Barzilla, big strikeout numbers are not really my cup of tea to be honest with you.

I prefer faster outs and I'd rather not see the count going deep. If possible, I prefer an out being recorded in one or two pitches.

I love pitchers who don't waste any time on the mound and they challenge the hitters in the strike zone throughout the game. I like when a pitcher has the mentality of, "Here's my best stuff coming into the strike zone and hit it if you can, but I trust my defense to make the plays behind me."

For that very reason, I had a lot of fun watching Chris Sampson pitch today.

At one point, the game was already in the top of the 5th and it was only 57 minutes past the first pitch.

I had to double check my clock just to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

He started to tire by the 6th inning and was definitely running on empty fumes by the 7th inning, but Chris Sampson was excellent today.

You can argue the two runs he allowed weren't even his fault, because Mark Loretta displayed poor range trying to field a single that got by him. Had it been Kazuo Matsui, we would have gone to the 8th inning with a 2-0 lead instead of a 2-2 tie.

Nonetheless, the Astros responded with two additional runs to win the game.

Strikeout numbers don't matter one bit to me. I once saw Woody Williams as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals toss a couple of shutouts back in 2001 without throwing more than two strikeouts in either game. One of the games was at Minute Maid Park against the Astros.

Strikeouts are nice and dandy, but I just want to see outs. The faster the outs are recorded the better.

I don't doubt Chris Sampson will have some rough outings in the future and he will give up a lot of base hits every now and then, but I'm hoping he can keep his head up high and continue to attack the opposing hitters.

One thing is for certain... If Chris Sampson can get more fly balls to left center field, center field or right center field, Michael Bourn is going to catch the ball...

He doesn't always have to get a lot of groundball outs, even though he's that kind of pitcher.

That's a tremendous advantage for any pitcher to have -- knowing you have some elite players on defense like Michael Bourn who can make even the spectacular plays look routine.

And also, Miguel Tejada seems to have found the fountain of youth all of a sudden. He's been playing really good on defense so far. Not only is he not playing as poorly as he did in spring training with the glove, but he's playing like he hasn't played defense in at least five or six years when he used to be known as a good defensive shortstop.


Last Edited By: JustWinStros Apr 4 08 9:44 PM. Edited 1 times.