Climbing Tal's Hill » Bud Selig

Astros vs. Mets games to be part of replay experiment

Greg Thurston — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:56:32 +0000

One thing that came out of last week’s MLB owners meetings in Denver was a decision to move forward in the testing of replay technologies. This week MLB will initiate live game testing of equipment that could help umpires with fair or foul calls. The hardware, similar to that used in tennis, has been installed [...]

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The book is closed on the Carlos Lee era

Alex Sandoval — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 17:01:32 +0000

Admit it, during the fall of 2006, a lot of us were pretty happy to actually add a consistent weapon to a struggling offensive lineup. To compound the Astros’ struggles, the once dynamite starting pitching staff was heading back to New York. The issue was pretty cut and dry, Astros needed a bat and Carlos Lee wanted to come to Houston. So the deal with the devil was about to take place and a dark cloud was about to fly over Houston that wouldn’t be lifted until today. With the Astros’ trade of Carlos Lee to Miami, a chapter in the long history of Houston baseball was shut closed.

Carlos Lee: Chris Humphreys-US PRESSWIRE

Carlos Lee came to Houston hoping to keep a winning tradition going but anyone who understood the economics of baseball at the time knew it was a bad deal. Throw in the fact a no-trade clause or partial clause was setup for the length of the deal and it could be classified as a horrid deal long term. That said, everyone knew what type of player Carlos truly was. We knew he wasn’t fast, in fact, quite the opposite and outfield play would be an issue. The hope was that through all his negatives, his bat would be his positive. The Astros were so in need of an offensive beast that they turned to Lee willing to overlook so many flaws. Lee would produce for the first 3 years of his massive contract, reality was that he’d almost lived up to his outrageous contract with his strong offensive play. Another truth is that even with Emperor Selig and Darth Ike along with 40 thousand storm troopers in Milwaukee, had Carlos Lee not gone down with an injury in 2008, the Astros might have made the playoffs.

The obvious decline we had hoped would wait until this season came in year four as his numbers began to slip dramatically. Lee would post an OPS of barely .700 in 2010 and would produce slight comeback in 2011. The thought was that new GM Jeff Luhnow would do whatever it took to move Lee this season and after a failed attempt last Sunday, it was accomplished today. Like it or not, fair or not, Carlos Lee will be, right along with Drayton McLane, the main reasons for the mess we are in now. He did his job for the most part and the Astros had to know his decline would come but simply thought it was worth it.

Over the past few season, and I imagine even next few weeks, we will hear fat jokes and negative commentary towards Lee. Some well-deserved and others no so much but it will wash away eventually. The dark cloud can now begin to move on over another franchise which will certainly make a short-sided, viewed as necessary, move. The Astros next chapter within a brand new book, with a new publishing company and author can finally begin and so far it feels like a must read.

And the rivalry begins…

Alex Sandoval — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

So, the first series with our artificially created natural rival has come and gone and I actually do feel a little bit more hatred. The end result wasn’t unexpected and we’ve seen it over and over the last few years but Bud Selig’s wish may be about to happen. The Rangers flexed their muscle in taking 2 of 3 but to a point, that’s irrelevant. The Astros stood their ground and showed well in 2 of the 3 games and made known they were willing to trade punches with the 2-time defending AL champs. Interestingly enough, the play on the field may not have been the action that turned this into a real rivalry but rather the crowd.

Jed Lowrie Thomas Campbell-US PRESSWIRE

It’s only natural to have some of the Rangers’ fans travel to Houston to watch their club but at times it seemed like we were playing in Arlington. A nice bench clearing brawl is a very nice way to create some hate between teams but another is having fans invade the other’s ballpark. Last season we saw it more often than ever with the Astros in a bad place but this weekend games were packed and I wouldn’t be afraid to say that it was close to a split crowd. That should never happen, even when a popular team invades, but with the Astros rebuilding, it left the door open for this to happen. Nothing is more aggravating than seeing so many opposing teams’ fans showing up to root on their club. Considering the Stros and Rangers will be playing a lot starting next season, the more this happens, the more frustrating it will get for many Astros’ fans.

Unfortunately, until the Astros get good and more fans make the trip to Minute Maid Park along with making a road trip to Arlington the more this will happen. The Rangers are well ahead in the race for Texas but the Astros are on the right track and going full steam ahead. Once the Astros get good and stay good, this will truly take on a rivalry feel to it but until then it can at least build momentum. The insane idea to move the Astros to the AL actually took shape and now we are stuck with the ramifications. So, let’s make the most of it and make life hell on our artificially created rivals that are the Texas freaking Rangers. We’ll learn to hate Josh Hamilton, Elvis Andrus and Neftali Feliz just as we learned to hate Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter and Jim Edmonds even if we are made to by big brother in Milwaukee.