"It's kind of past frustrating now," Cooper said. "We say every day it gets frustrating, but it's kind of past frustration time. I guess the thing now is how many errors we're going to make before we get hits. ... We fill that (error) box up before we do anything else."

Cooper finds some solace in knowing some of the players who have struggled have put up great numbers in their careers.

"That's kind of the bright spot you look for when you know that some of these guys have some pretty good baseball cards whose stats on the back or pretty good. But it still doesn't ease the pain," he said. "I don't go home after the game happy. I'm mad till whatever time. I keep waiting. I wake up every morning thinking today's the day. Sure do. Then about the eighth inning, frustration sets in again."

The offense was so bad that when the Astros told the media they were going to have an important announcement on March 18, there was speculation that team owner Drayton McLane was flying to Kissimmee, Fla., to fire hitting coach Sean Berry. McLane laughed at the rumor, and he told the Houston Chronicle he wouldn't fire Berry in spring training.