Astros Drop 1 in Washington and Maybe 1 in Houston.

The game today was suspended after a long rain delay in the bottom of the 11th with the game tied 10-10.

So until the game resumes, which will take place on the Nat's road trip to Houston, the Astros come out of this road trip 4-3. This 4-3 road trip feels like it has lasted all season and the Astros are coming home beat up.

Usually I would be bummed to see the Astros facing the Cubs in this kind of shape for the next two games but the Cubbies aren't faring much better these days.

So according to JJO at the Chronicle:

"Jose Valverde is likely out until early to mid June, and I doubt if Doug Brocail returns before June."

It gets better...

"It's not even May 6 yet, but the Astros bullpen's tank may be close to empty. Even worse, it's unclear how long Roy Oswalt will miss or how much he'll be affected by the bone bruise in his right index finger.

It would be silly if the Astros try to acquire bullpen arms. Might as well see what the kids can do.
Lance Berkman says this is a mature team, which means this is an old team. Old teams get hurt, as the Astros have often this season.

If they're 20 games out on July 31, I won't be surprised. At that point, Valverde should be healthy and able to bring back a few good prospects via trade.
Suck it up, Houston, because this could be a 100-loss team."

So a month in JJO is saying Houston is going to lose 100 games. Who knows? They very well could. I don't think they will.

Houston may find themselves in a hole come July but they may not. Everyone thought the Stros were screwed last season when Carlos was out and Lance wasn't hitting but they managed to hang around.

Bring up some arms from RR and see what we can do for the next two months. Stick Paulino in the rotation and drop Ortiz to the pen.

The big question is Roy. If he misses a start or two then it wont be nearly as big of a deal. However, if this ends up being long term, JJO could be right.

Chip over at the chronicle says it's time for Houston to "shuffle the deck." He covers a lot of ground in his post but the part that really jumped out to me was the stuff on Coop:

"Ah, yes, and that brings us back to Mr. Cooper . . . again. From the outside, it appears he has no control of this team. If that's the case, it won't be long before the inner murmurs and grumblings begin to leak out. Then, it gets ugly quick."

The more I watch this team this season the more I think Chip is right. I like Cecil but the past few games seem like Coop has...well, not much of an idea of what to do. I understand he is in a tough position with the rain-out forcing his hand with the pen but perhaps pulling Wandy wasn't the answer.

I'm not ready to give up hope in early May. Lance Berkman is hitting better over the past 4 games and our starting pitching staff has looked decent. We just really really really really really really really need to get the bullpen back in order and get our team healthy...which could take a while.