Houston Astros

Houston Astros

2005 ATL Season Review

by "Alamo" Colt
Legends League correspondent
Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball

Nowhere To Go But Up


This season was kind of like that last family reunion - started out nicely enough, everyone walking around exchanging pleasantries, then suddenly WHAMWHAMWHAM - beaten around, smacked about, and ending up being forcibly exiled to the basement, thinking, "What the hell did I do to deserve that bad a beating?"

After picking Nolan Ryan in the draft, the staff was pretty excited. We thought, "Hey, great - arguably the best pitcher of all time. It can only get better from here." WERONNNG!
I grabbed a few favourites - most notably Keith Hernandez - and then kept on picking up some of my favourite 1980s stars, turning up my nose at "the old guys." Wow - those "old guys" sure got around OK, mostly on Ryan fastballs, but rippin' around the ol' canvas at Minute Maid too.


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"So, has the smoke settled yet?"

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There just isn't a cliche appropriate to the situation - well, maybe, "Someone's gotta finish last." This year just wasn't much fun - at least not on the field. The 'Stros finished 48-81, an ATL-record 35 games back of first-place Cincinnati, and likely set another futility record by scoring 194 runs less than their opponents this season.

The team MVP was probably either Tony Gwynn, batting his usual .300-plus, or Paul Molitor, playing third with reckless abandon and batting .279. "Molly" batted second most of the way, behind Tony Gwynn and in front of Hernandez, with Puckett or Bell batting cleanup.

At the beginning of the season, it was "The Express." By season's end, we had turned to "Sid The Squid" as our saviour. That says it all from the pitching department - any time the hitters could muster a consistant rally to score more than one consecutive run, the pitching staff would usually gift-wrap it and hand it right back.

I began to think of hiring Lou Brown (of "Major League" fame) as the manager just so he could ream out the pitching staff;

"WITH YOU GUYS, IT'S EITHER AN ARM THING...OR A MENTAL THING...OR A RELIGIOUS THING...OR A HEART ATTACK . . ."
"Who used 'heart attack', skip?"
"Me." (thud)

No bright spots on the pitching staff at ALL...well, I exaggerate - there was closer Rick Aguilera. He didn't get a lot of save opportunities, but I can safely say that, when the Astros nursed a lead into the ninth inning, we stood as good a chance of holding on to win as anyone in the league.

So, when it was obvious that the year was sunk, I snapped.

"That's it. CLEAN HOUSE!"

I figured, hey, I'm losing without my favourite players - most of them former Toronto Blue Jays. I might as well lose with them - so I went nutso, traded my arse off, acquired Olerud, Alomar, Barfield, Carter, Key, Stieb, Leiter, Ward and more...and darned if we didn't win 6 of our last 10 to finish the season.

Hmm...a glimmer of hope for next season?

We'll see. There's a rumour floating around that the team might be changing names and divisions - but nothing's been decided for sure yet. One thing's for sure - nobody in Houston will be too sad to forget this season.

The good news? It's a totally new team, a totally new season, and so it's like starting over all over again . . . nowhere to go but up.
 
Awards Won by Astros Players

Johnny Bench
Gold Glove

Legends League


Team Batting -- 2005 Houston Astros


S Name P AVG OBP SPC G AB H 2B 3B HR R RBI BB K HBP IW SB CS
n Johnson,H# 3b .500 .500 1.000 1 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
n Ashby,Al# c .444 .444 .556 2 9 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Kling c .400 .400 .400 9 10 4 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 1
Jones,T* cl .400 .333 .600 58 5 2 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
Veres mr .357 .357 .357 57 14 5 0 0 0 4 1 0 6 0 0 0 0
Gwynn* rf .318 .352 .383 127 509 162 16 7 1 55 38 29 23 1 0 9 6
Menke ss .308 .390 .577 32 52 16 5 0 3 11 8 7 6 0 0 0 0
Alomar,R# 2b .306 .394 .425 46 160 49 5 1 4 19 25 25 16 0 0 11 1
Pena,T c .295 .337 .423 35 78 23 4 0 2 6 12 5 14 1 0 1 0
Hernandez,K* 1b .288 .381 .455 134 420 121 30 5 10 58 67 66 63 2 0 2 4
Thigpen cl .286 .286 .286 46 7 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Molitor dh .277 .334 .408 150 559 155 34 9 7 67 64 48 65 1 2 16 11
n Suzuki,I* cf .276 .353 .392 78 319 88 13 3 6 38 26 31 24 8 1 12 9
Bell,Ge lf .271 .302 .393 43 140 38 6 1 3 19 19 5 27 2 0 3 0
Puckett cf .263 .284 .416 133 567 149 25 7 16 65 54 15 74 2 0 8 6
Fernandez,T# ss .259 .311 .333 154 549 142 21 7 2 49 58 44 39 1 1 14 4
Canseco rf .255 .321 .647 32 51 13 1 2 5 12 11 4 7 1 0 3 0
Parrish,Lan c .250 .308 .528 19 36 9 2 1 2 4 6 3 11 0 0 0 0
n Chambliss* 1b .246 .299 .443 36 61 15 3 3 1 11 11 5 9 0 0 2 0
Baines* dh .234 .324 .430 83 128 30 6 2 5 22 15 16 15 1 1 0 0
n Randolph 2b .227 .355 .329 92 277 63 9 2 5 36 26 53 33 3 0 10 2
Clark,Wi* 1b .227 .227 .227 13 22 5 0 0 0 2 2 0 5 0 0 0 0
Santiago c .220 .289 .439 23 41 9 1 1 2 5 10 4 6 0 0 0 0
Henderson lf .217 .302 .329 51 152 33 7 2 2 21 11 19 32 0 0 8 3
Olerud* 1b .215 .312 .266 29 79 17 4 0 0 14 6 11 4 1 0 0 0
n Staub* rf .205 .300 .349 76 166 34 3 3 5 18 21 22 19 1 1 0 0
n Bench c .201 .259 .328 89 314 63 11 1 9 35 35 25 64 0 0 4 2
Garner 2b .200 .257 .352 46 105 21 6 2 2 12 11 8 9 0 0 1 2
n Aguilera cl .200 .200 .200 41 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
n Edwards* c .197 .305 .310 28 71 14 3 1 1 9 11 10 8 1 0 0 0
n Valenzuela* sp .161 .156 .161 20 31 5 0 0 0 2 1 0 7 0 0 0 0
Lansford 3b .111 .172 .111 18 27 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 5 2 0 0 0
Charlton# mr .091 .167 .091 44 11 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 6 0 0 0 0
Barfield rf .091 .091 .091 6 11 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 0
Stieb sp .087 .087 .087 11 23 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0
Ryan,N sp .085 .115 .119 31 59 5 2 0 0 2 6 2 23 0 0 0 1
Hampton sp .069 .129 .069 20 29 2 0 0 0 1 1 2 12 0 0 0 0
n Torrez sp .069 .176 .069 19 29 2 0 0 0 3 1 3 9 1 0 0 0
Lavelle# mr .059 .059 .059 61 17 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 9 0 0 0 0
Wells,D* sp .056 .053 .056 9 18 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 0 0 0 0
n Cuellar* sp .032 .032 .032 18 31 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 0 0 0 0
Carter,J rf .000 .000 .000 6 11 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 0
Fernandez,S* sp .000 .091 .000 8 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 0
Key sp .000 .048 .000 9 19 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 5 1 0 0 0
Leiter* sp .000 .000 .000 10 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0
n Reuss* sp .000 .000 .000 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
n Smith,D cl .000 .000 .000 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Timlin mr .000 .000 .000 13 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Ward cl .000 .000 .000 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total .250 .312 .368 154 5254 1312 220 60 93 608 572 464 706 30 6 104 52



Team Pitching -- 2005 Houston Astros


S Name P ERA W L S G GS CG SHO INN H R ER BB K HR GDP BF
n Reuss* sp 1.50 1 0 0 3 1 1 0 12.0 10 2 2 3 4 0 1 47
Ward cl 2.02 2 0 10 14 0 0 0 13.1 9 3 3 8 11 0 0 56
n Aguilera cl 2.54 6 6 14 41 1 1 0 60.1 44 17 17 20 43 7 8 239
Stieb sp 3.58 4 3 0 11 11 2 1 70.1 78 28 28 26 47 8 4 316
Thigpen cl 3.64 1 1 0 46 0 0 0 66.2 62 30 27 35 45 8 4 296
Key* sp 3.77 6 2 0 9 9 1 0 62.0 56 28 26 19 34 6 4 262
Lavelle* mr 3.99 4 1 1 61 1 0 0 108.1 104 57 48 53 64 9 6 477
Jones,T cl 4.14 7 3 2 58 0 0 0 67.1 61 40 31 28 57 13 4 293
Fernandez,S* sp 4.28 0 5 0 8 7 1 0 40.0 36 22 19 27 31 5 2 184
Timlin mr 4.41 1 4 0 13 0 0 0 16.1 19 10 8 8 15 2 1 75
Leiter* sp 4.63 1 5 0 10 7 0 0 46.2 59 31 24 23 29 2 1 225
Veres mr 4.68 3 5 2 57 0 0 0 92.1 96 56 48 51 61 17 4 418
Hampton* sp 5.15 1 10 0 20 17 2 0 101.1 117 71 58 48 44 11 13 460
Ryan,N sp 5.16 7 14 0 31 31 2 0 178.0 147 107 102 98 173 25 12 771
n Cuellar* sp 5.23 3 8 0 18 18 2 1 103.1 124 68 60 34 64 10 5 464
Wells,D* sp 5.33 2 6 0 9 8 2 0 50.2 51 32 30 17 23 6 3 218
Charlton* mr 6.21 2 5 0 44 4 0 0 66.2 82 56 46 46 52 8 5 325
n Valenzuela* sp 6.90 4 11 0 20 20 1 0 101.2 144 84 78 49 79 16 4 495
n Torrez sp 7.01 3 6 0 19 19 1 0 93.2 117 82 73 43 47 21 5 437
n Smith,D cl 9.95 0 1 0 5 0 0 0 6.1 10 7 7 2 7 4 0 31
Total 4.87 58 96 29 154 154 16 4 1357.1 1426 831 735 638 930 178 86 6089



n=non-roster at end of year


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