Jon Heyman tweeted this -

You guys know that I think pretty highly of Q, but once upon a time, I was a Pudge fan. So what do you think? Would you rather see Humberto Quintero or Ivan Rodriguez behind the plate?

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 am a fan of Humberto Quintero. I know not all those in the blogosphere agree with me on the veteran catcher and I’m okay with that. But I was pleased to see that yesterday the Houston Astros announced that Q had signed a 1 year contract worth $1 million plus bonuses, thus avoiding arbitration.

So the Astros will have another year with Q behind the plate. That means base runners beware because this catcher leads the majors in pickoffs for the combined 2010-11 seasons (11). I love to watch a base runner be thrown out stealing and with Q behind the plate I get to watch that more often than with anyone else in that spot.

Meanwhile, in the land of Astros catchers, Jason Castro has had surgery on his left foot December 9th. Yep, a sesamoidectomy. Say that five times fast.

It seems the catcher was injured in the final game of the Arizona Fall League while playing with the Salt River Rafters. Castro, who was out all last season after tearing his ACL in his right knee, will be out for three months. That will definitely effect his Spring Training schedule, but he hopes to be ready to go for the season. Injuries tend to have a mind of their own, so time will tell.

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.

I pinched myself and it turns out it wasn’t a dream. the Astros just beat the Phillies! Now, historically, the Astros play really well against the Phillies. Really well- they’re 30-19 versus the Phils since 2004. But this year, I expected nothing, especially this series. Tonight was Hunter Pence’s first game in Minute Maid Park as a Phillie and he’s been on a tear. It was the first time Roy Oswalt would take the mound in Houston as a Phillie. It was the kind of night that I thought we’d see fireworks.

Fireworks, indeed, but from the Astros rather than the Phillies. Granted, the Astros success tonight was in no small part due to blunders by the visiting team, but a W is a W no matter how you put it on the board. And this W put Houston at 50 wins and keeps them 3 shy of the century mark on losses. I’ll take it.

Most impressive tonight? Brett Myers who grabbed his fifth win of the season and his second straight. He pitched a solid 8 innings allowing 6 hits and only 1 earned run while walking 1 and striking out 4. Very nice job, Brett. Perhaps there is something about being a father again that makes Brett pitch this well? Or is it the chance to beat his old team? Either way, I’ll take it. This was the Brett we all love tonight, firing on all cylinders, efficient and effective.

The only production the Phillies were able to get going tonight came in the top of the 2nd. Raul Ibanex doubled to left field and then scored when Pete Orr singled to center. That would be it for them. And with no run support behind him, Roy Oswalt proved you can’t go home as he lasted 7 innings, but allowed 11 hits, 5 earned runs walked 2 and only struck out 2. He’d never pitched that many innings with fewer than 4 strikeouts. It was not his night.

JD Martinez and Humberto Quintero were incredibly productive with three hits on the night while Carlos Lee nailed a 2 run homer into the Crawford Boxes to put the Astros up 4-2. Oh what a night indeed. In the bottom of the 4th we saw Martinez and Bogusevic both score ; on a single from Paredes and a double from Q. Then the Lee homer in the 5th made it 4-2. The final run would come in the 7th when JD Martinez would run home after singling, and then advancing to third on a wild pitch by Oswalt and finally being hit in by Brian Bogusevic.

The bullpen had a quiet evening as only Mark Melancon got a call to hit the field. He would throw 19 pitches in the 9th, 9  for strikes. In fact, he made fans a little jumpy when his batters went walk, fly out, fly out, walk, but a ground out on the 5th batter closed it out in only 2:22 leaving the Astros to win 5-1.

I’m so giddy I can hardly type. All I wanted from this series was one teeny weeny win. One night was all it would take. They get two more chances. Am I foolish if I think they can do it again? I don’t know that lightening can strike twice in Houston this week, but if it could, I’d be delighted. If the bats are as alive tomorrow as they were today, anything is possible.

Oh, by the way, that guy who used to play right field, Hunter Pence? He got a nice partial standing ovation on his first at bat and he gave a way to the crowd. He was 2-4 tonight  and the best hitter in the lineup. So there’s that.

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.

For the second straight day at PNC Park in Pittsburgh the Astros and the Pirates battled in the rain. Yesterday, the Pirates came out on top 3-1, but today roles were reversed as the Astros took the game 4-1…in the rain.

After both teams retired batters 1, 2, 3 in the first, the second inning saw Carlos Lee single to right field and then *gasp* steal second base. Really? What has gotten into Carlos these days? Can we bottle it and make him drink it again before next season? That was his fourth steal this year for those keeping count. So then Brian Bogusevic singled to right getting Carlos to third. Next up? My favorite – Jimmy Paredes, who grounded into a force that found Bogie out at second, but allowed Carlos to score. The Astros were on the board.

Clint Barmes would then strike out, followed by Humberto Quintero doubling on a fly ball to center to send Jimmy home to put the Astros up 2-0 halfway through the second. Brett Myers finished the inning striking out.

The Pirates response? Neil Walker singled, but was caught stealing second base. Why haven’t runners learned that when Q is behind the plate, stealing is not wise? Ryan Doumit hit his 8th homer of the year, this one to right center field. to put the Pirates on the board, 2-1. That would be all the run productiont his game would see from the Bucs.

There was hope for another run for Houston in the top of the seventh when Paredes singled, and Barmes singled sending Paredes to 2nd and Q ground into a force out for Barmes but sending Parendes to 3rd. Myers came up next and managed to reach on a fielder’s choice with Paredes attempting the squeeze play and failing. It was painful to watch!

There would be more runs…and they all came in the 9th. Bogie walked, Jimmy doubled, Barmes struck out, Q singled allowing Bogie and Jimmy to both score. 4-1 Astros. Then it was just wait, play good defense and pray. Mark Melancon came in and got the save, his 17th of the season, preserving Myers 4th win.

I liked Brett Myers tonight, and there haven’t been many games I could say that this season. In his 7.2 innings pitched, he allowed 4 hits, 1 earned run (a home run) and threw 6 strikeouts. He threw 92 pitches in those 7.2 innings and 65 of them were strikes. I like that. Maybe missing a start was his key? Or maybe baby Kace is a good luck charm for him? Coming after him in relief was Wesley Wright. I like this kid. I like him a LOT. Tonight it was one batter and he walked him, but still, I think the kid’s got good stuff.

I’m not complaining about tonight’s win at all, although I thought it was a boring game. Boring games can be good sometimes. I think the 9,000+ people at PNC park tonight were just glad it wasn’t a marathon game. I’m sure they were ready to get out of the rain.

So, my standout of the night? Jimmy Paredes. He was 3-4 with 2 runs, and an RBI. He was pretty much half of the offense tonight. There wasn’t a lot of offense from the Astros in this game, but it was just enough to get the W. Along with Paredes, Barmes and Q contributed a great deal as they each were 2-4 at the plate.

The Astros are now 48-94 on the season and still chasing 100 losses with 20 games left to play.

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.

Last night was exactly why I love baseball. When the odds are against you, when your fans have already assumed a loss and left the ballpark, when no one thinks the last place team will come back from trailing 5-2 anything is possible. Brian Bogusevic made Astros fans believe just a wee bit more that this team can be good again.

After Brett Myers struggled early on against the Cubs (7.0 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 SOs, 1HR), it didn’t look very promising. Despite excellent bat swinging by Jimmy Paredes (2-4, 1RBI), JB Shuck (2-4, 2R), and Clint Barmes (2-3, 1R) my hopes weren’t high. In fact, the most exciting part of the game through 8 innings was Fox Sports Houston Announcer and former Astros pitcher, Jim Deshaies catching a foul ball in the 2nd, off the bat of Ryan Dempster. It was really not that exciting of a game.

The energy level drastically changed in the bottom of the ninth inning. With the Cubs leading 5-2 and historical “Astros Killer” Carlos Marmol on the mound, Jimmy Paredes lined out to left field. Shuck followed with a single to right field. It was at this point that many Houston fans rolled their eyes at the thought of hope. After all, how many times have the Astros had a chance this season only to watch it fly past?

Then Marmol threw a wild pitch allowing Shuck to head to 2nd and Barmes connected for a line drive to left sending him to 1st. Then Matt Downs, pinch hitting for Quintero walked. The adrenaline was rising at this point. The chat on twitter was feverish as fans could taste hope. The bases were loaded. Up next in the order? Pitcher Aneury Rodriguez.

Now Brad Mills makes some odd decisions from time to time that we all question, but his putting Brian Bogusevic in to pinch hit for the pitcher was what anyone would have done at that point. Then the unthinkable happened to the worst team in baseball. With the count at 2-2 and 1 out on the board, Brian Bogusevic hit only his 2nd home run of his major league career, but the most exciting one so far. A pinch hit walk-off grand slam. Astros win 6-5. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Wow, was all I could think, speak or write. It was quite the moment. It epitomized why I love baseball. One half inning of ball changed the whole game. One batter made all the difference. One ball hit 423 feet and an unexpected team wins. Man, I love this game. Bogie himself said it beautifully on twitter -

Perfectly stated.

Now, I would be remiss not to point out that Aneury Rodriguez got his first major league win last night. And he did it by retiring only 2 pitchers. Congratulations, Aneury, but I think you got upstaged last night and I would guess, you’re probably okay with that!

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.

The Twitter crowd calls him #PocketJesus, and tonight, Jose Altuve was the 10th inning saviour for the Astros.

As I took my seat in Minute Maid Park tonight, surrounded by the usual suspects the question was “Who the heck is that?” With many familiar faces gone and lots of new faces on the field answering who was playing where and who came from where was the first order of business. The waiter for our section challenged the gentleman sitting behind me to name five starting players. He couldn’t do it.

It wouldn’t take long into the game before one of those new faces made a name for himself. Jimmy Paredes, who Houston called up from AA Corpus Christi yesterday, made his presence known with a 2 RBI triple in the second inning. Well, welcome to the bigs, Jimmy. Keep that up and you’ll do just fine.

A quick 3 run lead was cut to 1 by the end of the Reds’ next at bat and within two more innings it was a tied game. What was most interesting was how at the start of the game everyone joked about watching Minor League Baseball tonight and yet, as I start writing this, the Astros have hung in and are playing the 10th inning against the Reds.

It seems that when you put a bunch of young kids on a major league field and challenge them to show you what they’ve got, they will. There weren’t many Mickey Mouse plays tonight and the one that stands out the most- Carlos Lee’s attempt to go from first to third on a shallow center field bloop that ended with an easy out at third- was committed by a veteran.

Are they great? Nope. Did they show effort and heart? Yep. I think I could really like this young team. There is something about watching players who want it badly that’s just a lot of fun. Most of these new guys probably won’t be here in Houston all the way through the end of the season, but they’ll prove that they’re worthy if you let them.

I can’t remember the last time the Astros had fewer hits than their opponent and the same number of runs. That’s all sorts of backwards in comparison to what we’ve seen this season. The nonproductive hit parade was getting old. Tonight was refreshing. On the flip side, Bud Norris struggled a bit on the mound. In just 5 innings pitched he allowed a staggering 10 hits, but only 3 earned runs, walked 3 and struck out 3. He left the game after pitching to one batter in the 6 with a blister again on that right middle finger. We’ll see where that leads. The only other pitcher who allowed a hit tonight? Mark Melancon with just 1 hit in his 2 innings of work. Not too shabby all things considered.

Standouts tonight? Jimmy Paredes’ debut 2-RBI triple, Humberto Quintero’s RBI double, Jose Altuve’s game winning hit with bases loaded (#PocketJesus, indeed).

Final Score after playing 10 innings? 4-3 and that’s a Houston win. Yea, I think I might just get used to this young team concept. These kids definitely have heart.

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.

Yesterday afternoon with a buzz of excitement provided by trades and AA player from Corpus taking the field at second base, the Houston Astros found a way to win their first series since June 17th lifting them to .500 record since the All-Star break and 3-3 on this homestand.  This might be just the confidence boost they’ll need to head out of town for two weeks of playing NL Central rivals.

The win itself was exciting as it came in the bottom of the 11th with Jason Michaels pinch hitting for Wilton Lopez.  J-Mike hit a line drive to center field to send Humberto Quintero to the plate, breaking the tie with the Nationals and ending the game 3-2. Not surprisingly, the Astros bench cleared so the boys could all-but-dogpile Michaels at first base.

The win wasn’t the only excitement happening during this final game against the Nationals. After Tuesday’s trade announcement, Jose Altuve was spotted in the dugout in the 7th inning that night wearing number 27 and swinging a bat. The volume of voices at Minute Maid Park amped up only slightly less than the frenzy on twitter. Turned out that he didn’t get the opportunity to pinch hit Tuesday, but did start at 2nd base Wednesday afternoon.

The hype surrounding Jose Altuve’s leap from AA Corpus Christi to the show has been tremendous, especially on twitter and other social media outlets. After playing very well in the Futures Game during All-Star Week, if you didn’t know Altuve’s name before it was on your radar. So to then watch him be promoted over the AAA club’s second baseman, who is a good ballplayer in his own right, made the fans excitement level soar.

The hashtag #AltuveDay was everywhere yesterday as fans anticipated the Venezuelan to perform well in his first MLB appearance. He didn’t disappoint. After popping out to right field, center field twice, and striking out, Altuve gave fans what they’d been waiting to see when he singled on a line drive to right fielder, Jayson Werth. Nothing was to become of that effort as he was LOB at the end of 9, sending the game into extra innings, but it was still exciting to watch.

So a day in which the Astros start a 21 year old at second base, they also win their first series in over a month and their first series at home since May. It’s .500 ball in Houston right now….if you forget everything that happened before the All-Star break! I’ve said before that this is the season in which we should all, as fans, celebrate the little things. I hope you celebrated #AltuveDay!

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.

Since the Astros found it in themselves to blow a six, yes 6, run lead there’s not a lot to say about how sucky this game one against the Arizona Diamondbacks is. So, to entertain us all here’s the latest scoop on what’s going on with the Houston Nine.

- Jeff Keppinger rejoined the Astros tonight. I was hoping his highsocks would be the right amount of luck and early on it appeared that way. Kepp came back in style despite the ‘Stros pitching atrocities going 2-5 with 1 RBI. Welcome back, Kepp. You were missed. If he keeps hitting, he should see more playing time than my best friend, Bill Hall.

- Brett Myers continues his run of disappointing pitching. He’s now not accumulated a win in six starts which is a career long. Tonight in 5.2 IP, he allowed 5 hits, 4 ERs, walked 3 and had 2 dingers hit off of him. His ERA is now 5.11. Brett hasn’t fulfilled my dream of having a strong first starting pitcher this season. Will his greatness of last season return? I’m thinking it’s not likely. This very well may be his struggling season. If we want a pitcher to cheer for, I think we’ll find it in Wandy Rodriguez and/or Bud Norris.

- The club released IF Joe Inglett today from AAA OKC to make room for Brain Bogusevic. Bogie was sent back down after Kepp completed his rehab assignment and returned to the big club.

» Continue reading “Astros Scoop Because This Game Is Poop”

We’ve all had a night we wish we could forget. Last night was one of those nights for the Houston Astros. No matter how hard they fought to get themselves back into the game (and fight, they did) nothing was good enough to get anything going leaving them at the end of 8 1/2 innings with a 7-13 record. Tonight, they hit Miller Park again in the hopes of turning things around in this series. This particular ballpark has been trouble for the Astros for sometime. Today, word has it that the weather has improved and the roof will be open for gametime at 6:10pm CDT.

On the mound for the Astros, Brett Myers (1-0, 2.39 ERA). It’s worth mentioning that the Astros are 2-2 in games where Myers was the starter but both of the losses should have been wins – the bullpen let him down. The Brewers will send out right handed pitcher Shaun Marcum (2-1, 1.90 ERA). This should be a great duel of pitching and I don’t expect we’ll see the innumberable hits and runs that came out of last night’s game.

Here’s the rest of the Astros Lineup for tonight:

CF Michael Bourn

SS Angel Sanchez

RF Hunter Pence

LF Carlos Lee

1B Brett Wallace

2B Bill Hall

3B Chris Johnson

C Humberto Quintero

RHP Brett Myers

To have any hope of survival tonight, the Astros will have to play infinitely better than they did last night. They need to be firing on all cylinders.

1- Brett Myers will need to pitch the way we have consistently seem him since he came to the Astros and the bullpen has got to settle down. Last night the bullpen allowed 11 hits, and 8 runs, 7 earned runs. That’s just not good enough to win ballgames. The good news is that with Brett starting, odds are he’ll go well into 6 innings and we’ll see less of the bullpen.

2- The lineup is going to need to be more productive at moving runners around the bases. The 14 hits they acheived last night would have been a lot more impressive if they hadn’t only gotten 7 runs out of those hits. Marcum’s a tough pitcher to come up against and so far this year, batters are hitting only .209 against him. With only a handful of left handed batters in the Astros lineup (Bourn, Wallace, Inglett) right handed pitchers usually have the upperhand.

3- The middle of the lineup – Lee, Wallace, Hall – need to hit with power tonight. The fact that the Astros have fewer home runs (9) than anyone else in the MLB is the direct result of the power hitters not performing to date this year. Playing small ball has gotten them nowhere. It’s time for the bats to come alive!

4- Fielding has to be perfect. Error-Fest 2011 needs to come to an end. The Astros have had 21 errors so far while opponents have only had 10. Making bad plays and bad decisions results in bad endings.

Can they fix those four things tonight? Yes. Will they? That remains to be seen, but I sure as heck hope so!