Hell Freezing?
Here's another surprisingly frank assessment from a Comical columnist on the state of a local sports team.
I don't think the Astros are as awful as they've looked over the past couple of weeks, but I did think they were headed into this season destined for mediocrity. Yes, Jeff Kent was a nice pickup. But Craig Biggio is not the speedy centerfielder they needed to make up for the defensive liabilities of the lumbering herd known as Hidalgo and Berkman -- he's not a centerfielder at all. Shortstop and Third Base are manned by.... whom? And the pitching -- what good is having a great setup/closer tandem if you can't ever get the ball to them? Throw in an early season slump from the two pitchers Gerry Hunsicker thought he could count on, and things look bad.
The good news is, Miller and Oswalt ought to be better than this through the course of the season (unless the one pitcher Jimy overpitched last season -- Oswalt -- is showing signs of fatigue). And that ought to push the Astros close to .500 when it's all said and done.
Ah, the fun of living in a sad sports town.
(05-01-03 Update) We mentioned shortstop above. Don't let it be said the Astros shortstops can't hit! It's just not always a baseball....
[Posted at 20:49 CST on 04/30/03] [Link]
