By Limey
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on February 23, 2000.

Ray Lopez made one of the most crass comments I’ve heard about a pitcher. He said that Mike Hampton was much better than Jose Lima, as T2 was the ace and so faced the other team’s #1 starter. Lima, he maintained, was the #3 pitcher and so faced only the other team’s #3 guy. I’ve heard this repeated in the TZ, although it’s usually jumped on with gusto by those of us that know better. In addition to getting the rotation wrong (Shane Reynolds was the opening day pitcher and thus the Astros #1), Knight conveniently ignored the fact that off days, injuries and rain outs quickly make a mockery of the #1 vs #1 theory. Read More

By Historian
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on February 9, 2000.

It would be fantastic if every ballplayer who played for Houston lived up to the hype and expectations surrounding their arrival. Some were high draft picks of which much was expected. Some came through the farm system with rave reviews. Some were free agents brought in to get the Astros “over the hump”. Others were trade material for which Houston paid a great price to acquire. Alas, for every player who becomes a star, two or three just never pan out whether it be through injuries, failed opportunities, bad timing or they just weren’t as good as somebody thought they were.Read More

By Arky Vaughan
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on January 26, 2000.

Nolan Ryan, Joe Morgan, Don Sutton, Eddie Mathews, Nellie Fox and Robin Roberts all spent playing time in a Houston uniform, but none of them is wearing an Astros cap on his Hall of Fame plaque. Almost 40 years into its existence, the Astros organization has yet to see a player it can primarily call its own enshrined at Cooperstown.

That looks likely to change in the next 15 years. Houston fans, despite their frustration that the team has failed in three recent tries to win a playoff series, much less a pennant or world championship, have had the pleasure of watching two of the best players at their positions start for the Astros throughout the ’90s. Entering the 2000 season, have Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell already established themselves as viable Hall of Fame candidates?Read More

By Sue S.
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on January 11, 2000.

Echoes of neighborhood boys who once shared tales of baseball can still be heard as if it were yesterday. “One million dollars?”, they shouted. “No one should make that much just to play baseball.” The time was around 1978, when Dave Parker signed the first million dollar per year contract worth $5 million. Well, why not? The average salary for a player in the NBA is around $2 million and approximately $1 million in the NFL. All compared to about $1.5 million for a player in Major League Baseball. At an Astros game in 1996, a fan was heard complaining, “They make millions of dollars and they still can’t win”. This person was wearing a Houston Rockets championship shirt and was exiting the Dome in disgust. It is ironic that it was Mike Hampton pitching that day and struggling early in his career. The team made blunders, but only due to lack of confidence. The players were doing their best with the teammates they had, with a payroll of just around $35 million. The Astros fell short of the playoffs that year. The opposing team, the Atlanta Braves, went on to win the National League pennant on a superior paycheck.Read More

By Arky Vaughan
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on December 29, 1999.

Drayton McLane, Gerry Hunsicker and the rest of the Astros front office weren’t exactly met with holiday cheer after the announcement of the Mike Hampton trade two days before Christmas. The Astros were blasted by radio callers and the local newspaper alike. Houston Chronicle columnist John P. Lopez carped, like he did when Carl Everett was traded a couple of weeks earlier, that the Astros have become a farm system for big-market teams.Read More

By Matthew Becker
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on December 18, 1999.

In the last few days, the most common question asked on the TZ is “How do the Astros expect to win with this?” Well, the answer to that question is reliant on one condition: winning what? If you want to win the Central my friends, we’re already there. To put our moves in perspective, let’s look at what the teams in our division have done to “improve” their teams, and with apologies to Ray K, here are my Central Division Power Rankings.Read More