Archive for the ‘Houston Astros’ Category

Astros, Marlins Look to Redefine Replacement Level

Posted by Darren Kritzer under HardBall Talkin', Houston Astros, Miami Marlins on Nov 23, 2012

The Toronto Blue Jays clearly won the 12-player blockbuster trade with the Miami Marlins. Odds makers even thinks as much, dropping their World Series odds from 100-1 just two weeks ago down to 9-1.

After the trade became official, we saw a version of what the Jays lineup will look like come opening day in 2013. But what about the Marlins lineup? Fans are upset with the fire sale, upset with Jeffrey Loria, but let’s be realistic here. The Marlins have to actually write out a lineup card on opening day against the Nationals in Washington, whether they want to or not.

What will lineup look like? Who will be the starting five?

When you actually look at the projected lineup you wonder if the team will even come close to 60 wins. Just to compare, the Houston Astros, who are in a ton of trouble this year moving to the American League West, have similiar issues with their lineup and may struggle to come close to their 55 win season of 2012.

Read the rest of this entry »

12 Comments

The Getting Blanked Podcast #70: Pay For Your Own Wedding

Posted by Drew Fairservice under Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Podcast on Sep 28, 2012

Alright! It’s the Getting Blanked podcast. While playoff fever is in the air, infecting the good people of the Beltway en masse, the fans of countless other teams attempt to pick up the pieces after lost seasons. Which is our topic today: lost seasons. Is any season that doesn’t end with Meaningful Baseball in September considered lost? Really looking forward to an existential weekend, you guys.


You can also download the mp3 directly right here.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

Getting Quoted: Every Quote A Quote Of You

Posted by Jake Goldsbie under Getting Quoted, Houston Astros on Sep 14, 2012

"What else do I have to do to let them know that me and my stupid hair are not coming back?

Oh, hey, another week of quotes. These baseball people just don’t know how to shut up, do they? Luckily, neither do I.

This week we have the Astros in denial, the McCarthys being awesome and a law I didn’t know existed.

We haven’t heard from Roger, so that’s still up in the air

I feel like Jim Crane and the Astros are kind of in denial over the whole Roger Clemens thing. He’s made it pretty clear he’s not pitching in the majors hasn’t he? I guess when you’re the Astros any press is good press. Except for all the coverage of them being terrible. That’s probably not so good.

Read the rest of this entry »

5 Comments

Everything Is More Popular Than The Astros

Posted by Dustin Parkes under HardBall Talkin', Houston Astros on Sep 10, 2012

The self-proclaimed most boring video on YouTube is a simple shot of a pylon in front of  a wooden door that lasts for four minutes and 56 seconds. It has been viewed 45,626 times since it was uploaded on October 28, 2008.

That’s almost 42 times as many views as the Houston Astros generated on average for FOX Sports Houston on Sunday afternoon during the team’s win over their division rival Cincinnati Reds. According to the Houston Chronicle’s sports media blog (a channel flip to the Chronicle’s Zachary Levine for the link), the baseball game on Sunday drew the lowest rating that has ever been measured for the Astros.

It generated – if that’s the word – a 0.05 rating, which means it was viewed by an average audience of 1,092 households. It only generated a measurable rating in four quarter-hour periods, and it was never viewed during any 15-minute period by more than 0.18 percent of the area’s 2.1 million TV households.

That means that viewership peaked at a paltry 3,780 viewers. To put that into context, individual episodes of The Getting Blanked Show have drawn higher viewership numbers than that from time to time.

Considering the transformation that the Houston Astros are undergoing, declines in attendance and television viewership were likely to be expected. However, the lack of interest in a team that’s probably going to perform even worse next season when it moves to the American League West can’t be encouraging. It’s no wonder ownership is making such an effort to retain the season ticket holders from this season.

3 Comments

Mockery Gets Closer To Reality

Posted by Dustin Parkes under Chicago Cubs, General, Houston Astros, Roger Clemens on Aug 31, 2012

According to Danny Knobler of CBS Sports, there exists a strong speculation in baseball circles that Roger Clemens, after making an appearance for the Sugar Land Skeeters on September 7th, will then be scheduled to pitch five days later for the Houston Astros against the Chicago Cubs.

It’s not often that I would use phrases such as “sanctity of the game” or “legitimacy of competition.” It’s not often that I would find myself agreeing with the reporter Jon Heyman. However, as I’ve written before, I believe that there’s an element of good faith required in the implicit agreement between fans of professional sports and operators/owners of their leagues. It asks that those phrases that I seldom use be protected by a minimal amount of effort on the part of the operators/owners to act only in the best interest of competitiveness.

The return of Roger Clemens to Major League Baseball does not do this.

Read the rest of this entry »

15 Comments

Yankees Acquire Steve Pearce From Astros

Posted by Darren Kritzer under Houston Astros, New York Yankees, News And Notes, Steve Pearce on Aug 27, 2012

It’s not quite of the same magnitude as the Boston Red Sox / Los Angeles Dodgers mega-deal, but nonetheless, the New York Yankees have acquired outfielder Steve Pearce from the Houston Astros for cash considerations.

The former eighth round pick of the Pirates in the 2005 draft has had quite the whirlwind 2012 season. Since his release from the Twins on March 27th, Pearce has played in three different organizations, including a stop in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the Yankees Triple-A affiliate. He was traded from the Yankees to the Orioles in early June, and claimed on waivers by the Astros in late July.

On the season, he has a .254/.333/.396 line in 49 major league games with three home runs. He will likely serve as the right-handed bat off the bench the Yankees have been looking for, owning a .275/.345/.490 line this year off left-handed pitching.

4 Comments

Astros To Make Old New Again

Posted by Dustin Parkes under Houston Astros, Uniforms And Logos on Aug 27, 2012

According to our friend Chris Creamer at SportsLogos.Net, the Houston Astros will be going back to a blue and orange color scheme for their logo and uniforms as part of their rebranding efforts ahead of the 2013 season. This is just one of the major changes that the Astros will be undertaking to their look and feel, something that Mr. Creamer predicted on this very website back in January.

The new Astros uniforms were described as very simple and traditional, a stripped down version of their original Astros uniforms which included the shooting star arching over the team script on their home jerseys.  I have been told that this shooting star is absent from the new uniforms for 2013.  Look for script similar to their road jerseys from this era.

As for the new Astros logo, I’ve been told it will be a new design for the team but similar to other recent new MLB team logos in San Diego and Washington, hard to get excited about that aspect of the new look.

The reported changes match what owner Jim Crane had said about the new uniforms when they were first submitted to Major League Baseball for approval. At the time, he referred to them as “modest,” “traditional” and “very classy.” As Mr. Creamer notes in his piece, this approach to rebranding follows the success of the 2012 Toronto Blue Jays uniforms, which borrowed from the past to make themselves new again.

1 Comment
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »