Buzzsaw, thy name is Berkman

I pity any pitcher in the National League right now who has to face Lance Berkman. To say the guy is on fire is an insult to him. I am completely in awe of what the Big Puma has been doing with the bat of late. It's like he's trying to make up for his sub-par performance last season in a two week period this season. The Astros web site has a nice story on the stats he has been rolling up of late including 19 hits in his last 25 ABs. That is just sick. Since Cecil Cooper wised up and put Berkman into the fourth spot in the batting order on April 19, Berkman has 9 HRs and 24 RBI. He was batting .295 coming into that game and is now batting .382.

Oh, and since April 19 when Coop tweaked his line-up, the Astros are 13-6. Ironically enough, the Astros lost that day but thankfully Coop stuck with it.

A look at the players that Ed Wade cut loose from the Astros in the off-season:

• Luke Scott - 1HR, 10 RBI, .267, 27Ks
• Matt Albers - 2-1, 2.39 ERA, 13Ks in 26.1 innings
• Dennis Sarfate - 2-1, 4.02 ERA, 17Ks in 15.2 innings
• Adam Everett - 0 HR, 2 RBI, .196
  
• Mike Lamb - 0 HR, 13 RBI, .235
• Chris Burke, 0 HR, 5 RBI, .137
• Chad Qualls, 0-4, 2.75 ERA, 20Ks in 19.2 innings, 1 SV (has been charged with three losses in last four games)
• Trever Miller, 0-0, 5.23 ERA, 10Ks in 10.1 innings

Right now, the only one or two guys I'd say the Astros miss are probably Matt Albers and Chad Qualls as both of those guys could help shore up our sometimes shaky bullpen.