Maybe it was getting swept by the Texas Rangers, or maybe it was losing two of three games to the Kansas City Royals.
Maybe it’s that the Houston Astros are 2-8 for their last 10 games, or that through 70 games they are one of the worst teams in baseball with a record of 24-46.
Maybe it’s all of the above. But whatever it is, the changes are finally coming.
After blowing a game to the Rangers yesterday – thanks to some really
questionable managing on the part of Brad Mills (seriously, what was the
thinking behind walking Vladimir Guerrero, who had a nice o-fer going,
in order to pitch to Josh Hamilton who had been destroying the Astros
the entire weekend in the ninth inning) – general manager Ed Wade
announced the newest scapegoats for the team’s failure: reserve
outfielder Cory Sullivan, reserve catcher Kevin Cash, and reliever Casey
Daigle.
The three were designated for assignment, and in their place,
Jason Castro, Chris Johnson, and Jason Bourgeois were called up from
Round Rock.
These moves have been a long time in coming.
And after the moves were
announced by Wade, Mills stated that Castro and Johnson will be assuming
the starting duties at catcher and third base.
So it looks like the Astros might finally be
realizing that they’re never going to win games with a bunch of old
washed-up guys playing and maybe, just maybe, they should see what the
youngsters are actually able to accomplish if given the chance.
But things still aren’t perfect. Not by a long shot.
Somehow, despite everything, Pedro Feliz still has a spot on the roster.
Feliz is hitting .220 with a .242 on-base percentage, a .296 slugging
percentage, and a .537 on-base plus slugging percentage. He’s only hit
two homers. This is the guy Wade gave 4.5 million dollars to play for
the Astros. And his defense, which was advertised as being of Gold
Glove caliber has been more of Golden Glove caliber, and he’s been
making Carlos Lee look like an above-average fielder.
He’s still on the roster.
If anybody should have been designated for
assignment, it should have been Feliz. Cash has never been known as a
hitter, and if the brain trust thought he had suddenly learned how to
hit, then maybe they need to have a few MRI’s after the doctors are
through with Humberto Quintero. And Sullivan was just a fifth
outfielder.
Yet Feliz is on the roster.
In the long term, it probably doesn’t matter, though, if Feliz ends up
riding the bench for the rest of this season, the decision to keep him
on the roster and not give another shot to someone like Edwin Maysonet
is just puzzling.
Though maybe someone should really start questioning
why it is that Ed Wade still has a spot with the brain trust.
Luckily, though, the Astros will finally start getting some answers.
Like can Chris Johnson hit major league pitching, or not? If he can
hit, does his supposedly sub-par fielding matter? Just how sub-par is
his defense when compared to Feliz?
It appears that Jason Bourgeois is
not really going to be getting much of a chance, since he’s taking
Sullivan’s fifth outfielder spot, and we know that nothing is going to
keep Carlos Lee out of the lineup.
Then there’s the big question: Jason Castro? Is he really the answer at
the catcher? Can he hit big league pitching? Can he hit the pitching
consistently? How will he be defensively? Will the pitchers trust him?
The Astros have been a bad team for a long time. But worse than being a
bad team, they’ve been a bad, boring team. They’ll still probably be a
bad team, but maybe with all the young kids trying to prove a point
they’ll be a little bit more entertaining to watch.
Though, speaking of entertaining, one has to ask just how it is the
Astros could have dumped Casey Daigle. Sure, he hasn’t been that good
in his role as a reliever, but the most entertaining part of several
recent home games has come from watching Fox Sports Houston trying to
find any reason to put up a shot of Mrs.Casey Daigle sitting in the stands. But now that he’s gone, she’s gone, which means
they’ll be stuck just showing us the Astros.
So, Ed Wade, couldn’t you
have dumped one of the many other relievers who have been sucking really
bad? Or better yet, couldn’t you have signed Mrs. Daigle to a contract
instead? She’s supposed to be a pretty good pitcher after all.
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2010.
