Nice thing about picking Memphis (the team who Chris Johnson had in his Final Four - though he had Duke to win) to win the National Championship this year is that now I don't have to pretend that I care about March Madness. Although I do hope Syracuse wins it all. On to baseball!
Well, not really. Aaron Boone, by all accounts, came through his surgery in good health - which is a blessing. And Tejada was sentenced to what seems to be a fairly light punishment: probation, a $5,000 fine (which I think is equivalent to littering) and 100 hours of community service, which is roughly the number of volunteer hours a high school graduate needs to get their diploma in Tennessee.
JJO in his Notes today does a good job breaking down the statistical difference in a six-game winning streak for the offense. The team batting average was raised from .206 to .233. But the amazing part about that is not that the team raised its BA 26 points in six games, it's that they still have the worst average in the Majors. Let's look at individual Astros' averages over the last six games:
Kaz Matsui: .050 to .105
Michael Bourn: .184 to .219
Lance Berkman: .259 to .325
Carlos Lee: .087 to .200
Hunter Pence: .238 to .278
Miguel Tejada: .227 to .257
Geoff Blum: .094 to .178.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
