On Astros History: The 2004 Rotation

Sparked by my post last week on Carlos Hernandez, I wanted to look at how weird the 2004 Astros rotation was. Because things got wild. So wild I didn’t even remember some parts of that story.

In broad strokes, the Astros were incredibly average for most of 2004. Manager Jimy Williams piloted the team to a 44-44 record at the All-Star Break, which seems decent until you realize they sat in fifth place in the NL Central, behind Milwaukee, Cincinnati, the Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis.

You know what happened next. The Astros went 48-26 under new manager Phil Garner, blazing their way to the finish line and stealing the Wild Card. They beat the Braves in the playoffs before losing to the Cardinals after taking a 3-2 lead in the series.

For a team white-hot hot, the starting pitching was still spotty. Houston ranked sixth in the National League in tea ERA, but was second in strikeouts, thanks to 157 from their closer Brad Lidge. And this was from a team that came into the season with possibly the best rotation in the National League.

The rotation ended up needing help. Despite signing the best pitcher of the prior two decades and a Hall of Fame caliber lefthander. Despite having a near Hall of Famer already in the rotation in Roy Oswalt, Houston still used 12 pitchers in a playoff year.

So, let’s look at all 12 pitchers who started in 2004 to see what their story was.

Roy Oswalt

What is there to say about one of the best homegrown pitchers Houston has had in the last three decades?

In 2004, Roy Boy threw a team-high 237 innings, going 20-10 with a 3.49 ERA and 207 strikeouts in his Age 26 season. He was the anchor of that rotation for years, really. Since 2000, he is first, second, and, third in most innings pitched for the Astros in a single season. He was durable and dependable and undeniably good.

He finished third in the Cy Young voting, one of six top-five finishes and his third in the first four years of his career.

Again, you didn’t need to know how good he was. But he was good. And was one of two Astros pitchers to top 30 starts that season.

Roger Clemens

Here’s the other Astros pitcher who topped 30 starts in 2004. Which is wild when you think Rocket had come out of retirement for his Age 41 season.

But, he did alright. He went 18-4 in 214 1/3 innings with 218 strikeouts. That was good enough to win him his seventh Cy Young Award. Even if, c’mon. Randy Johnson totally should have won this Cy Young. Randy struck out 290 batters, had a WHIP of 0.900, and a 2.60 ERA in 245 innings. He had a mind-boggling 8.4 bWAR. I’m happy for Rocket and all, but I think the storyline of him coming out of retirement carried the day there more than it should have.

Pete Munro

Here’s where things get weird. How many of you remember Pete Munro being on the Astros? How many of you remember Pete Munro having much of any major league career?

The right-hander was drafted in the sixth round out of a New York high school in 1993 by the Boston Red Sox. He was traded to the Blue Jays in 1998 for catcher Mike Stanley and broke camp in the Toronto bullpen in 1999.

He just wasn’t very good. Munro went 0-2 with four holds, one blown save, and a 6.02 ERA. He was sent down to the minors at the end of May when his ERA was a slightly more tenable 4.67 and continued to melt down after being recalled midway through August.

He didn’t do much better in 2000, throwing 25 innings for the Blue Jays before being included as the player-to-be-named-later in a deal with the Texas Rangers for future World Series-winning manager Dave Martinez.

He signed with Houston as a minor league free agent after the 2001 season and started games in ‘02 and ‘03 for Houston. But! In another wild series of events, the Astros didn’t re-sign him after 2003.

Munro signed with the Minnesota Twins but was released at the end of May without making a major league appearance for them.

Houston signed him on June 4 and he immediately went into a game out of the bullpen. He was in the rotation three days later and never left. He even started two playoff games against the Cardinals.

He still wasn’t very good, going 4-7 with a 5.15 ERA in 99 2/3 innings. He had a 9.00 ERA in two starts over seven innings in the NLCS against the Cards.

And that was it! He spent two more decent seasons at Triple-A, but was never called up, then threw in two more winter league seasons, but didn’t pitch after 2008.

And this was the pitcher with the third-most starts for Houston! I told you this pitching staff was wild.

Tim Redding

Anyone who follows the minor leagues knows those players that you just like for some reason. They catch your eye. You can’t define why they’re your guy, but they are.

Back in the early internet days of my minor league fandom, Tim Redding caught my eye. It was probably his gaudy strikeout numbers, but I was so high on him.

And he looked bad in the majors. Houston gave him a couple of chances in 2001 and 2002 and he was bad. He was good in 2003, with a 3.68 ERA in 176 innings. But in 2004, he was back to being bad as the fifth starter for a team that ended up desperately needed starters.

Still, Redding couldn’t do it. He started 17 games and finished with a 5.72 ERA in 100 innings. He was demoted to Triple-A at one point, making five starts there, and was out of the rotation by the end of June. It should tell you something about how in need of starters this team was that Redding made one more start in September against Pittsburgh. He didn’t last a full five innings, giving up two runs. But Houston did win 9-2.

Wade Miller

We are hitting a stretch of injuries. Wade Miller had so much promise. After being drafted by Houston in the 20th round in 1996, Miller eased into the majors with a cup of coffee in ‘99 and a not-so-great season in 2000.

Over the next four seasons, Miller went 52-32 with a 3.57 ERA over 106 starts and 652 2/3 innings. He struck out 562 batters with a WHIP of 1.28 and looked the part of a rotation mainstay.

And then he hit a wall. Miller hurt his rotator cuff in June and missed the rest of the season. Houston non-tendered him after the season and he signed with the Red Sox.

After 2004, he had rotator cuff surgery, then had labrum surgery after the 2005 season. Both the surgeries robbed him of his pop and he made just 24 more starts over the next three seasons.

Andy Pettitte

You probably know all you need to know about Andy Pettitte. The Deer Park prodigy, the Yankees stalwart came home to pitch with his buddy Rocket.

And then Pettitte’s elbow blew up. The lefty was very good up until then. He formed the 1-2-3 punch Houston wanted with Oswalt and Clemens. Reminiscent of Nolan Ryan-J.R. Richard-Phil Niekro. Or Nolan Ryan-Mike Scott-Bob Knepper.

But Pettitte’s body had other ideas. He ended up throwing 6-4 in 15 starts and 83 innings with 79 strikeouts and a 3.90 ERA. But things weren’t ever really right with the elbow.

He was on the DL from April 7-29 with a left elbow strain and again from May 27 to June 28 with a strained left forearm. He threw two games in August before the team shut him down and he had surgery to repair his torn flexor tendon.

Brandon Backe

We take a break from the depressing injuries to talk about one of my favorite Astros of this era, if for nothing else, than the complete improbability of him becoming a hero.

Brandon Backe was drafted by Tampa Bay as a shortstop in ‘98 out of Galveston College. He couldn’t hit a lick, and stalled in the low minors, so Tampa Bay converted him to a pitcher in 2001 and he took off. He reached Double-A that year and was in the majors for a brief stint in 2002 before bouncing back and forth between Triple-A and the majors in 2003.

Houston picked him up in a trade for an Astros legend in his own right, Geoff Blum. He made the big league bullpen out of spring training and appeared in 24 games before getting sent to the minors after June 1 with an ERA of 5.32.

He was recalled in late August as a starter. He had made nine starts for New Orleans while he was at Triple-A and was probably called up as a bit of a last resort.

And he turned out to be exactly what the rotation needed. Backe went 7-2 down the stretch with a 3.80 ERA in 45 innings. He struck out 39 and walked 19.

He then authored a great postseason with one legendary performace. Game 5 of the NLCS against St. Louis. Backe went toe to toe with Astros killer Woody Williams, as each team threw blanks for eight innings. Backe finished his day with 8 innings pitched, allowing just one hit with two walks and no runs, striking out four. He gave it over to Brad Lidge who picked up the win after a spotless ninth.

The win came, of course, when Jeff Kent hit a Jason Isringhausen pitched onto the train tracks and raced around the bases like a madman. Kent throwing his batting helmet as he came upon home plate is one of those indelible images you’ll never forget.

And Backe was part of that. Whatever strange magic he turned on for the end of that run, it worked. And reinforced just how strange this season was for the starting rotation.

Carlos Hernandez

Oh, poor Carlos. I already spilled so much digital ink over him. I will only say that Hernandez made nine starts here with a 6.43 ERA before falling off that proverbial cliff. Read more about it here.

Brandon Duckworth

In 2003, Houston had one of its most dominant bullpens of all time. I think the 2022 version probably surpassed that on sheer volume, but in 2003, it was three guys.

Billy Wagner, Octavio Dotel, and Brad Lidge. Those three shredded teams late in games.

By the end of 2004, only one would remain.

Why is this relevant? Because Brandon Duckworth came over to Houston in the Billy Wagner deal.

Why did Billy Wagner get traded? Well, he explained it with one of my favorite little quotes from an Astro.

When he returned to Minute Maid as a member of the Phillies, one of his kids asked: “Daddy, why don’t we play here anymore?”

“Because your dad couldn’t keep his mouth shut,” Wagner shot back.

He’s referring to comments Wagner made after the 2003 season, when he suggested the reason Houston didn’t make the playoffs was because owner Drayton McLane didn’t pay for pitching.

What happened after that? Uncle Drayton shipped Wagner to Philly and then paid for pitching.

In return for the future Hall of Fame closer, Houston got Ezequiel Astacio, Taylor Buchholz, and Duckworth.

What is a duck worth? Sounds like a Groucho Marx joke.

Duckworth was a good player, but he wasn’t a prospect. He had made 58 starts for Philly with a 4.87 ERA in three years and was entering his Age 28 season. He was rotational depth, but he didn’t make the rotation out of spring training. He did stick in the bullpen and started a pair of games in late April.

In those, he gave up three runs in four innings against Milwaukee and four runs in five innings at Colorado. He did not make another start until June 1. Those two in June were equally as bad, giving up six runs in 3 1/3 innings.

He started two more in July, giving up four runs in 8 1/3 innings for his most successful duo of games.

In all, Duckworth started six games. He had an ERA of 6.86 on the year. Not great!

What’s a Duckworth? Not a whole lot.

Darren Oliver

This one is the wildest on the list because I completely memory holed that Darren Oliver appeared on the 2004 Astros.

If you don’t remember him, Darren Oliver was one of the more serviceable pitchers of his era. He came up with Texas in 1993 and spent six years there. In the next flurry of years, he played for St. Louis, Texas again, the Red Sox, the Cards again, the Rockies, the Marlins, and then the Astros.

Left-handed relievers will always have a place in the game, apparently.

Oliver signed with the defending World Series champs, the Florida Marlins, and was part of their starting rotation from the jump. He made it eight starts before being shuttled to the bullpen.

That lasted until June 30, when he made his last appearance for the team.

It appears he was in a bit of limbo after this. The Astros traded for him for cash considerations on July 22 before he pitched in three games in relief. He gave up no runs in five innings of work.

He was bumped into the starting rotation on July 31 and went 5 innings of one-hit, shutout ball with six strikeouts and two walks to earn his only Astros victory.

In his next start against Atlanta, he lasted one inning before coming out with a shoulder injury. One DL trip later, Oliver returned for four relief appearances in September, but he was tagged for at least one run in every appearance.

Jeremy Griffiths

We are dealing with some very interesting trades here. This journey down the rotation rabbit hole also lets us see how the Astros core fell apart and led to a fallow period post-2005.

One of the mainstays of Houston’s run after the move to Minute Maid Park was Richard Hidalgo. The outfielder had just finished 18th in the MVP voting in 2003 with 28 homers and nine steals in 141 games. He was out of the majors in two years.

Why?

With Hidalgo, it was probably the inconsistency throughout his career. Every time he had a breakthrough season he struggled in the next. 1998 was great; ‘99 stunk. 2000 was MVP-caliber, 2001 was just meh, and 2002 was worse.

Maybe getting shot in the forearm during an attempted carjacking affected things. That happened in the winter of 2002. But again, 2003 was something of a bounceback.

For whatever reason, Houston traded a “core” piece of its run to the Mets for David Weathers and Griffiths. Am I going to do another of these history pieces on Richard Hidalgo? Probably not. In looking at it, he clashed with then-manager Jimy Williams, who was somewhat of a jerk and a hardass and Hidalgo didn’t respond to that. Plus, Houston had Jason Lane who they wanted in the lineup.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Weathers was a pitcher GM Gerry Hunsicker had coveted for a time and helped the bullpen. Griffiths started one game for Houston.

He had started six games for the Mets with an atrocious 7.02 ERA on the season in 2003. He was okay for the Mets Triple-A team with a 3.47 ERA in 70 innings across 13 starts.

Something was not right, though. He got to Houston, had a horrible time in New Orleans, had a worse time in Houston, sported an 11.79 ERA in 2005 as a 27-year old, and was released after nine appearances.

He didn’t play again after 2005.

Jared Fernandez

Here it is. The end of the line. Jared Fernandez.

The reason that name stood out to me isn’t because he was a highly touted prospect. Fernandez wasn’t drafted. He signed with the Red Sox in 1994 as an amateur free agent. He pitched for Utah State (and is one of just four Utah State major leaguers).

He signed with Cincinnati as a minor league free agent but made his major league debut in 2000 as a 29-year-old.

Why on earth is he notable?

Because he threw a knuckleball.

These days knuckleballers are all but extinct. Fernandez carried on the tradition.

He played for Houston a little in 2003, throwing in 12 games and starting six with a 3.99 ERA.

That was promising enough that the team had him make the opening day roster out of spring training.

His knuckler didn’t cooperate in 2004, however.

He gave up two runs while walking two and getting no strikeouts in a 2/3 inning relief appearance on April 9. Then started a game on April 12 and gave up four runs while walking three in a third of an inning.

He was sent down to New Orleans for the rest of the year. It’s telling that with all that rotational strife, they didn’t give him another chance.

And that brings us to the end of the list. Four injuries. One knuckleballer. Two trades for big-name players. And Brandon Backe.

Some seasons go like this. Teams can never have enough pitching. But for a team like the 2004 Astros to rely on Pete Munro and Jared Fernandez and Darren Oliver is really mind-blowing 20 years later.

I’m still mad they didn’t make the Series that year.