For 2 years,  Astros fans such as yours truly have bemoaned "the trade" that sent Taveras, Hirsh & Buchholz to the Rockies for the bag of damaged goods that was Jason Jennings.  "You got us on that one" was the accepted wisdom.

However, within the last 2 days:

1.  Taylor blew a save to give the Astros a win.  (But we still want him back.)

2.  Latroy Hawkins had 2 big "holds", keeping his ERA at 0.00 over 14 games.  (OK, he was saved by a ground rule double that bounced into the stands last night & prevented the tying run from scoring, but he was due for some luck, right?)

3.  Alberto Arias pitched 5 shutout innings in his first ML start after being DFA'd by the Rockies.

The Astros moved to within 5 of the Wild Card, though they'd need a Rockies '07 stretch run to get there.

Maybe this is a higher power's way of evening things out for "the trade"?

OK, with Redman DFA'd and  Wells having embarassed himself and the organization, and De La Rosa still in the rotation, why isn't Jason Hirsh being brought back to the Major Leagues?

His record at Colo. Springs is inconsistent -- 3 good starts, 4 not good starts, too many walks.  But even if he's only decent half the time (and he should improve as he pitches his way back into shape), isn't he better than Redman or Wells?

Perhaps I missed something.  Why is Hirsh not being given a chance to go through the revolving door that controls the Rockies No. 4 & 5 starters?

I've seen that suggested several times in game threads.  I've been doing home renovation stuff in the evenings lately (getting the house ready to sell in anticipation of a move to Colo. in a few years) & haven't been able to join in those threads, so I thought I'd throw the Taylor-as-closer issue out in a separate fan post.

Using him as closer is tempting.  He's obviously the best relief pitcher the Rockies have this year.  He's got a good fastball & a better curve.  Corpas & Fuentes have multiple fails on their track records.   (Whoever ends up with Fuentes next year should just give him a 20-day paid vacation prior to the All Star break.  He's fallen apart at that point the last 2 years.)

But I don't think so.  Great set-up relievers do not always make good closers.  Watching TB-Bos last night & seeing Dan Wheeler (an excellent set-up guy for the Astros & now Rays) struggle to close a game in Troy Percival's absence -- Wheeler was bailed out by a Willie Mays-like catch by B.J. Upton & a stupid caught stealing by Mike Lowell -- reminded me of that.  The Astros tried the same thing last year when Brad Lidge hit a Fuentes-like fail streak.  It didn't work.  Wheeler just isn't a closer.

My view is that Buchholz has found his niche as an 8th-inning setup specialist, after years as an inconsitent starter.  Don't mess with success. It's not his fault if Corpas and Fuentes haven't done their jobs.

But I guess the best counter-argument is:  why not try him as closer this year, when the results don't really matter as far as a pennant is concerned?  Of course with JDLR and Redman in the rotation, the closing opportunities may be few and far between.  Being closer behind those 2 is kind of like being backup  SS on the Orioles in the '90s -- don't expect many opportunities.

There was discussion in the Thurs. night game thread about voting Bucky in as an All Star.  I said my daughter would like to vote for him 50 times or so.  Another poster noted, correctly, that there's no voting for All Star pitchers.

However, last year there WAS a fan vote for 1 pitcher position, the last player added.  Seems like 5 were nominated & Roy Oswalt put on the team by fan voting.

Anyone know if that's going to be done this year again or not?  If so, voting Bucky in might indeed be possible.  My daughter, who lacks a real summer job, would be willing to sit at the computer for hours on end trying to vote him in.

After Sundays game, 65 AB for the season, Wigginton is hitting .215, with a .288 OBP and a .308 SLG.  Terrible numbers, across the board.

Even accounting for his injury and projecting out his numbers to a 550 AB season, he'd hit 8.5 HR and have 34 RBI.  At a "power" corner position in a right-handed hitter's dream home park.

I understand the "be patient with the rookies" approach to Bourn and Towles, though I think even that can be carried to an extreme.

But I think the biggest "how long do we carry him?" roster question at the moment (on offense at least) is Wigginton.  This guy's no rookie.  No one expected him to be a superstar.  25 HR (with the short porch at MMP), 80 RBI would be fine.

He's not even close.  And he's below average (to be charitable about it) on defense.

How long should this guy get as a regular in the lineup?  100 AB?  Half-a-season?

Neither Blum or Loretta is an adequate replacement as a fulltime starter, at their ages.  Their offensive numbers aren't much better, though Blum's probably a slight upgrade on defense.  The 3B in RR is Mark Saccomanno, a journeyman who's no great shakes defensively, either.  Chris Johnson is doing pretty well at AA, but I doubt he's  major league ready.

So there's no obvious substitute available, but I'm sure getting tired of watching Wiggington do nothing.  Anyone else feel the same?

Wigginton was Purpura's last acquisition.  For Dan Wheeler.  Sigh.

Each ML team has 25 roster spots.  Those are valuable spots.  The idea is to have 25 players who contribute something to the team, or at least don't hurt the team.

In '07, Astros roster management was terrible.  Too much nonproductive deadwood that did more to hurt the team than help it:  Woody Williams, O. Palmeiro, Borkowski, Moehler (actually, he was kind of a neutral,  did OK as a mopup guy, but useless in game-on-the-line situations), Lane, Ensberg,  Ausmus (offensively).  Biggio as leadoff and no-range 2B didn't help, either, but let's not get back into that.  "Can't-hit-a-lick" Everett.

Give some marks for improvement this year:  Williams, Palmeiro, Lane, Ensberg, Biggio, Everett gone.

But there's still too much deadwood:  Borkowski & Moehler remain.  (Why carry ANY relief pitchers, much less 2 of them, who can't be trusted in game-on-the-line situations?)  "O." Palmeiro has been replaced by ".063" Cruz Jr.  Ausmus remains as an offensive liability.

Additionally, it's wasting one roster spot to carry both Blum & Loretta.  They're the same player:  old, limited range on defense, no power on offense, will hit .230 or less.  They fill the same role -- playing multiple infield positions on defense, can contribute an occasional timely hit off the bench on offense -- and are simply redundant.  Of the two, Blum's the keeper, because he's a switch-hitter and is the 3rd catcher.  Admittedly, that situation is not totally Wade's fault.   They offered Loretta arbitration hoping he'd decline & they'd get a sandwich pick for him as a  Type B free agent.  Unfortunately, the other 25 teams correctly evaluated his age and faded talent and no one offered him a job, so we're stuck with him.

That's really the key to evaluating these players.  Would any of the other 25 teams pick them up?  No one would take Cruz, Jr., who's already been dumped by the Giants, Dodgers and Padres in recent years.  The Astros are wasting a roster spot  on him only because ... well, we all know why.  I think Jose Sr. could outhit Jose Jr. if they swapped positions.  Moehler would clear waivers.  Some team would probably take a foolish flyer on Borkowski, but maybe we'd get lucky & it would be a team in the NL Central so we could crush HR's off him.

Time to bring up some of the AA guys (there's little talent in RR) & see if they can do better than the deadwood we've got.  They could hardly do worse.  Einerston or Iorg could hit .163 & be 100 points better than Cheito.  Tommy Manzella could hit .230 and be better (defensively) than Loretta.  Even a journeyman like Paz or Sadler would be better than Cruz Jr.

Until we get the deadwood that other teams won't touch off our roster, we're going to keep having washed-up, mediocre players losing games for us.  Cooper's basically competing with a 21-man roster against smarter teams (Exhibit A:  the Cardinals) who are productively using 25.  Over the course of the season, that will sink you.

The following excerpt is from an article on the Cleveland Indians' website about closer Joe Borowski (who blew a big save against the Red Sox Mon. night) being put on the disabled list (with a triceps strain) & who may replace him as their closer:

"Veteran righthander Jorge Julio (2.75 ERA) is the only other member of the Tribe's bullpen with extensive closing experience..."

Sorry if that brings back nightmares for anyone.  Corpas looks pretty good now, doesn't he?

... isn't getting the job done. The Cards won games 2 & 3 of the series because their bullpen did its job, and the Astros' pen did not.

Wade's off-season acquisition strategy was, given the dearth of good starting pitching available, stock up the bullpen with quality long relievers to make up for the innings that the thin starting rotation was not likely to pile up.

So far, not so good.  In Wed. night's game, 3 bullpen pitchers (Moehler, Borkowski, Villareal) gave up 1 run each in 1 inning each.  Geary gave up the winning run the night before in relief.  Valverde blew a save the night before by giving up 3 runs in the 9th.

Cards Bullpen 2, Astros 0.

Part of the problem here is who was retained.  Borkowski and Moehler are mediocre journeymen at best.  At most, one of them should be kept as an innings-eater, mop-up guy, but not both.  I'd rather see kids off the farm teams be given shots than to see those two slog through another season.

And other than Brocail and Wright, the new guys haven't impressed, either. Without a quality pen able to hold the opposition in late innings, it's going to be a long season.

Fernanco Nieve went 5 IP, 0 R, 1 H in his first start at RR.  That's really his first outing in a long time, since he was out with Tommy John surgery last year & missed most of Spring Training with a hamstring problem.

Give him a month to build up some arm strength, then bring him up to replact whoever's struggling the most.  And let's hope that's not Roy O.