take harley quinn off ur ava before she dies in the movie, jinx..

I like it a lot although I'd prefer to find something new and exciting that has to do with Black Widow and Marvel comics.

The Astros are only 2.5 games behind the Blue Jays for that second wild-card spot in the AL entering today. That's all we can really ask for in early August when you consider how poorly we played to end the month of July. 1-5 overall and the Tigers just made us look like a little league team in that embarrassing sweep at Detroit this past weekend.

Brad Ausmus is a classy manager, who used to play for the Astros, and I admire what he's done managing that Tigers team.

Ultimately, I think the Detroit Tigers will end up being the team to catch for one of those two AL wild-card spots if they can keep playing as well as they are. Maybe they will start to cool down a little bit. We just need to finish ahead of two of those teams (Orioles, Red Sox, Blue Jays - whichever two don't win the AL East - and Tigers).

Hopefully the Astros can take three out of four games, or sweep all four games with the Blue Jays in this series in Houston. They are off to a good start taking the first game and Lance McCullers is pitching tonight against R.A. Dickey in the second game.

We certainly have to win tonight and likely tomorrow night (taking three games at least).
Especially with J.A. Happ (14-3, 3.16 ERA) pitching in the fourth game against Mike Fiers.
Although Mike Fiers has pitched well again lately. He hasn't been consistent enough to feel good about.

The problem the Astros have is their remaining schedule is the toughest in all of baseball.
A ton of games remaining against the Blue Jays, Rangers, Indians, Cubs, Orioles, Pirates, Cardinals.

We play all the best teams. So we will probably not make the playoffs. But if we do it will certainly have been earned. We're going to need two of those teams (Orioles, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Tigers) to struggle down the stretch.

George Springer couldn't stop his momentum but it's a good thing he didn't get hurt on that play.



The Astros added an extra layer of padding all around the right field seats at Minute Maid Park to protect Springer from himself. LOL, so it has been a valuable addition to say the least. He said he had a little bruise on his left knee after the game, but he would ice it down and be ready for tonight.

Lance McCUllers will try to lower his 3.18 ERA tonight against a potent Blue Jays lineup. A real good test for him.
He has struck out at least 10 batters in three out of his last five starts. His curveball is pretty special when he's on.
I keep waiting for the 22-year-old phenom to put it all together. He may finally be on the verge (I hope).

Per the Houston Chronicle...


I can't wait to see Yulieski Gurriel in the big leagues. We're so desperate for a good middle-of-the-order bat right now. At the very least somebody who can consistently hit higher than .220. Which is what we seem to be getting from Rasmus, Gattis and whoever else we've been trotting out there throughout the season (A.J. Reed, Tyler White etc... etc...).

Luis Valbuena was hitting .260 with 13 home runs - was improving a lot - prior to his hamstring injury. He's out two weeks...

If we could only clone George Springer, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa. I'll hit them 1-2-3 and 4-5-6. LOL
We need Alex Bregman to start hitting as well. We're too talented of a team to be so offensively challenged.

Also per the Houston Chronicle...


I like the move. Right now Ken Giles is flat out filthy and dominating. He's an alpha male closer, IMO. He's pitching like a mad man that is out for blood. 0.00 ERA in July and so far in August. 21 strikeouts, 3 walks and a .125 batting average against in that time. He's hitting 101 MPH on his fastball and his slider is breaking bats and frustrating hitters.

He struggled so much in April and May. His ERA was as high as 11.50, people were booing him, but since then it's gone way down to 3.80. No runs allowed over his last 14 appearances. The last run that Ken Giles allowed was on June 18.

The Astros remaining schedule is the toughest in all of baseball like I had touched on before.
But I believe they can still win one of the wild-card spots if they just focus on the fundamentals.
Playing small ball when needed, utilizing their team speed on the bases and playing solid defense.

I like Giles, Harris and Devenski in the 9th, 8th and 7th innings. Our starting rotation can be good at times.
Highly touted pitching prospect, Joe Musgrove, was just called up. He's going to be in the bullpen right now.

The Astros refused to trade Musgrove in any deadline deal. He was rated #32 on the top 100 baseball prospects.
Some of the players we refused to trade will hopefully reward us for our patience soon enough.
Guys like Alex Bregman (7 games played so far) and Joe Musgrove are finally in the big leagues.

We need Dallas Keuchel (6-11, 4.86 ERA) to pitch well in these final two months. His last start at Detroit was horrible (7 earned runs in 5 innings). For the Astros to claim one of the wild-card spots, Dallas Keuchel has to be the Dallas Keuchel of last year.

Lance McCullers is by far our best starting pitcher and I can't wait to watch him tonight. Game time is about 90 minutes away. The Blue Jays have one of the most dangerous offenses in all of baseball. I know Jose Bautista is hitting .217 and he went 0-for-5 last night against Doug Fister and Ken Giles.

But that big bad beast of a man, Jose Bautista, still strikes a lot of fear into me. That dude makes me sweat every time he steps into the batters box. I'm like "Oh my, God! Joey Bats is about to go yard right now!" and then when the Astros get him out I feel a lot more relieved. Likewise with Edwin Encarnacion, who went 1-for-5 last night. That guy makes me crap my pants in pure fear when he steps into the batters box. I don't know if we can hold those two superstar sluggers down for all four games in this series. I just hope we win again tonight.

Oh my goodness. That's unfair. Lance McCullers is mixing in a 96 fastball with a 90 changeup, and his dominating, hard-and-nasty 85 MPH curveball that dips like crazy through the plate. Already a quick 1-2-3 against Bautista, Donaldson and Encarnacion. Poor Donaldson, last year's AL MVP if I'm not mistaken, lost his bat when he swung and missed on his strikeout.

If Lance McCullers pitches like this he could become something truly special down the road.
He's only 22 years old and having a good second season. But he can become so much more.

Astros righty Lance McCullers Jr. left his start last night with right elbow discomfort, the team announced. He’ll be looked at more closely today, but that’s certainly not the news the club was hoping for right after the non-waiver trade deadline.

jesus ur jinx goes beyond jsp, its amazing.

Last night couldn't have taken a worse turn. McCulllers was cruising in the early innings and then wam, bam, solo homers by Bautista and Encarncion and we lost the ballgame 2-1. All because of two mistake pitches left up in the zone by McCullers. But worst of all he had to come out in the middle innings with right elbow discomfort like you mentioned.

It's not looking good at all. Lance McCullers could be done for the season (worst case scenario). The Astros plan to call up pitcher Brad Peacock (announced an hour ago). I'm hoping McCullers will only be placed on the 15-day DL.

And with our lack of run scoring for the past few weeks I'm already lost for words and upset. Where is the silver lining?
Over the past 8 games the Astros are averaging a Major League worst 1.5 runs per game. We are 2-6 in that time.

I guess our silver lining is the fact that the Astros minor league system is ranked third best in all of basebal right now. Only the Brewers and Yankees - two teams who netted a lot of good prospects at the tradind deadline - are ahead of us.

We kept top pitching prospect Joe Musgrove. Who was amazing in his MLB debut last night.
Coming into the game as a reliever for an injured Lance McCullers. All Musgrove did was have 4.1 shutout innings with 8 strikeouts.

If Lance McCullers has to miss some time I would imagine that Joe Musgrove will be slotted into his spot in the starting rotation.

The Astros can still rely on their farm system to keep adding much needed talent.
Pitching wise we have some nice arms on the rise. Joe Musgrove is just the latest stud.
But losing McCullers is a big blow. And our position prospects are struggling to hit at the Major League level.

We need Alex Bregman and A.J. Reed to start raking. They can't hit so poorly anymore. This is frustrating!

I guess it's easier for pitchers to adjust to the big leagues than hitters. At least in the Astros case...

On the plus side, Jose Altuve is still in a prime position to win the 2016 AL MVP Award.
LOL, if Altuve wins the MVP this year that will be like my World Series I guess. I hate to say it but it's true.

The Houston Astros have never won a World Series. We have never even won a World Series game like our in-state rivals the Texas Rangers. We were swept in the 2005 World Series by the Chicago White Sox.

All I have is Jeff Bagwell's 1994 NL MVP and hopefully Jose Altuve's 2016 AL MVP. Those are my World Series!
I would ask what else can go wrong for this Houston Astros franchise but I don't want to dare go there.

It's hard for me but I'm just trying to enjoy each and every game. That's all I've been trying to do for my entire life.

Just announced that Lance Mccullers was placed on the 15-day DL.
That's the corresponding roster move with Brad Peacock called up.

I'm assuming Brad Peacock will be placed in the bullpen.
And Joe Musgrove will take McCullers' spot in the starting rotation.

If that's so then Joe Musgrove is slated to make his first career start Sunday afternoon against the Texas Rangers. And if Musgrove can shut down that Rangers lineup it would give me a lot of hope for the future.

I'm actually excited to watch Musgrove starting some games. He was phenomenal last night in relief. And if he pitches well from here on out, and McCullers is back in late August, that could be something fun to finish the season with and build on some good young starting pitching for the future.

I guess I'm a little glad we didn't make a big trade at the deadline.
We still kept our future in tact. Third best minor league system in baseball.

While the Rangers, took the win-now approach, and they no longer have a farm system ranked as highly.

It just sucks this 2016 season seems like a lost cause for us. We're 5.5 games behind the Rangers.
We would have to go 9-0, 8-1 or 7-2 in our 9 games left with the Rangers to really have a fighting chance.

The fun will be to keep building around all of our young talent. In free agency this winter, I want the best hitter on the market. I don't give a damn about the price. We need to go out there and sign some serious "big sluggers and thumpers" for the middle of our batting order.

This post was edited by Madmartigan on Aug 3 2016 02:48pm

Musgrove pitched well today I thought.

It looked like we needed Lance McCullers after all. Hopefully he'll be ready to throw sometime next week. An excellent 5-2 road trip at Baltimore and Pittsburgh (winning both series 3-1 and 2-1), but Joe Musgrove had struggled and lost the two games. That should have been McCullers pitching in those two games. A successful road trip could have been a perfect one for all I know.

The problem is that 5-2 road trip came after 5 losses in a row so we ended up losing ground...
It's just the way this season has gone. The Astros shoot themselves in the foot and have to overcome so much.

At least the Astros had a day off to regroup today. A critical 6-game home stand is coming up tomorrow night: 3 with the Rays and 3 with the Athletics. We pretty much need to go 6-0 on this home stand to creep back into the AL wild-card race.

Because we have another brutal 7-game road trip after that: 3 at Texas and 4 at Cleveland: But if we play those two elite teams on the road the same way we played a solid Orioles and Pirates team on the road we may be able to win our fair share of those games.

We're 4 games behind the Orioles for the second wild-card spot in the AL right now, tied with the Royals, and also 2 games behind the Mariners and Tigers. So we have to just keep winning in order to catch everybody. It should be interesting. I'm optimistic going into these final 35 games.

The good thing is our bats are swinging well and the back-end of our bullpen is rock solid with Ken Giles striving as a closer. The rookies Alex Bregman, Teoscar Hernandez and A.J. Reed are hitting well lately. That is making our lineup look a lot better because it's not just Altuve, Springer and Correa producing at the plate. And Yulieski Gurriel will see more at-bats as a DH on this home stand.

We'll see what happens. I don't expect the Astros to make the playoffs with our tough schedule left.
We also play the Cubs and Mariners, along with the Rangers and Indians, too many times to breathe easy.

But it's baseball. Anything can happen. I didn't think we would go 5-2 at Baltimore and Pittsburgh.
The Astros just have to take care of business one game at a time. That same old boring cliche...

This post was edited by Madmartigan on Aug 25 2016 08:21pm