I've got my fingers crossed! Not to mention, maybe this'll light a fire under the other guys' butts. Thanks, Bethie.

Thanks, also, SB!



Well, we're paying for it.

I read recently that we've got the third highest payroll in baseball. I checked another source to verify this, and it showed us as 8th, but I believe that was without consideration of Roger's new contract - I'm sure that's what pushed us to third. Roger is worth paying for, as long as we can get him the run support for a win...but we haven't been doing that lately. All of his work has gone for naught, and it's basically a waste of money until the batters decide to pitch in with some offense...it doesn't matter who's on the mound if we're not helping him out. BUT, that's what this deal is supposed to take care of, so we'll see what happens.

The Astros have always had a pretty nice payroll - enough to do what we need to do - but I would've never expected us to be in the top three. And when you look at our record, it's sort of depressing. Our owner made sure to thank the fans during the press conference, though, so he must be raking in the dough...if it works for him to shell out that much cash, it works for me.