Well, this is it, my final favorite Astros moment from 2011. Regardless of the struggles of 2011, I am and will always be a Houston Astros fan. I may not always agree with the owner. I may think the General Manager has lost his mind. I might sometimes feel the Manager would be a better Little League skipper than Major League.

But then again, sometimes there are moments of genius, both in the front office and in the dugout, and they can lead to greatness on the field. There is nothing better to me than watching a really well fought baseball game because when it is played by men at the top of their game who are playing with all of their heart and soul, baseball is America’s best sport.

And so as I leave you for the last time in 2011 I hope you’ll join me in sticking with the Astros a wee bit longer. I don’t expect miracles in 2012. Large ships take a long time to turn around, but it seems the Captain has begun to turn the ship in Houston, but it’s going to take time. This leads me to the final moment of 2011: the introduction of Jeff Luhnow as the new General Manager of the Houston Astros.

I don’t know much about Luhnow, but I know this – Houston needed a change and someone who is forward thinking and so far it seems the new GM’s given us that. My opinion is still out on Jeff Luhnow, but he does represent one big thing to baseball fans in Houston – HOPE.

Click the photo to watch the video.

With that I wish you all a very Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year! Thank you for being a part of Tales From The JuiceBox and I’ll see you at the ballpark in 2012!

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.

2011 wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops for the Houston Astros, but today I’m revisiting some of my favorite moments from the long, hard season. I’ve already shown you home runs and first MLB hits. I’ve shown you the new owner and a fan going a bit crazy. Now it’s time for a little defense.

The most impressive arm on the Houston Astros doesn’t belong to a great pitcher. It belongs to guy in right field. Brian Bogusevic has a cannon for an arm, I’m convinced. There’s something bionic about that guy. I can just hear the $6 million dollar man music as he’s throwing.

A former pitcher, Bogusevic still uses that firepower as demonstrated here as he caught a pop up in right then blasted the ball to Towles at the plate to get David Freese out. It’s moments like this one that made the 2011 season for me. It was moments like this that remind me why I love this game.

Click the photo to watch the video.

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.

As a Houston Astros fan during the 2011 season there were two ways you could behave. You could be a realist, know the team was not a good baseball team and enjoy the season for the love of the game or you could be an idealist hoping things would get better, but be constantly disappointed. I chose to be a realist.

I decided in mid to late June that baseball in October wouldn’t be happening in Houston for a few years, so it was time for me to love the game for the game itself and not get caught up in the wins and losses of my favorite team. It wasn’t always easy. As fans we get personally attached to these teams and to their records.

But what this attitude shift did do for me was allow me to celebrate the little things in the game. I was overjoyed to watch so many rookies take the field for the first time as an MLB player, to get their first hit, to make their first big defensive play. Maybe it’s the mother in me, but it was a lot of fun to see the guys having fun.

And that brings me to favorite moment #9. For a guy who just came up from the minors in a year that no one expected to see him any earlier than September, Jimmy Paredes put on quite a show for his first Major League hit. I was sitting in section 215 at Minute Maid Park and found myself quickly on my feet celebrating not just any old hit, but a two run triple for the rookie.

Click the photo to watch the video…and watch him run. Jimmy’s fast!

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.

When you look back at the Houston Astros 2011 season, there are many things that come to mind. I think about the lost chances, the bad baseball, the crazy number of rookies, the fan-crushing trades, but the one continuous thread throughout the 2011 season was the will they / won’t they roller coaster about Jim Crane & Co. being approved as the new owners of the ball club.

The first time we were told officially of the sale was back in May when Drayton McLane had a press conference to announce he’d made a deal with Crane and his group of investors. Bud Selig didn’t want that press conference to happen.

Little did we know that day that the approval of Crane would hinge not on his professional and personal history, but his willingness to give Selig what he’d long wanted: an even number of teams in each league. And so the waiting game and the guessing game and the game of political power matches had to be played out and an agreement to move the Houston Astros to the AL West in 2013 had to happen before the MLB owners would unanimously vote to approve Crane.

It was a hard pill to swallow, but with Crane as the new owner came the chance to really begin rebuilding and the hope of future for the Houston Astros. It didn’t take Crane long to put his stamp on things as he removed both President Tal Smith and GM Ed Wade from the organization.

It’s only fitting then that in the favorite moments of the Astros season that this be included. I know it didn’t happen until the season was long over for this team, but it was the culmination of a year of what ifs and hopefully gives my favorite baseball team a rebirth.

Click the photo to watch the video of Crane’s press conference.

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.

It’s New Year’s Eve and I’ve given you 5 previous favorite moments of the Astros 2011 season. I’m not really sure how many there will be. I’m trying to just go with the flow (which is hard for this slight control freak). Perhaps we’ll get to a nice even 10? Or maybe 11 since it’s the end of 2011? Oh, who knows. Let’s just get on with it, shall we?

To continue the celebration of the efforts of the Js…you know, all those rookies who got called up whose names all started with J…I thought I’d pull up a video of JD Martinez’s 3 run homer that I remember fondly, but I got two for the price of one!

This first 3 run homer was against the Brewers on 8/6 in the bottom of the third and pulled Houston to within one run. Unfortunately the lead would never be Houston’s that day, but JD Martinez managed his 8th RBI in just 7 major league games with this one. I’m looking forward to seeing if his hitting holds up in Spring Training. He’s one of my favorite hitters to watch.

Click the photo to see the video.

JD’s second 3 run blast would happen just a few nights later on 8/8 in the first inning while visiting Arizona. He nailed it to left to give himself his 3rd home run of his at-this-point very short major league career. The Astros would go on that Monday evening to beat the Diamondbacks with a whopping 9-1 final score.

A good friend of mine was at this game surrounded by shocked and then upset Arizona fans as she cheered wildly for the “New Astros.”

Click the photo below to watch the video.

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.

As I collect and share these favorite Houston Astros moments of the 2011 season, there’s no denying that a great deal of the excitement around baseball this year came from a crop of kids that saw the Majors long before anyone expected.

When Jose Altuve, Jimmy Paredes, JD Martinez, Jordan Lyles and the gang (The J’s) all arrived at Minute Maid Park, there was a definite buzz in the air. But what was in the air on Saturday, August 20th was a little different.

In the very first inning against the San Francisco Giants, Jose Altuve not only hit his first big league homer, but he made it a memorable one by doing it while keeping that ball in the park. In a hit that quite likely would have been a triple, Altuve ran through the stop sign at third to give us all a little show that night.

The Astros would go on to win, 7-5, over the Giants, but Altuve’s in-the-park home run was without a doubt the highlight of the game.

To watch the video, click the photo below.

I was sitting with my mother, the weeone and a family friend at Minute Maid Park when Altuve hit this one. Excitement is not a strong enough word.

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’ve been revisiting some great moments in what was a less-than-exciting Houston Astros season in the past couple of days and it is amazing the great plays we so easily forget. When October comes around and your team is done playing baseball, it’s as if our minds just want to hit a “reset” button.

There is no reset button for the Astros 2011 106 loss season and some players might actually be glad for it. In that category you may well find Brett Wallace. Although Brett bounced between the majors and the minors and struggled at the plate at times this past season, he had one at bat that makes my favorites list.

In a home game against the Colorado Rockies on September 24th, Wallace hit a 448 foot home run in the second inning off Rockies’ pitcher, Jason Hammel. The home run was the fourth longest home run hit by an Astro at Minute Maid Park, but it was the longest hit by an Astro who wasn’t Lance Berkman (his 2003 shot off of Jeremi Gonzalez of Tampa Bay that went 464 feet is still the longest).

It was a BIG way to snap a 0-28 hitting streak. This was one game on which Brett Wallace wouldn’t want to hit reset.

Click the photo to watch the video.

Brett Wallace kills a hitless streak...and a ball.

I can’t post this without mentioning that in the Budweiser patio that night, Astros Sr. Director of Digital Media, Alyson Footer, was hosting a Social Media Night (plus it was her birthday), so the patio was packed with die-hard fans and one of them got that ball. Congratulations Jessica on the catch!

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.

It’s funny how the first two favorite moments of the Houston Astros 2011 season came to me so quickly, but then I had to really start thinking about the next few. This one came to me this morning while I was wondering why there wasn’t more interest in Wandy Rodriguez in the current starting pitcher market.

On August 29th against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Wandy had a great night striking out 13 batters to help the Astros win 7-4 (win #45 if you’re wondering). For those of you who are in need of a starting pitcher, remember that on a really bad team without much in the way of run support, Mr. Rodriguez went 11 -11 with a 3.49 ERA, 7.82 K/9 and 1.31 WHIP. The boy’s got game.

Click on the photo to watch Wandy strike out 13 Pirates.

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’ve been contemplating my favorite moments at Minute Maid Park with the Houston Astros from the 2011 season and when I mentioned this to a friend today, he insisted that before I share MY favorite moments that I share his.

Remember this? It prompted the good folks at MMP to display a warning on El Grande the rest of the season reminding us all of the perils that would poor upon you if you dared step foot on that green green grass….

The Great Fan Escape

http://youtu.be/X7B4gic1-qU

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 know it’s been a few days since I last chatted about the worst team in baseball, but after that final loss and the Braves loss and the Cards getting to go to the playoffs, I had to take a few moments to regroup. So I ran away to the Olympic National Forest in Washington and I hiked. Yep, me. This city girl donned semi-approriate hiking gear and forgot, for just a few days, about the worst team in baseball.

This season was brutal. But I think you learn from your mistakes so let’s take a look at this year’s Astros by the numbers.

56 Wins - 106 Losses
.346 Winning Percentage
6th of 6 in the NL Central
16 of 16 in the NL
30 of 30 in MLB
Scored 615 Runs
Allowed 796 Runs
.258 Batting Average (4/16 in NL)
.311 OBP (11/16 in NL)
95 Home Runs (15/16 in NL)
579 RBIs
118 Stolen Bases (5/16 in NL)
4.51 ERA (16/16 in NL)
188 Home Runs Allowed (16/16 in NL)
566 BB (16/16 in NL)
1191 Strike Outs (8/16 in NL)
116 Errors (2/16 in NL)
382 Double Plays Turned (6/16 in NL)

You know what strikes me as I go through those numbers? The hitting wasn’t awful (except clutch hitting was a problem all season – 14% baserunner scoring), the defense wasn’t completely awful, but the pitching was pretty damn bad. I’m pretty sure that was my gripe way back in the beginning of the season, wasn’t it? Sheesh. Sometimes I hate it when I’m right.

That season’s over. Now, we can let the true rebuilding take root while we sit back and wait to see what changes happen in the off season. Will we have a new owner? GM? Manager? Who will still be around on Opening Day 2012? Will Minute Maid Park serve Stella Artois on Club Level next year? What are you hoping happens between now and Spring Training?

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can read her Astros blog at www.talesfromthejuicebox.com, email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her on twitter @agirlinthesouth.