Is it possible the Astros may end up thanking Shawn Chacon for losing his cool and his professionalism?
Or are the 'Stros really just an average team hampered by incompetent management and an owner who seems to make one disastrous decision after another?
Today's the day Houston is expected to grant Chacon his unconditional release (assuming no MLB team claimed him off waivers), and the fight will begin. Houston will try to void the rest of his 1-year, $2 million contract, and Chacon will file a Players' Union grievance to keep his money. We'll see. Frankly, I think the talented-but-troubled Chacon has more problems to deal with: trying revive his MLB career. He has said he wants to start in the big leagues, but assuming he's signed by another team (and that's a huge assumption), I suspect the best offer he'll get to be a starting pitcher is at the AA or AAA level.
Much of my day yesterday was spent recovering from the effects of a week's worth of work at my "day job", where I work the very early morning hours at a bagel shop, so it wasn't until I logged on to my computer this morning that I realized Houston took two of three games from the Boston Red Sox.
The Olde Towne Team, irony of ironies, are now in second place in the AL East behind the Tampa Bay Rays. Yes, the same Rays team that was just a few years ago was rumored to be the victim of baseball's contraction policy. The Red Sox have the most wins in baseball at 50, but the Rays at 49-32 are not only atop their division, they actually have the best record in baseball.
The Astros are currently in fourth place in the NL Central at 39-43. On Saturday, they won an 11-10 slugfest in which the two teams combined for 27 base hits (10 of them for extra bases). On Sunday, they squeaked out a 3-2 win against Boston, courtesy of a Mark Loretta RBI single in the eighth inning. Jose Valverde, whose relief work has been like a roller coaster this season, pitched a hitless and scoreless ninth inning for his 21st save of the year.
The game was decided late since it was a pitchers' duel between Bo-Sox Josh Beckett and 'Stros Brian Moehler. One thing I do find very amusing is that losing pitcher in the game was Red Sox reliever David Aardsma.
Aardsma, you say? What's so special about that?
Turns out that David Aardsma, a reliever with a 2.92 ERA, of all the players in MLB history, is at the very top of the list alphabetically.
Second-highest: home run king Hank Aaron.
