The holiday season is a time for dreams. As if to reinforce that idea in myself, consciously or unconsciously, I've had several pleasant dreams over the last week, now that what most of us had hoped for has come true, and the Astros have added a top-flight pitcher to the starting rotation in Andy Pettitte. This is the second consecutive year, in fact, that Drayton McLane and Gerry Hunsicker have given Astro fans an enormous Yuletide present, a tangible sign of their good will towards all those who support the team after last December's signing of Jeff Kent. It is still to be hoped that Kent and Pettitte, among others, can fulfill an even more earnest dream and lead the Astros back into the first round of the NL playoffs and beyond in 2004.

That could happen. The trade of Billy Wagner and the signing of Pettitte have brought the Astros what they needed most: high-quality depth in the starting rotation to withstand the rigors of the long season, to match up well against their opponents in critical series, and to give the club a fighting chance to make it past the NLDS if they are fortunate enough to get that far. That pitching depth could go even deeper if Roger Clemens eventually signs with Houston, but we will have to see if that happens, and we will also have to see at what cost Clemens comes to the Astros if he does come. If Clemens does decide to pitch again, Houston will face some uncomfortable choices in making a place for him on the payroll. A trade of either Jeriome Robertson or Tim Redding seems quite possible, and I can think of at least one team in each league--Montreal and Texas--that would love to have either man at a reasonable price. Hunsicker is already exploring, however, another even more upsetting option, and that is to entertain offers for Wade Miller. This possibility does not surprise me. As I wrote on November 8, we'd better get used to the idea of losing the Wagners, the Hidalgos, and the Millers because the organization cannot afford to keep them all. Given the choice of keeping Miller or keeping Roy Oswalt over the long term, Oswalt seems a much better investment. I don't like such choices myself, and doubtless Hunsicker doesn't either, but if it has to be done, the process of feeling other clubs out should begin now, while Miller's price tag is still low enough for a variety of teams to afford.

Fortunately, we are not yet at the point of losing Miller. Clemens hasn't decided anything at the moment, and even if he has, he may well keep that decision to himself until just before Spring Training. My sense is that unless Clemens drives his price up so high that the Astros are forced to trade Miller, Hunsicker will try to trade Robertson or Redding first, or send one (probably Robertson) back to AAA, although that option is not likely to appeal to either man. Even if Hunsicker has started the wheels in motion for an eventual trade of Miller, the $3 million Houston's right-hander will probably make in arbitration this winter is not likely to strain the Astros' budget so much that the club cannot keep both him and a reasonably-priced Clemens, or make it impossible to trade Miller if that should prove necessary someday.

I am quite hopeful, therefore, that Houston will, at worst, field a rotation of Oswalt, Pettitte, Miller, Redding, and Robertson, and, at best, a rotation of Oswalt, Pettitte, Clemens, Miller, and Redding for 2004, with Robertson being challenged for the fifth spot by Carlos Hernandez and Brandon Duckworth in the first case, or Robertson gone or himself slated for bullpen duty in the second case. Even without Clemens, the Astros have taken significant steps this winter to strengthen and deepen the pitching staff. They should be able to match up well against any other team no matter how the rotation turns when a series comes up in August or September.

Combine that pitching depth with Houston's everyday lineup, and this is a formidable, playoff-caliber team. It has its weaknesses--no appreciable speed, a less-intimidating bullpen than in past years, questionable depth at 3B, now that Geoff Blum has been traded--but it's a better team on paper than the one which fell a game short of the Cubs in 2003. It could be one of the top two or three teams in the National League next season.

Yet, over the past week, while I've been thinking these thoughts and dreaming those dreams, I've also been haunted by a specter over twenty years old. Has anybody noticed how good the Philadelphia Phillies promise to be next season? Surely, you must have noticed by now. Their starting rotation should be excellent, now that Kevin Millwood has accepted arbitration and will stay with the club. Millwood, Wolf, Vicente Padilla, Eric Milton, and Brett Myers can all pitch, and the Phillies aren't going to blow any leads next season as they did last season, not with Tim Worrell, Roberto Hernandez, and Billy Wagner around to close things out. Lord, what a trio. Houston and Philadelphia were fourth and fifth in batting in the NL in 2003, and the extraordinary steps that GM Ed Wade has taken this off-season to strengthen his team's bullpen will, barring injury, close the pitching gap between the Astros, who finished fifth in the NL in 2003, and the Phillies, who finished eighth in that category. Although both face formidable opposition in even getting to the playoffs--the Cubs still have fine pitching and now have playoff experience to go with it; and the Braves and Marlins also still have high-quality pitching despite the hits they've taken in free agency--I like both Houston's and Philadelphia's chances next season, and I think that if both clubs stay healthy, there's a real good chance we could see these two clubs battle it out in the NLCS.

That is my hope; that is my wish. But within the imagination that harbors this hope also resides the unhappy vision of the Phillies of 1980, who outlasted the Astros in five pulse-pounding games in the NLCS that year and went on to win the World Series. I've never quite gotten over that Astro defeat, and the thought of Houston having to tangle with Philadelphia again next October terrifies me. ("Does it have to come down to Wagner vs Kent in Game Seven? Does it have to be the Phillies again? ARRRGH!.")

My vision may have no more reality than a bit of undigested Christmas pudding, but neither would it take a sabrmetric Scrooge to deny the possibility that these two clubs could be on a collision course in a few months' time. The prospect scares me. Yet it might also be comforting to remember that Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol--a story published on this very day in 1843--turned out to be a very different man at the end of the story than he was at the beginning. Although Scrooge is now synonymous with miserliness and meanness in our culture, he ought properly to be associated with those qualities he discovers in himself at the tale's end: compassion, generosity, and hope.

Those qualities, it seems to me, are the best qualities that humans have. I have felt them work in me through the love of my family and through the friendship of those who read this column, and I wish you a full measure of them as the holidays begin. Astroday will return on the first Friday after the New Year. It won't be long after that that pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. As we wait and as we celebrate, stay warm, and stay safe.