Right-handed pitcher, Paul Clemens, is joining the Houston Astros in Seattle tonight as the team starts a three game series against the Mariners. Interestingly, this moves comes as the team places Josh Fields on the 15-day Disabled List with a right forearm strain.

Why’s that interesting, you may ask? Well, several of us on twitter the other night were wondering why Bo Porter keeps calling Xavier Cedeno to the mound. Yesterday he entered the game with a 108.00 ERA. No, that’s not a typo. He managed to pull together a decent outing, but he’s had some struggles in this early season.

Paul Clemens, 25, is set to join the Astros on the road in Seattle.

I don’t want to make generalities after only 6 games, but I was one of many fans who wondered, “Where’s Josh Fields?” At Spring Training Fields looked solid and I thought for certain we’d see a bit more of him by now. He’s only hit the mound twice but tossed a scoreless 2/3 of an inning so far this year. Mystery solved. The bullpen is indeed lighter than we had thought. The Astros will backdate the start of Fields time on the DL to April 4th.

Now Clemens will get his first shot at the majors. The 25 year old won his first start of the season for the AAA Oklahoma City Redhawks (5IP, 3ER, 0BB, 3SO). He had some reliable relief appearances for the Astros in four Spring Training games this year (1.69 ER, 5.1IP, 1ER) as well.

Clemens will wear #56.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

We’ve been talking for two years about inviting all of you, who read all of us (the Houston Astros blogs) to come to Minute Maid Park and watch a game together. It’s finally happening…

Of course, it was Jayne from What the Heck, Bobby who finally got us all squared away. If we were waiting on me, it could be a while!

Here’s the scoop -

Saturday, May 4th at 6:10pm
Astros vs. Detroit Tigers
Section 134, rows 18 and above 

To hang with us, use THIS LINK to buy tickets and enter the promo code “WTHB” to get a couple of bucks knocked off your ticket. Make sure you sit in Section 134 in rows 18 or above (my ticket says 19, but since when do I sit in my assigned seat???).

Who’s in? Well, Jayne, Me, Greis, DeAnna and hopefully representation from Astros County, Crawfish Boxes, Climbing Tal’s Hill and more. As we get other confirmations, I’ll post it over there —–> in that sidebar item.

Hope to see you there!

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

There was much ado about pitching last night; conversations on twitter and message boards, fan reaction at the ballpark. For years I’ve said, it’s about the pitching. Good defensive pitching can make a mediocre offense a little less important. But if a team has subpar pitching, it takes a whole heck of a lot of amazingly impressive offense to make up for the sins of the guys on the bump.

The Astros starters have been reliable, not outstanding, but definitely reliable. The first 5+ innings of baseball haven’t been the site of anything tragic. In fact, they’ve been pretty darn good. Even when they’ve struggled and seen inflated pitch counts, Astros starters have battled their way through. If you look at the ERA of starters, throwing as starters, you can’t complain – Lucas Harrell (1.50), Philip Humber (1.59), Bud Norris (3.18), Brad Peacock (4.15) – as a group, the starters have a 2.63 ERA. It’s a stat where the Astros are not, in fact, the worst in baseball. They rank 8/30 clubs in starting pitching ERAs so far. Not bad.

If any real criticism can be made after ONLY FIVE games – and let’s all remember it’s only been 5 measly games – it’s more about the fact that a starter should come in throw six innings, but the starting rotation in Houston has only Lucas Harrell as a member of the 6 inning club. Last night, Bud Norris got pretty darn close, but still didn’t clear that hurdle. Bear in mind this is after FIVE games…there are 157 more to go and we need those shoulders and elbows to remain intact, so SPs only going 5 1/3, 5 2/3 isn’t a “real” concern, but something to ponder.

The biggest problem with the starters unable to go a full six is the the Houston bullpen has been terrible. Several people commented via social media last night that the team’s bullpen was stretched and that’s why Porter left Bud Norris in during the sixth after a homer, an error by Ronny Cedeno, two fly ball outs, a walk and a hit. That’s not why Porter left him in.

“Bud did a tremendous job. To me, tonight, he grew up,” were manager Bo Porter‘s words. “He did what a number one starter should do.” Porter told Norris he had earned the right to earn the win, resulting in Norris throwing 122 pitches in 5 2/3. Perhaps not his most efficient start, but not devastating by a long run.

The problem? The bullpen. Their ERA so far this season? 6.62 Yep, folks, that’s the problem. So you can go on twitter and whine about how long the starters are lasting. You can moan and groan about whether Brett Wallace is getting hits or Chris Carter is striking out again (although I admit I have fun with that last one), but when the umpire yells, “Play ball!” it’s going to come down to the guys on the mound. If they can’t their job done, then no amount of offense will save your team.

Jason Castro hit a three run homer last night in the Astros 6-3 loss to Oakland. Not even close to being enough to make up for pitching that wasn’t defensive. Justin Maxwell and J.D. Martinez were both 2/4 last night. No matter how productive that offense is on any given day, poor pitching can give a game away. And the Astros’ bullpen has been giving a lot away. Where do they land in baseball? 26 /30, so not the bottom of the barrel, but not anywhere they’d want to be.

One more comment of note from Bo Porter since the strikeout count has been so high and noted both in historic and sarcastic context by everyone under the sun. Last night the Astros struck out only four times – that’s the lowest in a game so far (again ONLY  FIVE games). When asked his thoughts on the matter, Porter, being the guy we’ve all come to expect him to be, said, ”I couldn’t tell you how many it was yesterday or how many it was today. What I do know is that we lost the game.”

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

So, have you heard? Yu Darvish was one out away from throwing a perfect game against the Astros last night. One out away from making history (only 23 “perfect games” have ever been pitched in baseball history). Thank you Marwin Gonzalez for the hit, with two outs in the ninth, that saved the Astros from being on the wrong end of history again.

First, and foremost, I commend Darvish for pitching an outstanding game. It was pretty amazing to watch in person. Unfortunately, his outstanding performance is being overshadowed by a lot of national media focusing more on the mediocre Astros team that he beat.

Yes, National Media, we know this team isn’t great. In fact, yes, we all know that the possibility of a no-hitter being tossed this season is there and if it happens it seems that no one on Twitter would be surprised. I just hate that the state of the Astros has become the focus of last nights game and not the remarkable pitching from the visitors side. Regardless of how good or bad the Astros will or will not be, the tremendous job by Darvish should not be thrown aside with the morning garbage.

Now to the real drama…

I pledge allegiance to the Astros.

As a fan should I have been cheering for history?

According to many on Facebook and Twitter I should have put my Astros allegiance aside and hoped for the perfect game, because history trumps fandom, obviously. As a fan I’m very aware of how rare a perfect game is. In fact, I’d love to witness a perfect game one day, but only if it’s my team throwing it. Not once, in 9 innings, while sitting with friends at Minute Maid Park last night did I even contemplate cheering on Darvish to a perfect game.

I didn’t cheer on San Francisco Giant Matt Cain last season while watching his perfect game on television either. That’s just not me. I don’t want other teams to make history while playing my team and I will never in a million years root for it to happen. Especially not when the history that could be happening is happening in my “house.” History be damned!!

The Astros are sending Philip Humber to the mound in today’s early-bird game. Humber was the 21^st player in MLB history to pitch a perfect game while pitching for the Chicago White Sox in 2012. Could he have another perfect game in his blood?  Now that I would totally ROOT for!

What do you think? Would you put your team allegiance aside and hope for a history making game?

Greis Perez (AmazingGreis), pronounced Grace, is a lifelong Astros fan and contributor for Aerys Sports. You can email her at amazing_greis@yahoo.com, or follow her on Twitter, @AmazingGreis, where she’s considered a #BadFan and professes her undying love for Justin Timberlake and all things sparkly!

There are times in sports where you stop cheering for the win and start cheering for something else. Last night around the 7th inning, fully aware that the Rangers’ Yu Darvish was cruising through a perfect game, I stopped cheering for the win and began cheering for a hit. I just wanted the Houston Astros to not allow that piece of history to take place on that night, in that stadium, against this team.

The Astros have never been no hit in Houston…I didn’t want that to change last night.

There was a part of me that would have loved to say I was at a perfect game, but the Astros fan in me didn’t want anything close to that. There were too many zeros on that side of my scorebook. So I stopped cheering for a win, and prayed for a hit. Any hit would do. It didn’t need to be a home run or a double. It just needed to put an Astro, any Astro, on base.

My scorebook at the end of 8. That was a LOT of zeros.

When perfection is looming and some would say it was inevitable, you start to notice things in a bit of a different way. It was the bottom of the 8th when things started to seem surreal and I started taking note of the things around me. Here are a few of my observations as perfection loomed:

1. Yu is annoying:  No, I’m not annoyed by the man himself. The “YUUUUUU” cheer that the Rangers do at the end of each inning Darvish pitches sounds like they’re booing their own player. It gets annoying…really quickly. If I were Darvish, I’d hate it. Of course, if I were Darvish, I’d beg to play for the Astros, too.
2. Know your neighbor: In times of crisis at Minute Maid Park, you will make friends with anyone who happens to sit around you. For example, the guy in front of me wanted his photo taken with his kids with Yu in the background. I blanched until he said, “If I take the photo, I’m hoping it will jinx the no-no.” How can I NOT be friends with that guy?
3. Rangers fans think Minute Maid Park is a second “home field”: The fans from that city in the northern part of the state known for fake boobs, big hair and a 1970′s tv show are WAY too comfortable in Minute Maid Park. We need to work on that.
4. Memories aren’t enough: It’s the bottom of the 9th, one out and a perfect game is only two outs away is when you will realize there are a LOT of cellphones in this world, because every single one of them will be held in the air, set to video the next pitch just in case it’s something historical, because you certainly will not ever be able to find that clip in the morning.
5. Diamonds are smaller than you think: typically a baseball field feels huge to me, especially at Minute Maid Park, but last night it was the smallest ballpark in the world. When perfection is looming every player is in just the right spot to stop a ball, make a catch, thwart your team’s effort to break it up. The intensity with which players play defense behind a pitcher who is in that zone? Amazing. Imagine if all players played with that intensity during every at bat of every game!
6. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover: I spent 2 of his 3 at bats talking about how weird Marwin Gonzalez‘s stance and swing were and how he sort of arches his back and contorts in an odd way. Marwin – your swing is just fine. In fact, now I believe it to be a thing of beauty.
7. Perfect storms happen: It’s no coincidence in my mind that the skies in Houston began to open and the wind began howling moments before Marwin Gonalez’s at bat. It’s just further proof that God is a baseball fan.
8. Losing doesn’t always hurt the same: Losing 7-0 but not being on the wrong side of a perfect game hurts a lot less than losing 7-5 or 7-1 even. Sometimes, not making history is as important as making it.

Cover your ears before you watch this home video of Gonzalez’s hit – there’s a LOT of screaming!

Without going into too many details of the game, I’ll say this about the Astros play last night – the defense left a little to be desired (hello, Brett Wallace at third base) and there were some plays missed that should have been made, but Lucas Harrell looked good. I can’t complain about that guy’s performance last night.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be in that position again, where I’m at a game while perfection looms. Like any baseball fan, I think it would be fantastic to be in the stadium when it happens, but just not to my team and not in my house.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

I woke up this morning wondering if it was all a dream. I mean, no one expected the Houston Astros to win against the Texas Rangers on Opening Night in baseball. I’d hoped for it though.

In case you hadn’t been paying attention to those morons, they’ve been whining about the Astros damaging “the integrity of the game” by slashing payroll, not to mention their repeated posts about Alex Rodriguez making more while injured and sitting on his rear than the entire Houston Astros payroll.  I think they can all shut it now.

The Astros strutted into the AL West last night. They did it with home runs, triples, impressive pitching and the attitude that no matter what the media says about them, they can beat anyone. And beat anyone, they did, as they took down the Texas Rangers 8-2.

The win was the franchise’s 4,000th. I was disappointed when that win didn’t come against the Cardinals at the end of last season, but I see now that the 4,000th win had bigger and brighter things to accomplish – it needed a National spotlight. That win needed to show that no matter what league Bud Selig decided to put the Astros into, they could still produce hits, runs and wins.

In the first at bat by a Houston Astros in the American League, Jose Altuve started things off right with a first-pitch single to left field. but Justin Maxwell owned the  night in many ways, making some great catches in center (one that probably wasn’t  catch at all), but coupled with his 2 triples – one driving the first 2 runs of the night home-, and his two runs secured his place as a leader on this young team. Interestingly, the other guy who stood out? Rick Ankiel who came off the bench to blast a pinch-hit, 3 run homer in his very first at bat as an Astro. The last guy to homer in his first club at bat? Yep, Justin Maxwell.

The offense was outstanding, but without good defensive pitching it means nothing. Hats off to Bud Norris who pitched 5 2/3 innings – 5H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 5K – 3.18. He struggled in the 6th inning, collecting  3 hits, 2 runs and a walk in that 2/3 of an inning alone. Before the 6th, Norris looked solid and used his slider to his advantage.

But behind Norris, Erik Bedard was ready close out the game. Since Bedard isn’t scheduled to start a game until Saturday, the Astros chose to use him in relief. It was a masterful decision as he pitched 3 1/3 innings, allowing only 1 hit and striking out 2. Bedard earned the save and Norris the win. A nice night of pitching from the Astros.

It would be easy to remind everyone that currently, the Astros lead the American League, but there are still 161 games of baseball to play. Last night showed, however, that anything is possible with this young club. These guys are walking – no running since Bo won’t let them walk – with a fire in their bellies. Bo Porter has ingrained in them that being a champion is a construction project, and that each day you’ve got to show up, put in the work on the project or the champion never gets built.

I don’t expect the Houston Astros to be champions this year…but it’s nice to see the progress on that construction site.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

Opening Day: the day so many of us have been counting down to for months. OK, maybe it was just me counting down, but you followed along, right? (Don’t worry, Greis. Terri and DeAnna have been counting down too! )

Today we’ll watch as Bud Norris takes the mound to face our in-state rival Texas Rangers. The national spotlight will be on the Astros, possibly for the only time this season, and this team really needs to make it count.

I spent ten days in Florida this month for Spring Training. I had an absolute blast, but more importantly, I returned home from my adventure with a restored faith in this very young team. The pride, determination and pure heart from all of the guys really lifted my spirits and got me even more excited for the 2013 season.

I’m excited to watch (please CSN get a deal done soon!!) this team grow together over the next 6 months. The front office added some power to the lineup over the winter and if our pitching (I’m mostly worried about the bullpen) can hold up I think the 2013 Houston Astros will really surprise a lot of naysayers this season. In fact, I’m so confident in this team that I’ve officially gone on record saying that there is no way they’ll lose 100 or more games this season.

I know, I know…that’s crazy talk, right?

Nope, I don’t think so. This team is young, under zero pressure because no one expects them to do anything worthwhile and they’re ready to prove the world wrong. Those are all reasons to give me hope -hope that this team will do good things, win games and keep their losing to under 100 games this season.

What do you think? How many games will they lose this season? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

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Happy Opening Day, y’all!

Greis Perez (AmazingGreis), pronounced Grace, is a lifelong Astros fan and contributor for Aerys Sports. You can email her at amazing_greis@yahoo.com, or follow her on Twitter, @AmazingGreis, where she’s considered a #BadFan and professes her undying love for Justin Timberlake and all things sparkly!

There’s nothing like Spring Training to make you believe that the Houston Astros have hope for a good 2013 season. To the untrained eye, this month has proven that the little engine actually can win ball games. After all, if you take a look at how the Astros are doing in the standings, you’ll be led astray – they’re playing .467 ball right now.

For the recent past, that’s an impressive number. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, sports fans…it’s Spring Training. Don’t get me wrong – I adore spring camp as much as any other baseball fan. In fact, I’m in Kissimmee right now just to spend time taking in a few games. But you can’t let the excitement of Spring take over. There are too many factors at play.

During the regular season, a team has a fairly consistent 25 man active roster and each team knows what it’s up against. Everyone knows what Bud Norris is capable of on the mound and although he could have an extreme day one way or another, there is some level of consistency with major league level players.

That isn’t always the case with the other guys…you know, the minor leaguers that get an invite to Spring Training with the big club? There are a lot of factors that can effect their play. For one, they’re nervous and trying like hell to impress, so depending on how they respond to pressure their play can improve or fall apart. Plus, some guys just aren’t quite ready to play at this level yet. They may be some day, but may need more time. Then there’s the minor leaguers on the other team – if your best hitters are up against a AA pitcher from the opposition…yep, they’re going to light him up.

So I can sit back and say what an amazing 5 homers the Astros hit yesterday and expect to see it again today, or I can take it for what it is…Spring Training.

Now I still stand by my previous comments about what this season holds. I don’t think this team is going to be as tragic as some national sportswriters keep saying. I think the little engine that could will prove, to some extent, that they can play ball. I’m not expecting a winning season or even a .500 season, but I think they’ll win more games than expected. I think they’ll surprise some people along the way, but I won’t be holding my breath for 5 homers a game. But if it happens, I’ll be happy to eat crow.

So take Spring Training for what it is – all the guys vying for a chance to play big league baseball, all of the players getting the creaks out and taking some risks, all of the players meshing as a team and getting to know each other, and all of the front office staff eyeing the abilities of each and every player trying to determine which pieces of the puzzle are the best fit for the coming season. I can tell you this, I have the utmost faith in new managerBo Porter right now, but I’m not envious of the hard decisions he and Jeff Luhnow have ahead.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

Please welcome DeAnna Williamson to the Tales From the Juicebox family. DeAnna is an avid Astros fan and can be found at Minute Maid Park for most home games. She lives in the Houston area with her two dogs, who are both Astros fans – whether they realize it or not!

As baseball season approaches and we’re making due with somewhat meaningless Spring Training games, I started to wonder why we love baseball so much.

Believe it or not, I have friends who don’t love baseball.  Sometimes I wonder why we continue to be friends but I suppose I have to have something to do in the off season. But these friends complain that baseball is boring…it’s too slow. They don’t understand the strategies and the intricacies and the heart it takes to win a ball game.

But sometimes it’s not about the base stealing, the home run hitting, and the perfect game throwing.  Sometimes it’s about what it takes just to keep going when things seem hopeless.  This made me reminisce about an Astros game I attended early last season.

The Astros defeated the Padres by a narrow margin of 1-0.  It was one of those classic pitcher’s duels that so many of us love.  For some, it’s not as exciting as bomb after bomb in a big hitting game but I love the nuances of the pitches, the finesse of the pitching and on a weekday night, I loved the fact that the game flew by in less than 2 hours.

Pitcher Lucas Harrell threw a complete game and in the 9th inning, when the bases suddenly loaded, you knew that he was tired; he had to be!  Standing there, in the crowd, I looked at my friend Lindsey and I said “This could end disastrously!”  We were nervous.  There were 2 outs and 3 men on base.  One good hit and this thing would get ugly, fast.

But I felt it.  Somehow, in that crowd of thousands, I actually felt Lucas Harrell dig deep and deliver the next three strikes.  It was an exciting win, especially as you’re biting your nails at the end.

On the drive home, I thought about those last few strikes Harrell threw.  He had been working for 9 innings, throwing pitch after pitch and then suddenly, that last inning got a little out of hand.  He had a decision to make; he could give up and allow the coach to bring in a reliever or he could find that strength inside himself to finish this game.

We all go through these moments in our life, don’t we?  We are in a situation where we can give up or we can dig deep and grab that “oomph” to propel you into your next moment.

Don’t we all wish we could do that?  I wonder sometimes where I might find strength.  It’s easy to get mired in our own pity.  For me, it helps to know that I’m not the only one who has ever walked down this road…whatever road that is.
I’m not the only one who has suffered fatigue, sadness, loss, hard times…

I’m not alone on this road because there is always either someone ahead of me or someone behind me.  And just because I find my way, doesn’t mean I won’t be on this road again.

So, what more can I do other than adjust my crotch, spit in the dirt, watch the runners at first and third, nod at the catcher’s signs, dig deep and pray for that one last strike.

This is why I love baseball.