Astros would love a fast start for a change By BERNARDO FALLAS HOUSTON CHRONICLE BRADENTON, Fla. -- The message was delivered loud and clear through sitdowns and at the team meeting at the start of spring training. The 2010 season was to be one of change. And one thing that needed to change was the perception that the Astros don't know a way to start the year other than slow. Fed up with recent poor starts, the Astros wanted nothing of the sort this time around. 'We talked to them about the importance of preparing properly to try to ensure that we don't stumble out of the gate,' Astros general manager Ed Wade said Tuesday. That, of course, was before injuries took out the Astros' leadoff hitter and half the starting infield, including five-time All-Star Lance Berkman, who is questionable for the season opener after undergoing arthroscopic surgery in his left knee. An already tall task -- how does starting the season against San Francisco, Philadelphia and at St. Louis grab you? -- is getting taller with each day that passes by and each injury that comes to be. Don't be surprised if at some point in the coming weeks the Astros downgrade their expectations from 'good' to the safer 'better' start. What constitutes a good start anyway? Is it a winning record after 10 games or the first month of the season? The first third or the first half of the campaign, maybe? Or perhaps it is simply a mere improvement from seasons past. New manager Brad Mills would not commit to an answer. And Wade, too, tactfully sidestepped the question. Astros second baseman Kaz Matsui seems to have the right idea, though. 'We all want to have a good start,' second baseman Kaz Matsui said. 'A good start means the team is going to win.' Bingo. Wins make for strong starts. Simple enough. At least we know what the Astros don't want to have happen this time around. There was the 3-7 start to last year that yielded a 9-13 month, which then became a 24-30 first third of the season. By the time the Astros hit the All-Star Break, they had clawed their way back to .500. Only to free-fall soon after on their way to a 74-88 finish. Things had been better in 2008, when, after again starting 3-7 and going 14-16 through the first 30 games and 44-51 at the All-Star Break, the Astros got hot and nearly pulled the impossible, finishing with 86 wins and just 3 ? games of a wild-card berth. But that was more anomaly than norm. Over the past 11 seasons, the Astros have reached the playoffs four times, all of them coming during seasons in which they were at .500 or better at the All-Star Break. 'It's not how you start but how you finish, but if you get off to a good start, you're giving yourself a chance to maintain that,' third baseman Pedro Feliz said. The timetable for the return of the likes of center fielder Michael Bourn (oblique starin) and shortstop Tommy Manzella (quadriceps strain) is favorable, but there is no way for the Astros to know whether Berkman, their most productive bat, will be ready to go come opening day. And getting off to a winning start will not come at the price of risking players' health, Mils said. 'We have to take care of who we have,' Mills said. 'Our desire to play right away, we hope we are able to do that with whomever we put on the field, but we are not going to let that ambition hinder anything that we want to do with these players or take the chance of hurting one even more.' Whether it is because it can serve as a tone-setter for the season or because a win in April counts as much as a win in September -- mathematically speaking, at least -- the fact is, more often than not, a good start does matter. Or, at the very least, it helps. And the Astros know that much. Wade believes the team has done everything it can this spring to have a shot at, for the first time in while, not have to play catch-up from the start. 'I am completely satisfied with the way we have prepared,' Wade said. 'We can talk about the tone and the atmosphere that Millsie and the coaches have created, but I think more importantly, the work itself, to me, has been exemplary. 'Obviously, health always plays a part and there is no guarantee that we get off to a fast start. But from the standpoint of doing our best to prepare to be our best, I don't think we could have done anything else.' The question is whether that will be enough. 'We just want to play well,' Mills said. 'If we play the way we are capable of playing, those types of things will take care of themselves.' bernardo.fallas@chron.com XXX - End of Story3D 