This (thankfully) hasn't had to be a topic of conversation amongst Astros fans all the frequently over the past fifteen years, but sadly this season may warrant such a question. CHONE's projected standings and power rankings have the Astros tied for last in the standings and dead last in their power rankings. Ouch babe. Now one of the teams they were tied for last with, Kansas City, goes and signs set-up man Juan Cruz. The Royals may have been better before this signing, but now they add a guy whose K/9 is a Lidgeian 12.37. CHONE sees more of the same kind of production in his future for 2009. Conservatively, this adds another win for the Royals, pushing them ahead of the Astros and Texas Rangers. The great state of Texas is making up the lower rungs of the MLB Totem pole as of right now, and that's almost painful to write.
It may be a race to the bottom of MLB for these two Texas teams this season.
0 recs | 13 comments
It'll make the Silver Boot Series much more interesting
But I just don’t know if I buy CHONE in the least. I think the Ranger’s may end up being one of the better teams in baseball this year—yes, I know that’s blasphemy to state.
Stephen Higdon - March 1, 2009
the only way to make the Silver Boot Series interesting
is to make it a fight over Nolan Ryan. Whoever wins the series gets to keep him for events.
Only_A_Lad - March 1, 2009
Good for KC,
they signed a good closer, losing a second-round draft pick and might finish with a winning record if they get lucky.
And who gives half a shit about the Rangers? Dumb fucks in Dallas had a lot of gall calling their team the “Texas” Rangers. Lotta talk for the state’s third-most popular baseball team, after the Astros and (amongst Dallas residents, from my experience) the Yankees.
Only_A_Lad - March 1, 2009
true story
I give LoneStarBall, (the Rangers blog on here) credit. They have a lot of traffic- much more than I ever would have thought for that team. From my experiences, Dallas fans will always be loyal (although pessimistic) to the Cowboys, but their affection for the Mavs and Rangers wanes as these teams are less successful. Not to say Houston fans are any different, but I think the Astros will have fans regardless of how bad they are, and since football is king in Texas, the Texans will have their fans as well. The Rockets really seem to suffer when they don’t play well.
On the subject of whether the Rangers will be good this year, I could see them being better than we are, but not by much. Kevin Millwood is playing for millions this year (he’s in an option year, or something) so perhaps he comes through with a nice season. After that though, I’d argue their 2009 rotation will be worse than ours. Their bullpen is stocked with some proven commodities..Eddie Guardado, CJ Wilson, Frank Francisco, etc. Offensively, they are head and shoulders above the Astros. If Chris Davis and Nelson Cruz can continue where they left off in 2008…look out. Still, I’m going out on a small limb and predicting the Oakland A’s will win the 2009 AL West.
Evan Hochschild - March 1, 2009
Houston fans are bandwagoners, too
(though, honestly, virtually no group of fans isn’t) But there’s a difference between jumping on the bandwagon and outright abandoning your hometown team for the competition. With the exception of the occasional Cowboy and (ugh) Titans fan in Houston, I rarely saw Houston football fans rooting for the competition, even during the worst of the Texans’ seasons. Of course, my knocks on Dallas fans are born of my own experiences, as well as my hate for the Cowboys/Mavs/that fucking city, so take them for what they are.
I see the Rangers as a more extreme version of the Astros. Just as the Astros have a (potentially, anyways) solid lineup and big concerns on the mound, the Rangers have the best offense in ball and one of the worst pitching staffs. From what I remember of last year’s UZR stats, they’re one of the worst fielding teams in baseball, too. But I know they have a few good pitching prospects in the upper levels of their system, so that may improve. They don’t have much of a chance to make the playoffs, in my mind though. The A’s have a lot of talent in their AAA club that will probably be coming up, and, when combined with an alright club to begin with, I think they’ll probably take the AL West.
Only_A_Lad - March 1, 2009
Not surprising
The Astros have a crappy pitching staff and are lousy at getting on base, the single most important aspect of offense. Unlike many others on this site, I think the only competing they’ll do this year is for the basement.
natrix964909 - March 1, 2009
I can't find fault with on your assertions...BUT
This is the exact same conversation that we engaged in last year. Yes, I know that we out performed our Pythag records by a lot, part of it was stellar defense, part of it was statistical noise, and I imagine the rest is just dumb luck.
I imagine our OBP will improve this year. I don’t think it’ll turn heads, but there should be marginal improvements from Bourn, Pence, and Tejada in the OBP department. The trade off is of course the loss of Wigginton, but he wasn’t exactly Mr. OBP and he did miss nearly a 1/3 of the season miss a bunch of time (420 PA all season). The rotation is pretty much the same, the bull pen is still strong. Assuming Roy pitches well for the full season and Wandy stays healthy (which isn’t looking very promising) we look to be a team that might see some marginal improvements.
Further, we look to be poised to see some positive contributions from our minor-leaguers and I think that Alberto Arias could be a dark horse in our rotation.
My point in all this is not to quash dissent, but simply to argue that all isn’t lost, and even if it is—is a dismal performance from a Spring Training game really the best impetus for a pronouncement of basement dwelling-itis?
Stephen Higdon - March 1, 2009
today's game is a great pythag whacker
The flip side is having Valverde for 1 and 2 run games. You’re going to win most of those.
As an aside, the Astros version of 30 teams in 30 days is on MLB network. They’ll reshow it a bunch of times in the next few days and a few times after that most likely but you might want to throw a heads up.
ol Pete - March 1, 2009
But today was a Spring Training game
Where a NRI posted 54.00 ERA…
Stephen Higdon - March 1, 2009
whow...
seriously? A fight for the bottom? both the rangers and astros have potential to be good this year. The rangers are at the most two years away from being a serious contender. I really dont think the rangers are going to be considered a bad team.
coldskeet - March 1, 2009
man, I hope so
It would be nice to get a little rivalry going, because let’s face it: there is no animosity between the Texas baseball teams. Both teams being good at the same time would let this happen.
Evan Hochschild - March 1, 2009
No way either Astros or Rangers
are going to be among the worst teams in baseball. Both have a good chance of playing .500 ball. I can’t believe either of them can be worst than the Nats, the Bucs or the Padres.
The Rangers have one of the best offenses in baseball, their defence is improving and they have a shitload of pitching on the farm. Their future looks much brighter than the Astros right now, just like the Rockets have an arguably better future than the Mavs.
jonthefon - March 1, 2009
The Mavs...
have an aging roster, but so do the Rockets (relatively). Dirk has openly talked about going to play elsewhere once his contract runs out. Jason Kidd has made them a pretty efficient offense team, but defensively they still have lapses too frequently.Devin Harris is becoming a star in NJ. Plus, the Rockets have Daryl Morey at the helm who in his tenure has traded Rafer, traded for Ron-Ron, and plucked Brooks and Landry from an area in the draft where productive players are few and far between. It is my recollection that he was GM before last year’s draft when we traded for Luis Scola too.
Evan Hochschild - March 1, 2009
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