Are We the Astros?

Boz rallies the faithful and exhorts them to take heart from the White Sox-Astros series. Because if the teams with the 12th & 13th highest payrolls in baseball can play for the championship, why not us? It is Boz's usual rah-rah stuff, but I think he overlooked some of the salient comparisons. The Nats are, in fact, an Astros clone team.

Houston built their NL championship team around pitching and just enough offense to limp into the playoffs, which is the tack the Nats were on when they imploded. But the similarities are even more striking:

Aging 2nd baseman: Craig Biggio/Jose Vidro - of course, Biggio was healthy.
Shelved slugger: Jeff Bagwell/Vinny Castilla - remarkably similiar swings down the stretch.
Injured 1B/OF: Lance Berkman/Brad Wilkerson and/or Nick Johnson
Rookie OF: Willy Tavares/Ryan Church - Willy's got speed, Ryan's got power
Big 3: Clemens,Pettite,Oswalt/Hernandez, Patterson, Loiaza - we need a Backe
Anonymous backup C: Raul Chavez/Gary Bennett

It's eerie.