Yardbarker: Woody Williams

Baseball America ranks the Astros Top 10 Prospects: Progress rather than perfection (and I'm ok with that)

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:13:41 -0500

More photos » by Rob Carr - AP Browse more photos » Honestly, I was excited to read this. I was excited to see where the experts at Baseball America ranked our fledging group of farmhands that, to us at least, should be propelling the Astros farm system into a respected status. Instead, I was greeted with another reminder that it's easy to keeping kicking a man when they're down. I'm not tr...

Astros Type A Free Agents for 2010

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:44:05 -0500

Astros Type A Free Agents for 2010 Mlbtraderumors.com has a listing of players who are on pace to be Type A free agents. Currently, the Astros have three players (Tejada, Brocail, and Valverde) who would be Type A free agents, if the calculation were made now. In addition, LeTroy Hawkins is borderline and could be a Type A FA too. Four Type A free agents would be a lot, unless you are the Yankees who sometimes have that many Type A FAs. A Type A free agent can produce an extra first ...

Complete 2009 First-Year (Rule 4) Player Draft Primer

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:27:50 -0500

Starting at 6:00 p.m. (EDT), the 2009 MLB First-Year Player Draft, or Rule 4 Draft, will take place with the first round being shown live on MLB Network, and then subsequent rounds being covered on MLB.com. This year, the Draft will be the course of three days, as opposed to two in years prior.DRAFT DETAILS: 30 clubs select players in reverse order of won-lost records from the previous season (see image below for details). The Washington Nationals will have the first selection of the 2009 Dra...

Cubs Find a New Scandal

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:22:45 -0500

With their eye on the NL Central, the Cubs find a way to create their own scandal by blaming Cecil Cooper and the Astros for starting rookie pitchers against the Milwaukee Brewers..

D-Bag(s) Of The Week: The Astros Pitching Staff

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:59:35 -0500

This week's winner of the Douchebag of the Week Award was really tough to pick. We thought about Andy Roddick because of his lame "it was the Big Mac's fault excuse" but we gave him a pass. Ruslan Chagaev also got some consideration for backing out of his October heavyweight title unification bout with Sultan Ibragimov, allowing Evander Holyfield to take his place ... and possibly die in the ring. But in the end we found only one entity worthy of this lofty award. For the first time we have a group of people taking home the award. So congratulations to this week's winners, the entire Houston Astros pitching staff. This award is designed to go to the worst in sports every week, and you can't get much worse than the Astros hurlers were this week. On Sunday they combined to give up 18 runs (16 earned) in an 18-11 loss to the Padres, who possess one of the worst offenses in baseball. In their next game on Tuesday, they allowed 12 runs (10 earned) in a 12-4 loss to the Braves. Wednesday night they gave up 12 more (all earned) in a 12-3 loss and Thursday night they allowed 11 runs (all earned) in a 12-11 win in 14 innings. That's a total of 49 earned runs in just 39 innings, good enough for an 11.30 ERA. Let's go deeper inside the numbers shall we? -By giving up 11 runs in just 2/3 of an inning against the Padres, starter Jason Jennings became the first player since 1900 to allow 11 earned runs in a first inning. His ERA for the game was an astounding 148.50, and his season ERA went from 4.74 to 5.99 in just 39 pitches. -In four games so far this week, the starters have given up 31 runs (all earned) in 13 2/3 innings. That's good enough for a 20.41 ERA. -Reliever Matt Albers pitched 4 1/3 innings during the time frame, giving up seven runs, all earned. -Brad Lidge tossed 2 2/3 innings and gave up five runs, all earned and blew his fourth save of the year. -The staff combined to throw 185, 189, 157 and 257 pitches in the four games. That's 788 pitches in 39 innings, or 20.2 pitches per inning. -They surrendered 13 home runs over those four games. -In the 39 innings pitched, there were only six where an opposing batter failed to reach base. -They gave up two or more runs in an inning 13 times or once every three innings. -The Astros team ERA went from 4.56 to 4.83 over this stretch. -Here's the truly shocking statistic, after all of that, they still don't have the worst ERA in the National League. That distinction goes to the St. Louis Cardinals, who sit at 4.89, while the Astros are at 4.83. So here's to you Houston Astros pitching staff, your incompetence makes the rest of the league look damn good. Thanks.

Old Timers' Day

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:09:28 -0500

Today will be a first for the game of baseball. It will mark the first time that seven pitchers in their forties will start a game on the same day. Roger Clemens, Tom Glavine, Jamie Moyer, Greg Maddux, Woody Williams, John Smoltz and Kenny Rogers are all scheduled to start for their respective teams. The prior record of six was set last Friday when the same group of pitchers - minus Clemens - started.