Are You Excited about Tuesday Night?

OK, maybe using the word "excited" is over doing it. But the Astros will have some new parts on Tuesday. Jason Castro finally makes his major league debut. He will be in the starting lineup for sure with Humberto Quintero still recovering from the head wound suffered on Sunday when he got his head too close to a backswing.

Maybe Chris Johnson will start at third base, too. From all indications the Astros do not plan on having those two warm the bench. Kind of makes you want to go ahead and buy a ticket for the game doesn't it? A chance to see what these two young fellows can do in a major league game is waiting.

Of course, they WILL have to face a pretty fair pitcher. Some guy named Lincecum is due to pitch for the Giants. His name has been associated with another pretty fair hurler way back named Cy Young. This guy is no "maybe will or never was" type guy that often pitches in Triple A. He is one of the best there is in Major League Baseball.

Now the Astros will have Roy Oswalt on the mound. He may be a short timer for the team. If you pay much attention to what has been written and said about Roy, he could be in his final month as an Astro. The only real suspense is will he pass Joe Niekro as the winningest Astro pitcher ever before he moves up the road or across the country to finish up his last two seasons. He has always figured on hanging up the spikes once his current contract expires after next year. Who knows, though. If he hooks up with a pennant winning team and they want to keep him around???

In the meantime the Astros are just beginning to remake their club. Bringing in Castro, Johnson and that third guy, named Bourgeois, is just the beginning. Before too long we may have a Bogusevic hanging around, too. Can't have too many players whose names start with "B". That has been a pretty good letter around here.

Of course those "Killer B" days are long gone. The only early one left is Lance Berkman, unless you count coach Sean Berry. He was an original. Berkman came in the second wave. The original "B's"were Biggio, Bagwell, Bell and Berry.

To many of us older folks--anyone over 30--we remember the originals. It doesnt seem so long ago, but I guess it was. They started their buzzing in the mid to late 90s. That was about 15 years ago already. Time sure flies.

So will this hard time for the Astros now. It will pass. There will be a better baseball team wearing Astros colors before too long. Hard to say if Jason Castro, Chris Johnson and Jason Bourgeois will be part of it, but we can always hope. We can also start judging the chances for ourselves Tuesday night.