More 'Stros Woes

Another day, another embarrasing performance, another non-descript rookie no-name dominates the Astros. A 3-hit performancefrom the offense in the Cubs series finale, following by a 4-hit performance against the Mets' John Maine who learned of his start only an hour or so before the game.
Now to the disturbing part. In the last two days The Astros have made a pair of additions to the pitching staff, activating Brandon Backe and promoting Matt Albers from Round Rock (AA).
That meant first the demotion of Wandy Rodriguez, then the next day Fernando Nieve. Tim Purpura's comments about both players and their responses are true head scratchers.
First the Rodriguez demotion...

"To me, that's one of the hardest decisions we've made this year just because this kid has done a great job for us," general manager Tim Purpura said. "That's one of the problems with young pitching, a guy coming off the DL and things like that. The players that have versatility are the ones that unfortunately have to bear the brunt of going back and forth at times.

"We told him that we still believe in him. I told him that we still believe in him."

Fighting back tears, Rodriguez vowed to put in the work necessary to return as soon as possible.

"Truly, I don't know what to say right now," he said.

Now Nieve's demotion...

Reliever Fernando Nieve was dumbfounded when he was optioned to Class AAA Round Rock late Friday.

"I don't know what to say," he said. "I can't say anything. They tell me to pitch well, and I pitch well. I don't know what they want."

Nieve pitched two scoreless innings against the Mets before he was demoted. He was 3-3 with a 4.32 ERA in 22 appearances (11 starts) for the Astros.

"I tried to challenge Fernando to go down there and work hard," general manager Tim Purpura said. "I know he will. I challenged him to work some late innings, come in in the middle of an inning. He'll get a chance to close some games."

So it was tough on Purpura to send down this guy...
5.22 ERA, 123 H, 110 IP oh yeah & a 54.00 ERA as a reliever.
but it was not that hard to drop the hammer on this one...
4.33 ERA, 74 H, 77 IP oh yeah and a 2.70 ERA the last 2 months
All I can say is WOW!
---- WEX