Me too. He's hitting .315 with 33 home runs and 38 stolen bases in the minors (30-30). He also had a big spring for the Astros in March. His slugging percentage has been over 1.080 at Triple-A OKlahoma City. He's improved from the good numbers he was putting up at Double-A Corpus Christi. I would love to have the next Mike Trout on our hands. I doubt he'll be that good but I expect a solid center fielder at the MLB level.

im glad you guys are out of the division so much talent in A-AA

I'm going to worry just a little if we end up sweeping the Angels. But we should be alright.

1. Astros 40-81
2. Marlins 46-74
3. White Sox 47-74

We have seven more losses with only 41 games left. The first pick is ours to lose at this point. No need to even worry about losing the top pick unless it gets to within two or three games. We're likely going to go on another big losing streak soon. We do have the Rangers and Blue Jays coming up after the Angels, but then the White Sox and Mariners after that.

Also our final 15 games are against the Reds, Indians, Rangers and Yankees. We're going to end the season with a tough stretch of games.
LOL, we need to make sure we lose two games and maybe get swept by the White Sox just in case though.

I can keep watching this ten times a day. It's going to be my new "cheer me up" video whenever I'm feeling down.

Astros pre-game show about to start on CSN Houston. We can lose two out of three against the Angels after Josh Hamilton's walk-off homer in 10 innings yesterday. I really want the Marlins to win though. They have lost two games in a row and picked up a game on us when we won Friday Night's game.

The Marlins are tied 3-3 in the bottom of the 5th against the Giants right now...

I can't imagine our offense doing much damage against Jason Vargas but Brett Oberholtzer has pitched well as a starting pitcher. Three straight quality starts including two shutouts. So it may be a low-scoring game today.

I love Art Howe. He works for the Astros pre-game and post-game show on CSN Houston. Former manager of the Astros, Athletics and Mets, so he knows the game better than most people but is he on drugs right now? He's saying the Astros may be a winning ball club that can compete for the AL West next season if they can turn around their misfortunes in the close one or two-run ballgames.

While I agree that they may win a lot more games next season, I don't see a winning team (82-80 or better) until 2015 or 2016 at the earliest. It could even be 2017 or 2018 if some of the other top-rated prospects we have don't pan out quickly. I expect more hard times in 2014.

Best case scenario is we can be a little closer to the Angels or even Mariners in the standings next season.

But a winning team next year? I highly doubt it. I'll be thrilled with 72-90 or something close to it in 2014.
And then from there if we improve by another 10 games going into 2015 we'll have a winning record.

Reasonable expectations we need to have. Our horrible bullpen isn't going to improve in one off-season.
Our offense is capable of improving quicker by simply calling up George Springer and Jonathan Singleton.
We have a chance to have one of the best young starting rotations in the game soon enough.

Yeah thats crazy talk but
They will still win tonight O.o

LOL we're going to lose today's game against the Angels. Another game closer to the first overall pick and drafting Carlos Rodon in June. I want that Mark Appel, Carlos Rodon and Jarred Cosart trio in the starting rotation. That's going to be the backbone of our team for the next ten years. It's easier to fill out a number four and five starter once you have three talented young arms to build a starting staff around. 24-year-old Brett Oberholtzer, for example, could easily develop into a future four or five. He's very raw but has the stuff to be a legitimate MLB starter for a long time. We don't need him to be an Ace.

Oberholtzer will prove he is boss once again tonight, with 0 earned runs.

This post was edited by wowitsmekool on Aug 18 2013 01:34pm