Houston 2011 Year in Review

With the Boston's and Milwaukee's of the world preparing for October the Toronto's and Houston's all already looking ahead to next summer. Like last year let's take a look at where HOU stood on April 1st and where they stand now on October 5th.

Your 2011 Opening Day Astros (How They Were Acquired):

1. SS Nick Punto (Free Agency)

2. C Jason Castro

3. 1B Carlos Lee

4. 2B Casey McGehee

5. RF Jay Bruce (Trade)

6. 3B Chris Johnson

7. LF Luke Scott (Free Agency)

8. CF Aaron Rowand

C JR Towles

IF Luis Valbuena (Trade)

SS Wladimir Sutil

OF Jason Bourgeois

OF Jason Cust (Free Agency)

C Dioneer Navarro (Free Agency)

It was refreshing and somewhat frightening to see so many players return. These guys struggled to win 60 games, and still had no clear run producer aside from an aging and fattening Carlos Lee. And this doesn't even take into account the pitching staff:

SP Zach Braddock

SP Josh Lindblom

SP Jos, Trinidad

SP Andrew Cashner (Trade)

SP Kyle Davies (Free Agency)

Medlen was sent back to the bullpen and the youngsters were given a chance, and boy did they deliver. We'll delve into their performance a little bit more in the 2011 awards but suffice it to say all three tossed over 180 innings and made at least 30 starts each. Now let's see how the 2011 Astros finished the season:

CF Charles Blackmon (Trade)

LF Jon Gaston (Developed)

3B Casey McGehee

C Taylor Teagarden (Trade)

RF Elija Dukes (Trade)

1B Yonder Alonso (Developed)

SS Carlos Triunfel (Trade)

2B Ryan Flaherty (Trade)

OF Aaron Rowand

OF Jason Bourgeois

SS Zach Cozard (Developed)

SS Wladimir Sutil

C Federico Hernandez (Developed)

2B Brian Roberts (Trade)

Zach Braddock

Josh Lindblom

Jos, Trinidad

Daniel Barr (Developed)

Kasey Kiker (Trade)

Without even looking at the bullpen we have 7 players that were acquired during the 2011 campaign. Let's look at the net incoming and net outgoing for those players.

Incoming: C Taylor Teagarden, CF Charles Blackmon, 2B Ryan Flaherty, RF Elija Dukes, SS Carlos Triunfel, IF Brian Roberts, SP Kasey Kiker

Outgoing: C Jason Castro, C JR Towles, LF Carlos Lee, RF Jay Bruce, SP Andrew Cashner and 8 prospects.

No matter how you cut it the team was just as volatile, if not more, in 2011 than they were in 2010. We've seen enough players come and go in the past two years to fill 3 team's 25-man rosters. Let's just hope the one's that have gone on don't produce like the one's we've held onto. Here's to 2012!