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Wow. That was ballsy. I love Michael Bourn. In all honesty, it was time to get rid of Lidge in Houston. Great guy, great pitcher, but there was just too much else going on.

From the Houston Chronicle: Of course, this doesn't mean anything. Roger Clemens will never actually retire. Ever. Even when he retires, he won't be retired, like how in the article they say that even though starting work on his Personal Service contract was supposed to indicate the end of his playing career, they still won't call it retirement. However, I guess since he's taking a consultant job with the Astros, when he does pitch next year, it'll be in Houston. I'm glad he learned his lesson about going to the AL East.

Ok, the end of this episode was quite terrific; I kinda had an inkling of what was going to happen, but still, that was great. Next week looks to be a strong episode, too, with the "Four Months Earlier". I hope the strike doesn't affect the season THAT much.

So, is he retiring, going to LA, coming to Houston? What's God going to tell him to do this season?

I sort of like this seemingly agressive approach that new GM Ed Wade is taking the first few days of the Hot Stove season. In addition to contacting the agents for Rowand and Hunter, it's been confirmed that he's contacted Curt Schilling (even though Houston wasn't on 'the list') and today it was confirmed that the Astros plan to agressively pursue Luis Castillo. The only other team I've heard of being interested in Castillo is the Mets, and they just signed Damion Easly, so if the Astros can get Castillo to be a slap-hitting, high-OBP leadoff man in front of Pence, Berkman, and Lee, that would be an upgrade. And then they could shop Burke and Scott for pitching.

I'm pretty sure PECOTA projected him at about 3.6 if I'm remembering correctly. I'd be perfectly content with Luke Scott in RF on a full-time basis, except he seems a little fragile. Without him, the Astros will feature only one left-handed hitter (Berkman).

The first cassette tape I ever owned was Aerosmith's "Gems"; that was around 1988, when I was 6 or so. They were my first favorite band. After that, it was a long period of liking Mc Hammer and Vanilla Ice followed by getting big into Nirvana and then The Beatles by around 6th grade.

I'm late to the party. I like the signing of Brad Ausmus, presuming JR Towles gets the lion's share of playing time behind homeplate and Brad and his .290 OBP doesn't return during the first 0 for 10 slump. Also, new Astros' GM Ed Wade, for some odd reason, confirmed the interest in and contact with both Torii Hunter and Aaron Rowand, with plans on shifting Hunter Pence to RF and getting rid of Luke Scott. I'm all in favor of signing Torii Hunter if possible, but, if it's a choice between Aaron Rowand and Luke Scott, I see no point in spending a shitpot full of money on a 3 win player (Rowand) when Luke Scott is projected at being a 3 to 4 win player next season at a much more reasonable price. I would be pleased to see the Astros give Kerry Wood an incentive-laden deal as either a reliever/swingman or a rotation spot.

Royce Clayton FINALLY gets a ring.

So, I guess PAYROD is convinced that he can get more than 8/$230 million on the open market. I think the shortlist of teams that could and would add him are Boston, Chicago (NL), LAA, SF...who else? Just to be different, I'll say he ends up with the Halos. I just don't want him to go to Chicago, being that he's the best player in baseball ever and all (that's absolutely not sarcasm. I love A-Rod. He's awesome.)

I just saw Kalib Starnes' skull. That cut was nasty.

Hot dog! We have a weiner!

I have to imagine that that West fellow is going to end up being a bad guy. I can't imagine how the writers could possibly think that, in any way, shape, or form, that he's a likeable character; therefore, I must think that they're just intentionally turning the audience against him so that they'll hate him properly when he turns.

Just popping in to mention-over on mlb.com, they're showing some of the best LCS games in years gone by. They have the Astros-Mets 16 inning game (aka, the best postseason game like ever) up to watch for free among others.

So, in my English class, I dropped doing the Neil Gaiman graphic novel and inserted the erstwhile The Catcher in the Rye. Today, I found out that I have my first parent complaint. Apparently, the notion that said book is pornographic and obscene is still alive and well despite nothing very pornographic nor obscene actually occuring in the book; the ONE time a prostitute shows up, all Holden wants to do is talk. One thing I really don't understand is that the first book we did, Of Mice and Men went completely unchallenged despite it having, at least I think, more material that could be considered vulgar or in bad taste than CITR-the men frequently reference going in to town to get whores, the 'n' word is used many, many times among other vulgar language, Curley has a glove full of vaseline that he's using to keep his hand soft 'for his wife', there's implied/presumed rape and assault, and a mentally handicapped man gets shot in the back of his head. The whole situation just irks me.

Based on Roger's performance tonite, I think the Astros just found their #2 starter for 2008.

Talk about pressure. Yeesh. I'm worried about the state of Joe Torre's job. Roger Clemens hasn't pitched in a couple weeks, his hamstring's bothering him, and, for as good of a pitcher as he's been in his career, his postseason numbers are good, but not blow-you-away type stats. (12-8, 3.66 ERA). The last time Clemens pitched in the postseason on a bad hamstring, he lasted 2 innings against the White Sox and gave way to Wandy Rodriguez. When was the last time all four Division Series ended in 3 game sweeps?

Baseball Prospectus Icanhascheezburger Pitchforkmedia Baseball-Reference Wikipedia

So, is anybody at all planning on watching "Frank TV"? I was under the impression that promo commercials were supposed to make you WANT to watch something. The promos for "Frank TV" not only make me not want to watch that show, but they also make me not want to watch postseason baseball on TBS so I don't have to see the same five or so unfunny commercials fifty times an hour. If it wasn't so much fun watching and listening to the ever increasing frustration of the Wrigley crowd, I'd not watch at all just on general principle.

My girlfriend and I watched the pilot online about a month ago. We thought it was really good. I like its charm and quirkiness and I hope it doesn't end up getting cancelled prematurely like a lot of shows of its ilk do.

I was waiting for that to happen.

Hrm...I don't think managers do all that much to contribute to a team's wins above and beyond the talent level of that team. However, I figured I might as well go with the guy who manages the team that, despite giving up more runs than it scored, won 11 games more than they were projected to win, lead the league in wins, and did it on the relative cheap with lesser-known players. The part in parentheses wasn't meant to be attatched to Bob Melvin himself, but to the worthless, fanless Dbags in general.

I'll go: Indians over Yankees in 5 Sox over Angels in 5 Phillies over Rox in 3 The cracker-ass worthless fanless Dbags over Cubs in 4

I'm not on the Rockies bandwagon, but winning 14 of their last 15 games to clinch a playoff spot is a pretty amazing accomplishment. The Phillies are gonna beat up their weak-ass rotation, though. Hopefully Jorge Julio is still fresh enough to pitch in Game 1. My God, putting in Jorge Julio in a game that your entire season depends upon? Honestly? Zuh? That was a close one there, Clint.

Hey! Of the CDs I've heard that came out this year, I'm not sure what numerical order I'd put them in except that LCD Soundsystem-'Sound of Silver' is definitely number one. Other good 2007 releases I've heard include: Iron and Wine-'The Shepherd's Dog' (Sam Beam goes for a more expanded sound and it works out well. Really good.) The National-'The Boxer' (Not as good as 'Alligator', but still quite good. The National seem to be on the verge of getting hugely popular a little bit.) Okkervil River-'The Stage Names' (Really good Austin band. Really, really good.) Wilco-'Sky Blue Sky' (Not overly experimental, just really solid music from maybe the most talented band going right now.) Band of Horses-'Cease to Begin' (Nothing overly adventurous, but, like Wilco, really solid album full of really solid songs.) Sunset Rubdown-'Random Spirit Lover' (I've listened to it a couple times. I enjoy it thusly.) Liars-'Liars' Panda Bear-'Person Pitch' Menomena-'Friend or Foe' Andrew Bird-'Armchair Apocrypha' Uh...there's other I've forgotten. I didn't list the new Arcade Fire because I didn't find it very good. "Intervention" is still a great song, but other than that I have no desire to ever listen to any of it again. I haven't heard the new Devendra Banhart yet, but I'm sure I'll enjoy its freaky weirdness.