I was talking with Nick the other night, and we determined that the most forgotten team in baseball is either the Toronto Blue Jays or the Houston Astros. Sometimes they’re moderately good or bad, but never enough for anyone to take notice. At least the Pirates and Royals can hang their hats on being perennially awful. At least the Brewers have Prince Fielder. At least the Blue Jays… are in a different country, which is sort of interesting. So Houston it is. Did you know that their coach is named Brad Mills? Liar.

I thought it would be nice, then, to shift the Dugout’s focus to Houston. This Dugout contains every single thing I know about the 2011 Astros. Find name-brand quality at store-brand prices after the jump.

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HEY GUYS

Before Thursday, the only way baseball players got injured is by conditioning improperly and requiring Tommy John surgery, conditioning properly and requiring Tommy John surgery, kicking or punching inanimate objects in anger, or trying to iron a shirt while wearing it. You never actually break your leg playing baseball, unless you’re the Twins’ Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who did so during yesterday’s game.

As it often tends to do, the real baseball world tends to bend over backwards to accommodate serendipitous Dugout storylines. This is one of those times. In today’s Dugout, we are afforded the opportunity to check in with an old friend.

P.S. this is the first Dugout I’ve written in over a year. Happy to be back. If you’re inclined to hear me say more words about sports, you can find me at SB Nation, where I’m an associate editor, and Twitter, where I’m a jackass.

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