Lunch time chatter edition whatever:

[Kingdom]

You may have noticed, but probably not really have noticed, that the Houston Astros are actually in the playoff race. It's just another season in which we wrote them off early, I mean, there's even a thread about the astros needing to rebuild now. There is some truth to that, but then again, they're hovering around .500 now and not that far behind the cardinals in the standings. It's amusing to think, and pretty much like any other year, even when they made it to the world series, that would could even begin to take the astros seriously. Wait for it. Wait for it. Hey, they're here again!

What's the reason behind the random emergence of being in the playoff race? Yes, the NL has a lot of parody because it's ..well it's funny like that. The central has 5/6 teams with a plausible chance of winning the division. As usual, the astros have a pretty good offense led by as always Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee. Hunter Pence was an all-star and Miguel Tejada has turned himself into a batting champion contender. Who knew? Geoff Blum keeps having big hits in close games and I have no idea who plays second base for them, I just know it's not Craig Biggio. The big change this season is the development of the much maligned Michael Bourn.

Last season I made a thread suggesting Houston sign Kenny Lofton of all people because Bourn was such a miserable lead off man, a non-existant OBP and strikeouts on top of strikeouts. Now this guy is a legitimate game changer on the bases because he, well, go figure, GETS on base. It's a weird concept for all I'm sure but a lot of that goes to him making more contact and drawing more walks. Novel idea for a lead off man. But if you put a guy like that in front of Tejada, Berkman, Pence, Lee, and so on and so forth, things get wildly entertaining. Shane Victorino gets a lot of publicity and made the all-star game, and yeah, he's a nice centerfielder, but there's a lot that needs to be said about Bourn and his impact on the lineup.

Houston's pitching will always keep them from probably being a front runner. They have Oswalt who's on and off, same for Wandy Rodriguez. It's a surprisingly formidable duo when they've got it cranked up. Tonight, Oswalt spars with Chris Carpenter in a potential pitching gem of a game against the cardinals. The rest of the pitching is a who's who of waiver wire material.

[ljshorty89]

Fortunately for the Astros, the Mets come in to town tomorrow, so they'll get a couple easy wins...

[Kingdom]

They need John Lannan on the mound too

[ljshorty89]

Zito, you could shut the Mets out right now. They've been shut out 5 times in their last 13 games. Sickening.

[Kingdom]

I do have a curve ball.

[ljshorty89]

I do have a curve ball.

If you could throw the ball near the zone, and not hang one, you'd go 7 innings, probably giving up 2 runs max.