As the Astros get set to open a weekend series on the road vs the Rangers, I thought it would be a great time to have a conversation with General Manager Ed Wade. Ed is the mastermind who pulled the trigger on deals that brought Miguel Tejada, Kaz Matsui, and Michael Bourn to Houston. His vision was to put together a hard hitting , high scoring team, and so far the Astros are delivering .

But according to Wade , the one thing the Astros didn't count on was Lance Berkman becoming the reincarnation of Ted Williams. "We couldn't predict Lance doing his Ted Williams impersonation, everything we've done lately has revolved around what Lance is doing ," said Wade. " He's mading this game look very easy and we know its not."
Berkman is now riding a 14 game hitting streak, and during that time he's hitting an incredible .556 .

As we talked I could feel Wade's excitment about the fact the Astros have won 11 of their last 13 games. In a short time they've pulled to within a game and a half of the first place Cubs in the central. But Wade was quick to caution, its a long season with a lot of baseball left to be played. He also told me there's always room to improve so a trade is never out of the question, "We are a long way from the July 31st trading deadline , but that doesn't mean we don't have conversations going on with other clubs ." The G.M. said, " If we can make a deal that will make us better without disturbing the core of our club we would do it."

The subject of Michael Bourn also came up in our conversation. Bourn has been struggling at the plate with a .181 batting average. His on base percentage is worst , but Wade believes the team needs to be patient with the youngster.
One thing he did tell me was that Bourn will probably moved to the bottom of the lineup since the Astros will be playing at Texas, which means the designated hitter will be in use. "I think Coop might do that just to take some of the pressure off of Bourn." Wade added, "he really needs at bats, he needs to play ." "He struggled early in spring training before getting his feet on the ground and we think he can do it again." Of course, the Astros winning ways should buy them some extra time to deal with the Bourn situation. Mainly because in any sport , if your winning why rock the boat.

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