We are now past the 1/3rd pole (and I am not referring to Jose Canseco’s ‘roid impaired peepee) and things are starting to crystalise in the NL Central:

1. The Brewers suck. Maybe not as much as they have in recent times, but they still suck.
2. The Pirates suck. Maybe not as much as they have in recent times, but they still suck.
3. The Reds have been upgraded from “Harmless” to “Mostly Harmless”; and The Red Messiah continues to be printed onto the list of the disabled.
4. The Jakes still play the Astros hard, and still consider it their God-given right to win each year because their fans are the self-declared best in baseball (whilst simultaneously booing Tino Martinez).
5. The Cubs are a joke.

Amazingly, this could’ve been written at this point in any of the last 3 or 4 seasons. In fact, it probably was, by me, but with AC off the air you’ll never be able to prove nothing. And if you do, I’ll just claim that I use this passage for typing practice and never intended to put it in an actual column.Read More

Mano e mano. The big dookaroo. St. Louis in one corner and the Astros in the other.

It’s pretty obvious to anyone who doesn’t still think that the Cowboys are a good team (obligatory football dig…check), that the home and home series between these two clubs is crucial to the outcome of the NL Central. The Astros must win – full stop! They cannot afford to drop more than a game (maybe two) of the remaining seven. But let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture (shh, no one tell Co Russa) because the Astros and Co-ards also have to keep winning in their other series too.

At this point, the STL starting rotation is hanging on by a thread. A thread that I believe the Astros can cut with a chain saw this weekend. Morris and Williams have not proven themselves fully recovered as yet. In Morris’ case this is because he’s only been back one game, but neither of them has faced anything like a team with the quality of the Astros. In fact, the last time the Co-ards faced a team over .500 was way back in the first week of August, when they were swept by Atlanta.Read More

Much to the chagrin of many in the TZ, the Astros remained silent on the trade front during the month of July. Meanwhile, most of the teams standing between them and a post-season berth were active. Only the Wild Card race leading Dodgers, who are on the brink of getting the Plumber back, were Hun-like and unmoved at the deadline.

Therefore, in an exercise of very premature mental masturbation, I’ve decided to see how everyone is doing with their new look rosters:

The Stinkin’ steM

In the midst of their home series vs. the Astros, the Mets engaged in a wholesale exchange of spare parts with Colorado and San Diego. Rather than detail the players involved I’ll simply say that, since the trades were made, the Mets have gone on a five game losing streak. Already dead and buried in the East, they’ve dropped to 5th in the Wild Card race, 2 games behind the Astros and 6.5 games behind the Dodgers.Read More

The Co-Ards have had trouble with pitching all year. From the extraordinary, untimely death of Darryl Kile to run of the mill injuries to Woody Williams and all points in between. So what do they go and do? Trade away two pitchers, that’s what they do. Whaaaaa?

OK. So Rolen is an upgrade over Polanco at 3B. His defense is special, and it does the Co-Ards the huge favour of keeping Pujols off the hot corner. Of course, this puts AlbErt into LF where he’s rapidly garnering a reputation every bit as good as Dimitry Young. ESPN says that this is a good thing because Pujols hits better when he plays LF. Huh?

With the stick, Rolen has better plate discipline and more pop than Placido. But then Polanco hit #2 most of the time, so they’re not really comparable in the line up. I await with baited breath what arrangement Co Russa will make out of this. What I do know is, Rolen will have to generate a shit load of runs.Read More

So. Drayton’s losing money and is threatening to sell the club if there’s a strike. Well he better get his e-bay posting ready, because here it comes folks.

Did anyone hear Richard Justice on 610AM today (7/17)? Apparently, the owners vs. players meetings have been so bad that at one point a players’ rep. (not Fehr) and an owner (Angelos I think he said) got into it pretty hard and started f-bombing each other. The players’ rep. stormed out of the room and had to be calmed down.

The owners say that they’ve put a comprehensive offer to the players, but have heard nothing. The players’ reps say that they’ve made concessions to the owners, but aren’t getting any feedback. The players are making Selig the issue; the owners are making steroids the issue. Bud wants to tour the locker rooms because he doesn’t trust Fehr’s boys to be disseminating the correct information (no one has yet suggested that he wants to tour because he misses getting to see the players naked).

It’s Armageddon time, people. Grab yer ankles and kiss MLB goodbye.Read More

I am sure that we will never no the true effort required of the Fearless Hosts to keep this site going. I know that I can lob them a Limey Time at my whim, and find it online within hours if not minutes. The dedication and attention this site has received from it’s founders is clear to us all, and I believe that we all understand K&S’s decision to pull the plug.

Personally, I doubt my Astro-fandom would’ve reached the ridiculous levels it has without this site. As many of you know, I arrived in Houston in March 1994 and became an instant Rockets’ fan as I was swept up in “Clutch City” fever. I’d followed what you call “football” from across the pond and so baseball was a distant third on my list of sports in which to become interested. To my ill-informed mind, it was nothing but a bastardisation of a girls game called “Rounders”, and just a poor man’s cricket.Read More