It's all pretty clever. Everyone predicting the NL Central is focused on the Pittsburgh Pirates as being the bottom-dwellers once again.
Meanwhile, the real sixth-place threat is in Houston. Compared to the Astros, Pittsburgh actually looks like a powerhouse.
Ouch. Click the link to read depressing things about the Astros, but here's another prediction for you:
If Houston avoids a 100 loss season, it will be a shock. The train wreck gets worse by the day.
They haven't just been losing their games. They've been getting blown away. If it's not the pitchers handing out bases like they were free candy, it's the hitters suffering from a bad case of staring at the strikes and swingin' at the balls.
If Drayton McLane thinks he can get away with this for very long, he's got another thing coming. We can't ignore that the Astros haven't drafted and developed well for years.
It's not all Ed Wade. He can only work with what he was given. And this winter, he was given pocket lint and told to get a World Series.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
