As much as I carp about the Sosa/Botts situation, it is worth noting that the Astros are acting even more ridiculous with Craig Biggio and Chris Burke right now.
The Houston Astros have said that, finally, Craig Biggio will get fewer starts and Chris Burke will get more starts. Maybe. At least on the road. Unless, you know, Biggio hits better, or something:
The Astros appear adverse to even say that they're going to try to give up on this season and rebuild for the future, but it appears that they'll at least get to see what Chris Burke can do at second base.
"We're continuing to reevaluate what the schedule is and go along and then adjust," said Biggio, who became the 27th player in history and the first Astro to collect 3,000 hits earlier this month. "Yesterday, I swung the bat pretty good yesterday, just had nothing to show for it."
Garner has worked closely on the schedule with Biggio, 41, to decide which games the future Hall of Famer would play. Out of dedication to his fans, Biggio has preferred to rest on the road and play as many games as possible in front of his legion of Astros fans.
"We are going to play in all our games at home," Biggio said. "That's a given, and we'll readjust on the road. If you're going to have off-days you take them on the road. You have some fans on the road too. I don't know how to say it: we'll reevaluate as we go."
Burke, who lost his starting spot in center field in April to rookie phenom Hunter Pence, entered Saturday with a .235 batting average, two home runs and 11 RBIs.
"I think (Biggio) also sees to a certain degree -- to a certain degree, I stress - we need to give Burke a little more playing time," Garner said. "All things being equal also subject to that deal is that if Craig is the hotter player we'll revisit it. That's the general ideal."
Leaving himself an out in case Burke falters or Biggio goes on a tear, Garner left the possibility open for Biggio to regain most of the starts.
"It's a loosely defined somewhat schedule," Garner said. "(Biggio) and I revisit it all the time. It's always possible it can change. It is difficult to have the conversation, and that's why it's subject to change. The general ideal is that he will have less playing time. Specifically if he gets hot, all that may change."
Seriously...what the Showalter?
Does any of that make any sense?
And have all those balls that have hit Biggio over the years caused him brain damage?
What's with the royal "we", and the weird phrasing?
It is worth noting that Burke -- who was taken 5 picks after Mark Teixeira in the 2001 draft, out of the University of Tennessee, and who is a few months older than Jason Botts -- hasn't torn it up this year. But he also hasn't gotten much of a chance, as he's been in perpetual limbo the last few years waiting for the desiccated corpse of Craig Biggio's playing career to finally give up the ghost.
But this is the sort of embarrassing coda to a HOF'ers career that seems all too frequent, particularly when you have an enabler like Drayton McLane who insists on letting a guy who can't play any more stick around and start.
Anyway...this is pretty ridiculous, and Astros fans should be embarrassed.