Fanhouse MLB Blog - houston

Three Pitchers Get Their First Career Hit in the Same Game

Pat Lackey — 2008-07-07T23:28:00 00:00

Filed under: Houston, Astros, Pirates, NL Central, Pittsburgh, The Word

When I sat down tonight to watch the Pirates and Astros, I didn't really think I'd be seeing anything all that special. The Pirates and 'Stros are tied for last in the NL Central, after all, and both teams have been pretty frigid of late. When Phil Dumatrait picked up an RBI single in the first, the announcers mentioned it was his first career hit. Then i the in the fourth, Runelvys Hernandez laid down a bunt into noman's land and scored a run. Again, the announcers noted it was his first career hit. That seemed mildly more interesting. In the bottom of the fourth, Denny Bautista came to the plate. Yep, RBI single, first career hit. Now that's odd.

Now, I'm only a baseball historian on Sunday afternoons after three beers, but it strikes me as incredibly rare that three pitchers all managed to pick up their first career hits and have them all be RBI singles in the same game. I'm sure it's happened before, but probably not all that often. I guess it's not all that surprising that it happened in a game where the starters combined to give up 17 runs, but I'm still impressed.

In case you'd forgotten, Runelvys Hernandez is the guy that kicked off the whole Shawn Chacon saga by taking Chacon's spot in the Astros rotation. Tonight he managed to actually give up ten runs (including two RBI singles to pitchers that had no career hits coming into the night), which is pretty rare for a starter. I imagine Shawn Chacon's looking in a mirror somewhere and feeling pretty good about himself.

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All-Star Grievances: The NL Central

Pat Lackey — 2008-07-06T15:47:00 00:00

by Pat Lackey

Filed under: Chicago, Houston, Cubs, Reds, Astros, Pirates, NL Central, MLB All-Star Game, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh

Maybe the All-Star Game is a meaningless to the players and just an excuse for Bud Selig to admire himself for a week. That doesn't mean that the selections should be stupid. Today, the MLB 'Haus gives you All-Star Grievances.

Grievance: Nate McLouth over Jason Bay- It's not that McLouth isn't a deserving All-Star, because he is. The problem is that he's mired in a terrible slump, putting up a .209/.258/.355 line with two homers over the last month or so (prior to today's game). There's a decent chance that by the end of the year, McLouth will have faded completely. Still, he made the team over Jason Bay, who's already a two-time All-Star and is slugging along like he has every year of his career besides an injury-filled 2007. It should take more than a flash in the pan to make an All-Star team.

Grievance: Miguel Tejada? Really?- After a down year in Baltimore last year, Tejada got off to a decent start this year. That's all quickly gone to hell, as he's hitting .198 since May 30th. Tejada's not an All-Star, he's a guy in the twilight of his career that Ed Wade is going to regret trading for by the end of the season.

Grievance: Adam Dunn isn't even a snub- I get that Dunn's only hitting .228. Aren't we to the point of enlightened fanhood that people can look beyond that and realize that his .895 OPS makes him a snub?

Grievance: Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome are starters- Fan voting is stupid and unreliable. We say that every year. This year, these two are the reason.

Other snubs: Carlos Lee (unless he wins the final vote but let's be honest, dude's got no chance against David Wright).

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Did Ed Wade Bring Shawn Chacon's Wrath Upon Himself?

Matt Watson — 2008-07-03T19:35:00 00:00

by Matt Watson

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

Shawn Chacon was wrong to attack Ed Wade last week. I know it, you know it, and -- now that he's been released -- Chacon knows it. But does that absolve Wade's role in the altercation?

Wade has remained tight-lipped about the incident, but hearing Chacon's side of the story doesn't paint the general manager in a very positive light. Wade approached Chacon in the clubhouse and requested a private meeting. Chacon declined, saying they could talk right there. That's when Chacon says Wade began "yelling and cussing." As Bill McCurdy of the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame told Bloomberg News, that's also what guaranteed that this exchange would not end well.

``You treat a grown man like that in front of his peers and something's going to happen, but it's not going to be good,'' McCurdy said. ``There's no way for him to suddenly get up, if Wade raises his voice at him, and slump silently away to the office like he's being sent to the principal.''

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JR Towles Is Back in Houston

Pat Lackey — 2008-07-03T11:56:00 00:00

by Pat Lackey

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

It's been quite a first half for JR Towles. He opened the season with the Astros, billed as one of the best catching prospects in the majors. For all of April and May, he hit like a cheap version of Brad Ausmus and earned himself a demotion to AAA. In AAA, he mashed to a .278/.380/.574 line, with eight of his 17 hits going for extra bases. Now he's back in Houston after Humberto Quintero went on the DL with a concussion. From the Houston Chronicle:

"Reality is reality," he said. "I wasn't doing very well. Certainly, I was disappointed and frustrated. But I realized I wasn't helping the team. They felt the need to send me back down to get things back straight. I feel good. I'm here to take advantage of the opportunity."

[...]

"I've made some adjustments, and hopefully things will go well," he said.

With the Astros badly sliding right now and sitting 11 games out of first place, they're going to be better served playing Towles than Quintero, concussion or no concussion. Towles and Hunter Pence represent just about the only young talent that Ed Wade has to build around, so they might as well figure out if Towles is the real deal as soon as they can.

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Shawn Chacon Clears Waivers, Free to Choke Other General Managers

Matt Watson — 2008-07-01T15:55:00 00:00

by Matt Watson

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central, MLB Transactions

In what has to be the early leader in the "least surprising news of the week" award, nobody wanted to trade for GM-choke-slammer Shawn Chacon. He officially cleared waivers yesterday afternoon, meaning he's free to sign with any other franchise who thinks his mediocre pitching is worth the hit to the team's image and/or GM's face.

(I don't know about you, but I'm hoping the White Sox show interest, just so we can see what happens when Chacon disagrees with strength and conditioning coach [and former professional wrestler] Dale "The Demon" Torborg. But I digress ...)

Big league contracts are guaranteed, but the way the Astros see it, choke-slamming your boss is grounds for breach of contract, so they've decided not to pay Chacon the rest of his salary. Considering he's still owed nearly a million dollars, Chacon went running to the players association, which officially filed a greivance today.

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What Happens to Shawn Chacon Now?

Pat Lackey — 2008-06-26T16:00:00 00:00

by Pat Lackey

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

With a good 16 hours to digest the insane idea that a baseball player choke-slammed his general manager yesterday, there's still a ton of lingering questions. I mean, Shawn Chacon nicely admitted to the act, which is a surprise in this day an age, but now what? Chacon's "indefinitely suspended," but what does that really mean? Let's run down some of the options and how likely they are.

Chacon will pitch again this year for the Astros: Uhh, this isn't going to happen. I'm not going to say I'd eat my hat if Chacon pitches for the 'Stros again this year (I just bought my hat and hats taste bad). Let me put it this way: Barry Bonds will play for the Astros this year before Shawn Chacon does. You just don't keep players that do stuff like this on your team.

Chacon will pitch for someone else this year: Slightly more likely, but I don't think the odds are great here, either. For Chacon to pitch for another team, someone would either have to trade for the GM-choker, or the Astros would have to release him. We'll rule a trade out since Chacon already kind of sucks and he just destroyed any value he might have on the trade market. If I'm Ed Wade, I think I'm kind of content to keep him suspended and not pitching for anyone this year since I'm paying him either way. It might be a little vindictive, but Chacon's earned it.

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The Dugout: AAAAAHTHECHOKESLAM

B. Thompson Stroud — 2008-06-26T00:53:00 00:00

by B. Thompson Stroud

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central, Pro Wrestling, The Dugout

Here we see Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon using his secondary finisher, the Western Lariat, to finish off Dodger Russell Martin back in May. Who knew that the guy was a big enough star to get put into an abusive authority figure storyline?

B gets a gift from a God concerned with him having good material and Ed Wade takes a SICK BUMP~! as MLB becomes DVDR in today's Dugout, after the jump.

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Shawn Chacon Suspended for Choke Slamming Ed Wade

Pat Lackey — 2008-06-25T23:10:00 00:00

by Pat Lackey

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

Last week the Astros demoted Shawn Chacon from their rotation and he intimated that he wasn't very happy with the move. That's understandable. No one really wants to be demoted. Still, most people find a way to take something like that in stride and move on with their lives. Shawn Chacon is not most people. He confronted GM Ed Wade today and the incident ended with Chacon grabbing Wade around the neck and driving him into the ground. Seriously. The Houston Chronicle has Chacon's version of the events:

"He started yelling and cussing," Chacon said of Wade. "I'm sitting there and I said to him very calmly, 'Ed, you need to stop yelling me. Then I stood up and said 'you better stop yelling at me.' I stood up. He continued and was basically yelling and stuff and was like, 'You need to (expletive) look in the mirror.' So at that point I lost my cool and I grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground. I jumped on top of him because at that point I wanted to beat his (butt). Words were exchanged."

I love how cooly Chacon admits that he chokeslammed his GM. He claims that Wade started the whole thing by swearing at him when he refused to go into Cecil Cooper's office to meet with Cooper and Wade to presumably discuss his anger at being demoted to the pen. But still ... pretty unacceptable behavior from Chacon. He's suspended indefinitely and he probably won't pitch for the Astros again. That's just me hazarding a guess, but I feel pretty confident with that one.

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Shawn Chacon Is Going to the Bullpen, and He's Not Happy About It

Pat Lackey — 2008-06-22T17:03:00 00:00

by Pat Lackey

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

Having had the pleasure (that's not really the right word) of seeing Shawn Chacon pitch over the past two seasons in Pittsburgh, I was kind of surprised when the Astros signed him this off-season and decided to put him in the rotation. In the past few years, Chacon has been awful as a starter and fairly passable as a reliever. Unsurprisingly, he's been pretty bad and he's going back to the pen. That doesn't mean he's happy about it, though. From the Houston Chronicle:

"I think it's horse (expletive)," Chacon said. "That's pretty much how I feel about it. Sums it up."
[...]
"I didn't expect him to be totally happy because he came here because he had a chance to start," Cooper said. "I'm not concerned that he's unhappy because I think he'll do whatever he needs to get it done."

Nice to know Cecil Cooper is concerned about his players. The most hurtful part of the whole thing for Chacon? He's losing his rotation spot to Runelvys Hernandez. Did you know Runelvys Hernandez was still in baseball? He hasn't pitched in the bigs since 2006, hasn't been relevant since 2003, and washed out of minor league stints with the Pirates, Red Sox, and Yankees last year before getting his stuff together in AAA Round Rock in '08. Losing a rotation spot to him? That stings.

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The Astros Finally Win One

Pat Lackey — 2008-06-21T13:40:00 00:00

by Pat Lackey

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

At the end of May the Houston Astros were holding steady at around seven games over .500, only a game behind the Cubs in the NL Central. That was in spite of pre-season doom and gloom prognostications from just about everyone. Last night they were celebrating like Little Leaguers in the clubhouse over one measly win, albeit one that broke a seven game losing streak:

"It's nice to hear loud voices in the clubhouse, it's nice to smile for crying out loud," reliever Doug Brocail said. "It's just one of those things. The load was so heavy."

Honestly, that quote from Brocail is one of the saddest I've heard from an athlete. Even with the win, the Astros are still 4-12 in June and much closer to the last place Reds (a half game) than the first place Cubs (12 games).

The good news from last night's win? The 'Stros finally got a decent start out of Roy Oswalt, who's struggled all year. He went seven and two-thirds and limited the Rays to just two runs on seven hits with five strikeouts to pick up his sixth win of the year. If there's any chance the Astros are going to right the ship, they're going to need Oswalt to get it done.

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Ed Wade Will Have None of Your Rebuilding

Pat Lackey — 2008-06-18T11:47:00 00:00

by Pat Lackey

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

There was lots of groaning when the Astros hired Ed Wade last winter. His reputation for favoring veterans and building teams that were decent but never great or even really that goo, built over half a decade in Philadelphia, preceded him into Houston. His quick assemblage of veterans started the season well, but have since fallen off and people are asking him about his plans for the team. This is what he told Steve Campbell of the Houston Chronicle:

"I'm not interested in rebuilding," Wade has been saying since he replaced Tim Purpura as the general manager. "I'm not an advocate of that school of thought in any way, shape or form at this point."

Wade's two-pronged plan calls for building at the big-league level around the current nucleus. Off the radar, Astros scouts have the daunting mission of restocking a farm system that looks like one of the Dust Bowl scenes in The Grapes of Wrath.

Let me tell you something: this never works. When a team is as bad off as the Astros is right now the choices are pretty straightforward. Either the front office attempts to sign big ticket free agents and hope that they luck into a contender or they scrap everything and start rebuilding from the bottom up. Trying to compete with an old nucleus and rebuild the minors at the same time can only end poorly for the Astros. But hey, they should've known what they were getting when they hired Wade.

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Miguel Tejada Leads National League Shortstops in All-Star Balloting

Pat Lackey — 2008-06-10T20:10:00 00:00

by Pat Lackey

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central, NL West, MLB All-Star Game

Generally, All-Star balloting is an exercise in popularity and futility. Ken Griffey Jr. leads all three of the Pirates' outfielders in voting right now, despite the fact that the Pirates have the best outfield in the NL right now (I'm being serious, look it up). Sometimes, however, the balloting provides an interesting window into the psyche of baseball fans. Case in point: if the All-Star Game were tomorrow, Miguel Tejada would be starting at shortstop for the National League.

I'm trying, but I can't even begin to wrap my brain around this. This off-season Tejada was named in the Mitchell Report and was revealed to be two years older than everyone thought, and was basically made a whipping boy for whatever seemed to be wrong with baseball in any given week. Still, he's leading the National League in All-Star balloting, despite the fact that he's not even having that great of a year.

Clearly, no one cares that Tejada took steroids, lied to federal investigators about that, and lied to all three of the teams that he's played for about his age. Being a good guy isn't a prerequisite for All-Stars and by all accounts, Tejada is a good guy despite all of the things I've listed above. It's time to stop harping on steroids, because it's obvious that the fans don't care anymore (unless we're talking about Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens).

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Astros Players Campaign for Sidney Ponson

Matt Watson — 2008-06-09T18:50:00 00:00

by Matt Watson

Filed under: Dallas, Houston, Rangers, Astros, AL West, NL Central, MLB Rumors

Good pitching is hard to come by these days -- and if you're the Rangers, merely adequate pitching is just as rare. Nevertheless, GM Jon Daniels considered Sidney Ponson such a distraction that not even Ponson's 3.88 ERA could save him from being released. That should set off a few red flags, no? Apparently not in Houston. From Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle:

[A] few Astros players asked me to strongly encourage the Astros to sign Ponson. I don't usually like to do the players' bidding, but heck, I need a blog entry. So here we go.

"We need that guy," one friend of Ponson's said. "We could use him. He's a good teammate."

Would you mind if the Astros signed Ponson? Keep in mind that he must have really, really screwed up for the Rangers to designate him for assignment. [...] But if Ed Wade or Drayton McLane or Cecil Cooper polled their clubhouse, they'd find some guys who would offer huge endorsements for Ponson as a player, a competitor and even as a person.

Yes, that's right: "Ponson" and "good teammate" were used in the same sentence, and apparently not in an ironic manner. Is he worth the risk?

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Astros Demote JR Towles to AAA

Pat Lackey — 2008-06-06T14:25:00 00:00

by Pat Lackey

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

Starting this year, the age of no-hit, good-D catchers in Houston was supposed to come crashing to an end. After seven years of Brad Ausmus and his career OPS+ of 7, JR Towles was supposed to arrive and provide Houston with a bat to go with great defense behind the plate. Towles is instead hitting .145/.270/.282 (for an OPS+ of 46) and that's earned him a demotion back to AAA Round Rock. At least he's taking it in stride:

"Since I wasn't playing the last couple of days, I figured it was coming," Towles said. "I guess I wasn't too surprised. I'm not happy about it, but I'm going to work hard to get back up here."
[...]
"Maybe I was thinking too much," he said. "I was trying to get things figured out and people were saying, 'Do this; do that.' I was trying everything. I think I needed to go back to the basics and work things out."

Towles cruised through the minors with a .301/.389/.471 line, showing that he's got a good approach at the plate to go with his hitting talent. It seemed like he was just over his head as a 23-year old dealing with learning a pitching staff and hitting major league pitching at the same time. It shouldn't take him long to straighten himself out in AAA and be back in Houston, though.

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Cecil Cooper Thinks Bunt Singles Are Better Than Home Runs

Pat Lackey — 2008-06-01T23:52:00 00:00

by Pat Lackey

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

When it comes to managers, I'm a fairly generous guy that will give skippers a chance to prove themselves before burying them under an avalanche of invective. Generally, though, all managers fall into the typical baseball cliches that drive people like me (read: nerd bloggers) insane. Cecil Cooper's been on the job for nearly a year when you count his time as the interim guy last year, but he's finally pushed the buttons. When asked about Lance Berkman's bunt single on Saturday night, here's what Coop had to say:

"That's a good play," Cooper said of Berkman's decision to bunt with the third baseman playing him deep. "That's a baseball player's play. It's a nice job. We need baserunners. If you hit a ball out of a ballpark, I call them rally-killers when you get down like that. We need to keep a rally going, and that was a nice play to me."

Question: When you are down by four runs, what do you need? Answer: Four runs. Question: What does a two run home run get you that a bunt single doesn't? Answer: Two runs, and thus, two runs closer to tying the game up if you're down by four. But somehow, that home run kills the rally, while the bunt single kept it going. The Astros lost the game 5-1. Cecil Cooper is crazy.

Via the predictably incredulous Fire Joe Morgan.

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JR Towles Isn't Bothered By His Slow Start

Pat Lackey — 2008-06-01T21:50:00 00:00

by Pat Lackey

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

Jay Bruce isn't the only major prospect playing in the National League Central this year. Before the season started, JR Towles was ranked by everyone as one of the best catching prospects in baseball, set to end the Astros' years of Brad Aumsus-induced offensive ineptitude at the position. Unfortunately, he's off to an Ausmus-like start, hitting only .149/.276/.289 before Sunday's game. Still, he says he's not that worried about his ugly start.

"Definitely, my hitting is struggling a little bit right now," Towles said. "There's no way of hiding that. But the one thing I can do is do well behind the plate and not let my hitting affect my defense.

"One thing I take pride in is doing well behind the plate. I'd rather, like I've said before, do extremely well behind the plate than go 4-for-4 at the plate. Any time I can help those pitchers out in any way, it makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I've had a job well done."

It's true that much of a catcher's work is behind the plate, rather than at it, but I think that most pitchers would like to see a 4-for-4 night from their catcher and the resulting run support and might even sacrifice some of the behind the plate stuff for that kind of offense.

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On Deck: Who is Ryan Ludwick?

Mullet — 2008-05-24T10:00:00 00:00

by Mullet

Filed under: Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Oakland, Philadelphia, Red Sox, Athletics, Phillies, Astros, Cardinals, Dodgers, St. Louis

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

St. Louis Cardinals (29-21) at Los Angeles Dodgers (25-22) - 10:10 PM ET

The consensus this season had the St. Louis Cardinals to stink, and stink mightily. Wrong again, America. You want a reason for the renaissance of the Cardinals? Look no further than Ryan Ludwick. The outfielder has some Pujolsian splits this season (.336/.418/.733 going into Friday night), and has sprinkled in some big hits including a walk-off HR against Tampa Bay, and a two run HR to provide the margin of victory last night against the Dodgers (a game interrupted by rain in Los Angeles, if you can believe that one). Want another reason? Ryan Franklin taking over ably for the injured Jason Isringhausen is another reason St. Louis is near the top of the standings.

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Lance Berkman Is Big Puma

Eamonn Brennan — 2008-05-20T16:20:00 00:00

by Eamonn Brennan

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

Lance Berkman's Big Puma moniker isn't exactly new -- it was started by Berkman, Lance Zierlein and John Gramato on a Houston-area radio show all the way back in 2006. Still, as Berkman is off to the hottest start of his career, it's probably time for the name to gain a new national audience. It is just that perfect.

How did it come about? People used to refer to Berkman as "Fat Elvis," but on the radio show Berkman insisted he was "... more like a puma so I'm not sure why people call me Fat Elvis." Big Puma was born.

Now Berkman has taken the next step toward national, and even international, moniker stardom: He is the recipient of a song dedicated to the Puma. That's pretty cool. Sure, the song sounds like a weird mix of corporate, Christian, and psychedelic rock -- or like if the Barenaked Ladies were even lamer -- but hey, how many of us are the impetus for songwriting? Very few. And no, that poem your emo kid friend wrote about you does not count.

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On Deck: Catching Up With an Old Friend

Mullet — 2008-05-17T10:00:00 00:00

by Mullet

Filed under: Atlanta, Cleveland, Houston, New York, Oakland, Yankees, Indians, Athletics, Rangers, Braves, Mets, Reds, Astros, Cincinnati

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Oakland Athletics (23-19) at Atlanta Braves (20-20) - 7:10 PM ET

It's probably safe to say that out of the former "Big Three" in Oakland, Tim Hudson has been the most successful of the bunch since leaving the nest after the 2004 season. Four seasons later, Hudson faces his former club for the first time (the two teams played a three game set in '05 but Hudson did not make an appearance). A lot of Hudson's old teammates from his last season in Oakland are gone, but his mound opponent for today, Rich Harden, is still around. And Harden was hoping he'd match up against him. Harden is probably also hoping that he makes it through the game intact.

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Roger Clemens Isn't Ready to Retire Yet

Josh Alper — 2008-05-16T10:30:00 00:00

by Josh Alper

Filed under: Houston, Astros, NL Central

Despite a myriad of other things going on in his life, Roger Clemens isn't ready to hang up his spikes just yet. That's the word out of Houston where Astros owner Drayton McLane said he spoke to the Rocket.

Clemens gave him no indication that he's ready to activate the personal services contract he has with the team, which kicks in upon his official retirement from active play. McLane said Clemens is waiting for his legal troubles to clear up before making up his mind which should mean we'll get word sometime before the Presidential Election. The 2012 Election, that is.

McLane also said his team hasn't ruled out bringing Clemens back to their rotation.

"Would we? We're not even ready to think about that yet. We've got to wait and see what happens. Right now we're not focusing on it at all. We're just going to have to go further down the road and see what unfolds. There are lots of issues out there."

What issues? Why a team would even entertain signing a 46-year old who was no better than average in 2007 is beyond me to begin with but when you throw in the circus that Clemens brings with him these days it borders on the insane. Unlike Barry Bonds, who has the same circus, Clemens isn't worth enough as a player to make up for the rest of the package.

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