The Astros

I can understand now why baseball isn't quite so popular as it should be. The announcers on TV Suck. I watched part of the Astros vs St. Louis this afternoon. The Rocket was down 3-0 when I turned it off. Was a decent game but I can't stand listening to the guys announcing some of these games.

St. Louis is one of the biggest baseball towns in the country and if they had some talent calling the games, it would be even better. I may be a little biased, strike that, I'm definitely biased towards Orsillo and RemDawg, but those guys call one hell of a baseball game. They fill you with good knowledge, stats and trivia. They also know what's going on on both teams. For instance, the other night, I watched the Sox vs The Yanks broadcast from YES (which is the Yankee's station) and listening to those guys, it was definitely Yankee-biased but talking about the guys on the Sox, they didn't seem to have much of a clue. It just didn't seem comfortable. With Orsillo and RemDawg, they do their homework, have a good presence and it just adds to an already enjoyable experience.

So the Astros are back in second place. I'll admit, I stopped following them while they were sucking wind. With the Sox, even if they were in last place, I'd be watching them loyally, but well I don't have any such loyalty to any other particular team. Quite frankly, the Nationals caught my eye for a little while. Really, I it doesn't matter much to me who I follow from the NL. I just like to latch onto a team (which historically had been The Mets) to keep an eye on what's going on over there in the senior circuit as they like to call it.

Clemens is still the man, though being down 3 runs with Houston's futile offense, chances are he'll take a loss. Now that they're a contender again and they signed his kid Kolby, you can guarantee The Rocket is staying in Houston. They need some work on their offense. Pitching is decent with Clemens, Oswalt and even Pettite, but they need to score some runs.

One thing that caught my eye last night was that the Sox played Papi on first last night. I'm still curious if Millar may be used as trade bait sometime between now and the end of the month. We could afford to bolster our pitching a little more. Earlier in the season I noted that I wouldn't be surprised if Clemens came back to Boston and Millar was included in that trade. That's out of the question now, but I still think Millar might be shopped out. He's a hot or cold hitter, average fielder and his mouth gets annoying after a while. 2 years ago and even last year it was "fun" with Cowboy Up and The Idiots and all, but that wears on you after a while. We'll see where he ends up. But I could see Papi/Olerud platooning at first. Mirabelli has been seeing some time in the DH Role. Kapler will be back soon also. Put one of those guys in the DH spot with Ortiz on first then later in the game, switch them around. They could do better, but like I said, there's a couple more weeks. Keep an eye on that.

In the meantime, tonight we're gonna watch Al Leiter pitch against Wakefield. I'll admit, I've always liked Leiter. He was good with the Mets when I watched them. Very emotional and animated on the mound. Last year during the playoffs he was a pleasant relief doing some announcing. He offset the stupidity that Joe Buck and Tim McCarver spew out their assholes, or mouths.. Same thing. So it is a little disappointing to see him working the mound tonight for Empire. However, he's having a tough season so let's hope it stays that way and he ends up being another pitching bust for the Yanks.

GO SOX!