Tag: astros

Oswalt anglin’ for some offense

Ok, Roy Oswalt has made news by surprising some people and making a trade request.  Surprising, I guess but the gist behind it was that the Astros aren’t going anywhere and he wants to play on a postseason team. 

Since that request, Oswalt pitched a dynamite game which he won against the Brewers.  Fox Sports Houston had an interesting twist on that game as it pertains to Oswalt in their opening sentence:

Roy Oswalt made a convincing argument for the Houston Astros to keep him in his first start since the team publicly acknowledged the ace’s trade request.

Funny, I saw it differently.  If I was a reporter and looking for an angle, maybe Oswalt was showcasing his talents for any takers out there in the market for a quality starter.  The cynical side of me, I guess.  In either case, both sides are downplaying the trade thing at the moment anyway.

In related news (maybe more related than we think) Andy from Baseball Reference has a post on how little support Oswalt is getting from the Astros’ offense.  Here’s the gist of it:

According to his neutralized pitching stats, Roy Oswalt deserves a .731 winning percentage this year, which projects to a 19-7 record for the season. Instead, he’s actually 3-6 with a .333 winning percentage.

He’s got the numbers to back it up on his post. 

I think good ol’ Roy wants some decent offense.  Maybe this is his way making his wished heard.

 

Not-so-random Baseball Birthday: Bob Knepper

Bob Knepper was born 56 years ago today.

Categories which Knepper has led his league:

Shutouts

6

1978

Fielding Errors

5

1979

Hit by Pitch

8

1980

Shutouts

5

1986

Fielding Assists

47

1986

Losses

17

1987

 

I always liked Bob Knepper but the one thing I remember about him was his inconsistency from one year to the next.  One season he would be 17-11 with a 2.63 ERA and the next he would be clobbered with a 9-12 record.  You never knew which Bob Knepper you would get.

Zambrano’s no-hitter: the medicine for what ails the Cubs

Mark my words, when they put out the video entitled "The Chicago Cubs’ 2008 Championship Season", Sunday’s night game will be portrayed as the "the game that turned things around" for the Cubs.

Carlos Zambrano hadn’t pitched in over 12 days due to a sore rotator cuff.  In his first day back, he no-hits division rivals Houston and allows only 2 base runners.  For good measure, he went 1 for 3 with a run scored.  It was pretty much a Carlos Zambrano show.  He even called for a pop-up that D Lee would have normally gotten.  Z is like that. 

It was first Cub no-no since Milt Pappas’ gem 36 years ago.  It was also the first no-hitter ever in a neutral park.  The only downside was that the game was not televised outside of Chicago.  But 23,000+ of the faithful showed up on short notice to cheer the good guys on.

At recent Cubs Conventions, Pappas had been telling Zambrano that he would be the next.

Every year at the Cubs Convention, Milt Pappas greets Carlos Zambrano with the same statement.

"He keeps telling me, ‘You will be the next one. You will be the next one,’" Zambrano said.

For the record for anyone who might be interested/worried, Zambrano threw 110 pitches.  That’s a high count for anyone let alone someone coming off a rotator cuff injury.  I bet Zambrano was flying through the last few innings though. 

Yes, Sunday’s game is the stuff legends are made and just what the Cubs needed.  Ted Lilly got the memo that the losing ways of the past is over.  He even attempted to emulate Carlos and nearly succeeded.  Lilly got through six without a hit today.  It didn’t matter that Mark Loretta got one through.  We won 6-1 and that magic number is rapidly dissipating.

Carlos Zambrano’s No-hitter Box Score