Monday, April 03, 2006

Put Me In Coach, I'm Ready To Play

Opening day for the Houston Astros! Finally, baseball is back in Houston. Roy Oswalt will start. With back to back 20 game seasons, who else could start? Brandon Backe has been a little shakey this spring but he should be ok. Of course we are without Roger Clemens, but we have a young rookie Taylor Buchholz who has shown much promise.
The rotation is not set in stone as yet, since we have a young untried staff with the exception of Oswalt and Pettitte.

It will be strange and a little sad to not see Jeff Bagwell at first base. Lance Berkman will now play there. Bagwell may have surgery to remove bone spurs from his shoulder. Most likely he will have to retire, since his fielding and throwing just has not come around. But we do have our returning young guys and with the addition of Wilson we should have some extra power. Only time will tell.

But the team will unveil the NL Championship banner and they will also receive their Championship rings. While this pales in comparison to the celebration for the Chicago White Sox, we'll enjoy our own. Hopefully the season will go well. Last year's 15 and 30 start led to the Astros first appearance in the World Series. Can we do it again? Only time will tell. But at last it's time...Play Ball!

1 comments:

Duez said...

Can't wait. I don't think I can survive another 15-30 start! So let's not do it again exactly.

I can't wait to see the youngsters again and see how much they have improved -- Wily T., Chris Burke, Jason Lane. They are really a big key to the season. So is Preston Wilson for that matter. We will need more offense in 2006.

It will be awesome to hear them say, "Your 2005 National League Champions"
COOL