Houston Astros

Contributor: Lisa Gray, mvn.com/mlb-astros

2007 Record: 73-89

2007 Summary: The Astros' 2007 season was centered on Craig Biggio's endlessly promoted march to 3000 hits farewell tour, not on winning.

The now departed GM, Tim Purpura (probably following the instructions of the owner) signed free agents Carlos Lee and Woody Williams. Because of this, the Astros lost their first 2 draft picks; also, Purpura was unable to sign 4 of the next 13 picks as he had been instructed not to exceed slot prices by the owner and he apparently neither bothered to ascertain that any picks WOULD sign for slot nor made any effort to cajole them into it, thus depleting even further an already barren farm.

Also, he made virtually no effort to re-sign either Andy Pettitte or Roger Clemens (again, at the owner's direction) and so he traded away fan favorite CF Willy Taveras and young pitchers Jason Hirsh and Taylor Buchholz for Jason Jennings. These moves proved disastrous, as Williams and Jennings were 2 of the 10 worst pitchers in the NL.

Morgan Ensberg and Chris Burke, both significantly injured in 2006, did not recover their pre-injury form and Jason Lane couldn't re-capture his 2005 stroke for the second year in a row. Now departed manager Phil Garner, continuously shuffled the lineup and platooned as many players as possible at every spot except for left field and the players responded poorly to this. Lance Berkman, who couldn't find his stroke for 4 months, hit for the lowest BA, OPS and SLG of his career, Carlos Lee hit 32 homers, drove in 110, won the NL GIDP title and broke Adam Everett's leg, resulting in his replacement at short by the statue-like Mark Loretta. Ensberg was replaced at third by lead-gloves Mike Lamb and Ty Wigginton: the Astros team defense after June 14 was the second worst in the NL.

The only exciting part of the season was the 1 - emergence of center fielder Hunter Pence, the leading rookie of the year candidate until he broke his wrist in July and missed 5 weeks and 2 - the dominance of lefty pitcher Wandy Rodriguez at home: 6-3 in 15 GS with a 2.94 ERA (only 2 bad games - 12 ER over 8.1 IP).

Well, I suppose that the remains of what was left of Craig Biggio finally reaching the 3000 hits plateau, ensuring his election to the Hall of Fame, was exciting too. It would have been significantly more exciting had he proved to be the team player/good guy he promotes himself as and stepped aside to allow Chris Burke to take over second, or had at LEAST stopped insisting on playing away games or even on occupying the leadoff spot with his sub-.300 OBA.

2008 Key Additions: The Astros replaced 2B Craig Biggio with Kazuo Matsui, SS Adam Everett with Miguel Tejada, CF/RF Hunter Pence/Luke Scott with Michael Bourn/Hunter Pence, C Brad Ausmus with rookie J.R. Towles, lefty PH Orlando Palmeiro with lefty PH Darin Erstad, 4th OF Jason Lane with (most likely) Jose Cruz Jr and replaced the entire bullpen except for Dave Borkowski with Jose Valverde, Oscar Villareal and most likely candidates Doug Brocail, Geoff Geary, Chad Paronto and (probably) LOOGY Wesley Wright. Jason Jennings will be replaced by either Shawn Chacon or Chris Sampson.

2008 Key Losses: Kazuo Matsui, who has never appeared in more than 114 games in a season, will start the year on the DL. Mark Loretta will most likely replace him; he will hit MUCH better but field MUCH worse, so really, no great loss.

2008 Astros Starting Lineup:
1. Michael Bourn CF
2. Kaz Matsui/Mark Loretta 2B
3. Miguel Tejada SS
4. Lance Berkman 1B
5. Carlos Lee LF
6. Hunter Pence RF
7. Ty Wigginton 3B
8. J.R. Towles, C

2008 Astros Starting Rotation: Roy Oswalt, Brandon Backe, Wandy Rodriguez; two of the following - Shawn Chacon, Woody Williams, Chris Sampson, Jack Cassel

2008 Astros Closer: Jose Valverde

2008 MVP: Roy Oswalt or Lance Berkman. Roy is still one of the five best pitchers in the NL and Berkman, who has recaptured his swing, is one of the 5-10 best hitters in the NL.

The Astros will be successful if: for some unknown reason, Brandon Backe and Wandy Rodriguez manage to pitch like Clemens and Pettitte in 2005 AND if the #4 and 5 pitchers manage to keep their ERAs at least at league average. Also, closer Valverde has to pitch like he did in 07, not 06. In spite of the propensity of Tejada, Lee and Wigginton to ground into double plays, hopefully they will score enough runs to overcome the runs the mediocre pitchers allow as well as the runs they allow with their poor defense.

2008 Season Prediction: Because the starting pitching behind Roy Oswalt is so weak and because the bullpen is difficult to assess AND there really aren't any ML ready arms in the minors and because the bench consists of 5 banjo hitters, the Astros will be fortunate to reach .500.

Standings Prediction:
1. Milwaukee Brewers
2. Chicago Cubs
3. Cincinnati Reds
4. Houston Astros
5. St. Louis Cardinals
6. Pittsburgh Pirates