But Spring Training's been going on, too, and I haven't been feeling that part of it so much. I attended a game vs. the Mets at St. Lucie early on, and that was good, I suppose, except we lost 13 - 1 on a cold and windy day about as miserable for watching baseball as you could have and still see the game played.

Fernando Nieve started that game, and Aaron Boone started off at third. They're both gone now. No big loss, but at least they were names with a bit of cachet. Brian Moehler is gonna be our number three starter. Jeff Keppinger is gonna be our third baseman, and someone named Jason Smith is gonna be coming off the bench. It's hard to come up with the right word for our projected roster, but I'm trying.

There, I've got it. "Unimposing" is what it is, at least on paper, and that makes it hard to get excited. As does the continuing presence of drug cheat Miguel Tejada.

I still love Berkman, I love Carlos Lee, I'm still a fan of Matsui, at least when he's not laid up. Roy Oz, though perhaps on the decline, BELONGS on the Astros. Hunter Pence may end up forging a career below the one some had giddily predicted, but he's hard not to like. I-Rod should be interesting at the least. And I'll be pulling for Wandy. But for right now, I don't give a shit one way or the other for Keppinger or Russ Ortiz or Jason Michaels or Jason Smith.

The similarly unimposing '08 Astros made things interesting down the stretch, and if not for Carlito's injury, who knows what might have happened? So there is always the possibility. Baseball season is like that, at least during the first couple months: bursting with possibility.

But I've been paying more attention to my card collection than to the games lately, and short of Tejada's deportation and a ten-game winning streak to open the season, I look for that to continue.