(no subject)

[catslash]

Wooooow. The top of the ninth inning of the Astros game was some of the stupidest fucking baseball I have ever seen.

Clemens pitched through eight, giving up only a two-run homer. And in the ninth, the bullpen proceeded to hemorrage hit after hit after fucking hit, and then run upon run upon run. Here's how bad it was: Seven Reds players had reached base and four had scored BEFORE THE FIRST OUT. And then? A three-run fucking homer. I could not make this shit up if I tried.

Meanwhile, the offense was doing its part by - uh, getting shut out. For the ninth time this season. I don't feel like digging through more statistics right now, but I would not be surprised if a good chunk of those games were starts from Clemens.

Final depressing, ridiculous score: 9-0. Gee, at least it wasn't yet another no-decision.

And in case you were curious, for at least the next few hours, the Astros suck worse than Tampa Bay. But hey, at least they're better than the Rockies and the Royals.

Comments

[all-ahoo.livejournal.com]

I don't really follow the Astros all that much so I don't know anything about the offseason moves they made...can you explain to me how they made it to the postseason last season and yet suck so mightily this season? All I know is they got rid of Beltran, and that cannot be the only reason.

[catslash.livejournal.com]

No, I can't. I didn't follow the off-season much either, as I was too busy obsessing about the Red Sox - to be honest, the Astros fell right off my radar as soon as they lost the NLCS (aside from the occasional, "Dammit, Schilling vs Clemens would have been so awesome, too."), and I didn't pick them back up till this season started.

But I can tell you what I've observed since then, which is this: The only damn thing this team has going for it is its starting rotation. You're guaranteed a beautiful start every five days from Clemens, who is fucking insane on the mound and can even hit too (at one point today, he was up with the bases loaded, and I would have been overjoyed but not too surprised if he'd gotten a grand slam), and the rest of the rotation is pretty solid. Unfortunately, the offense has spent the entire season being Manny circa this time last week - I've made the "what's this long wooden thing and why is that guy throwing the round white thing at me?" crack so many times I could do it in my sleep. And the bullpen swings back and forth from being solid to being Alan Embree. I don't know what the hell is wrong with the offense, because in theory we have some good hitters, or so I've heard, and I can't even begin to address the bullpen, but I do know one thing: right now this team couldn't win if Clemens started every damn game.

The bats need to wake up. The bullpen needs to get it together. And frankly at this point I want Clemens off the damn team, because maybe if a THIRD OF THE FUCKING PAYROLL weren't tied up in his salary, we could get some cheap new talent (and a couple of prospects from the team who gets him) and shake things up. In my dream scenario, they'll trade Clemens and his ridiculous salary to the Yankees for Wang and Cano. It'll get the Astros some new blood, it'll free up the payroll, and yes it would mean that Clemens would be doing his lights-out thing for the Yankees, but it would also mean that once again they'd have thrown some very good young players away for yet another aging star and would ultimately hurt them far more than it would help.

*pantpant* That felt good. =D