Cooperstown, N.Y., is my favorite place on earth, and I’ve been to Amarillo. It’s spectacularly lovely, a small village of old homes, small shops and friendly people. It’s a Norman Rockwell painting come to life. Stress seems to melt away when you’re in Cooperstown. It’s also the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame [...]

Despite reports elsewhere, Jim Crane’s approval as the new owner of the Astros does not hinge on his agreeing to move to the American League. He’s going to be approved as owner because he’s willing to pay $680 million for the club, thereby raising every other franchise’s value. Let’s say he had been asked to [...]

What would you do if were Ed Wade? How would you handle the stress he must be feeling? Would you conduct yourself as professionally as he will? Could you? I’m not sure I could. Here’s the deal: The Astros are open for business, and the decisions made between now and the July 31st trading deadline [...]

This topic came up Monday when someone asked who would be on the Mount Rushmore for the Baltimore Orioles. My reply: Frank, Brooks, Earl, Cakes. Apparently, some people thought leaving Junior off was just about the dumbest thing they’d ever read. I agree. I also know who would have to come off. But I can’t [...]

Pam Gardner and Tal Smith have been Drayton McLane’s most trusted advisors for a long time. I’m guessing both of them will be fired within six months. Ed Wade was brought into an impossible situation. He arrived after the 2007 season to find no farm system, a mediocre major league team and an owner in [...]

Me: Are you going to fire Jimy Williams? Drayton: I don’t understand baseball. Do you? Baseball is sure a funny game. Me: Are you going to fire Jimy Williams? Drayton: How about those Baylor Bears? I think this is the year we beat Texas. You won’t like that, will you? Me: Are you going to [...]

You want the new guy to spend more money. Hey, I want the new guy to spend more money, too. I just want him to spend it in different places than you want him to spend it. I want more national scouts, more regional scouts. I want to give the good scouts raises. I want [...]

I’m pretty sure Ed Wade is going to be fired once the new ownership takes over. It’s not that he has done a bad job. It’s that the new guys may want a different way of evaluating players and rosters. That’s their right. It’s their team. But if Ed is allowed to make a case [...]

If Jim Crane wants to make a good first impression with Commissioner Selig, he’ll research the conversation that took place when George Bamberger came to Milwaukee and met his future boss for the first time. OK, I threw this topic out on twitter this morning, and some people ran with it. Surprisingly, quite a few [...]

I’m probably a lot like you in that I see the glass as half full. Even in the darkest of times, I can find something positive. I want to thank readers of this blog for their daily cheeriness, for forcing me to see what’s right with the world instead of what’s wrong. As LBJ once [...]

Stuff happens. That’s one of the lessons of this silly season. Jason Castro blows his knee out. Clint Barmes breaks a bone in his hand. Chris Johnson can’t find last season’s magic. One of the things a lot of us thought these Astros would be pretty good at would be pitching the baseball. We liked [...]

In the last decade, I’ve probably gotten two dozen emails complaining about customer service at Minute Maid Park or describing some special circumstance. Each time, the Astros responded like champions. Sometimes it was Drayton McLane himself. Other times it was Pam Gardner. But the Astros responded every time. Their message consistently was: (a) we appreciate [...]

Kaz Matsui, Pedro Feliz and Bill Hall will end up getting more than $24 million of Drayton McLane’s hard-earned money. If I’m Jim Crane the first thing I’d ask Ed Wade is something along the lines of: “What were you thinking?” And there’s Miguel Tejada. He got $30 million out of Drayton’s deep pockets. “Why, [...]

Chris Johnson surpassed all expectations last season when he finally got a chance to play everyday and hit .308 with 22 doubles, 11 home runs and 52 RBIs in 341 at-bats. He batted .316 against right-handed pitcher, .286 against lefties. He’s never going to be mistaken for Brooks Robinson at third base, but his defense [...]

Bud Norris believed he belonged in the big leagues the moment he arrived, and even though he has gotten roughed up a few times these last three years, he never stopped believing in himself. That kind of confidence can help a kid hang in there emotionally through tough times, but there’s a downside to it [...]

Listen, there are things Ed Wade can be held accountable for and things he can’t. If you take two steps back and a big gulp of air, you’ll see that the Astros were going to have a tough time contending no matter how shrewd his player evaluations. And they haven’t been very shrewd at all. [...]

I love the idea of the Astros playing in the American League because it has the potential to create a legitimate rivalry with the Texas Rangers. The Astros have never had a real rival because all the good ones are taken. Interleague play hasn’t really stirred anything between the Astros and Rangers because they play [...]

It looks like my little idea of having the Astros switch to the American League hasn’t exactly picked up any momentum the last 48 hours. It may not be completely dead, but I’d say there’s a greater chance of us getting a nice snowfall next week. For one thing, Drayton McLane is against it. For [...]

By this time next year, the Astros may be significantly better than they are today. Those changes could extend from the top of the masthead to the bottom of the roster. But if you’re expecting immediate change, you’re going to be disappointed. All indications are that Crane and CEO George Postolos will spend a long [...]

In Bobby Heck’s first year as scouting director of the Astros, he passed on Justin Smoak in the first round. The Astros went for Jason Castro instead, and it’ll be interesting to watch their careers evolve over the next few years. The Astros had high hopes for Castro this season, but a knee injury has [...]

It’s not just that the Astros are bad. They’re terrible all right, way worse than most us thought they’d be. I figured the rotation would be decent and the bullpen solid. Those two things right there are enough to give a team a chance to win a lot of games if they take care of [...]

How satisfying was last season given all you’d poured into that franchise? “What happened to us last year was magical and very special. It’s not too often you get to experience something of that nature. And so, it was extremely special for us. It was extremely disappointing not to win the World Series, but just [...]

Losing hasn’t changed the way you play, has it? “I look at everyday as an opportunity to get better. It’s not the result that we want right now, but it’s what we have. We’ve got to get better. To me, I’ve got to try and learn from everything that comes my way and find a [...]

The Astros had never won a postseason series when Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens arrived. On the day they arrived, expectations changed immediately. They didn’t talk about getting to the playoffs. They talked about winning in the playoffs. Clemens no longer had 97-mph stuff when he pitched his first game for the Astros in 2004, [...]

”The sun will rise, the sun will set and I’ll have lunch.”—Lou Gorman. The Astros are on a pace to lose 109 games and could end up being the National League’s second-worst team in the last 41 seasons. Since the Padres and Expos were added in 1969, only the 2004 Diamondbacks (51-111) have lost more [...]