Happy New Year!

Another year. Another season. Another chance. You never know what the new year will bring.

Just a few weeks until it's time to buy tickets for Spring Training. Just a few more weeks until pitchers and catchers report to Kissimmee. And just a few weeks after that, it will be time for ME to report too! There's still a bit of snow on the ground here in Maryland, but I can picture that field of green. It never fails to bring a smile.

I'm not making any predictions about what 2010 will be like for the Astros, or even for myself, my family, my friends, my company, the country or the world. Who knows!? But I hope that it's a good one for you all. And maybe I'll see you at Spring Training? HAPPY 2010!

Hot Stoves

Another cold, rainy Sunday, with no ballgames to watch. (I brag about being the only native Texan to have escaped the football bug.) But in keeping with the "hot stove" theme, and the dismal weather, I've got three burners of my stove going, with pots of whole wheat berries and various dals cooking. On the baseball side of the hot stove, there's plenty of recent news, as Ed Wade & Co are reshaping the team for next year.

It's hard for me to really comment intelligently on the changes, since I don't really know the new players well. My personal 27 cents on the personnel moves will have to wait until I get to Kissimmee in March. The Astros set some goals for the offseason - add to the bullpen, score a third baseman, all without spending too much, or making too many long-term commitments. Money freed up after Valverde jumped ship, with Hawkins right on his heels, when the Astros declined to make a multi-year offer. That opened up some funds for an offensive upgrade at third base, and heated up the need to add to the 'pen.

The first move was a trade with Florida - 3 minor leaguers (no hot prospects) for reliever Matt Lindstrom. Next, they signed a free agent, ex-Phillie Pedro Feliz to a one-year contract. Finally, they picked up Brandon Lyon as a closer in a three-year $15M deal. I'm going to have to do some reading up on these guys to get more of a sense of who they are, how they play, etc. And I'll also take a look through my old Spring Training photos to see if they appear in any, wearing Marlins, Tigers, or Phillies uniforms. If you're looking for more intelligent assessments, check out McTaggert or Footer's blogs. Or my blogging colleague Austin's Bottom Line - she's put some thought into all of this and netted it out with a seasonal "Bah, Humbug."

Overall a couple of observations: We're going to be fielding a younger team next year. (Well, we couldn't really have done otherwise - that was a squad that should have had a big party on Veteran's Day.)  Some of the youngsters may have growing pains, but some could also surprise us too. You never know with rookies. The way that the Astros tried to stick to short term contracts (costing them Valverde and Hawkins) looks like a team that's playing for time, as their much maligned farm system is slowly improving. Losing Valverde will give them a couple of extra draft picks, further investments in the future.

So, I'll admit that we might not be seeing the Astros in the playoffs in 2010. But we might get to see the bones of a future championship team start to develop, as some of the youngsters edge their way into the roster.  And it's probably going to be worth spending more time watching what's going on in Lexington and Corpus and Round Rock in the next few years. I'll have to do my homework before March, so I'll have a list of kids to photograph at the practice field.

Meanwhile, I'm posting some farewell pictures of Valverde on my Astros Daily Booth. He was always a fun guy to photograph - clowning around before Spring Training games, being ferocious out on the mound. I don't know if Lyon will be as entertaining in front of the camera. Let me know who else you'd like to see pictures of...

Life WIthout Baseball Games

It's cold and rainy out today - the same nasty weather as the last time I saw the Astros, back in May, at the rained out game against the Nationals. But unlike May, there are no games - rained out or otherwise - to watch today. The season is over. But all is not gloom and doom. It's time for awards for the good things that happened last year. It's time to rebuild for next year. And it's time for me to catch up on those hundreds of pictures that I took last year at Spring Training, and then got to busy to post.

Let's talk about awards for good things, starting with the Astros first Golden Glover outfielder since Cesar Cedeno. Michael Bourn's award caps a major career season, in which he topped the league in steals, bunt hits, and infield hits, and came in second for triples - all categories that reflect his speed on the basepaths. But his Golden Glove reflects his speed in the outfield, where he became a defensive monster this year, standing guard out in front of Tal's Hill. Great fielding isn't  enough to get the Glove though (remember poor Adam Everett?) - a golden bat helps too. After a terrible start with the Astros in 2008, Bourn was like a totally different player this season, and developed into the real leadoff batter that the team had hoped for.

It was one of those ironic twists that the two principals in the 2008 Phillies trade - Bourn and Lidge - traded places in fan favor this season. Lidge was last year's golden boy, with his perfect save record - who can forget the sight of him dropping to his knees after the last pitch of the game that won the 2008 World Series for the Phillies? Meanwhile Bourn struggled terribly his first year with the Astros, leading many fans to question Ed Wade's sanity for making the trade. This year, it all flipflopped - Bourn was the team MVP and the NL's Golden Glove outfielder, while Lidge went back to his pre-trade performance, marked by blown saves and a dismal ERA. I'm not gloating - I like Lidge and cheer for him (as long it's not against the Astros' interests). But I love a Cinderella story. Last year Lidge got his, and this year was Bourn's turn to shine.

Anyway, mazel tov to Bourn on a great achievement and well-deserved recognition. In honor of his Golden Glove award, I'm dedicating my Astros Daily Booth to Bourn this week.  This website is intended for users of Mac Photo Booth to snap pictures of their narcissistic little faces and post them every day for the world to see. But who wants to see me? Instead, I'm using it to post pictures of my guys. Every day I publish one or more photos of Astros from the collection of thousands that I've taken at Spring Training and the occasional regular season game that I get to. I think that I have enough pix to post for about 10 years without repeating - and then of course, I take more every year in Kissimmee. So go to my Daily Booth (http://dailybooth.com/astrosfaninxile) and enjoy the pictures. Let me know - here or over there - who else you'd like to see, once I've finished turning Michael Bourn into baseball god of the week. Left to my own devices, I'd probably post Bagwell pictures every day.

I'm trying to decide, this offseason, what is the right set of online tools to keep - the Astros Fan in Exile website, the blog, the Daily Booth, Twitter, or what? Each one has a different purpose, and they all kind of overlap. I'm considering moving my photo albums to a free site, and killing off the website, which is hosted on Homestead and (I think) too expensive for what I get. But one way or another, I'll be around to hang out with you - my fellow online Astros fans.

Dreamin' of Spring Training

The Astros Spring Training schedule is out. The World Series hasn't even started yet, and I'm already looking forward to March in Kissimmee. Even the malls wait until after Halloween to start with the Christmas decorations, but I start fantasizing about my annual trek to Spring Training 5 months ahead.

Given that the schedule is only tentative, with tickets not going on sale for a few months, I've only tentatively selected my dates - March 16-22. Maybe fly in through Tampa for Tuesday's away game against the Yankees (if I can get tickets!), spend the night with my cousins Jono and Heather, then head to Orlando for the Wednesday home game  against the Nats. After the game, head to the east coast for a night in Cocoa Beach to watch Thursday's shuttle liftoff (if it's not canceled). Spend the day at the beach or touring Nasa, since Thursday's an off day. Then back to Orlando for 4 home games from Friday through Monday - Blue Jays, Yankees again, Mets, and Cardinals. If I stay at my usual place, just a mile away, I can walk to the Sabbath game. With any luck, some of my other Astros blogger friends can go the same week, and we can finally meet!

Not sure who I can con into coming with me this year - my husband Robert can't take off work then. My sons have been there, done that. My daughters don't like baseball. I'm not even sure I can take off a week from work in mid-March, with Passover just a week later; it's hard to know what will be going on at the office so far ahead. But it's nice to start dreaming now - something to get through the long cold winter without baseball.

Meanwhile, I'm planning to cheer for the Phillies in the World Series. I really am.  I'm not just saying that to suck up to Bob (Chaos Scenario) Garfield.

True Confessions

Now that the season is over, it's time to 'fess up to a few things...

1. I don't really watch every game of the season. I aspire to do it, and I succeed in watching virtually all the games that are on weeknights and Sundays. But that part about watching the games that are on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays afterwards on the mlb.tv archive is only partly true - I just watch the archived game video for the games that the Astros win. When they lose while I'm out on religious observance (like the last 3 games of the season, which took place on Sukkot), I take a pass. At best, I watch a few of the highlights, but skip the gloomy ending.

2. I was wrong about Wandy. Ever since Spring Training I've been making confident claims about how this would be Wandy's breakout year, and how he was going to win 15 games. Well, it certainly was his breakout - he was by far the star of Houston's rotation this year. But he only won 14 games. It wasn't a statistic of his own making however, as there were several games --including his last start of the season -- where he pitched great, but didn't get a win out of it. With just a little help from his teammates, he probably would have had 17 or 18 wins. (There's always next year...)

3. I haven't really been a steadfast Astros fan since my childhood. In between my youthful fandom, back when I lived in Houston, and my more recent FANaticism, there were a bunch of years where I didn't follow the Astros that closely. I always cheered for my hometown team, of course, but I didn't know all the players or check on every game. There were a lot of years where the only real Astros news was a box score and one-sentence highlight in the Washington Post. Being a fan in exile has really become a possibility with the Internet. In the early 2000's, semi-realtime pitch-by-pitch game coverage made it possible to follow games live - and free. (Who wants to pay for radio?) Then came mlb.tv. My dad signed up for it in 2004 - quickly discovered that he was blocked from watching his local team, and passed me his account. I was hooked. From there is was just one step to annual treks to Kissimmee and spending 6 months in front of the computer watching games in HDD on my mlb.tv premium subscription.

4. I actually have sent fan mail to a player. I tell everyone that I never talk - or send fan mail - to players. But one time, I actually did send fan mail to a player. It was my favorite-Astro-ever Jeff Bagwell's birthday in May of 2005, and he was on the DL and scheduled for shoulder surgery. So I made a birthday card for him (reproduced below), using a doctored photo of his teammates during a Spring Training game and my Bagwell bobblehead with a band-aid on the right shoulder. I actually did send it to him, at the Astros stadium address. That's pretty much it for player fan mail. I don't talk to players at Spring Training either; I just take their pictures. I do send lots of notes and online-comments to sports reporters, especially my favorite Alyson Footer. But that's because I like to write about baseball, and I suck at playing sports, so sportswriters seem more like kindred spirits. And also, they sometimes write back.

5. I actually did believe that the Astros would make the playoffs this year. Well, not the last month of the season. For all that I claim that "it's not over till it's over" - when they are mathematically eliminated - there is a point where I accept defeat in my heart of hearts. But throughout the abysmal Spring Training and the lousy season start, I kept hoping. I was rocking when the Astros were 1 game out of the division lead in the second half. And I didn't stop hoping until they were pretty deep into their dive into oblivion.

6. I couldn't care less who wins the World Series this year. I told my sister Elizabeth in Denver that I'm cheering for the Rockies. I told my friend Ann from Minnesota-doncha-know that I'm cheering for her Twins. I told my dad, who grew up in Malden, Mass, that I'm cheering for the Red Sox. And I told my daughter-in-law's dad, who is a famous media commentator from Philadelphia, that I'm cheering for the Phillies. But actually, since the Astros aren't playing, I don't really care who wins in the playoffs -- as long as it's not the Yankees.

7. Some of my Spring Training photos are doctored. I'm not really a great photographer. I just take a whole lot of pictures, hoping that if 10% of them are in focus, I still have a lot of good Astros photos. Sometimes I get a lucky shot - like this one of the Nats' shortstop flying over Bourn sliding into second. But the picture I posted was cropped and then edited to fade out those annoying advertising signs in the background.

8. I don't really love Kissimmee. Come on, guys - it's the armpit of Orlando. A drive down US 192 (AKA Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway - he probably died from eating junk food on that road) is like Rockville Pike on an acid trip. And when you get to the western end of it, you're at freakin' Disney World, a big gigantic heap of cartoon mouse crap. So, I'm not all that into Kissimmee. It just happens to be the place I love to go more than just about anywhere in this hemisphere: Astro's Spring Training. I really do love Spring Training. The playoffs just started and I'm already looking forward to Spring Training. No, worse than that - the day I fly out of Orlando to go home from Spring Training, I'm already looking forward to the following March, when I can go back again.

It's just too bad that the Astros don't play somewhere nicer than Kissimmee. But it could be worse - they could be the Braves and actually play inside Disney World.

9. I'm not 100% sure about Baggy and steroids. Bagwell said he never did them, and I'm 99% sure I believe that. Maybe 99.9%. Everyone in the business says what a great guy he is, and you'd like to believe it when he said he didn't use them. But plenty of fans have had been disappointed when their favorite players came out of the PED closet. I remember back when Rafael Palmeiro got his 3000th hit in 2005, and two weeks later news came out about his failed drug test. My son, who grew up in Maryland and cheered for the Orioles, was really bummed out - he felt like his trust was violated. I don't care about The Rocket - he can lie his head off about it, and everyone knows he's guilty as sin. But Bagwell's my favorite Astro ever, and if it turns out that he was a liar and a cheat, it would break my heart.

10. I think the Astros are going all the way next year. Really. I really do. You can quote me on that.

Quite Dead... and Smelling Kind of Rotten

I know - it's totally out of character for me, but I have to admit: I'm kind of tired of this season. Actually, I'm seriously ready for it to end, so I can start thinking about how nice it will be to go to Spring Training next year. (As in "There's always next year" - what you say when your team kicks the bucket.)

Did I mention that we were eliminated over the weekend? Last night, after Rosh Hashanah ended, I immediately turned on my computer, thinking that I'd stay up late and watch all the games that the Astros won between Friday and Sunday. That turned out to be a very small set - none, actually - after their second consecutive series sweep. I was so tired of losing that I went to bed about 9:30 PM.

I'm probably not as tired of losing as Cecil Cooper is. Remember Coop? They guy who used to be the Astros manager? That's so yesterday. Today he's unemployed - a move by the Astros ownership that is sure to surprise no one at all. It's the price you pay when you have a team full of high-priced ostensibly capable players, who can't seem to get past 70 wins this season. After 8 consecutive unsuccessful tries to break 70, the fantasy of coming back to finish with a winning season has been supplanted by the image of just losing all the rest of the games. That would close out the year in a bizarre parallel of Spring Training, where the Astros got off to a record-breaking terrible start.

I'm actually not sorry about the loss of Cooper. He should be glad that he left before Monday night's loss, thus preserving his winning record as the Astros' manager (by 1 game). I hope that the next manager isn't addicted to sacrifice bunts - I don't usually second guess the managers, who know a lot more than I do about baseball. But I'm also tired of precious outs wasted in close games.

Tonight's game - the eighth loss in a row - was not a close one. The Cards won 7-3. Wandy got hammered. He gave up 6 runs in 5 innings on 9 hits. Three of the runs were in the first inning, so it was bad from the start. Wandy's stuck at 13 wins - he's going to have to get lucky to pull off those 15 wins I predicted for him this season.

I can't post without thinking of something to like. Here's one: Bud Lite had another good start on Friday night. The Astros lost, but that wasn't his fault.

Once we get past this series with the Cardinals (who haven't quite clinched, so the Astros have to at least pretend to be trying hard), I hope that they'll play more of the kids. I can squint and pretend it's Spring Training.

Not Quite Dead..

With 16 games to go, the Astros are just 2 games from elimination. Worse, they are 6 games under .500, and unless they turn things around, they stand a real chance of finishing the year with a losing record. They've spent most of the season in that situation, so it's nothing new. Still, it would be nice to surge a bit and come out as winners - statistically, at least.

Getting swept by the Reds was not a step in the right direction. After a long day in the proposal tank, I rushed home every night in time to catch at least half of the Cincinnati games, but was not well rewarded. I won't bother with the stats - just the bottom line: Swept away. The series ended with a game full of irony: The Astros hit 5 homers - and lost. Jeff Fulchino struck out 6 batters in the final two innings of Wednesday night's game - but threw a wild pitch that allowed the tie-breaking run to score. (It was Wright's runner, and he got the loss.)

Meanwhile, after breaking the franchise record for no-decision games in a season, Roy Oswalt hung up his glove and succumbed to the back injury that's plagued his last few starts. It was a lousy season for him - with just single digit wins, and a record book stat that he'd just as soon not have earned.

I have hoped to see a lot more of the minor leaguers, but Cooper's still playing his regulars for the most part, with occasional peeks at the new guys. The pitchers are getting some action, especially with some of the veterans out injured. Bud Norris is getting a regular start now, and is looking just fine. Yoman Bazardo got a start in Cincinnati too, and Sammy Gervacio is seeing a lot of action. The big dude Paronto came up to fill Oswalt's spot in the rotation. Towles is getting an occasional start, especially when his Round Rock teammate Norris is on the mound. But it would be nice to let the young position players into the game, especially against teams that are out of contention, like the Reds. There's a gang of infielders - Johnson, Manzella, and Maysonet - who'd all like a crack at a big league job next year. Maybe Tejada's?

I'm not going to get to see any more games until Sunday night, after Rosh Hashanah ends. I'll have to catch up on the series in Milwaukee after the holiday. By then, the Astros could very well be victims of the Big E.