There are three things that I can’t stop talking about regarding the Houston Astros. I thought I’d give my friends a break and talk about them here instead.

#1 – The New “Previous At-Bat Graphic” on El Grande:

This is a cell phone camera photo, and the brightness of the board makes photos tough. But you can get the idea. Photo credit: Greis Perez

I’d show you a photo, but the ones I have are from a cell phone camera and are “meh.” Well, maybe I’ll show you anyway.

Below the lineup of the appropriate team when a player comes up for his second or subsequent at bats in a game, a graphic of the field is shown along with what happened their last at bat. Is the line green? Then they got on base. Is it red? Then it was an out. A dotted line signifies a grounder while an arched line signifies a fly ball. If it’s a player’s 5th at bat of the game, you’ll see the 4 lines of the 4 previous at bats. I. LOVE. IT.

#2 – Brian Bogusevic Hands the Astros Their First Walk-Off Win of the Season!

Last night against the Milwaukee Brewers, Brian Bogusevic hit a grounder up the middle into the outfield to send Steve Pearce home. Astros win it 4-3 over the Brewers. I hate the Brewers. Well, really I hate Brewers fans. There were some incidents last season during a home series where some fans were insanely rude. So I like to see the Brewers lose.

But I really like to see the Astros finally win. This was a win these boys needed, desperately!

#3 – More Astros are on Twitter than You Think

I was updating the page on this site that has all the team’s twitter handles. Bear in mind it’s still not 100% accurate and a few guys that are in AAA are still on the MLB roster on that page, but hey – I’ve got baseball to watch. Anyway, you’ll notice that almost 20 of the 25 man active roster is now on twitter. Apparently the new guy, Tyler Greene, is not. We need to work on him. Also not on twitter – Xavier Cedeno, Rhiner Cruz, Armando Galarraga, Fernando Rodriguez, Carlos Corporan, Chris Snyder and Scott Moore.  So, if you know any of these guys, can you have a chat with them?

I really like posting a starting lineup on twitter using only twitter handles. It looks cool ;D

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.

If Crash Davis walked into the Houston Astros clubhouse after today’s game and said, “I’m the player to be named later,” I’d be jumping up and down. Why would I want a 12-year-tenured-minor-league-catcher-who-eventually-hits-more-home-runs-in-the-minors-than-anyone-and-by-the-way-isn’t-a-real-person? It’s that tenured catcher part that my ears pick up on first.

You see, nothing’s going to make the last place Astros a better team this season. So what’s left to work on? Player development.

And if you’re the worst team in baseball and you need to work on player development, the most critical thing I think you should work on is the young pitching staff you’re using. Best thing for a young pitcher? A great mentor, like a catcher who’s been around the block. Enter, Crash Davis.

If Crash Davis were one of the Astros catchers he’d know what to say to a young guy when he’s tanking on the bump. He’d call for pitches that he knew were within the ability of an exhausted young arm or were likely to sneak up on a veteran hitter. He’d teach them not to get fungus on their shower shoes.

Okay, so some of that is in jest, but really? How important is a really great veteran catcher to a young pitching staff? I’d say it’s essential. There are lessons on the mound that are taught from behind the plate and I wonder how many of those critical lessons are being missed by this young rotation?

There’s some talent in the mess we refer to as the Astros pitching, but it needs some tender loving care in order for it to grow and flourish. And yes, I’m saying that Doug Brocail isn’t the pitching coach they need and that Carlos Corporan isn’t seasoned enough to be that mentor and Chris Snyder? Well, any guy who thinks “Sexual Healing” by Marvin Gay is good walk up music should not be mentoring the pitchers of the future.

We all know there’s a lot going on behind the scenes at Minute Maid Park. There will be changes in the off season and I would guess many of them will be surprising, some expected. But if there’s one surprise that would make me happier than anything…it’d be that Crash Davis walks into the clubhouse. Yea, they need a tenured catcher.

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.

Taking "Diehard Astros Fan" To A Whole New Level

Okay, so the Houston Astros have a new ownership team now, led by Jim Crane. They know that in 2013 the team will move from the National League Central Division to the American League Western Division.

Half of Houston is pissed off. Some of Houston doesn’t know anything happened. And then there are the diehards. We just want baseball back.

So now I’m getting back to baseball. Not the business, but baseball. Today’s the deadline for teams to have their 40 man roster set before the Rule 5 Draft and Houston’s been making some moves.

Here are the transactions that the team’s made in the past week:

Signed OF Brad Snyder to a Minor League Deal - He has been invited to Major League Spring Training Camp.

Signed IF Joe Thurston to a Minor League Deal – He has been invited to Major League Spring Training Camp. (For the record, it KILLED me not to call him Thurston Howell III when I typed that!)

Outrighted Catcher Carlos Corporan to AAA Oklahoma City – He has cleared waivers and has the right to elect free agency.

Purchased Contract of RHP Paul Clemens - He has been added to the 40-man roster.

Signed RHP Lance Pendleton to a Minor League Deal - He has been invited to Major League Spring Training Camp.

Houston’s 40-man roster is 38 men at the moment. Let the fun begin!

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 that time…you know, the time when I get to start burying myself in the numbers from the 2011 season and trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. I’m a science geek, after all, and one of the things that keeps me addicted to baseball is the stats. In my crazy noggin’ it seems there just HAS to be a statistic to explain it all. There’s a magic number that once I find it, will explain the horrid season.

I know, I know…this season was a long time coming and made over the course of a lot of bad decisions and then bad playing and then more bad decisions and then the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball jacking around with a potential new owner. I know all of this, intellectually, but my head has a hard time convincing my broken heart.

So we’ll blame the stat analysis on the heart and a little less on the head this year.

What’s below is a graphic representation of the Battery Combinations from the 2011 season. For those unfamiliar with the term, Battery simply put is the pitcher and catcher together. I looked up why they call it that (again, GEEK!) and according to Wikipedia:

The use of the word ‘battery’ in baseball was first coined by Henry Chadwick in the 1860s in reference to the firepower of a team’s pitching staff and inspired by the artillery batteries then in use in the American Civil War.^[2] Later, the term evolved to indicate the combined effectiveness of pitcher and catcher.

Who knew? Back to the graphic below. It shows pitching appearances and which catcher caught each pitcher. You will find trends in the season and can start to see how Brad Mills makes catcher decisions in the lineup.

So what I notice right off the bat is that Brett Myers and JA Happ were caught almost exclusively by Humberto Quintero. Q was the senior catcher on the team this year and has a penchant for catching base stealers, so it’s not surprising we’d see him used more often. He’s also a better hitter than the other choices available. The only time we see other combinations with those pitchers is essentially the time that Q was out on the DL with that high ankle sprain – which I should mention that he got because he’s an awesome catcher that wouldn’t back down.

Now, you can’t expect Q to catch everyone all the time, so you see Wandy Rodriguez caught almost exclusively by the “non-Q” all season, whether that was JR Towles or Carlos Corporan at the time. Quintero is thrown in from time to time, and my guess would be that was Mills making decisions based on the opponent sometimes, not the pitcher.

We also see that Bud Norris’ time on the mound is split pretty closely between Q and the “non-Q” catcher. It made sense that Aneury Rodriguez and Jordan Lyles were caught by Corporan more than Quintero as that’s who they threw to in the minors. If you’re going to start a 20 year old kid, it’s probably a good idea to have him pitch initially into a glove and toward a guy he’s comfortable with already. But you notice that as the season progresses, Lyles is caught by Q. My guess? Lyles got to know him. Comfort didn’t play as big a role in the decision at this point, rather putting in the best catcher that night was more important.

What I find interesting about this is that if I had to name the Astros two most vulnerable positions in terms of lack of depth this season, I’d say pitching and catching. We all know this starting rotation had about 2 1/2 actual starting rotation guys on it. And with Jason Castro out for the whole season this year, the catcher position was thin and our catchers took an incredible beating. Were there combinations and timing of combinations that would have been better? Oh how I wish I could say yes, but frankly, the team was just thin in these pivotal spots this year. No way around that.

There’s nothing magical about any of this information, it’s more fascinating than awe-inspiring. It’s interesting to see. If you watch a lot of games these are trends that you probably already picked up on, but it’s nice to have a graphic representation of it if nothing else.

I promise not to shove things like this down your throat all season, but I will admit that I like it. I can’t help it, it’s the geek in me.

*Thanks to Tara Franey, the lead writer for C-ing Red, the Aerys Sports home of the Cincinnati Reds, for the great chart!

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.

Holding off the countdown to 100 losses, the Astros won big tonight against the Washington Nationals. Led by Wandy Rodriguez who is 3-1 in his last four starts, Houston was firing on all cylinders at National Park. They did everything right. It was a sight to see. They were the team we’ve been waiting to see all season.

The commanding win was born of an early lead when eight straight Astros found their way on base to plate six runs in one inning. That’s only the second time this season the Astros have gotten as many as seven hits and six runs in one inning. The rally was kicked off by a Jordan Schafer double, that saw him reach third on an error. Schafer was then knocked home by Jason Bourgeois’ RBI single.

The momentum would continue as JD Martinez singled and Carlos Lee and Chris Johnson both hit RBI singles to ratchet up the score. So when Jose Altuve hit one up the third base line which should have been an easy throw to first by Lannan, the tear was already in full force. That would only be fueled by a bad throw that allowed Altuve to reach and sent two more runners home.

That alone would have made for an incredibly exciting inning for Astros fans, but it didn’t stop there. Add to all of that a suicide squeeze bunt from Carlos Corporan that put the ‘Stros up 6-0 only halfway through the 3rd inning. That would be the end of Lannan’s night on the mound. His game was a mere 2 1/2 innings. For all intents and purposes, the game was pretty much a done deal at that point.

Wandy enjoyed the cushion the offense provided and managed to give up only 3 runs on the 7 hits by the Nats in the 6 innings he was on the mound. He also delivered 7 strikeouts. He was once again the rock solid pitcher that he’s been of late, showing great command and hitting the strike zone with almost 70% of his pitches.

It was the bottom of the fourth before the Nats would get on the board with Chris Marrero singling to send Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse both home. Houston answered that in the fifth when Sanchez and Altuve each singled to get on base and Corporan hit a sac fly to send Sanchez home. Wandy, yes, Wandy doubled to put Altuve across the plate. It was an 8-2 lead.

The Nationals’ Michael Morse would ding one to right center for a solo homer to put the Nats at 3 in the bottom of the sixth. The Astros would add one more to their run count when Corporan singled and CJ went home. Final score 9-3.

What a feeling! I know this season is done. It’s been over for the Astros for a long ywhile, but there is something so invigorating about seeing these guys still fight to the bitter end. Even with a commanding lead, the offense was still getting hits and the defense was making plays.

Perhaps that is the lesson learned in a season where big leads have been blown and games seemingly already won have been snatched away by the opposing team in the late innings. Perhaps there is a silver lining of sorts in this Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Season. Perhaps the lesson and lining are the fight.

Some will say they battle each day for selfish reasons: to earn a spot for next season, to raise their off season trade value, to stick it to a little league coach who told them they weren’t very good. Frankly, I don’t much care what the reason is as long as there’s still some good baseball to watch with the boys from Houston.

Once again, they held off the countdown to 100 losses as the Astros’ record now stands at 49-96 with 17 games left in the season.

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.

JD Martinez, Jordan Lyles and Jose Altuve pose for a Rookie Photo shoot earlier this week. Photo from Alyson Footer via Twitter

Last night in Arizona the Astros five starting rookies definitely showed their stuff as they lead the team to a 9-1 victory over a stunned Arizona Diamondbacks team. The  Astos combined for a season tying 16 hits in total, 10 of those coming from the rookies (Jose Altuve, Jimmey Paredes, JB Shuck, JD Martinez and Carlos Coporan).

In the first inning, the Dbacks Daniel Hudson struggled as the Astros were hitting everything he threw. The inning was nothing short of exciting as Altuve doubled and Jason Bourgeois reached first on a fielding error by Cody Ransom. The energy level was already off the charts when JD Martinez went long over the right field wall to send all three runners home.

The fun didn’t end there as Paredes and Clint Barmes both followed up with singles, setting up the Coporan RBI double that sent them both home. By the end of the first inning the Astros were already ahead 5-0.

The Astros would continue to add to that hit count and run total. In the 4th we saw hits from Altuve, Downs and Barmes to put the Astos up 7-0. And they didn’t stop there. In the 6th Altuve singled, Martinez drew a walk and Matt Downs singled. That brought up Paredes with bases loaded who singled to send both Altuve and Martinez home bringing the run total to 9.

Although the hitting ran away with the night, I would be remiss not to mention the great start by Wandy Rodriguez who grabbed his 8th win of the season. Wandy threw six scoreless innings allowing only 2 hits and walking 4 batters.  His pitch count went a bit high (105 pitches, only 59 for strikes), but he was able to get himself out of several possible scoring situations to keep the Dbacks in check.

In fact the Dbacks would struggle at the plate all night, only getting 4 hits. Their one run of the night was a one run homer off the bat of Henry Blanco on a Jeff Fulchino pitch.

So yes, the kids are definitely alright. Arizona fans were surprised by what they saw. I received a text message from my good friend, Sally Coleman (a Houston native living in San Diego, who was at the game, conveying just that. When a Diamondback fan sitting next to her commented that the Astros are the worst team in baseball, how could they possibly be up 7-0? Sally replied, “We got rid of that team. These are the new kids.”

She was absolutely right. This is a new team. And with 11 rookies on the 25 man roster there are going to be nights like this. Give a AA or AAA ballplayer a chance to rise up to the bigs and show you what they’ve got and you’ll see some spectacular stuff. I’m not saying every night will be like this. In time, pitchers will learn how to throw to these kids and things will get tougher, not to mention that with the young ages comes inexperience and silly mistakes. But for now, I’m enjoying the sights of their successes.

When the Astros have talked about rebuilding over the past couple of years they’ve made small and somewhat safe moves that didn’t get the job done. The overhaul that’s happened in the past 12 months and promises to continue over the next twelve is like starting from scratch. Did you feel that? It’s the breath of fresh air these kids are providing.

So take note, the Astros are fielding a team of kids, bu the kids are alright. Astros 2013!

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.

I went to Minute Maid Park Thursday night full of hope. The Astros had pulled a win out of thin air against the Cardinals the night before led by the great pitching efforts of Bud Norris and I suddenly believed in miracles.

I thought Happ would pitch well. I thought the Astros would finally find a way to score on some of those numerous hits they keep getting. I thought Carlos Lee would hit into the Crawford Boxes. I thought they could win the series. I thought wrong.

It wasn’t all miserable. I had a helmet sundae. I was there with a friend who, despite being a Brit who was raised on rugby, has become a huge baseball fan. I had great seats, so there’s that. Oh, I was supposed to be talking about the game though, wasn’t I?

The upside of the game was Hunter Pence, once again. First, it has to be said that Hunter’s got some scruff going on his face. I don’t know if it’s a superstitious thing or if it will be around for much longer, but…wow…I hope so!

Hunter’s hot, and this time I mean at the plate. With two hits last night he extended his streak to a career-high 20 games. Within those 20 games he’s had multiple hits in 10. The boy is on fire with a batting average of .315. If we could get one or two more guys going like this, the Astros just might have some decent offense!

So while the Astros lost 9-2, I had a great time with a friend, laughed a lot, saw a few nice homers (that hurt us), had a chili cheese dog and a helmet sundae, and just enjoyed a night at the ballpark.

Meanwhile, the Astros will welcome back Brandon Lyon from the DL tonight as they take on the Braves at Minute Maid Park. In addition, Robinson Cancel has been sent back to AAA OKC and Carlos Corporan, who has missed most of this season with a broken finger, is being brought up to hopefully take some pressure off J.R. Towles, who’s been taking a beating behind the plate of late. Game time tonight is 7:05pm. Go out to MMP and have a helmet sundae for me.

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.

This morning someone asked me, “Can the Astros be fixed?” It’s a good question. The club is going on a handful of years of less than stellar performance, so it stands to reason that some repairs and renovations are needed and I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone. But can it be done? I think it can. Will it happen soon? I don’t think so.

Why do I think the Astros can be fixed? There are several reasons.

#1 -The farm system has been struggling in recent years and although it’s not in tip-top shape as of right now, there are indicators that things are moving in the right direction. If you look just at AAA OKC, you’ll find a few pretty decent players. Jordon Lyles is the guy that’s gotten the most press and he definitely has big league potential. There’s one heck of an arm on the RHP and he’s been performing rather well in OKC (with the exception of yesterday’s rather rocky start). As April ended he was 1-2 with a 3.76 ERA with 19 Ks and 6 BBs in five starts. He threw 13 consecutive scoreless in innings in just two of those starts and he leads the club in innings pitched. Then there’s Koby Clemens. Koby’s .284 BA, 5 2B, 5 HR, 18 RBI in 20 games in April are nothing to sneeze at. He leads the Redhawks in homeruns and RBIs while playing mostly at 1B this season. Then there’s Carlos Corporan who has managed to throw out 7 of 12 attempted basestealers and has only had 1 error in 17 games that he’s caught this year. So there’s some talent up the road in Oklahoma. And if you know anything about minor league ball it’s that talent in the farm system is imperative if you want your big league club to improve. So although there needs to be more money siphoned into the draft budget and it still needs building, the farm system is improving. This is a great indicator that the Astros can and will improve with time.

#2 – Brad Mills and Ed Wade are not afraid of making changes and making them quickly. We’ve seen it all season as he keeps tweaking the lineup, the starting rotation and the bullpen. For example, Angel Sanchez is still getting playing time even with the return of Clint Barmes because Sanchez earned it while Barmes was on the DL. Also, despite Mills’ hopes that Nelson Figueroa would improve on last year’s reliever stats when moved to the starting rotation, he didn’t and Mills didn’t hesitate to move him back to the bullpen. After a couple of poor showings as relief, the team designated Figgy for assignment yesterday and is bringing up Sergio Escalona to fill his void. Escalona will join Abad as the only other lefty in the bullpen. The bullpen will, I’m certain, see more changes in the near future as it’s been a major downfall in recent weeks. At least 8 games have been lost specifically because of the failed efforts of relief and closing pitchers. This is an area that needs major renovation and fortunately is an area that is relatively easy to change on the fly during the regular season, so there’s potential improvement that can come from the bullpen.

#3 – Completion of the sale of the team is reportedly imminent. According to KTRK, the ABC Houston affiliate, all that’s left for Drayton McLane and Jim Crane to do in order to finalize a deal that will result in the Astros selling for an estimated $680 million is to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. Bear in mind that even when that part’s over, the MLB owners will have to approve Crane, and the word on the street is that it won’t necessarily be smooth sailing. We can anticipate a couple more months with McLane at the helm. But, a sale is still on the horizon. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – with a new owner will probably come big changes. Will we see those this season? It’s not likely as I expect he’ll get some input from Ed Wade as far as any acquisitions Wade’s wanted but hasn’t had budget approval for, so we’ll likely see a small amount of movement in the 2011 season, but I think if Crane’s in place before the draft we could see aggressive spends in that department. It won’t result in overnight wins, but will effect the longterm health of the club.

So be patient Astros fans. The team will get there. It won’t be this season and it may not be next season either, but there’s change a-coming. The Astros can, and hopefully will be fixed.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the Senior Houston Astros Reporter 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.