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.

Not Sure Where She Got Those Genes From

Today Chandler Bess did her first Triathlon and finished THIRD in her age group and finished in the Top 50 overall among kids up to age 10 (she's 8.) Given that her mother and I have never 3done a triathlon, nor have we ever had a desire to do one, we're scratching our heads as to where she gets these athletic genes she will sometimes display. She did great considering right as she was lining up to get in the pool, I had to remind her this was a race (which she didn't know) and that she could pass up other swimmers in her lane.

Here are some pictures from the morning's event.

Trying hard here to contain her excitement

Trying Hard Not to be one of THOSE Parents

Last night, Clancy had a t-ball game out at the Leander-Cedar Park complex. Because this was a make-up game from Saturday's rain-out, they played on the field where Chandler normally plays her softball games. We were sitting in the bleachers next to our friends Gary and Krista and made the comment to them about how the fans aren't quite as intense at this field during t-ball as they are during the coach pitch games that Chandler plays in. After we got home from the game, I thought back to that comment and felt a bit convicted about how I might be contributing to some of that intensity that occurs during those games.

I look back at the tournament Chandler's team (the Red Raiders) played in out at Oak Hill last weekend and something that happened at the end of the first game. The Red Raiders went into the bottom of the inning tied with one out and a runner on third. The batter hit the ball off of her foot but it still rolled out far enough out in front of homeplate to give the runner on third time to score the winning run. The ball should have been called a foul ball since it hit her foot. As the runner was crossing the plate, I was standing by the first base side and yelled (quite loudly) towards the umpire "that was a foul ball, it hit her foot." You should have seen the look the first base coach from the opposing team shot me. Not that it mattered what I said, the ump wasn't going to change his call.

This is where I get a bit dumber, as I was helping Chandler gather up her equipment, I proceeded to tell her how her team got "homered" by the local Oak Hill umpire ... not once, but a few times. Never once did I tell her, "you guys played really hard, it was a tough loss, but if you keep playing hard, you will win some of those close games." The last thing I want to do is instill a mentality in her that it's someone else's fault everytime her team loses a game. I guess the good thing is that Chandler typically ignores about 99 percent of what I say.

The bottom line is that youth sports, 7/8 year old girls softball or any other, is increasingly becoming more of a parent showcase rather than a venue for the kids to have fun. I've got to do a better job making sure I'm not evolving into one of THOSE parents.

A Tale of Two Cities

Interesting night for me as a fan. I have lived most of my life in two cities - Phoenix and Houston. I grew up an Astros fan and while I lived in Phoenix, there was no pro baseball team so my passion for Astros baseball continued to grow after I moved there, along with the associated misery (see 1986 NLCS) that goes with rooting for the Astros. When I moved to Phoenix, I was not much of an NBA fan but slowly became a Suns fan thanks to Walter Davis, Kevin Johnson, Tom Chambers and Sir Charles.

So tonight I spent the evening catching up on email and writing press releases while watching the Suns implode in the final two minutes against Spurs to lose in game 5 of their FIRST ROUND series, ending the Phoenix season. Then I flipped over to the Astros game and watched them close out a 6-4 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The irony for me personally continues to be that the one Houston sports team (yes, I was a die-hard Oilers fan) I was not much of a fan of, the Houston Rockets, were the ones who eliminated the Suns two years in a row in the mid-90s. Those Rocket teams would go onto win back-t0-back championships.

Anyhow, a rough night for Phoenix sports fans who root for the home teams. While in Houston, their basketball team gets to live another day after silencing the Jazz and the Astros snapped their three-game skid. A rare good day for Houston sports fans. Basketball season is officially over for me now. Houston, you have my full attention once again.

Awful Day for my Teams

As a sports fan, Saturday was about as bad as it gets for me. First, the Suns lose in double OT after having led for pretty much the entire time in regulation against the Spurs. Given that I live in Austin, I'm up here in psuedo-Spurs country since San Antonio is 90 minutes away and so I'm forced to deal with Spurs media and fans.

It only gets worse from there, I couldn't even finish watching the Astros' game last night as they have just become a very pathetic display out on the field. They lose 3-2 after getting shelled the previous night 11-5 by a worn-out Rockies team that had played 22 innings the night before. All of this on the Astros' homefield.

All of this was capped off by the ASU baseball team continuing their downward spiral and getting shelled by Oregon State yet again, 12-3. ASU is ranked 3rd in the country right now but after getting beat twice at home, there's a high likelihood they will fall out of the top 10.

Oh well, at least the ASU football team was able to beat themselves in the Maroon and Gold game. Note to Dennis Erickson, please consider an open competition for the starting QB spot going into training camp.

What a shame

Shawn Chacon unexpectedly pitches 8 very strong shutout innings and exits the game with a three run lead. Chacon has definitely been a pleasant surprise for the team as he has had three very solid outings in three starts this season. And as much as Chacon has been a pleasant surprise, Astros' closer Jose Valverde has been an alarming train wreck of a closer.

I don't question Cooper for bringing in Valverde to close the game out, nearly every manager in the league would have done the same thing. However, after blowing the lead by giving up four in the ninth against the Phillies, the question now becomes is how long does Coop continue to have Valverde be his closer?

Over the gut-wrenching past two seasons of Lidge closing out games, the Astros always had some decent options in Qualls and Wheeler. This year they really have no one who can step into that role. The only guy I can potentially see doing it is Brocail who has been a career middle-relief guy.

Not that they're asking me, but I'm going to offer up my suggestion on this one anyhow: move Valverde into a set-up role, ship the disappointing Oscar Villareal to Round Rock and call up Fernando Nieve and have him try closing. The guy has great stuff (when healthy) and he seems like the type of guy who is more suited toward letting it fly for an inning or two rather than trying to stretch it for 5 or 6.

Someone took their Deca Durabolin tonight

The Astros' biggest off-season acquisition and accused steroid user Miguel Tejada made a big impression on the locals in Houston tonight after he went yard to the opposite field for a walk-off two-run shot in the ninth to beat the rival Cardinals, 5-3. This came on the heels of Miggy making a great play to mercifully end a forgetful top of the ninth for new Astros' closer Jose Valverde (btw, Brad Lidge notched his first save for the Phillies today) who continues to be a win scavenger. No Astros' starter has a win yet, but all of them with the exception Oswalt should have one if not for the 2008 version of the Texaco bullpen.

The Astros are 3-5 now and if the bullpen were pitching well, they'd probably be 5-3 or at least .500 and Wandy and Backe would have a win each. I guess all those things D-backs' fans told me about Valverde are true and his 46 saves in 2007 were a bit of a mirage if you look behind the numbers.