Young talent brings high expectations for Astros

By foxsports
Published

By DAVE SCHEIBER
FOXSports.com
Feb. 23, 2011


KISSIMMEE -- For the first two months of the 2010 season, the Astros brought to mind the iconic line forever linked to their city's famous space center:

Houston, we have a problem.

Did they ever. The Astros were more like the Dis-Astros, sputtering to a 17-34 start under first-year manager Brad Mills, with a listless offense, poor pitching, sloppy fundamentals and growing distractions from trade speculation hovering around two longtime stars, pitcher Roy Oswalt and first baseman Lance Berkman.

But they took off like a shot in the second half of the season, finishing with a record of 59-52 from June 1 on -- the second-best record in NL Central during that span.

The team did it with an ' and a resurgent pitching staff led by Brett Myers, Wandy Rodriguez, J.A. Happ and Bud Norris -- linchpins in a rotation that posted a 3.42 ERA after the All-Star break, trailing only pitching-rich Philadelphia and eventual World Series champ San Francisco.

That strong finish has fueled expectations for the Astros heading into 2011, and a distinct wave of optimism is sweeping their Osceola County Stadium clubhouse this spring training. That's not to say that Houston will overtake the Reds, Cardinals or Brewers in the East, but you get the feeling they think they can based on the momentum they established last season.

"It's going to take everybody on the club," Mills said before morning workouts. "It's a situation of following momentum, and once you build that up and get going, it's almost like a sled going downhill and everybody wants to jump on. We're looking for that input from everyone, not just a few players."

To Mills, there was a fundamental difference between the first and second half.

"It just took us some time to get everything going, and for them to become familiar with everything," he said. "Being a first-year manager last year, a lot of them didn't know me. It took time to get used to everything -- the coaching staff, facing some pretty good big-league competition, everything. But once that happened, we started to come together."

Keeping it together, and building on the confidence they discovered, is now the goal.

"We can look back and know we have that ability to play well, because we've proved it from the middle of June on," Mills said. "That allows us to look back at very recent history and say,