The expectations for the Houston Astros this season are beyond low. Most national sportswriters are predicting another worst-in-baseball season and many are suggesting the team, now in the tougher American League West, will make a run at a record setting losing season.

I’m not completely sold.

I don’t think the 2013 Houston Astros are a foregone conclusion. Now, before you bust out the straight jacket and have me committed, hear me out. I don’t think anyone can possibly know what to expect of the Astros this season. Yes, if you look at the roster in attendance at Spring Training you’ll do a lot of  ”who?” and “really?” before you hit a name that you think has long term, big league potential. But there’s a factor that I believe will be more influential than a list of unknown’s on the roster – Bo Porter.

Bo Porter at Spring Training in Kissimmee, Florida

Don’t get me wrong, Bo Porter’s not the second coming, but I think he’s exactly what the doctor ordered for the Houston Astros. Remember last year as we all laughed and groaned and cried as the Astros made silly error after silly error, so much so that the .gifs of their antics were in the running for awards of worst plays on some fan sites?

Of course you remember all of that. What those behaviors and plays come down to is reactions. When the pressure is on, human beings react instinctively, they don’t think, rationalize, weigh the pros and cons and consequences of their actions – they just act. The past few seasons fans have witnessed some really poor actions on the field at Minute Maid Park. The ranting on twitter is comical – the base running errors, the throwing errors, the little league mentality of a major league team.

Not all the name calling has been fair, but some of it was certainly well earned. I expect to do less of that this season. I expect to see fewer silly errors. I hope to never say “little league” and “Astros” in the same sentence. What’s all this expectation and hope riding on? Bo Porter.

I’ll admit it, he charmed me a bit, with his jovial personality and nice-guy smile, Bo Porter knows how to win someone over. But more importantly, Porter’s got good things to say about his approach and why it will be different. I asked him a while back if he’d be addressing those fundamentals that so often failed to produce good reactions in the past few years.

“As a team, we will be prepared differently than they have been prepared in the past.” The way in which Porter conveys thoughts like that one make you just know he’s passionate and believes what he’s saying heart and soul. To listen to him explain the 5 P’s (Proper Preparation Produces Peak Performers) is akin to listening to a Southern Baptist preacher on Sunday morning.

Porter’s hand slaps the table for emphasis, he leans into his statement and enunciates every word. The man means business. And reports from Spring Training camp say he’s hands on, more so than any other manager has been.

All of this makes me smile at the thought process behind Bo Porter’s hiring. I already thought Jeff Luhnow was a pretty bright guy, but his best move thus far may just be the jovial and passionate manager that brings a background of not just baseball knowledge, but a hard core football love as well. When your team is made up of young guns and no names, I think the guy you want leading the pack is someone like Bo, a little bit southern charmer and a little bit old school strict  father. He’ll give you all the love you want, but you better have picked up your room and respected your mother that day. Yes, just what the doctor ordered, indeed.

So if you want to count out the Houston Astros, feel free, but I just can’t do it -not with Bo Porter at the helm.

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.

This is the problem with being a Houston Astros fan right now. I like postseason baseball. It’s exciting, it’s fun, it’s energetic, it’s everything that’s good about this sport. But when your favorite team finishes the season dead last, there is no October cheering.

Now I’m faced with the dilemma of whom I should cheer for the rest of this postseason. There are some that I just can’t bring myself to cheer for…figure it out, I’m an Astros fan.

Who do YOU think I should cheer for and why?

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.

fanatic [fuh-nat-ik] noun – a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal

With the Astros recent seasons of struggles, there have been some questions raised on the Internets about “true fans”. Most of the questions have been posted on Twitter by other fans, but they should still be addressed, because my “true fan” status is at stake here, yo!

You can love your team, and still admit they suck.

What makes you a “true fan” of a team? Is it your loyalty? Is it your tattoo? Is it your positivity? What about your negativity? Do you go to most of the home games? Do you travel to see your favorite team play on the road? Have you been cheering for the same team since you were 5?

In my mind “true fan” can be defined in countless numbers of ways and all of the above scenarios can realistically come in to play. A “true fan” lives and dies with their team, whether they’re winning or losing. You still go to games and follow their every move. A “true fan” is positive, but is also realistic and knows when his/her team isn’t good and can say it. Yes, it’s great to be positive about your team and to talk them up, but seriously when your team is the worst team in baseball it’s OK to be negative.

Confession time, I have been known to poke fun at the Houston Nine on Twitter quite often. I’ve said they look like little leaguers (they do at times), I’ve called out certain ballplayers for their strikeouts and lack of batting (I’m looking at you Jordan Schafer), and I joke about their fielding when errors are made. Seriously, they’re in the big leagues they shouldn’t be running into each other on the field, but all kidding aside I’m still at most every home game (I missed 10) and I still hope that they win, or play well, every night. Does my poking fun make me less of a fan? I don’t think so.

Another question that has been raised is what the proper etiquette should be if a player follows you, the fan, on Twitter. Twitter is an amazing social media tool that I think all ballplayers should be a part of. I think it’s an outstanding way to stay connected and to interact with fans. Ballplayers are big boys and they should be able to handle criticism and negativity. If they can’t, well they shouldn’t be on Twitter.

As fans I think it’s important to support your team in the good times and the bad. Obviously you want your team to win, but when they’re losing you don’t just give up and stop root root rooting. As fans I also think it’s important to support your fellow fan. Who are we to judge what makes someone a “good” fan or a “bad” fan. We’re all cheering for the same team and hoping that they do well and in the end that’s fan enough for me!

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!

That’s right, boys and girls, with a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night, the Houston Astros have clinched the number one pick in the 2013 MLB First Year Player Draft for the second straight year. Once again, the focus of this club is rebuilding and replenishing the farm system to build a winning club for the future….so this should help.

In the meantime, those of us following the big club are learning to follow the minors to see what sort of talent we’re likely to see in the coming years.

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.

MLB AtBat on your phone or iPad is a baseball season MUST!

Everyone has a different way of preparing for another season of baseball. Some people read blogs and watch Spring Training games. I do that, I swear, but I have a list of things that prepare me for the regular season that are perhaps a little different that the average fan’s list. Wanna know what I need before that first pitch.

1. The Tearing of the Tickets- One of my favorite things that gets me in the mood for the regular season is the tradition of sitting around my mother’s kitchen table with her and the weeone and tearing apart our sheets of season tickets. Now, if you’re not a season ticket holder, you’d skip this step, but I challenge you to find someone who will let you help, because there is something so ridiculously satisfying about separating the tickets and seeing how much baseball is really ahead of you.
2. The New Ballpark Bag- I buy a new bag every year that is just for the ballpark. It’s always made of a material that can’t be ruined by spilled beer, that I can easily clean chili and mustard off of and can hold all of the essentials I take to the ballpark – phone, iPad, scorebook, extra pencils, camera and wallet. It’s a tradition I love.
3. The Learning of the New Roster- I like being able to tell who a player is by the way they throw or their stance at the plate, but with all of the changes and new players in Houston over the last year that’s become a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, I spend a little time before Opening Day familiarizing myself with the depth chart and new players’ numbers. I like to know who I’m watching when I’m at a game.
4. The Downloading of MLB AtBat – I really do this by the start of Spring Training, but if you only follow the regular season and not ST, this should be on your list. AtBat is great for a variety of reasons, but one that I like is that I can listen to the game, while at the game, while watching Gameday of the game. If I don’t understand a call, it’s right there on the screen, explained for me. When I wonder how old a player is or what college they went to? Right there in my hand. It’s stocked with more information than you could imagine. Plus, many ballparks have a concession ordering feature on it now that allows you to order on your phone then pick up your order in a special line at the counter, shortening your “away from the game” time. Lovely.
5. The Mental Preparation – I am an Astros fan. In recent years, that means being ready to watch some bad baseball and accept loss as a regular thing. It may not be that way forever, though. This year, my focus will be on watching the development of the young players. The may lose a lot of games, but if I see progress and individuals whose performance is a stand out, that means that the Houston Astros are headed in the right direction.

So that’s about all I do to get ready for baseball. What do you do? Do you need to be following more Astros on twitter? If so, check out this list of Astros related twitter handles!

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.

With the Astros celebrating the 50th season of baseball in Houston this year part of the plan is Flashback Fridays where the team wears uniforms of previous Astros incarnations. There’s been debate about whether the Astros would have a pistol on the Colt .45′s uni.

I shared my opinion of that a while back, but basically, I’m not a fan of revisionist history and think it should be the actual jersey, not a cloroxed, politically correct version, especially when MLB sells merchandise with the original logo and didn’t mind profiting from it.

Well, it seems that MLB has gone back on their decision and has put it in the hands of the ball club. In a press release today the Astros had this to say:

Over the past few months, the club has been in discussion with Major League Baseball (MLB) about whether to wear the authentic Colt .45s jersey.  The original logo features the Colts name and a pistol.  The alternative jersey would only have the Colts name on the front of the jersey. This week, MLB informed the Astros that the decision would be left to the ballclub.  The Astros organization continues to value fan input, therefore the Astros have been reaching out to fans the past week to get their opinion on this issue.

Our fans have expressed overwhelming passion and support for the Astros and our rich 50-year tradition. We plan to announce our decision tomorrow, Friday, March 9.

So now we sit and wait. Based on my twitter timeline and those of you I’ve spoken with, the overwhelming fan sentiment is that the team should wear the original jerseys with the pistol as a part of the logo. Tune in tomorrow and we’ll see what happens…

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.

Perhaps now Ed Wade needs to HAVE a Fairy Godmother more than he needs to BE a Fairy Godmother.

Word on the street is that the new owner of the Houston Astros, Jim Crane, will be sitting down in the coming days (perhaps tomorrow) with General Manager, Ed Wade, to have a little fireside chat. I suddenly have an overwhelming desire to break into the offices at Minute Maid Park and disguise myself as a rubber tree plant sitting in an unnoticed corner. What I wouldn’t give to be in that meeting!

I would imagine the conversation will go something like this:

Crane: So, Ed, this team sucks even more now than when I originally put this deal in place.

Wade: Well, Jim, my hands have been tied. I haven’t had the financial resources that a club like this needs in order to put a winning team on the field and the Phillies were only willing to give me so much for my trade possibilities.

Crane: Guess what? You’re not going to have any additional financial resources now. Money going out cannot be more than money coming in. I’m a businessman, Ed.

Wade: I’m a baseball man, Jim, and perhaps that’s why we don’t see eye to eye on how to go about this rebuild.

Crane: Okay, then go find a team that sees things your way and I’ll find someone to be the GM of the Astros that sees things mine.

*Ed Wade leaves Minute Maid Park and the scene fades to black*

Did you like that little dream sequence of mine? Now before you think I’m all anti-Ed Wade, I’m not. He’s done some great things in Houston and I firmly believe that when this team is good again, we will see his fingerprints on that team. However, he hasn’t done enough. He abandoned the farm system and let it get raped of talent without replenishing until this past year.

Ed Wade is not the right guy at the right time. It’s time to put a fresh face on certain spots in the Houston Astros front office and the GM role is one of them.

Who else do I think will go? I can’t imagine that Bobby Heck will be around that much longer. It’s hard to justify keeping a Head of Scouting that managed to put together the absolute worst farm system in baseball. We’d all love to think we can be really bad at our jobs and still keep them, but generally, that’s not the way the real world works.

Tal Smith is polishing his resume up a bit now as well, I’d suppose. Although I really don’t care if he stays or goes, I’d really like that darn hill in center field that’s named for him to get flattened out. I’m a bit tired of MMP being the putt-putt golf course of Major League Baseball.

There’s a long line of people that would like to see Pam Gardner gone, but alas, with Crane’s EEOC problems, the likelihood of him firing a woman from the front office isn’t that high. So, sadly we may have to listen to them play “Sweet Caroline” the next time the BoSox are in town, *sigh*, although I AM in favor of serving lobster rolls.

Of course, Mr. Crane could fire Pam Gardner if he brought in a woman GM. Hey Kim Ng….watcha’ doing for the 2012 season? Houston could use your stellar baseball wisdom.

We’ve all been waiting and watching and reading and speculating not just on whether Jim Crane gets approved as the new owner for the Houston Astros (which seems imminent now), but whether or not he’ll agree to move the team to the American League.

Fans are in a frenzy more so about the AL move than the ownership change. My timeline on twitter in recent weeks has been filled with #SaveOurStros and #DefendHouston – fans cyber-protesting the idea of tossing 50 years of National League heritage to move the team to the American League.

As we’ve heard reports of Jim Crane meeting with Bud Selig in recent weeks, the idea of Crane being approved as the new owner seems set in stone, but the move to the AL is one that fans were mostly hoping could be avoided. Now a report from the NY Post has everyone thinking the move to the AL is all but certain.

Sources told The Post that Crane — who reached a deal in May to buy the Astros from Drayton McLane for $680 million — is asking for a price reduction in the $50 million range to make the move.

On that front, the two sides are in the “ballpark” on the price, although a deal is far from certain, sources said.

Now what? Now we continue to sit and wait. The MLB owner’s will likely vote on Jim Crane as the next owner of the Houston Astros during their meeting November 15-16th (they need 75% of owners to vote “yay” for Crane to be handed a rose) and I would imagine that he’ll be approved and an announcement of the move to the AL will follow soon after.

The problem with all of this? Getting the Astros fan base to swallow it. It’s no secret that there’s opposition among Houstonians. You can google just about any Astros blog at this point and find polls showing that fans don’t want to move. After a historic 106 loss season the fan base had already been cut in large numbers. The big looming question though is will the remaining fans follow the team regardless of the move?

Some in Houston have said they’ll no longer support the team if the Astros move to the AL. There are those who say they’ll find a new NL team and other who say they’ll cheer for the Rangers. I don’t get that, because if you’ve read this blog before you know I believe fandom is fandom for life, so no matter how bad the Astros are and no matter what division or league they play in, you can count on me cheering for them.

So, Jim Crane, you may have yourself a major league baseball team soon and you may even get $50 million dollars off the price to move them to the American League, but I’m wondering, other than me, will you have any fans?

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured 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 ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

So, another series, another chance to finally win one, another time coming up short. It’s not that the Astros are botching entire games, they aren’t, but at some point in most games, the wheels just completely fall off.

Prime example? Last night’s sixth inning. Yep, that inning that lasted about 3 days? That one where the Cards scored 9 runs…it was painful. Up until that point, and really the whole game, the Astros had been hitting pretty well, even Lee managed a double last night. Wallace was on fire as he has been of late. But the pitching? The pitching just downright stunk.

It’s not a secret that I’m not a fan of Figueroa as a starter, but he actually managed to give up only 2 walks and no hits or runs through 3 with some help from the defense. But in the 6th, he just imploded allowing 3 straight hits and 2 runs. Mills tosses Abad into the game whose first batter, Berkman, hits a 3 run homer. It just went downhill from there. Fulchino then replaced Abad allowing 4 hits and 4 runs before Del Rosario came in to replace him. Finally a third out put everyone out of their misery.

Now, the bullpen hasn’t had a night like this yet, really. Overall they’ve been pretty dependable, but with the starters not lasting, the team’s been relying on the bullpen a little too heavily. The wear and tear of that strategy showed itself loud and clear last night. This team, even without power hitters doing much can get guys on base. They’re even moving around the bases fairly well, but what they need desperately is better pitching. If I could, I’d shout it from the rooftops.

Was there a bright spot? Absolutely. In fact there were a couple. First, hitting. The Astros aren’t hitting a lot of long balls, but the whole lineup, with only a couple of exceptions, is hitting pretty consistently. And Brett Wallace…oh BDub….he’s on quite a streak. He’s now hitting .373 and although they’re not flying out of the park, he is producing his fair shar of doubles (9 to date).

Defensively, the team fought hard. In game 2 of this series they managed to turn an amazing five, yes 5, double plays. No one can accuse them of rolling over and giving up. Speaking of not giving up, I think they’re starting to gain some confidence, even with the losses. They’re learning that they have the ability to battle back and they’re doing it…just not quite soon enough to win many games.

So, they’ll welcome the Brewers to town tonight for 3 games and we’ll get a chance to see the first 3 starting pitchers take the mound. Hopefully, they can take the lessons learned over the past week and put them to good use.

Finally, Clint Barmes is coming back to Htown, while we wave goodbye to Joe Inglett who we’ll have to wait and see if after he clears waivers will end up at AAA OKC or be released or traded.

I’ll be cheering on the boys from section 208 tonight and Sunday as will the weeone- and she seems to bit a bit of a good luck charm for the Astros, so let’s hope that holds!

I think I’ve been chanting since opening day “pit-ching, pit-ching, pit-ching”. Well, last night at Minute Maid Park, Brett Myers led the Astros with fantastic pitching and the lineup responded to his lead by hitting a season tying high 16 hits to beat the Chicago Cubs 11-2. With this win the Astros now stand at 3-8 for the season.

So What Went Right? Everything!

First, there was Myers who pitched 7 innings allowing 8 hits and only 1 run (a homerun by Colvin). His ERA on the season is now a remarkable 1.77. This is the kind of pitching the Astros need more of! It’s worth noting that that Astros pitchers have been hitting remarkably well and Myers is no exception to that trend. He currently has the highest batting average on the team – .429!

Second, the hitting was outstanding. Where do I even begin? With runners in scoring position the ‘Stros went 9-20 last night, a definite improvement. In the first 2 innings the Astros had 7 hits and 5 runs. They added 2 more runs in the fourth and another 4 in the sixth. The top of the batting order was beyond impressive with Bourn going 2-5 with 4 runs and 1 RBI. He also added 2 more to his stolen base count for the season taking him to 4. Sanchez was an amazing 4-5 with 2 runs, and 2 RBIs and Pence went 3-5 with 1 run and an impressive 4 RBIs, 2 of which were with 2 outs on the board. We expect impressive hitting from those three and they certainly delivered what we’ve been praying to see.

Where we don’t expect amazing hitting but we saw it last night was from our Catcher. Yep, you read that right – Quintero hit 3-5 last night scoring 2 runs. Of those 3 hits, 1 was a double and the other a triple. That’s not something you see every game!

Oh what a night! If only the starting pitchers could all be like Myers. If only the lineup’s bats were always as lively as last night. There are a lot of “if only”s from last night that I’d like to apply to the whole season, but that’s not the way it works. This team’s got to find some footing and it looks like perhaps they are beginning to do just that. A few more nights like last night and they might just surprise us.

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.