So if 10 of those 19 could have been protected the Astros would be 47-66 .416 and only 4.5 games behind the Angels in last place -- not counting any of those that might have been against the Angels directly.  And behind the White Sox and Marlins by 4 and 3.5 games respectively for the June prize draft pick.  So they've been bad enough that even a reasonable improvement wouldn't help much except to make them look like they belong in the league.  But that pace would project to 67 wins and avoid 100 losses for the first time in 3 years.  So far as the season is concerned it makes you (well, me, anyway) wish they had allocated the $3MM that Pena got towards another Veras-type or two.  But maybe we won't care come next June.