As some of you may know, I frequent Cyn’s blog quite often.  Well yesterday when reading her blog I kind of got on the subject about David Ortiz making the ballot for the All Star team, but Thome not making the ballot because he is a DH and the game is being played in a National League Park, thus doing away with the DH in the All Star game.  Ortiz has currently played a total of 5 games or 35 innings at first base where Thome has played 1 game or 6 innings at first base.  What gives?  Thome’s stats are comparable to Ortiz and better in some categories(namely batting avg and home runs) and Ortiz is on the list at first base(when Youklis for the Sox is the everyday first basemen and isn’t on the list) and Thome is left off.  First of all, that’s a shame for Youklis who Cyn believes should be in contention for the All Star team.  Secondly, it’s a shame for Konerko who does actually play first base on a daily basis and has stats comparable to Ortiz(and like Thome, better in some categories).  I’m not trying to take anything away from Ortiz… he’s a great hitter and almost always comes through in the clutch.  If there was a spot on the Ballot for a DH, I’d be torn between voting him or Thome to the team, maybe giving Ortiz the edge because of his ability to come through in the clutch time and time again.  But there isn’t a spot on the ballot for the DH therefore Ortiz shouldn’t be on the ballot.  They need to have a minimum games played at a position in order for a player to be eligible for the All Star team.  Say 30-40 games or so.  As it is right now, Lance Berkman should be able to go play a game or two at 2nd base and start for the National League at 2nd base.  Let’s have Ensberg pitch a game for the ‘Stros, how could you then leave a "pitcher" off the All Star team when he has 18 home runs?  Of course I’m being sarcastic now just to prove a point…  maybe a weak point, but a point nonetheless. 

Once again, do away with the DH.  It has and will continue to ruin baseball. 

Let’s just say I’m not the biggest fan of the designated hitter.  I think it’s a stupid rule and should be taken out of baseball.  What other team sport besides baseball allows you to field a player who either through playing the game and becoming broken down, drug abuse that broke down your body, or just due to your inability to be anything more than a one tool player, allows you to use you’re only tool and not go through the task that every other player on your team goes through on a daily basis. 

Furthermore, inter-league play takes the DH and makes the series between the American League and National League teams unfair while being played on an American League field.  National League teams are built around have 8 solid defensive and offensive players and a pitcher to field a team where the American League is built around having 8 solid defensive and offensive players, a pitcher, and a one tool player who can only hit.  When inter-league play is played in an American League park it puts the National League team at a huge disadvantage.  When the National League team plays under American League rules, the National League team fields their normal 8 players, and then instead of batting a pitcher, they bat a normal bench player; someone who doesn’t produce well enough to be an everyday player.  The American League team does the same, only instead of batting a bench player instead of the pitcher, they bat their normal DH hitter; someone who is paid solely to hit the ball.  How many National League teams have a Jason Giambi, David Ortiz or Jim Thome sitting on the bench to DH for them?  They don’t play the field, they don’t go through the 160+ game season going through the same wear and tear as your every day player..  They just bat.  They go out for 4+ at bats a game and sit on their tail for the rest of the game.  You wonder why the American League wins the World Series more often, why they are dominate in the inter-league play…  That one extra above average batter makes a huge difference… 

Roy 0 pitches 7 innings and leaves with a 9-2 lead only to have the bull pen give up 7 runs in the last two innings to send it into extra innings.. I’m going to bed. 

The White Sox have hit grand slams in the last three games.. 

I always gripe about Garner pulling a starter who is pitching great regardless what inning it is.. the way I see it, if he can still go, let em go.. Tonight when I heard he was pulling Roy I thought to myself,***** you Garner.. and now look.  The bull pen has wasted great starting pitching in the last two games by Taylor Buchholz last night and Roy Oswalt tonight.. pathetic..  like I said, I’m going to bed… I don’t even care if we win or lose tonight.

Not really sure It’s going to be your typical live blog.. but maybe.. If you’re watching the game, stay around and comment.. or you can look me up on gmail at StrifeV@gmail.com if you are currently a gmail user.  There’s a chat feature for G-mailers only.  Send me a message!

Game On!

7:05 pm, the umpire crew heads to the mound while the teams exchange lineup cards.. The crowd is buzzing in preparation for the Rocket!  Media is everywhere!  Looks like the ‘Stros are back in the World Series.

7:07 pm, Roger takes the mound to a standing-0.  Not as loud as I expected it though. 

7:10 pm, game actually begins with a first pitch strike from the Rocket to Castillo.  The crowd cheers for the first pitch.

7:11 pm, a high tapper to pitcher which Clemens makes an error on after leaping into the air to grab it, thinking he has it, when he lands it falls out of his glove.  Hope this isn’t a sign of more to come…

7:13 pm, 4-6-3 double play!  Roger pumps his fist as the 2nd out is made.  The Astros lead the league with 87 double plays(thanks JD for that info).

7:15 pm, strike out to end the inning!  No hits, no runs, one error.  Rocket looks pretty good, his split has some action on it and his fastball is running up in the 92-93 mph range. 

7:18 pm, Biggio up to bat, swings at the first pitch hitting a ground ball to 3rd base and is thrown out at first.. 

7:19 pm, There ya go Burke!  After taking a few pitches from Liriano, he drives the ball over the shortstop for a single.  Next up Berkman hits a soft grounder to short stop for the 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.

Inning Over – probably won’t go into that much detail anymore.. 

7:29 pm, Roger has 2 down in the 2nd inning which means he lasted longer than an inning and a 3rd.  That’s for you Nick.  =)

7:33 pm, Roger ends the top of the inning with a strike out leaving 2 on after giving up a double and a walk in the inning. 

7:38 pm, Preston Wilson takes a one out walk.. Yes Wilson walked.. I know what you’re thinking..  Liriano has pretty good stuff.. just hit 98 on the gun and has a pretty good slider.. This is my first time seeing him pitch and so far I’m impressed.

7:41 pm, Jason Lane hits into a double play to end the inning.. the 2nd of the night in as many innings for the Twins.

Inning Over

7:44 pm, whoa!  Look out.  I know you’re not a batter, but put some more pine tar on there Liriano.  Liriano strikes out swinging, in doing so throws his batter over the Twins first base coach. 

7:49 pm, Kuble hits a long double to left center scoring Castillo.  Roger gives up his first run of the year. 

7:51 pm, Rafael over at the Space Race has some awesome pics of Roger already in the game.  Raffy, I’m jealous.  Roger induces a ground ball to himself, looks Kuble back to 2nd and throws to Lance at 1st base for the 2nd out of the inning.

7:54 pm, Cuddyer of the Twins rips a single up the middle scoring Kuble from 2nd.  Twins lead 2-0.

7:59 pm, Roger walks Morneau to put runners on first and 2nd.  Hickey goes to the mound probably to give Roger a rest.. Torii(two I’s, one R) Hunter is up who’s faced Roger 21 times in his career.. still waiting on his first hit.

8:02 pm, make that 22 times Hunter has faced Roger.. still waiting on his first hit.  Hunter has now struck out 13 of 22 times against Roger(thanks Brownie).

8:04 pm, went and go the ‘Stros hat.. Just the regular black one with the logo on the front, size 7 1/2 for those who care. 

8:07 pm, 2 down and Roger takes his 2006 MLB debut at bat.  He’ll have a lot of 2006 debuts tonight..  He already had his 2006 MLB debut first pitch, his 2006 MLB debut first fist pump..  now he has his 2006 MLB debut first offensive strike out(there are others that I haven’t mentioned).  Loriano has faced 9 Astros through 3 innings.. 

Inning Over

8:15 pm, Top of the 4th over, no damage done.

8:27 pm, a little delay for me, my internet just went dead for about 10 minutes.  We’re having some bad weather in Northern Houston which is probably the culprit.  Roger is sitting at 90+ pitches so the Astros have Russ Springer up in the pen.  I think Roger is on about a 100 pitch count for the night and he’s getting really close to that.

8:28 pm, 3-6-1 double play baby!  A ground ball to first which Lance takes and fires to Everett who’s covering 2nd who throws it back to Clemens who is sprinting to first, catching the ball right as he hits the base. 

8:29 pm, after a pop up to first base, the inning is over.  Will Roger continue?  I sure hope so!

8:33 pm, Loriano starts off the inning by striking out Morgan Ensberg.  Wilson follows with a line drive hit over short for the Astros 2nd hit of the night off Loriano. 

8:35 pm, Ja La(Jason Lane) is up against Loriano.  Like most batters so far, he starts off behind in the count 0-2.  Loriano has some good stuff, there’s no doubting that. 

8:37 pm, Lane hits into a double play to end the inning.  Very close call at first but it looks like the ump got it right. 

Inning Over

8:39 pm, Well all of you media-types can leave now.  Roger Clemens has left the building.. well the mound at least.  Roger went 5 innings, giving up 6 hits, 2 runs, walked 2 and struck up 3.  He hit the 100 pitch count exactly.  Not a great outing by Roger, but not that bad. 

8:40 pm, Springer’s first batter takes him deep into the Astros bull pen.  Twins lead 3-0. 

8:41 pm, It looks like the Astros are returning to last years form..  that is they are giving Roger absolutely no run support.

8:49 pm, Ausmus is struck out watching.. I say it’s a bad call and so did Brad, the pitch looked high and inside to me…  but I guess that’s what the Umps get paid for. 

8:50 pm, Everett is stuck out on a beautiful pitch on the inside corner by Loriano.. couldn’t have done anything with that if he wanted to . 

8:51 pm, Willy T is pinch hitting for Russ Springer.  Bunt and run!  That’s my suggestion.

8:52 pm, Willy T flys out weakly to right field.  Inning over.  Through 6, Loriano has faced 18 batters. 

Inning Over

8:54 pm, Just wanted to say hey to Lisa, me and Raffy were wishing you were around to influence the Astros into some explosive hitting.  Hope you have a safe trip girly.

8:56 pm, Fernando Nieve, a day after learning he would leave the rotation and go to the bull pen enters the game to start the 7th inning.  Starts off with a lead off walk. 

8:58 pm, Nieve induces Castillo into a double play.  That’s better Fernando..  just because you’re in the pen, you can still get a win. 

9:00 pm, Nieve gives the crowd something to stretch about by striking out Kubel to end the inning.  It’s 7th inning stretch time…  hope the Astros stretch, we need some runs!

9:03 pm, just heard that Loriano was at 64 pitches starting the 7th inning.. that’s crazy.. We need to take some more pitches.  Roger left after the 5th with 100 pitches. 

9:08 pm, Lance hits a pretty decent line drive to right field, but right to the Twins.  Biggio’s sitting at first after taking a lead off walk and Ensberg is at bat.. Guess what.. he’s down 0-2.  Loriano gives Ensberg an inside pitch(brush back?  doubtful) and the Houston fans boo him. 

9:10 pm, Ensberg strikes out to end the inning.

Inning Over

9:11 pm, the Clemens/Carr/Pettitte HEB commercial comes on the tube.. I love those commercials!  If you haven’t seen it, check it out.  HEB has some of the coolest commercials I’ve seen in a while.  Here’s the link.

9:18 pm, Mauer scores on a single by Torii Hunter.  Come on Wilson, I could have made a better throw than that and I have a bum shoulder.  Twins have runners on 1st and 2nd with one out.

9:20 pm, Finally the inning is over.  Two runners stranded but the Twins push another run over and are sitting pretty with a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 8th.  The Astros really need to get Loriano out of here.  So far he’s been dominate giving up 2 hits through 6 innings.

9:23 pm, SWEET!  July 4th is 1$ hot dog day at Minute Maid Park.. If there’s no better reason to head down to the "Juice Box" and watch the ‘Stros play, then at least head down for cheap food.  The hot dogs are great and you can’t beat them for a buck!

9:24 pm, After I just got finished griping to Raffy about Preston Wilson’s arm, he gets a single off of Loriano to lead off the bottom of the 8th.  Jason Lane is batting and guess what.. he’s behind in the count 1-2.

9:26 pm, GO TO YOUR HOME!  Thank you Jason Lane.  Jason Lane hits a 2 run blast into the Crawford Boxes after falling behind 1-2 to Loriano.  I say it’s a blast.. it barely went over, but it was a line drive and it was a home run, so who cares, it counts. 

9:31 pm, Bruntlett pinch hits for Nieve with 2 outs.  Bruntlett flies out to end the inning. 

Inning Over

9:32 pm, Trever Miller enters the game for the Astros.. last time he came up it took all of one pitches for him to give up a home run.. Let’s just say he’s not my favorite pitcher in the Astros pen.. I don’t hate him, I just think there are normally better choices.  I mean, like right now for example.. he’s supposed to be a left handed specialist, and he’s facing a right handed batter..  For what it’s worth though, I think he does better against right handers..

9:41 pm, after another lapse in my internet connection, Trever Miller does a nice job with a 1-2-3 inning.  Take that me for putting him down. 

9:43 pm, well we’re down to our final 3 outs, trailing the Twin 4-2 with Biggio, Burke and Berkman coming to the plate.  I want to hear the buzz!!!!  Happy to hear that Joe Nathan is entering the game after blowing a save to the Astros on tuesday.  Let’s go ‘Stros!

9:45 pm, B-G-O!  B-G-O!  B-G-O goes down swinging for the first out of the inning. 

9:47 pm, Chris Burke.. down 0-2 in the count..  It’s like a freaking broken record. 

9:48 pm, Burke goes down looking on a nice pitch by Nathan.

9:48 pm, Lance Berkman is up to bat.. GO LANCE!

9:51 pm, Game isn’t over yet!  Lance Berkman almost takes Joe Nathan’s head off with a line drive single up the middle.  Morgan Ensberg comes to the plate.  Let’s go Mo!

9:52 pm, Game Over.  Roger Clemens gets his first loss of the year in his first game of the year to the Twins 4-2 with Joe Nathan earning the save.  What can we say about Loriano.. he was outstanding giving up 2 runs in 8 innings.  The Astros were just outclassed tonight.  Astros record falls back to 37-36.  Good game by the Twins.  The Astros lose their 2nd series in a row.  It’s not going to get any easier, now the Astros head to Chicago to take on the White Sox and then to Detroit to take on the Tigers.  Good night everyone and thanks for sticking around.

Last night against the Minnesota Twins, Lance Berkman hit his 20th home run of the season, also a milestone homerun putting him at 200 for his career.  It’s taken Lance 974 games and 3391 at bats to put up 200 home runs; that’s one home run every 4.87 games or one homerun every 16.95 ABs for his career.  Jeff Bagwell played in 2150 games and 7797 at bats so far in his career and hit 449 home runs; one homerun in every 4.78 games or one every 17.36 ABs for his career.  If Lance plays long enough to get 2150 games played that Jeff has and stays on the exact course of home runs per game he is now, he’ll hit 441.  Of course this is just speculation, who knows how many years Lance will play.  With him already having knee problems it could be tough for him to play that many games; especially if he continues to play in the outfield.  But from the pace he’s on now, it wouldn’t be a stretch to bet he could get to 500 homeruns in his career or more. 

I never realized how close Lance’s stats were to Jeff’s.  I know it’s too early to say that Lance Berkman is the next Jeff Bagwell, but the stats so far are there to prove it.  They are both good glove men at first base with Bagwell being one of the best ever.  Lance really hasn’t gotten a chance to get comfortable at first and he’s still digging low throws out of the dirt on a regular basis.  I don’t think Lance is as good of a baserunner as Jeff was though and I doubt Lance will ever get to the 200 stolen bases that Jeff has…  but you never know…  Lance walks once every 5.42 at bats while Jeff once every 5.56.  Lance strikes out once every 5.16 at bats while Jeff once every 5.00. They have comparable stats in on base percentage, slugging and batting average. 

Career Stats as of 6/21/06

<td clas

• Posted on June 22, 2006 at 7:14 am
• Permalink
• 5 Comments
• Filed in: Dailies

Lance Berkman
SEASON	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	OBP	SLG	AVG
1999	34	93	10	22	2	0	4	12	21	5	0.321	0.387	0.237
2000	114	353	76	105	28	1	21	56	73	6	0.388	0.561	0.297
2001	157	577	110	191	55	5	34	92	121	7	0.43	0.62	0.331
2002	158	578	106	169	35	2	42	107	118	8	0.405	0.578	0.292
2003	153	538	110	155	35	6	25	107	108	5	0.412	0.515	0.288
2004	160	544	104	172	40	3	30	127	101	9	0.45	0.566	0.316
2005	132	468	76	137	34	1	24	91	72	4	0.411	0.524	0.293
2006	66	240	39	75	12	0	20	33	43	1	0.389	0.613	0.313
Career	974	3391	631	1026	241	18	200	625	657	45	0.414	0.561	0.303
Jeff Bagwell
SEASON	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	OBP	SLG	AVG
1991	156	554	79	163	26	4	15	75	116	7	0.387	0.437	0.294
1992	162	586	87	160	34	6	18	84	97	10	0.368	0.444	0.273
1993	142	535	76	171	37	4	20	62	73	13	0.388	0.516	0.32
1994	110	400	104

	kayleexxxss@aol.com on The Waiver Wire
	bellavega1@gmail.com on Yogiisms
	rocket2100@aol.com on Yogiisms
	cspowell@mepotelco.n… on Yogiisms
	stros_bro on Astros Sign 2 Pitchers