When the Houston Astros signed Woody Williams to a 2-year contract before last season for around $6 million per year, there weren't many people that thought it was a good idea. After a disastrous season in which Williams put up an ERA of over 5.00 and gave up 35 homers (the most he's allowed since 2001) followed by a very poor spring training (11.32 ERA this spring), even the Astros are regretting the move. Today, they released Williams and Williams followed up that news by announcing his retirement. From the Dallas Morning News:
"This is the first day of the rest of my life without playing, without baseball," Williams told Houston television station KRIV. "I signed with the Astros with the plan to finish my career here. I am not going anywhere else."
If Williams is indeed done, and at the age of 41 he probably is, then he's done after a 15- year career with 2200 career big-league innings and a record of 132-116. Perhaps most impressively, he'll have made $56 million over his career after the Astros pay him his $6 million for this year. Not too bad for a guy with a career ERA+ of 102, which is only slightly above league average.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
Boston Red Sox (72-48) vs. Los Angeles Angels (70-49)-7:05PM Est.
This is actually the second game of a double header-the first game being at 1:05PM eastern-but the more interesting pitching matchup takes place in the night cap. Neither team has been playing up to their own expectations as of late, but they still have the two best records in the American League. Josh Beckett will take to the mound for the Red Sox looking to become the first pitcher in baseball to reach 16 wins. If he's going to do it, the Red Sox will have to win Game 1 as John Lackey will also look for his 16th win this afternoon. More important than Beckett's win total is the distance between the Red Sox and Yankees. The Red Sox have seen their lead shrink to 5.5 games, but the Yankees have lost three in a row and Boston would like to capitalize on it. For the Angels, tonight's game marks the return of Ervin Santana from purgatory (also known as the minor leagues). I'm not sure why the Angels would want to bring Santana back in this game, after all, he's terrible on the road. In three starts against the Red Sox, Santana is 1-2 with a 7.47 ERA. In 11 road starts this season, he's 1-9 with an 8.79 ERA. In other words, the Angels are really counting on John Lackey to handle game one.
Say you're the GM of a 40-55 team that's found themselves in last place of what is arguably the worst division in baseball. Do you think admitting that you have no idea why your team sucks is a good idea? Because for some reason, Tim Purpura does. From the Houston Chronicle:
"It's totally unexpected," he said while working the phones from Houston. "In some ways, you can't believe that we are where we are given the kind of talent that's on the club."
[...]
"Even at the All-Star Game," Purpura said, "a number of people from other clubs said, 'Don't give up because you're a lot better than you're showing,' and they point to the fact we swept Seattle and they went back and got in the race.
Why are the Astros bad this year? Hmm. It could have something to do with losing Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte and somehow thinking Woody Williams and Jason Jennings would replace them, putting Craig Biggio's run at 3,000 hits before the team's success, starting the season with Hunter Pence in AAA, Lance Berkman getting older, Mike Lamb and Mark Loretta not having regular positions while Morgan Ensberg and Adam Everett (when he's healthy) do, and having a crappy bullpen. Or it might just be really bad luck that no one could've ever seen coming. Really, it could be either or. I'm on the fence myself.
On Deck is The FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
New York Yankees (41-42) vs. Los Angeles Angels (52-34)-FOX 3:55PM Est.
I had a tough time picking today's "featured" game in today's On Deck. Looking at the matchups, there just isn't anything all that great to choose from. The Tigers/Red Sox game stood out, but I did that yesterday and I like to keep things fresh here. So I just had to settle on the Yankees and Angels because it's on national television and there are two good pitchers in this one. The Angels usually dominate the Yankees in New York, including a sweep earlier this season, but the Bombers were able to get one from them last night. Roger Clemens looks to get win #351 of his career this afternoon, and get the Yankees back to .500 again. Twenty-nine of those 351 wins have come against the Angels, more than any other team Roger's faced. He's 29-9 with a 2.65 ERA against the Halos. Of course, if he doesn't win today, I'm sure he won't turn down the $3 million or so he's making for this start. John Lackey will try to stop him and become the third pitcher in the AL this season to get 12 wins before the All-Star break. He hasn't done quite as well against the Yankees, sporting a 4-6 record and 5.35 ERA against them in his career.
If you're any fan of baseball, you've surely noticed a somewhat disproportionate amount of over-the-hill pitchers this year. There's Roger Clemens still holding on for dear life, Kenny Rogers battling injuries and Greg Maddux plugging right along, to name a few.
They all have a certain amount of sticktoitiveness and if they can still bring it, more power to them, no? But here's something rather fascinating: tomorrow will mark the first time seven pitchers above the age of 40 will start a game.
The New York Yankees' Roger Clemens (44), Philadelphia's Jamie Moyer (44), Detroit's Kenny Rogers (42), San Diego's Greg Maddux (41), the New York Mets' Tom Glavine (41), Houston's Woody Williams (40) and Atlanta's John Smoltz (40) are set to pitch on the same day.
The previous record of six was set last Friday, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, when all but Clemens started.
You've probably seen it by now. The Houston Astros ended their losing streak at 10 last night by crushing the Reds 10-2. As the score indicates it was a thorough beating full of things that Astros fans expected to see a lot of this year, but have been sorely lacking recently. These things include Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee killing the ball, Woody Williams not completely sucking, and Brad Lidge looking good out of the bullpen.
It seems ludicrous to ask this since the Astros record is still only 22-31, but now the question is whether or not the Astros have played themselves out of the NL Central. After their ten game losing streak, their win last night puts them only one game behind the second place divisional cluster with the Pirates, Cubs, and Cardinals, who all stand 6.5 games behind the Brewers. Incredibly, it's still too early to write the Astros off this year.
Of course in order for the Astros to stay in the mix of things in the NL Central, they've gotta win some games. To open up June they've got games against the Cardinals, White Sox, Cubs, and A's. Not a lot of great teams, but not a lot of bad teams either. Houston has been incredibly streaky this year. Even though they just lost ten in a row, it wouldn't seem crazy to be sitting here in two weeks talking about how they've just won 8 of 10 and closed the gap on the Brewers to three games. Or that they've kept losing and fallen behind the Reds in the division. And this is why the NL Central is worth watching. It's not good, but it's fun and it's unpredictable. Photo Credit: Getty Images
How many home runs is too many to give up in one game? Two? Four? Six? Six is definitely too many. I don't think teams hit six home runs too often. I don't know the stats, but I can't imagine too many baseball teams win games after they give up six home runs. The Houston Astros will certainly vouch for me. They gave up six homers today and lost to the Rangers 14-1. Let's hit up the home run roll call from today:
Woody Williams served up three dingers in his four innings of work.
Rick White only gave up one in his three innings of work. Gold star for Mr. White.
Trever Miller gave up none, but he only pitched two-thirds of an inning. No gold star, that's what he's supposed to do.
Brian Moehler gave up two in an inning and a third. Not so good.
Mark Teixeira and Victor Diaz accounted for two-thirds of the six bombs by hitting two apiece. Kenny Lofton and Ramon Vazquez (who had five RBIs in this one) finished out the yard work.
The loss that Woody Williams took was his sixth, to go with only win win on the year. He actually only struck out two more batters than home runs allowed. That's generally a bad sign for any start. I know Williams is a respected veteran and the Astros are paying him handsomely and all, but he's 1-6 with a 5.52 ERA. They've gotta try to do something with him because he's clearly not getting the job done.
The Houston Astros have been having trouble scoring runs lately. That's no secret. They're so desperate to do something about it that they called up top prospect Hunter Pence to try and add some pop to the lineup. Even with Pence in the lineup today, they turned in one of the most pathetic performances in recent memory when they loaded the bases against the Brewers' Claudio Vargas in the third, fourth, and fifth innings and emerged with no runs. That's not a typo, they loaded the bases three innings in a row and didn't score once. In fact, they loaded the bases with only one out in both the fourth and fifth innings and didn't score. I don't even know what the odds on that happening have to be, but it's gotta be astronomical.
Needless to say, the Brewers won today 3-1 and at least some credit should certainly go to the man that stranded all the runners, Claudio Vargas. From the wire report:
"Sometimes, you focus a little bit more when we get into that situation," Vargas said. "That's the place where you have to make the pitches and get out of it for the club."
Someone needs to give Claudio a little bit of incentive to concentrate before the bases are loaded, I think. He only made it five innings today because those five innings took him 98 pitches, which is what happens when you load the bases that much. The Brewers' pen shut down the Astros over the last four, though, only allowing a Mike Lamb solo homer (which is fitting). The Brew Crew offense came from a Geoff Jenkins solo homer and RBI hits by Tony Graffanino and JJ Hardy. Those all off of Woody Williams, who continues to be old and not worth the $6 million the Astros are paying him. He falls to 0-4, though he did lower his ERA to 5.66.
The Fanhouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups Seattle Mariners (5-4) vs. Minnesota Twins (8-5)-10:05PM Est.
Something tells me that Felix Hernandez doesn't have to worry about his opponent on the mound stealing all the pre-game spotlight from him. Hernandez makes his first start since one-hitting Boston in his duel with Dice-K last week. In two starts this season, King Felix has thrown 17 shutout innings and only allowed 4 hits while striking out 18. If he can keep the Twins off the board on Wednesday night he'll be the first pitcher since Woody Williams in 2003 to start three games without allowing a run. Anytime you're being mentioned with a name like Woody Williams, well, you are in an elite class my friend.
Chicago White Sox (5-7) vs. Texas Rangers (6-7)-8:11PM Est.
We know that Sammy is going to be booed again tonight, the question is whether or not Sosa will be the only one hearing the boos. The White Sox offense is off to a horrible start this season. After being one of the most potent lineups in baseball the last few seasons, the Sox are hitting only .215 and have scored only 39 runs. If it wasn't for some very solid starting pitching, they would probably be 3-9 right now.
Milwaukee Brewers (7-6) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (6-6)
The Pirates are road warriors. After being one of baseball's worst road teams last season, the Pirates are off to a 6-2 start away from PNC Park this season, and are coming off of two straight wins in St. Louis. Milwaukee is looking to rebound from their disasterous seventh inning on Tuesday win which they lost to Cincinnati.
Here's a predictable story for you: the Houston Astros took a two run lead into the ninth inning this afternoon and with Dan Wheeler taking over for Brad Lidge as closer they actually held on to it. Wheeler retired the Cubs in order in the ninth tonight to pick up his first save of the season and preserve the Astros' 5-3 win over the Cubs.
Of course, as much of a relief as it was for Astros' fans to see Wheeler nail down the ninth, Cubs' fans again had to suffer through a bullpen meltdown. After falling behind 3-0 through five innings the Cubs fought back to tie the game at 3 going into the eighth, only to watch Bob Howry surrender a two run homer to noted home run hitter Adam Everett (six in 566 PAs last year) and give the Astros their margin of victory. That's the second time in the past seven days that Howry has been part of a Cubby bullpen failing, if you're counting at home.
Let's see, what else happened here... Ted Lily pitched pretty OK in his second start as a Cub (six innings, six hits, three runs, five Ks, one walk), but wasn't nearly as dominant as he was in his first start. Woody Williams was much improved over his first start for the 'Stros, but he was pretty awful in his first start so pretty much that just means he was OK. Craig Biggio had two doubles and scored twice for Houston. That gives him eight hits on the year and puts him 62 shy of 3,000. I would ask if you could feel the excitement, but this whole thing kind of feels like the steamroller scene in Austin Powers to me.
When the Houston Astros signed Woody Williams to a 2-year contract before last season for around $6 million per year, there weren't many people that thought it was a good idea. After a disastrous season in which Williams put up an ERA of over 5.00 and gave up 35 homers (the most he's allowed since 2001) followed by a very poor spring training (11.32 ERA this spring), even the Astros are regretting the move. Today, they released Williams and Williams followed up that news by announcing his retirement. From the Dallas Morning News: 
Say you're the GM of a 40-55 team that's found themselves in last place of what is arguably the worst division in baseball. Do you think admitting that you have no idea why your team sucks is a good idea? Because for some reason, 
If you're any fan of baseball, you've surely noticed a somewhat disproportionate amount of over-the-hill pitchers this year. There's 
You've probably seen it by now. The Houston Astros ended their losing streak at 10 last night by 
How many home runs is too many to give up in one game? Two? Four? Six? Six is definitely too many. I don't think teams hit six home runs too often. I don't know the stats, but I can't imagine too many baseball teams win games after they give up six home runs. The Houston Astros will certainly vouch for me. They gave up six homers today and lost to the Rangers 14-1. Let's hit up the home run roll call from today:
The Houston Astros have been having trouble scoring runs lately. 
Here's a predictable story for you: the Houston Astros took a two run lead into the ninth inning this afternoon and 
