2004 Houston Astros
Anyone who knows me can tell you that if there is one thing I can be obsessive about its baseball and more specifically the Astros. I have been a fan for as long as I can remember and never have I been more hopeful about a season than I am right now. Why am I so hopeful you ask? This is why...
Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens. Add those two to our rotation along with Wade Miller and Roy Oswalt and you have 4 potential 20 game winners heading into the season. The Astros have not had a rotation like this since the end of the 1998 season when it was Randy Johnson, Mike Hampton, Jose Lima(before he lost his mind), and Shane Reynolds. The only weakness the 'stros have going into this season is the bullpen because of the trade of Billy Wagner, which was necessary to make salary room for Andy and Roger. Dotel will fill in adequately as the closer and brad lidge should have an excellent sophomore season. The problem will come in the middle innings when the ball will have to be handed to the likes of Dan Miceli and Ricky Stone. These are not excelent ballplayers. We can only hope that most of the time our starters can work through the 7th. There is hope though. One of the young pitchers could emerge as a valuable "7th inning" guy. Most likely it will be Duckworth or Hernandez, or we can hope that Hunsicker can find some GM that is blinded by Robertson's 15 wins and will give us something worthwhile for him. Actually I would be satisfied with anything we get for him as it will eliminate the possibility that he will ever pitch for the Astros again.
So its probably pretty obvious that I will be attending a few astros games this year, and probably watching as many as possible. If you would like to join me let me know, I'm always excited to help other people realize that baseball is really the only sport worth their time.
Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens. Add those two to our rotation along with Wade Miller and Roy Oswalt and you have 4 potential 20 game winners heading into the season. The Astros have not had a rotation like this since the end of the 1998 season when it was Randy Johnson, Mike Hampton, Jose Lima(before he lost his mind), and Shane Reynolds. The only weakness the 'stros have going into this season is the bullpen because of the trade of Billy Wagner, which was necessary to make salary room for Andy and Roger. Dotel will fill in adequately as the closer and brad lidge should have an excellent sophomore season. The problem will come in the middle innings when the ball will have to be handed to the likes of Dan Miceli and Ricky Stone. These are not excelent ballplayers. We can only hope that most of the time our starters can work through the 7th. There is hope though. One of the young pitchers could emerge as a valuable "7th inning" guy. Most likely it will be Duckworth or Hernandez, or we can hope that Hunsicker can find some GM that is blinded by Robertson's 15 wins and will give us something worthwhile for him. Actually I would be satisfied with anything we get for him as it will eliminate the possibility that he will ever pitch for the Astros again.
So its probably pretty obvious that I will be attending a few astros games this year, and probably watching as many as possible. If you would like to join me let me know, I'm always excited to help other people realize that baseball is really the only sport worth their time.