Michael Bourn News

One is coming off a breakout year that saw him capture a Rawlings Gold Glove Award, and he looks primed to be one of the faces of the franchise soon enough.

The Astros are going to give 3B Chris Johnson and C Jason Castro every chance to be in the Opening Day starting lineup.

Joe Posnanski, the best baseball writer out there now that John Brattain has passed, has a blog entry awarding the LVP award to the most deserving player from both leagues.

Houston, you have a problem. A Your ballclub is bad, really bad. A The Astros, a perennial contender for much of the last decade, have fallen on hard times.

Who doesn't like a "Local Kid Does Good" story? It was a joy to watch Michael Bourn write that story night after night in the expansive outfield at Minute Maid Park this past summer.

Congratulations are in order for Michael Bourn. Yesterday, he became the first Astros outfielder since Cesar Cedeno in 1976 to win the Gold Glove.

Well, there's nothing truly offensive about the list of National League Gold Glove winners .

Coming off a season in which they finished in fifth place in the National League Central and lost 88 games, the Astros have a few players who could find themselves in the running for one of baseball's postseason awards.

Now that the manager is on board and some of the roster is beginning to take shape, much of the Astros' heavy lifting remains ahead.

Brad Mills played parts of four major league seasons with the Expos and managed 11 years in the minors with the Cubs, Rockies and Dodgers farm systems in addition to coaching stints in Montreal and alongside Francona for four seasons in Philadelphia and six in Boston.

Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers . The Astros fired Cecil Cooper on Sept 21. Third-base coach Dave Clark served as interim manager for the final 13 games and Houston finished 74-88. Clark was one of 10 candidates to interview for the full-time position, and he spoke for a second time with the team on Tuesday.

Let me be the first to offer my condolences to Brad Mills. Now I'm sure Mills doesn't think he needs my condolences.

Manny Acta. Brad Mills. Phil Garner. Dave Clark. These four, uninspiring names are supposedly the Four.

Ed Wade made the perfect baseball when he sent Brad Lidge to the Phillies for Michael Bourn two years ago.

Ned Yost says he knows how to turn around the Houston Astros. The former Milwaukee Brewers manager met with the team on Thursday, the third candidate to interview to become Houston's skipper next season.

Continuing the second half leaderboard series, I give you the NL second half stolen base leaders.

Shortstop Miguel Tejada extended his hitting streak to 20 games Saturday with a first-inning single.

Mercifully, the Houston Astros 2009 season is over. 74 wins, 88 losses; a very disappointing year in the National League Central.

It's funny how much things can change in one year. Just last year, the Pirates were finishing in last place, Brett Favre was unretired, Cecil Cooper had one year left on his contract, and we had an administration doing nothing about emissions standards.

By the weekend, Ed Wade likely will start asking clubs for permission to interview managerial candidates or, at least, have the list of candidates finalized.