Opening Day is Two Days away

I love Baseball. Sadly though, the Astros are my team: We have little to no quality, proven pitching behind Oswalt in the rotation. Brandon Backe is a great spirit and has a lot of drive, but his elbow just got repaired, and some think he has pushed to get back too quickly. The #3 pitcher, Wandy Rodriquez had a 7.5 ERA this spring. Shawn Chacon is a mystery to me at the #4. We have Woody Willaims and Chris Sampson battling for the #5 spot with ERA's above 10.
The defense is gonna be attrocious as we've replaced the best defensive SS in the NL,Adam Everett, with a guy with below avg. defensive skills, Miguel Tejada. Holes on defense in left with Lee and Center with Bourn(it has been stated recently that he can get to the ball, just has trouble catching it.
We gave up a lot young talent over the winter. Long Term options like Chris Burke, Brad Lidge, Chad Qualls, Mike Lamb, Luke Scott(a personal favorite--GO LUKE) and Eric Bruntlett are gone for the likes of Jose Valverde, Michael Bourn, Doug Brocail. Of course Craig Bigggio retired and Brad Ausmus has taken a back-up role to mentor J R Towles. I am very happy to see Jose Cruz Jr. and Geoff Blum back with the team.
Everyone talks about our line up, Well Bourn and Matsui were supposed to be at the top, Boune has struggle with hitting and Matsui is out for 3 weeks with a backside injury. Pence will slide in at #2 for now and that is a plus. Berkman as the #3 hitter and "leader" of the club is overrated, Berkman is someone that I'd love to drink a beer with and cut up with. He has a very dry sense of humor, but the example that a young player in today's game needs is one of mentorship.
Carlos Lee is worth the contract he was given period. But, if the money he is making could have been spent on an outfielder, a 3rd basemen and a starting pitcher, this club would be in better shape. I've talked about Tejada, and I think he'll do well. He just needs to drive in 120 runs to make up for the defensive liability that I see him as. At 3rd, it's Ty Wigginton, oh well, I thought that Lamb was a better option, and Loretta is a viable option in the infield as well. As stated Towles will be behind the plate, I think with his bat,he'll end up moving up in the order with Masui dropping to the 8th position.
Bench not previously mentioned looks like it's between Darin Erstad, Humberto Quintero and David Newhan.

In my opinion,

It's gonna be a long year to be an Astro fan, and with the Rockets performing at the level they are the casual sport fan may not notice the Astros until mid-May. By that time, they may already be out of the mix. The Brewers and The Cubs are the class of the division this year.
I would like to see the Astros commit to a youth movement, so at least there would be justification for what we may witness this year. I hope I'm wrong, but a 4th place finish is what I believe will happen this year for my guys. A 4 th place finish with a young club is acceptable. This is not a young ballclub.