Maybe they should be called the "Killer Ls"

Another day, another tail-smokin'. This time, once again, to the Pirates, 11-4.

At least there were seven hits, spread out over seven players: Bourn, Ramirez, Pence, Boone, Newhan, Gall and Palmisano (who started at C and went 1-for-3, with a double).

Five pitchers got in, after Backe went and strained his ribcage:
Hensley: 2IP, 2H, 3ER, 1BB, 1K
de la Vara: 1IP, 4H, 3ER, 1BB, 1K
Paronto: 2IP, 1H, 1BB
James: .1IP, 0H, 4R (1ER), 3BB
Lumsden: .2IP, 1H, 1ER, 2BB, 1K

The Astros made three more errors, this time by Bourn (1), Gall (1) and Sutton (2). And of the Astros' pitchers to throw in more than one game, only Paronto, Geary, Wright and Fulchino have ERAs under 3.00. And seven Astros pitchers have ERAs above 10.00: Lumsden (10.12), Norris (10.38), Nieve (11.25), de la Vara (12.27), Gervacio (13.50), Trinidad (18.00), Hensley (23.62).

However, Easy Eddie says to pump the brakes:
"I've seen teams have tremendous spring trainings and play really poorly out of the chute, and I've seen teams really struggle in Grapefruit League play and hit their stride the last week of the exhibition season and go from there," he said. "Hopefully at some point here in the next week to 10 days, the regulars will play more and stay in games longer and we're trying to get them to the point where they're ready to hit their strides."

This is a good point. Because basically, Corpus Christi and Round Rock are basically 1-8-1 this Spring Training. And about those ERAs, statistics get skewed when you're only talking about an inning here and two innings there.

We can also expect to see more guys get sent to minor league camp this week. Their names will be removed from the sidebar as they come in.