Worse Start ever?????

[Guest JoesBros]

what is going on???????

this is horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April 11, 2008

Astros off to worst start in 25 years. Rockets rolling.

Bad news came in waves. Roy Oswalt had a third straight bad start. He walked off the mound after four innings sporting a 9.00 ERA. His velocity mostly was in the 93-mph range, but something clearly is wrong. At 3-8, the Astros have their worst record after 11 games in 25 years. That was just part of the story as the club was forced to place Ty Wigginton on the disabled list. Kaz Matsui was unable to make a rehab start because his back tightened up. Otherwise, it was a beautiful night for baseball.

[KFDM COOP]

I'm not surprised at all, no pitching!! I am surprised at Roy O's start though.

[AJ25]

the only thing surprising about this is the wizard's start..

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

if the astros dont make the playoffs again imma puke.

[KFDM COOP]

Get ready to puke then. 

[Interested Observer]

The problem with the Astros is their GM. He did a pathetic job in Philly. What is the first thing he does when he gets here? He trades arguably the best closer ( with his Pujols issue and all....still think he should have contacted Smoltz's sports shrink ) to the Phillies. I'm not saying that Bourne is bad but he's got alot to prove. We didn't go after any pitching after losing two very sollid starters in Clemens and Pettitte. Instead we go after Tejada about 6 years too late. They release Williams, who should have never been signed in the first place. We have 1 Pitcher in the rotation that is good, the rest just fill in the other 4 slots.

[Ruckdad]

I think Wade made what improvements he good.  What starting pitching was out there that the Astros could have acquired.  The free agent pool was thin - at best, and the Astros did not have the prospects to make any acquisition in trades.  Wade has a lot of work to do to overcome the bunglings of the previous GM - he is the problem.

[Interested Observer]

Well, we traded all these prospects away to the Orioles for Tejada...why not go after Bedard instead? What about Santana? We could have packaged together a deal for him just as well as the Mets could have or even the Yankees. I agree about the FA market for pitchers but since we were trading all of our minor league talent away for a guy 5-6 years out of his prime, we could have done better. The key piece for the deal going to the Orioles, Luke Scott, is hitting better than Tejada anyways.

Scott is batting .361, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 6 2B, .439 OBP, .611 SLG

Tejada - .319, 2 hr, 9 rbi, 4 2b, 1 3b, .365 OBP, .574 SLG

and Scott is making a fraction of what Tejada is making.

[bullets13]

Hopefully the Astros are starting to come around.  Their offense will be very good very soon.  Pence is playing terribly right now.  When he starts heating up, you're gonna have Bourn getting on base, and then Pence, Tejada, Berkman, and Lee driving him in.  Towles is hitting pretty well also.  Wandy and Backe have been pitching pretty solid so far this year,  so if Oswalt can regain his dominance, you're looking hopefully at 3 or 4 solid starts out of every 5.  The stros offense will also be good enough to win some games when the pitching is off.  Valverde was pretty dominant last year, so if he can get comfortable in a stros uniform, we should be in pretty decent shape.  They've won a couple in a row against a hot florida team, so maybe they're starting to find a groove.

[Ruckdad]

Even with the prospects we gave up on Tejada we could not have gotten Santana, probably not Bedard either.  At that time, the Twins were asking for way too much, and we would not have even been in the discussion.  The Astros prospects are not considered to be anywhere near the tops in the league and the teams that had the better young talent got Bedard and Santana. 

Now as the season got closer, and the Twins realized that they needed to pull the trigger, they came off their demands, but even if we had traded for him, there is no way that Drayton would have given him the contract that the Mets did - and the deal would have been really bad.

[numbertwo]

Valverde already has two blown saves, that doesn't help much.

[AstroFan99]

Is it just me or is Valverde giving up way too many hits for being a Closer.  There is just way too much Traffic on the bases to be label a Closer.  Okay the season is very young let's give him some time.  His approach needs to be one batter at a time to keep them off the bases.  The number of hits and walks given up is what he needs to reduce.  Maybe he is trying too hard.  This Fan will give him more time to produce.  We are just shell shock for something like this happening not too long ago.   > > > >