Well, I can’t say I’m happy about it, but it does make sense: Anderson to Braves for Villarreal. Anderson was a really good guy, great with the fans, and I hope Braves fans enjoy him. Because I never can again now that he’s a Brave. (just kidding…kind of.)

So, those "we haven’t won a World Series in over 70 years" Red Sox went and won another one. I fell in love with the 2004 Red Sox team, and I especially wanted them to beat the Cardinals after the NLCS. But this year, I really hoped that the Rockies would keep up their winning ways, since this year’s Red Sox team was…eh. I think I like Pedroia, and I do like Mike Lowell, but other than that, I could care less. Oh well though, it’s over now.

As for the Houston off-season…I don’t really want to talk about it. Well, actually, I do, because if I didn’t, then I wouldn’t be over here. I can’t understand the trade for Michael Bourn. What is Josh Anderson, chopped liver? Do we really think that we’re going to get a premier starting pitcher with him as trade bait? What are we going to do with him if we don’t trade him? Houston is known for letting their young prospects go to waste, and this might be another prime example.

On a side note, I am really going to miss Brad Lidge, and I am REALLY REALLY going to miss Eric Bruntlett. We are losing our Ivy League players right and left. I am also sad about losing Eric Munson earlier in the off-season. I don’t understand how Quintero is that much better than Munce.

Congrats to Carlos Lee winning the Silver Slugger award…at least something good came out of this season. He really did have a great offensive year.

So, I’ve found a definite positive about sporadic posts: if I’d been keeping this blog up better, everyone would have seen just how pathetically in love I [am] with Morgan Ensberg as a ballplayer and how angry I was with Purpura for the DFA. But since I haven’t been, no one did. Now I am at peace with it, but for a while, I was heartbroken. I still don’t like Ty Wigginton very much, except for the ‘he’s on my fantasy team’ thing.

Anyway, last week I went to Corpus Christi and saw a few Hooks games, the Backe rehab game being one of them. I really like Tommy Manzella (the next Adam Everett) and J.R. Towles, who was just promoted to Round Rock last week. I’d be very pleased if he was a September call-up. I always love going to minor league games, because there are less people, you’re closer to the game, and it’s just…more fun.

West coast game tonight…Oswalt vs. Chad Billingsley. Me vs. Alyssa Milano (hahaha jk jk. Besides, she could probably beat me in almost anything.) I hope the guys can overcome the curse of "I think _____ (in this case, Chad Billingsley) is cute, so they are going to hammer my ‘Stros to spite me".

Long time no post. Kinda wasting money here, but oh well. It’s not like I don’t watch the Astros anymore, because I most definitely do (they’ll never be bad enough to get rid of me), but there just isn’t anything to post about that isn’t "wow how is it possible that our bullpen is THAT BAD". I understand that they are just over worked and it is finally biting us in the backside, but it’s getting absurd. I’m all for sending the big league relievers down and calling up the Round Rock bullpen.

Anyway. Biggio is 3 hits away from 3,000. That’s exciting. I’m hoping that he’ll hold off until at least Friday, because I’ll be at all the Rockies games except for Thursday’s…

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Ends up, being both an Astros fan and a Rangers "appreciator" at a Rangers/Astros game is kind of difficult. I’d been debating for the past few days how I should represent my loyalties, clothing-wise, and came to the not-so-scientific solution of an Astros hat, my new Kinsler t-shirt (because Kinsler=awesomeness) and a Berkman jersey in case I had to prove my Astros obsessiveness. Turns out I did – stood in the sun for autographs (thanks Chris Sampson!). On top of the Kinsler shirt, I rocked royal blue high socks in his honor. In closing, I looked pretty darn cool, haha.

Main points – I bet a lot of the people around me were really confused by my actions. Kinsler got my applause for his singles, then Wandy and Lidge did when they got him out. When CJ and his blue glove came in, I just rocked back and forth, my stomach in knots, not sure if I wanted him to strike Lance out or if I wanted Lance to hit a grand slam. I swore I was going to throw up no matter what happened. I was really happy with Wilson’s quick seventh. But other than Ian’s at-bats and Wilson’s non-pressurefilled inning, it was all Astros for me. All in all, a good game.

Random comments – While waiting years for one of the pitchers to get around to signing by my brother and I, I watched the Rangers ‘pen do sprints. Saw CJ messing around with his ‘hawk…. I wish I knew why I dislike Hunter Pence so much (yeah, so i’m a fickle fan when it comes to him. i’ll admit it.). I really liked him when he was in Double A. Somewhere between then and now, something happened that ticked me off. Either way, I was very pissed tonight when he took the pop fly that Lane had OBVIOUSLY called. That was an unnecessary move. So what if he drives in runs; he’s not playing smart defense at all. All the homers that cheer for him at the games make me so mad. I’ll admit it – I cheered when CJ got him to end the sixth… (also, in general, Pence is really antsy in the outfield. I counted him messing with his uniform at least three times per pitch, and stretching on top of that.) Has anyone else noticed that the wave is BAD LUCK?! So, we get the bases loaded, and of course, that’s when the crowd gets the effing wave going. And then Ausmus grounds into a double play. Yes, Ausmus often does that, but STILL. Can’t we learn from our mistakes and NEVER DO THE WAVE AGAIN? Thanks.

High point of the game – as I was leaving, some of the Caballitos passed by and pointed at me and my Rangers shirt and said "we’ll see you tomorrow!" like I represented all of Rangers nation or something. It was amusing, since I’m not really an Rangers fan and it made me feel pretty special, too.

I’m really excited about the wives softball game tomorrow. Oh yeah, and the guys’ game, too, I guess…let’s go, Woody!

For me, the Giants are one of those teams that for 154 games in the regular season, they don’t cross my mind at all. I’m surprisingly good at forgetting Bonds is a Giant (but I don’t want to get into that conversation), and most of the other guys are completely forgettable players, except for Vizquel, who is continually stealing the Gold Glove from Everett (another conversation I won’t get into).

The Cardinals, the Mets, the Braves…when someone asks me which teams I "dislike", those immediately come to mind. It’s only when the Giants come to Houston that I remember that I dislike the Giants. Greatly.

Like the first series I ever watched closely, the opening series against the Giants in ’04. They beat Roy, they beat Andy (and somehow managed to injure him, too…just kidding, just kidding…), and (of course) Roger came out victorious. It was a fairly close series, no crazy scoring, but still, they won the series. I can’t recall the ’05 games, but ’06, oh man. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of fans blocked the series from their memory, but they outscored us by at least 8 every single game. This series was where I officially decided that BrettnDave were amazing – they made me laugh so hard, talking about silly things, that I decided that it wasn’t so bad that they were losing, awfully.

Guys like Randy Winn and Pedro Feliz, who aren’t usually amazing players, seem to be right at home in Minute Maid, given their numbers there. It kills me, to sum this Giants manifesto up.

Anyway, tonight’s game! Woody hit a homer, and he pitched well for the first five innings. Lee is no doubt the offensive player of the game with his walk-off homer, and had a pretty good (and humorous?) defensive play in the 8th, keeping Durham on third. Hunter Pence is doing a very good job of making me not hate him, with his game tying homer (giving everyone in the stadium a free chik-fil-a sandwich, too). It’s not that I don’t like him – I find him quite endearing, actually – but I just have trouble reminding myself that Burke is not a centerfielder and that his time will come next year. It just seems like he’s earned a spot on the big club. So, another point for Pence.

Okay, it is bedtime for me. El Caballo, you rock for ending this game in (only) the 10th! Astros at .500! Yesssss.

So, long time no post. I thought that maybe once I was home I’d have more time to watch baseball and develop opinions, but I get in about two innings a game thanks to a full time job and a part time one in the swimming pool. But I did get to see the entire weekend series with the D-Backs, Friday at Minute Maid Park, even.

I knew, going into Friday’s game, that we would probably not win. Webb has had our number since at least ’04 (first game i can remember him facing us – it was my first in-person game of the year and it was a loss, but I was just so glad to be there that it wasn’t such a big deal). So, 1-3 loss, no biggie. My fantasy team was happy about the loss, since Webb is supposed to be my ace (as well as Arizona’s) and he hasn’t exactly been ace material this season. The K count definitely hurt the guys, but other than Pence’s first MLB steal it wasn’t an especially memorable game. Sampson was okay but not great, and that’s all I have to say about that.

Saturday’s game…the offensive rout, 10-4. 4 guys with homeruns, Lamb’s fifth multi-hit game in only seven starts, Roy’s 6th win – just a really good game. I was not happy with Pence waving off Scott and dropping the flyball, but his going 3-4 made up for it, I guess. Like the FSN guys said, of course Pence is still a little wet behind the ears.

Today’s game, 5-2. We finally pulled out a rubber game win! Apparently we don’t do that often, and I figured so, because for every Saturday game we win (and in quite dramatic fashion, usually), we usually lose the following Sunday. But we won this one, thanks to timely hitting. Wandy pitched a fairly good game, and even though his pitch count had been fairly high after 5, I’m glad Garner got him out before he could find some way to blow the lead. Which might have happened, who knows. I’m a little vexed over the fact that Wheels likes to give up homers every time he comes in, but Lidge and Qualls did so well today that it’s really not a big deal. Right now, anyway. The pink bats were great, too…

Jack Cust (this season’s Chris Shelton, perhaps?) hit a three-run walk off today to give the A’s a 10-7 win over Cleveland. Nelson Cruz hit a walk-off homer for the Rangers to beat the Angels. If the Twins keep up their whipping of the Tigers pitching staff, they’ll have a win too. That a way, boys. Taylor Buchholz (oh how I miss him. Seriously.) got killed today, but the Rockies aren’t one of my teams so I’m not that sad. I’m beginning to notice that I have lots of teams in the AL, but only the Astros in the NL. Makes sense, but still, kind of funny.

Lastly, just how awesome is the name Boof Bonser?

My computer ate my first post. It was much better than this one.

– Back at home for the summer. I knew the Rangers were playing a double header and right after I got home I went to see if it was on tv and, of course, it was not. FSN Southwest/FSN Houston is very badly managed. Don’t they understand that I want to watch all the baseball that is available (and that doesn’t mean Big 12 games!)? And MLBtv seems to be absurd about their restrictions, so I guess the next time I’ll see the Rangers live will be the Astros/Rangers series…

– On the vein of the Rangers, Dave Raymond said that the Rangers bullpen had lost the first game, and it was crazy just how fast I rushed to my phone to make sure that it wasn’t a certain lefty that did it…and it wasn’t. So I’m good. 😉

– Props to the handful of Houston Texans (and Hunter Pence) who hit homers today for the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Houston. The footballers hit five together and Pence hit six without warming up.

– I watched The Office for 40 minutes instead of the game, which says a lot about how much I like the show. Because I’ve gotten people to work for me so I can watch baseball…haha. Anyway, Jim and Pam still aren’t together, but that tension filled storyline is back…just in case you were wondering. Also, Jan and Michael kind of broke up…

– The Baseball Cube is cool because you can see who’s been teammates with a player and for how long. I think it’s cool, and different then the normal stats you see at places like Baseball Reference.

– Is it just me, or is Brandon Phillips a certifiable Astros killer this season?

– Astros 7, Reds 5: "Good Wandy" showed up, the offense was decent, so of course the bullpen blew. God forbid every facet of the game show up positively in any given Astros game. I am very, very frustrated at Chad Qualls after this game (and that’s saying a lot, I’m usually very lenient with Qualls); Wandy really deserved this win. Career high Ks, just a really strong outing. But we did get the win, so I can’t be too terribly angry. I just really feel for Wandy right now…

Both the Rangers and the Astros lost by 9 runs tonight, Rangers 1-10 and Astros 2-11. At least they managed to score a run or two; I don’t mind beatings so much as long as we score a run/runs. There’s not much else to say, other than both K-Loe and Albers had fairly weak outings and the offense was dead (Rangers had a good reason; Hughes was nasty, and well, they were playing the Yankees.) It was pretty funny, actually, how both games were so synchronized: the break-downs were almost simultaneous. Oh well, Rangers are going against Pettitte tomorrow, that’s a guaranteed win, right? Ha.

In other news, the A’s won in extras, thanks to Dan the Man’s RBI double. One outta three ain’t bad, I suppose.

After watching the entire sixteenth inning affair the other night via MLBGameday (and ESPNGamecast and my cellphone Gameday after Gameday decided to lag) and only getting a loss out of all my troubles, I’d decided that I wasn’t going to blog until I was home and got FSN Houston every day instead of once every week or so.

Clearly I was lying to myself.

It’s kind of funny, but I actually wanted to blog about how absurd some of the fans that lurk around the ‘net are, but then that would make me a hypocrite, huh? But then again, I don’t think we should call up Patton from AA and I don’t think we should bench Biggio in favor of Loretta. Yes, Patton is good, no doubt about it. But he’s not ready. Albers jumped from AA to the bigs and he hasn’t been bad, but I can’t talk about that because I never saw him down in AA. I saw Patton once in Corpus, though, and he seemed to get really antsy when things weren’t going his way. Maybe that was just me, and he had only made a couple of starts – maybe he was still nervous. As for Loretta for Biggio, just…I do admit that Loretta should probably get more starts than he’s getting, because he is obviously not built for a pinch hitter’s role. I’d just like Bidge to get his 3,000, then we’ll deal with everything else when that happens.

Just had to get that off my chest.

Also, both the Yankees and the Astros have lost seven straight. Buster Olney was just saying on Sportscenter that Torre might get the boot. I’m not hearing anything about Scrap Iron…I can’t decide if that is a good or a bad thing right now.

Oh yeah, Pence is up. Hope everyone is happy now. I’m not saying that it wasn’t a good and/or necessary move, but … I just feel really bad for Burke. This is why being a girl sportsfan is so hard, haha.