Astros General Manager (and former Cardinal Scouting Director) Jeff Luhnow on the Astros current season:

Since [May 25] we have underperformed everyone's expectations, including our own. We ran into a combination of bad luck, injuries and a lack of depth that led to our deteriorating record through the midsummer months.

We want the Houston Astros to be a winning franchise that can compete for division titles year in and year out and ultimately bring multiple championships to the city of Houston and to Astros fans across the globe. Our promise to you as a fan is to work as hard and as smart as we possibly can to achieve this goal quickly. We have made significant progress towards this objective in 2012 and that progress will accelerate in 2013.

Luhnow once said that running a baseball team is like basic strategy in blackjack: the best way to win is to play the odds for long enough. (Nevermind that even with playing perfect basic strategy, the house will still win in the long term) It’s refreshing to see such a forward-thinking and honest general manager. He’s got the right ideas, let’s just hope he can get the edge on the house.