...But Is Drayton McClane Chauncey Gardner?

Why would Houston trade for Carlos Beltran BEFORE the Royals play the Cardinals? Why not wait until AFTER that series? Hell, Carlos could have won game 2 of the series in the 9th for the Royals and kept Houston a game closer to first. Instead of Beltran up with 2 on and one out, Mike Sweeney GIDy-yaPed to end the threat. Cards win in 10.

Yeah, they didn't want to take a chance that Carlos would get hurt. But should the Astros lose this year, like they did last year, the Astros will know that waiting 3 days to pull off their trade might have helped even more.