That alone, is the heart of the Houston / Sugar Land / Baytown metropolitan area, which really has a total count of 5.2 million people.

But after Hurricane Katrina, when Houston gave shelter to the people of New Orleans, LA; we can only imagine how many will reside here permanently. Many say, they are here to stay. I don't know if some of you saw this in the news, but when the mayor of New Orleans was in the news asking the people of New Orleans to come back home, they showed clips of people from New Orleans saying "Nah thanks, we like it here..." Here's a big welcome to y'all!

Shortly after that, Hurricane Rita made it's way to the Gulf Coast Area, and with the predictions that Houston was her primary target, 2.5 million out of the 5.2 million people evacuated Houston. Little did we know that Rita was going to spare Houston anyway, leaving only some damage in the city as Rita turned westward eastward, making it's way to the TX / LA border. This evacuation happens to be the LARGEST evacuation in the history of the United States.

Now I know, many Houstonians (not all) didn't go to Austin, TX to evacuate. Don't lie! Rita was just an excuse! Austin probably made more money from Houston through beer and liquor purchases than gasoline! Y'all went there to party! Right? Uh huh, sure! Austin is not only the capital of the State of Texas, it is also the state's party central! If I did evacuate Houston to go to Austin, "Longhorn chicks" would be in my mind... Ok, this whole paragraph was a joke. :p

Those hurricane winds weren't enough to destroy this city. Another type of wind did, and it probably devastated a number of hearts, more than the stated population. It came from the "Windy City" of Chicago, IL; and they were, the Chicago White Sox.

For the first time in franchise history, The Houston Astros won the National League pennant against the St. Louis Cardinals. And for the first time in the history of Texas, Houston was the first city in the state to host the MLB World Series. Unfortunately, we did NOT win a single game from the ruthless White Sox. But for many Houstonians, winning the NL pennant was good enough. But yeah, we were beat, pretty badly... :(

Ok, if I see an entry called "Circa 2005 and the City of Chicago", I'm bound to see some "Hell YES!!!" there.

I wonder if the city of Houston will slowly fade away from the spotlight in the year 2006. Will the Houston Rockets shine again? How about the Houston TEXANS? Dudn't look like it right now. I think, as long as hurricanes leave us Houstonians alone, then we will be alright.

...and when will Houston push more support to it's local music industry? I don't know...