Daily Archives: April 22, 2005

Stros 2005 Review: Stros hit the road

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Roy O5.jpgAfter a short but successful 3-1 homestand, the Stros (8-7) hit the road for a weekend series in St. Louis (9-5) and then a series in Pittsburgh (5-11) during the first part of next week before returning home on Friday the 29th to begin a six game homestand against the Cubs(8-8) and the Pirates.
The most recent homestand featured this Stros club’s strength, which is solid starting pitching. The Rocket, Brandon Backe, Roy O, and Pettitte all had strong performances, and the only reason the Stros didn’t win all four games was that they couldn’t muster a run in 12 innings in Clemens’ game against the Braves. Oswalt’s performance (9 IP, 4 H, 1 R/ER, 0 BB, 8 K’s) was particularly masterful as he mowed down the Brew Crew in a little more than two hours with a devastating combination of a 95 mph heater and a 70 mph curve. By the way, the 27 year old Oswalt is well on his way to becoming the best pitcher in Stros history. After 2.97 ERA/21 RSAA (RSAA explained here) and 3.49 ERA/22 RSAA seasons in 2003-04, Oswalt is off to a 3.41 ERA/3 RSAA start in his first 4 starts. He has a 3.12 career ERA, compared to a league average of 4.25 during his career, and a 108 RSAA in 124 games. Roy O already holds the Stros record for career RSAA:
1 Roy Oswalt 108
2 Billy Wagner 99
3 Mike Hampton 76
4 Dave Smith 75
5 Octavio Dotel 67
6 Nolan Ryan 60
7 Wade Miller 56
8 Don Wilson 55
9 Joe Sambito 53
10 Larry Andersen 45
By the way, if you want to miss one of the Stros’ games this weekend during the St. Louis series, you may want to make it tonight’s game. The Stros trot out fifth starter Brandon “Home Run” Duckworth to the mound against the Cards’ power lineup, so this one could get ugly fast.

Lay’s team heaves a sigh of relief

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Ken Lay4.jpgU.S. District Judge Sim Lake ruled Thursday afternoon that bank-fraud charges against Enron former chairman and CEO Ken Lay would be tried to him without a jury early next year immediately following the multi-defendant conspiracy jury trial against Mr. Lay, which is scheduled to begin in mid-January, 2006. Judge Lake had previously severed the bank-fraud charges against Mr. Lay from the conspiracy and securities fraud case against Mr. Lay and co-defendants Jeff Skilling, Enron’s former CEO and COO, and Richard Causey, Enron’s former chief accounting officer. The government had been seeking to try Mr. Lay on the bank-fraud charges — which will not take as long to try as the larger multi-defendant case — later this summer. Earlier posts on this particular issue relating to Mr. Lay’s case can be reviewed here, here, here and here.
Although Judge Lake indicated during the hearing that he preferred to go ahead and get the bank fraud trial out of the way, he decided that such an early trial could cause a flurry of publicity that could negatively affect the jury pool for the trial of the larger conspiracy and securities fraud case that will begin in January.
Meanwhile, Banjo Jones speculates on what Tony Curtis and Mr. Lay talked about at a recent party.