The annual CHONE projected standings are out, and they say the Astros will go 73-89.
That's not too bad, right? But one game behind the Pirates? With a $90m+ payroll? Apocalypse. If the Astros are behind the Pirates in September, I hope the Mayans screwed up and The Great Revealing is the weekend before the season ends.
(There's a disclaimer, though:
Standings based on current talent estimations and roster depth charts as of 2/05/2010. Team Runs scored and allowed projections are not available. Depth charts used to create these are not available, and are probably not very reliable. It is difficult for one person to have a sense of what playing time allocations will be decided by 30 managers. See the starting lineup based forecasts for a verifiable, open source team projection method. )
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
