Michael Bourn News

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.

Friday: Mets 7, Astros 1. Record: 74-86. Today: At New York Mets , 12:10 p.m. Pitchers: Yorman Bazardo vs.

Put this season in a bag and toss it far, far away. The Astros stunk up the place this year.

Astros interim manager Dave Clark admitted he was "very much" surprised the umpires working Saturday didn't decide to declare it an official game at some point during a two-hour, 20-minute delay while heavy rain pounded Citi Field.

Oct. 2: Astros vs. Mets Wandy Rodriguez made his final start of the season looking for his 15th win and aiming to keep his ERA below 3.00. $relatedgallerytitle 0 New York Mets pitcher John Maine works in the fir Oct 2 2009 7:38PM Paul J. Bereswill / AP John Maine started for the Mets in the series opener.

Michael Bourn is going to lead the National League in stolen bases by a wide margin, and the streak-of-lightning center fielder wants to set an Astros record for steals in a season while he's at it.

Yep, the Astros are hopelessly out of it and about the best you can hope for is a fourth place finish.

There was a lot of postseason baseball talk in the Phillies dugout Monday afternoon.