I'M BAAAAACCCKKKKK!

It's been a long and grueling month in the proposal tank, getting home at midnight, working Sundays... but this one is winding down, and life is getting back to normal. At least for now. I'm over a month behind my game writeups, and no, I'm not going to try to catch up. I actually did get to watch most of the games late at night on the mlb.tv archive, but writing them up was beyond my energy level.

So cut to the chase. Now that we're past the All Star Game, with our record over .500, it's time to get traditional - that is, the Astros tradition of having a humongous second half. This year that will be a bit of a challenge; we have a tougher schedule than the earlier part of the season. But since no one really knows why this team has become such a second half powerhouse, it's hard to know if that's really a major factor.

Here's where we are, a few games after the All Star Game: Out in LA, where the Astros whomped the first-place Dodgers in their first couple of games. Thursday night Wandy threw a shutout, with a little bit of help from the bullpen. Then Friday night Oswalt pitched all all-but... if Pence hadn't lost a fly ball, resulting in a third-inning triple, that game would have been a shutout as well. Last night's game was a can't-win-'em-all mess, with iffy calls from the umps, a bizarre run-scoring error by Hampton, and Coop's ejection. Today's game doesn't start for another couple of hours, giving me some down time to write in my blog and to watch Friday night's game on the archive.

Did I mention that we're over .500? After a pretty awful start to the season, capped by Berkman's worst-ever performance, things started coming together over the last month, and the Astros chipped away at the deficit, series by series. By the All Star Break, we got to .500 - no longer a losing team, for the first time since the beginning of the season. Berkman, of course, got better. Tejada's been a hitting machine - fifth in the league in batting average, first in number of hits. Oswalt started being himself. Wandy is continuing on his way to a breakout season - which I've been predicting since Spring Training. And one of my favorite success stories this season: Michael Bourn has turned into exactly what the Astros hoped when they traded Lidge to get him -- a terrific leadoff batter. He's already passed his total number of runs scored from last year, he's leading the league in stolen bases - and triples too, and has one of the league's highest averages with RISP.

Roster changes: The Astros picked up Chris Coste from the Phillies, adding another catcher to the roster. Paulino was sent down to the minors, Wesley Wright is back up from Round Rock, with Chad Paronto right behind him to replace Sampson, who went on the DL (muscle spasms). Brocail is inching his way back from his stint on the DL. Berkman has sat out the last couple of games, due to a calf strain, but it's minor and he's day to day. But Erstad might be on his way to the DL with a strained hamstring in last night's game.

So there's a fair amount of churn within the team, as the Astros head towards the July 31 trade deadline. Lots of gossip going around about trade possibilities, but none that I've heard related to the Astros. Still, who knows? Wade likes to surprise us.

Midseason predictions: We're going all the way, of course! No surprises here, for anyone who knows me. I always stay the course until we're mathematically eliminated. That's the beauty of being a fan, not a sportswriter. Seriously, though, this team has been much maligned (I've pretty much stopped reading the blog comments on Astros.com) and doesn't deserve it. With no run-away team in NL Central this year, I have to like our chances.