Houston Astros Off Season News [Archive]

eagle eye

10-28-2015, 06:22 PM

Gosh the World Series has only just begun and danged if the Royals aren't up 1-0 on the NY Mets. Yep, the very same Royals Houston had a 6-2 lead on going into the 8th inning of Game 4 of the ALDS up 2-1 in the best of 5 series. 6 measly outs away from the ALCS and 4 wins away from the Fall Classic. Kind of makes you sick, don't it? But no use crying over spilled milk, as they say. Time to move on. I certainly bear no grudge against the Royals, heck, I'm rooting for them if, for no other reason, that I hate the stinkin Metropolitans. The animosity lingers on still after the luckier-than-crap Mets first beat the Astros in the NLCS for the right to go to the World Series then they backed into beating the Red Sox for the championship. Of course all this took place way back in 1986 but that wound cut deep into me and a lot of other Astros fans. Deeper even than the loss to the Philadelphia Phillies again in the NLCS in 1980. Maybe that's when I started to dislike Pete Rose. Anyway, GO ROYALS!

There really is off season news to talk about concerning the Astros. On Monday the 26th Carlos Correa was named The Sporting News American League Rookie of the Year. The award is very meaningful because it is voted on by the AL players. Correa, who made his Major League debut June 8 and was the youngest position player in the Majors this season, hit .279 with 22 doubles, 22 home runs, 68 RBIs, 14 stolen bases and a .857 OPS in 99 games. He led all AL rookies in home runs, slugging (.512) and OPS, while ranking second in RBIs and on-base percentage (.345), and third in batting average.
Correa set both the franchise rookie record for home runs and the franchise record for home runs by a shortstop.
In voting by a panel of 176 AL players, Correa finished with 98 votes, easily ahead of second-place finisher Francisco Lindor (http://m.mlb.com/player/596019/francisco-lindor) of the Indians (30). Miguel (http://m.mlb.com/player/593934/miguel-sano)Sano (http://m.mlb.com/player/593934/miguel-sano) of the Twins was third, with 13 votes. Astros pitcher Lance McCullers (http://m.mlb.com/player/621121/lance-mccullers) Jr. received a pair of votes, putting him in seventh place. (from an article on Astros.com) Correa is still in the running to win the AL Rookie of the Year Award as voted on by the Baseball Writers of America.

eagle eye

11-06-2015, 08:42 AM

The awards are continuing to roll in for the Astros and that's as it should be went you are a playoff team. One of the reasons you are a playoff team is because you have players who are exceptional and they help carry a team through a season. Dallas Keuchel has won the Houston chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America Most Valuable Player on the Astros team. Keuchel was also named Pitcher of the Year for his 20 win season and 2nd place ranking in ERA in the AL. Keuchel is the first pitcher to win the team MVP award since reliever Doug Jones won it way back in 1992. Carlos Correa was named Houston's Rookie of the Year and backup catcher Hank Conger won the Darryl Kile Good Guy Award. The Diamondbacks Paul Goldschmidt won the Houston area Player of the Year award.

There are a bunch of awards to decided in the baseball like the Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and many other awards and several Astros are in the running. Dallas Keuchel has got to be the front runner for the AL Cy Young Award and Carlos Correa is in the conversation for Rookie of the Year. Also, Keuchel, Jose Altuve and Jason Castro are among the 3 finalists at their positions to win Gold Glove Awards. Keuchel won his first Gold Glove last season. The other finalists at pitcher are Mark Buehrle (Tonoto) and Sonny Gray (Oakland). 2nd base finalists are Brian Dozier (Minnesota) and Ian Kinsler (Detroit) and the catchers finalists are Russell Martin (Toronto) and Salvador Perez (Kansas City). The Gold Glove is awarded to the player who is the best fielder at his position so, to have 3 players as finalists is pretty special.

On Monday the Astros will have the official ground breaking for their new $130MM spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Astros and the Washington Nationals will share the facility. Among the people expected at the ceremony will be MLB commissioner Rob Manfred joining Astros owner Jim Crane and GM Jeff Luhnow and Nationals owner Mark Lerner and GM Mike Rizzo. The ground breaking will take place on the same day the MLB GM winter meetings will begin in Boca Raton.

Houston has already made a roster move of sorts. They have declined to exercise their option on relief pitcher Chad Qualls making him a free agent.

Lastly, The Astros minor league system was named the best in baseball. This article from Astros.com explains the recognition.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/156548388/astros-farm-system-ranked-no-1-by-milbcom

eagle eye

11-08-2015, 07:10 AM

Houston has already made one roster move by not exercising the option on Chad Qualls contract and allowing him to become a free agent. Now they have attempted to make a roster move by offering OF Colby Rasmus a $15.8 MM qualifying offer for next season. Rasmus had a good season with Houston last season and he was red hot in the playoffs. It's not a bad move by Houston to get a player who did play a big part in their success this past season and he practically carried the team in the post season. Not only does this show Rasmus he is wanted but it also has a residual effect. Because they tendered an offer if Rasmus signs with another team for next year Houston will get a compensatory draft pick in next summer's draft. Rasmus has on week to accept the offer which will lock him in at the tender offer salary or he can decline and become a free agent. The clock is ticking and this coming Friday is the deadline.

eagle eye

11-10-2015, 08:54 AM

The awards are starting to be announced for the 2015 season and Houston has 3 players who have been winners as voted on by the players, hence the name of the awards are The Players Choice Awards. I would think that the fact that you are recognized by your peers. Dallas Keuchel won TPCA for AL Outstanding Pitcher of the Year, Carlos Correa won for Rookie of the Year and Jose Altuve won the inaugural awarding of the Majestic Athletic Always Game Award given to the player who continually exhibits grit, tenacity, perseverance and hustle.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/156896912/

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2587691-dallas-keuchel-wins-al-outstanding-pitcher-at-2015-players-choice-awards

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2587516-carlos-correa-wins-al-outstanding-rookie-at-2015-players-choice-awards

Among the needs the Astros have headed toward the 2016 season are at the corner infield spots and relief pitching. Houston addressed the 3rd base position this year by signing Luis Valbuena. He provided some pop in the lineup but he also struck out a lot and didn't hit for much an average. At first base Chris Carter held down the position despite posting a sub .200 batting average. Finally, in the middle of September, Carter and the Houston hitting coach figured out why Carter didn't hit worth a crap when they made a slight adjustment of his bat position when he was waiting on the pitch. Prior to the move Carter held his bat straight up and down with his arms sort of close to his body. The adjustment was to move his hands back toward his back shoulder and let the bat drop to about a 45 degree angle in what would be considered a traditional batting stance. The move paid off dividends as Carter got hot as a firecracker the last two weeks of the season and he carried the team's offense to the playoffs. Carter made an adjustment in his address last season after the All Star break and he was the hottest hitter in baseball the second half of the season. Will Houston waste time on hoping Carter has really found his swing and take the chance on him struggling through another year of poor hitting hoping they can straighten it out before September or will they finally give up on Carter and look for a 1st basemen who can actually hit with some consistency? Surely the Astros took note of how valuable it is for hitters to actually make contact and put the ball in play rather than be among the league leaders in K's as they were this season. Here are links from Bleacher Report about the top 15 corner infield prospects in free agency this winter.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2583701-br-mlb-offseason-100-the-top-15-corner-infielders-available

Houston has a need to bolster their bullpen. They did it last season adding Luke Gregerson and Pat Neshak and the bullpen was pretty solid for 5 months. Unfortunately, the baseball season lasts six. I suppose the arms in the pen just got tired or something because they were absolutely dreadful in September ultimately costing Houston the opportunity to advance past the Royals in the Divisional Round of the playoffs when they blew two leads. The worst of the lot was the 5 runs given up in the top of the 8th when Houston had a 6-2 lead that ultimately became a 7-2 deficit by the time the inning was over. Hopefully the Astros learned a little something about contact hitting and the value of NOT striking out in that game as hit after hit came bouncing of Royals bats in that nightmare of an inning. Houston needs a power arm or two at the back end of the pen similar to the Mets and Royals pens when they seemingly have an endless supply of guys who throw 98 mph fastballs---for strikes. Here is the top 15 bullpen free agents according to Bleacher Report.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2583268-br-mlb-offseason-100-the-top-15-relief-pitchers-available

One last thing, the Astros have had the lowest, or close to the lowest, payroll for several years now as the rebuilt their farm system. The Astros have been successful doing that judging by the fact their farm system was named the #1 system in the major leagues. They have jumped up and reached the playoffs a couple years before they were expected to and they have a solid group of players, both pitchers and position players, to build around. As I pointed out above Houston has some gaps to fill to make the club even better in 2016 and this article from Astros.com talks about how owner Jim Crane is making resources available to GM Jeff Luhnow to do just that. The Astros are also looking at artibration dealings with Dallas Keuchel, Evan Gattis and Jason Castro which, if all three players are retained by the Astros, will cause a big jump in the Astros overall payroll. That doesn't mean the dealing will be over and that is a good sign for happenings this winter.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/156884692/astros-ready-to-spend-in-free-agency

eagle eye

11-11-2015, 09:38 AM

Yesterday the voting for the Gold Glove awards was done and 2 Houston players won GG awards. Pitcher Dallas Keuchel won his 2nd GG which makes 2 years running he's won the award. Jose Altuve also won the GG and it was his first time to win the award. Over the next week there will winners voted on and announced. Houston still has players in the running for several different post season awards which is what happens when teams start to do well.

eagle eye

11-12-2015, 01:34 PM

It was announced today that two former Astros are on this year's Hall of Fame ballot. 1B Jeff Bagwell is on the ballot for the 6th time and former closer Billy Wagner is on the ballot for the 1st time.

I haven't investigated the numbers but if he's made the HOF ballot he must be in the conversation so I wish Billy Wagner all the best. As far as Jeff Bagwell is concerned, I think Baggy deserves to be in the HOF. Between he a Biggio they were the backbone of the team for over a decade and they made the Astros relevant. His number compare very favorably with 2014 inductee Frank Thomas even though Thomas played 4 more years than Bagwell. Some of the accolades Bagwell got were in spite of having to deal with a 1st baseman heavy National League that featured Mark McGwire, Eric Karros, Todd Helton and Fred McGriff.

Bagwell had nine seasons with over 30 home runs, eight seasons with 100 or more RBI, and nine seasons with over 100 runs scored. In six consecutive years, from 1996 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_in_baseball) through 2001 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_in_baseball), he reached all three marks in every season. He drew at least 100 walks for seven straight seasons, and had six seasons with a .300 batting average. To go along with that Bagwell was the first first baseman in MLB history to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season. Bagwell was an excellent base runner who stole 202 bases over his career. He had 2 seasons when he stole 30 bases and 5 other seasons when he stole at least 15. For a power hitting 1B those are excellent numbers. Unlike many of the slugging 1B Bagwell combined exceptional offensive numbers with stifling defence. Bagwell was one of the best defensive first basemen ever. Even though he only won 1 Gold Glove award he was among the best at turning the 3-6-3 double play and his intimidating presence on bunts caused batters fits. He was often times within 10 feet or closer by the time a batter who squared around to bunt actually made contact. Bagwell could run, hit, field, hit for average and hit for power. You also have to consider that Bagwell lost big portions of 3 seasons, 1993, 1994 and 1995 due to breaking bones in his hand being hit by pitches. These 3 years were in the prime of his career so his numbers would have ballooned accordingly. Bagwell had one of the best season's ever in 1994 that resulted in his being a unanimous winner of the NL MVP award. He also won Rookie of the Year honors in 1991. The Astros should have gone to the playoffs and would have had a good shot at winning it all had it not been for the players strike that began in September of 1994 and caused the World Series to be cancelled. I think that the Bagwell story is much more interesting than that of Frank Thomas and his numbers compare very favorably. Baggy deserves to be in the HOF and maybe the induction of Houston's first homegrown HOF'er Craig Biggio has paved the way in for his friend Jeff Bagwell.

eagle eye

11-13-2015, 04:46 PM

The awards keep coming in as Jose Altuve won his second straight Silver Slugger Award given to the top offensive player at each position in each league. Altuve won this award as the best offensive player in the American League at 2nd base and he won it again this year as well making Altuve only the 3rd player in franchise history to win the Silver Slugger and the Gold Glove awards in the same season. Craig Biggio won in 1994, 1995 and 1997 and Jeff Bagwell did it in 1994. Altuve continues to put up impressive numbers adding 2015 on his list of impressive performances.

Altuve hit .313 with 40 doubles and four triples and set career highs with 15 home runs and 66 RBIs in 154 games last season. He led all AL second basemen in hits and doubles, while ranking second in batting average. Among all AL players, Altuve led the league in hits (200) and stolen bases (38) for the second consecutive season, joining the Yankees' Snuffy Stirnweiss (1944-45) as the only players in Major League history to lead the AL in hits and steals in consecutive seasons. Altuve also became the first player in franchise history to reach 200 hits in a season twice.

In other news, today was the deadline for Colby Rasmus to decide whether or not to accept the Astros one year $15 MM qualifying offer. Today Rasmus agree to accept the offer.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/157183486/colby-rasmus-accepts-qualifying-offer

There have been 10 Astros who have won a Silver Slugger Award: Altuve (2014-15), outfielder Carlos Lee (2007), third baseman Morgan Ensberg (2005), left-handed pitcher Mike Hampton (1999), outfielder Moises Alou (1998), Bagwell (1994, '97, '99), Biggio (catcher in 1989, second baseman in 1994-95, 1997-98), first baseman Glenn Davis (1986), outfielder Jose Cruz (1983-84) and shortstop Dickie Thon (1983).
Established in 1980, the Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Awards are the top offensive honor in Major League Baseball. Managers and coaches of all 30 Major League teams vote for the players they feel are the best offensive producers at each position in both the American and National Leagues. -- (Info from Astros.com)

eagle eye

11-17-2015, 12:59 PM

Houston has 3 people up for the big awards for the 2015 season. They would be Carlos Correa for Rookie of the Year, Dallas Keuchel for AL Cy Young Award and A J Hinch for Manager of the Year. The awards come from the Baseball Writers Association of America and they reward the best of the best for a given season as determined by a vote by the members of the BBWAA nation wide.

Last night as announced on the MLB Network Carlos Correa won the 2015 AL Rookie of the Year Award edging out Cleveland shortstop Francisco Lindor 124 votes to 109 with Correa getting 17 first place votes to 13 for Lindor.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/157446668/astros-carlos-correa-wins-al-rookie-of-year

The Manager of the Year Award will be announced tonight at 5 o'clock CST on the MLB Network. Hinch is one of 3 finalists for the MOY award joining the Rangers Jeff Bannister and the Twins Paul Molitor.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/157433102/astros-aj-hinch-up-for-al-manager-of-year

The AL and NL Cy Young Awards will be awarded this week as well but AL CYA finalist Dallas Keuchel earned another award. He will be taking home the Warren Spahn Award given to the best left handed pitcher in baseball in a given season. The award is named after Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn who is from the state of Oklahoma. It just so happens Keuchel is from Oklahoma as well and he has said this award is very meaningful to him.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/157425294/astros-dallas-keuchel-wins-warren-spahn-award

Big T

11-17-2015, 05:40 PM

They just paid Rasmus Waayyyy too much.

eagle eye

11-18-2015, 08:08 AM

The bullpen strikes again. How so? In the Manager of the Year voting the ultimate winner was Rangers skipper Jeff Bannister because basically because the Rangers came out of nowhere to win the AL West. A J Hinch led the Astros from equally, if not worse than, nowhere to take 2nd place in the AL West and earn a wild card berth in the playoffs. The Astros won the Wild Card Playoff game vs the Yankees and came within 6 outs of beating the Kansas City Royals in the ALDS. Both the Astros and the Rangers fell in their ADLS series against the Royals and Blue Jays respectively but the real shame is Hinch had the Astros in first place for 5 months of the season but in September the bullpen just went to the dogs. The relief pitching just plain stunk as the Astros lost the division lead and had to play their rear ends off just to make the Wild Card. Tell the bullpen thanks, kids. Thanks bullpen. If the relief pitching had not collapsed the Astros win the division and last night A J Hinch would have won the MOY award instead of Jeff Bannister.

I somewhat agree with Big T that Colby Rasmus got overpaid. I think that his hot streak in the playoffs helped Jeff Luhnow make a decision. His .238 BA was below his career average but his 25 home runs on the season was a career high and his 61 RBIs was the 4th most in his career. I don't like that he struck out a career high 154 times. I think if the Astros as a team needs to concentrate a lot harder to be better contact hitters. I also think there are several hitters that need to learn to go opposite field when teams go into the shift which leaves a ton of open grass on the opposite side of the shift. I have no clue why guys don't take advantage of the shift to get base hits. Teams that got to see frustrate opposing teams all the way to the World Series by just putting the ball in play---base hitting other teams to death. Why don't they take a page from the Royals book to improve their offense. Is it ego? Are they willing to sacrifice BA for home runs? Who knows but I am fully convinced that Houston needs a different hitting coach. To me, that is what Houston needs almost as much as bullpen help.

eagle eye

11-18-2015, 06:22 PM

By golly, I almost can't believe it! Dallas Keuchel won the 2015 AL Cy Young Award! Now I am not surprised he won it because the numbers he put up make him the clear favorite. David Price got some love but Keuchel's 2015 season was just too good. Keuchel had the most wins (20) of any other AL pitcher and he was 2nd in wins only to the Cubs Jake Arieta who had 22. By coincidence Arieta won the NL Cy Young. Imagine that. Still, Price was a previous Cy Young winner and he has more notoriety than Keuchel. It made me nervous especially after A J Hinch lost out in the Manager of the Year award to the Rangers Jeff Bannister yesterday and because Keuchel was named the winner of the Warren Spahn award given to the best left handed pitcher in the major leagues earlier this week. Good for Dallas Keuchel and good for the Houston Astros.
As I was looking up the stats for Keuchel to make this post I was taken by the fact that his team mate, Collin McHugh, had his own breakout season this year. McHugh won 19 games which was the 2nd most wins in the AL. The Astros have a pretty nice 1-2 punch at the top of their starting pitching rotation. Keuchel is just the 3rd pitcher in Astros history and the first since Houston moved from the NL to the AL in 2013. Mike Scott and Roger Clemens are the other two. Pretty sweet for the Astros to take 2 of the top post season awards.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/157613946/

http://m.mlb.com/video/v530342183/keuchel-takes-home-the-2015-bbwaa-al-cy-young-award

On Bleacher Report there was talk of a rumored mega-deal that involved as many as 5 players. What deal. Apparently, there was talk about a deal between the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros that involved Braves slugging 1B Freddie Freeman. No other names were mentioned in the article but the Astros and Braves are saying there is nothing to the rumored deal. Depending on the who Houston would have to give up I wouldn't mind the Astros getting Freeman. He certainly fills one of the Astros needs. If Houston had to give up say, Luis Valbuena, Chris Carter and a pitching prospect for Freeman and top end prospect I would pull the trigger on that deal in a heartbeat. Of course, that won't happen because nobody in their right mind would go for a deal like that. That's the hot stove for you.

eagle eye

11-20-2015, 06:19 PM

Topps announced their MLB All Star Rookies today and danged it Carlos Correa adds another laurel to his trophy case as he was named as the Topps All Rookie shortstop. Here is the list of all of the Topps Rookies.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/157778660/topps-announces-mlb-all-star-rookie-team

Houston added 5 minor league prospects to their forty man roster today to protect against them being taken in the Rule 5 draft that takes place after the Winter Meetings. The link below talks about those 5 as well as prospects that Houston chose not to protect. There may be a surprise or two on both lists.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/157781136/astros-add-five-minor-leaguers-to-roster

Tonight on the MLB Network the winners of the Esurance Awards will be broadcast. This link talks about the different categories of awards and Houston has two players up for an award. Dallas Keuchel is in the running for Best Starting Pitcher. Each category has 3 finalists and Keuchel is going up against LA Dodgers Zack Greinke and the Cubs Jake Arieta. Carlos Correa is up for Best Rookie (imagine that!). The other 2 finalists are Francisco Lindor and Kris Bryant.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/157719770/esurance-mlb-award-winners

Earlier I mentioned that 5 players were added to the Astros 40 man roster to protect them in the Rule 5 draft. Houston had to make some moves on that 40 man to make room for those players. OF Robbie Grossman and LHP Luis Cruz were released today. At the time Houston only had 34 players on the 40 man. Houston added the 5 players previously mentioned so they have one spot open. I don't know the rules for how trades affect players in the 40 man roster but Houston traded Jonathan Villar to Milwaukee for pitching prospect Cy Sneed.

The 2016 season opener has been set and Houston will begin the 2016 campaign against the New York Yankees on Monday April 4th at 1:05PM in Yankee Stadium. It's part of a 7 game schedule to be televised on ESPN with a triple header on Sunday the 3rd and 4 games on Monday. Houston-NY is the first game of the ESPN quadruple header.

eagle eye

11-21-2015, 10:46 AM

In the "Can't win 'em all" category Dallas Keuchel and Carlos Correa both lost out to a pair of Cubs players for Best Starting Pitcher and Best Rookie awards given out this week.
Keuchel lost to Cubs ace Jake Arieta and Correa lost to Cubs 3B Kris Bryant, the NL Rookie of the Year according to the BBWAA. Still, it was a great year and accolades and awards won by Keuchel, Correa as well as Jose Altuve were very well deserved. Nice ending to a nice season.

The Astros had added 5 players to the 40 man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft as detailed in an earlier post. At the deadline to finish filling out the 40 man roster Houston added two more prospects to the list. The Astros added outfielder Andrew Alpin and infielder Nolan Fontana. The Astros also designated L J Hoes for assignment.

Here is the list of the current top 30 Astros prospects.

http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2015?list=hou

If you look at the list of top 30 prospects you may wonder why some of these players are not protected. There are rules pertaining to who is eligible to be drafted. Some on the list are available to be drafted while many are not. Because I'm lazy and didn't want to type for an hour I decided to depend of Wiki for help. Here is the Wiki definition and criteria for the Rule 5 draft including why it's called the Rule 5 draft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_5_draft

eagle eye

11-25-2015, 01:55 PM

The Astros have welcomed in the Thanksgiving holiday by making a couple of roster moves.
> SS/3B Jed Lowrie has been traded back to the Oakland A in exchange for RHP Brendon McCurry. McCurry had an outstanding season for the Athletics splitting time between Class A Advanced Stockton and Double-A Midland in A's farm system. In 50 games, McCurry was 1-3 with a 1.86 ERA, 27 saves in 28 chances while allowing 39 hits, 17 walks and striking out 82 in 63 innings. He was a 22nd-round pick out of Oklahoma State in the 2014 Draft. For his part, Lowrie said he is disappointed to leave the Astros because he felt the team is headed in the right direction and he liked playing for the Astros. He said he assumed he'd be in Houston for the duration of the 3 year deal he signed when he came back earlier this year. But, if nothing else, the business of baseball includes making trades. Personally, I'd rather have Lowrie rather than Luis Valbuena but I'm sure the Astros front office has a plan to fill the corner infield spots so I'll trust in Jeff Luhnow and his staff---for now. (LOL)
> OF LJ Hoes has been dealt to the Baltimore Orioles for cash considerations. Hoes has not done much for Houston and he was among the many guys on the roster who had a propensity to strike out a lot.

One of the perks of having success in pro sports is you get to do a lot of stuff most of us will never get the chance to do. In the video link below from Astros.com Dallas Keuchel gets to go on special ride along in one of the Breitling Jet Team jets flying in formation with team in a practice run in Houston.

http://m.mlb.com/hou/video/topic/40172882/v531614883/keuchel-flies-with-the-breitling-jet-team

eagle eye

12-01-2015, 04:15 PM

The first big free agent signing of the off season was made today when the Boston Red Sox signed P David Price for a 7 year $217 MM dollar deal which means he will make $31 MM a year. Not bad a 30 year old ball player who won't turn 31 until late August of 2016. If Price stays healthy he should be able to fulfill all 7 years of his deal. At least 4 or 5 as an effective pitcher. Great. So, now Price has set the bar for the other free agent pitchers out there. But, who are those FAs? Here's a link to CBSSports.com's top 20 free agent pitchers with a few bonus players thrown in at the end. Notice that Houston's Scott Kazmir is ranked No. 6 on the list.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/25367332/mlb-free-agent-rankings-pitching-market-is-loaded-with-big-names

Houston is said to be looking for a top tier starting pitcher to add to their rotation for 2016. I wonder if Jim Crane and Jeff Luhnow will get scared off by the David Price deal? If Houston was to name a starting rotation right now this is what I believe it would be.

LHP Dallas Keuchel
RHP Collin McHugh
RHP Lance McCullers
RHP Scott Feldman
RHP Mike Fiers

Of course this is open to debate. There is lefty Brett Oberholtzer who should be healthy by spring training. There are a string of righties both young and who can bring the heat to pick from like Asher Wojciecowski and Vincent Velasquez. There are also guys like Dan Straily, Michael Feliz and Juan Minaya to name just a couple of the young arms Houston has to choose from next spring.
With the bag open now and Price setting the "Price" tag for free agent pitchers you would wonder just how money the Astros are willing to part with for that top tier pitcher. In a perfect world Houston would be able to land Zack Grienke but unfortunately this is not a perfect world. I'm sure Jeff Luhnow doesn't want to spend his whole free agent budget on one player even if it is Grienke. That's the fun of this time of year for baseball fans, to make their own free agent moves and see if they agree with the ones their favorite team makes.
I guess the first question Houston will have to answer is whether a starting pitcher or a top closer is at the top of their list of "must haves".

eagle eye

12-03-2015, 01:36 PM

Yesterday at the tender offer deadline the Astros made tender offers to all of their arbitration eligible players including Dallas Keuchel except for two. Backup catcher Hank Conger was traded to Tampa Bay for cash considerations and Chris Carter was not tendered an offer which means he becomes a free agent. I'm not sure, but I think Houston could still offer Carter a deal but it would be cheaper than the 5-6 million dollar arbitration number would have been had they tendered him an offer. Besides Keuchel the other arbitration eligible players who were tendered offers were C Jason Castro, DH Evan Gattis, 3B Luis Valbuena, IF Marwin Gonzalez and P Josh Fields. The offers will not be made public until after the first of the year when arbitration meetings will take place. Here is what the remaining arbitration-eligible Astros players are estimated to get, according to MLBTradeRumors.com: Valbuena ($5.8 million), Castro ($4.6 million), Gonzalez ($1.9 million), Keuchel ($6.4 million), Fields ($800,000) and Gattis ($3.4 million). Players can sign their tender offers at any time but if they don't sign by January the club and the player will submit salary expectations for the arbitration meetings.

In case you were wondering who is eligible for arbitration here is the definition from MLBPlayers.com.

A player with three or more years of service, but less than six years, may file for salary arbitration. In addition, a player can be classified as a "Super Two" and be eligible for arbitration with less than three years of service. A player with at least two but less than three years of Major League service shall be eligible for salary arbitration if he has accumulated at least 86 days of service during the immediately preceding season and he ranks in the top 22 percent (increased from 17 percent in previous agreements) in total service in the class of Players who have at least two but less than three years of Major League service, however accumulated, but with at least 86 days of service accumulated during the immediately preceding season.

On December 15 the MLB Network will air a special chronicling the Houston Astrodome and it's place in history in a show entitled, "The Eighth Wonder of the World". The Dome celebrated it's 50th birthday this year when the world's first domed stadium opened in 1965. Many people have fond memories of The Dome and it will hopefully be a nice tribute to the stadium and many, many memories that came from there.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/158735472/mlb-network-to-show-documentary-on-astrodome

eagle eye

12-07-2015, 01:40 PM

The 2015 MLB Winter Meetings began today in Nashville, Tn. As described in the link below from Astros.com GM Jeff Luhnow expects to be very busy over the next 4 days of meetings. It will be very interesting to see what the Astros brain trust can come up with.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/158948554/jeff-luhnow-astros-arrive-to-winter-meetings

eagle eye

12-08-2015, 11:59 AM

The Astros have hired Alonzo Powell as assistant hitting instructor for the club replacing Alan Zinter was left to become the hitting coach in San Diego. I hope he has a better influence on the Astros hitters because this line up still strikes out too much and works too few walks.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/159065358/alonzo-powell-joins-astros-coaching-staff

The Astros want to improve their bullpen. Trouble is everybody seems to want to do the same thing. So far in the Winter Meetings the only thing happening is talk and the Astros, who wanted to be active during the meetings to address several weaknesses on the team haven't made a move as yet. Well, other than hiring an new assistant hitting coach.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/159056376/astros-seek-relief-pitching-at-winter-meetings

Big T

12-09-2015, 07:47 PM

eagle eye

12-10-2015, 08:54 AM

Astros get their closer in a trade with, who else, Philly. Astros acquire Ken Giles in return for Vincent Velasquez, Obie, Fisher, and a PTBNL. Overall, depending on the PTBNL, this is a very fair trade and a brilliant move on the part of Lunow staying away from Chapman and Kimbrel. VV is a legit prospect and Giles is a legit closer. I would give the trade an A- just wish we hadn't given up Fisher as well.

I agree with Big T whole heartedly! Giles is a power arm that gives the Astros a dominating pitcher to close out games. With a fastball that averages 97 mph and tops out in triple digits it will make Houston's bullpen so much better than it was. If Jeff Luhnow can find a left handed reliever to replace Tony Sipp the Astros could be set up (no pun intended) for 2016. MLB.com's Richard Justice calls this acquisition a perfect fit for the Astros.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/159288688/ken-giles-is-perfect-fit-for-houston-astros

Houston has, without question, one of the best farm systems in baseball and as those players come up to the big club my sincere hope is that they are teaching the value of quality at-bats. If I was A J Hinch the first 3 days of spring training I would show film of the Royals and the quality ABs they have then I would show film of the Astros striking out with runners in scoring position and otherwise poor ABs because they were swinging for the fences. Every hitter except Jake Marisnick hit below their career average in 2015 so I was glad the Astros got a new assistant hitting coach. My hope is that assistant has a positive influence on the lineup. Another thing I'm disappointed in is Houston's inability to upgrade the 1B and 3B positions so far in the Winter Meetings. Chris Carter is gone but who will replace him? Jon Singleton isn't the answer IMO and I want Luis Valbuena gone so I'm not advocating his move to 1B. It would be hard to plug Valbuena in at first when you don't have anyone but Marwin Gonzalez to play third. Besides cutting Carter Houston also parted ways with Jed Lowrie in a trade with Oakland. Are the Astros depending on prospects filling roles next season? Is anyone ready for the bigs? The Astros are in a transition phase with the team being a playoff contender that is still rebuilding. Does the front office remain patient and fill position holes with home grown prospects or do they throw out big bucks on free agents. Or, do they mortgage some of their farm system in a trade like they did when they acquired closer Ken Giles. It cost them a good man in Viincent Velasquez so Houston has to be careful to manage the organization so they don't sacrifice their future for present success. So far Jeff Luhnow is modeling the Astros after the organization he came from, the St Louis Cardinals, so you have to have confidence that Luhnow won't pull a Tim Purpura and wreck all they have built.

According to the Bleacher Report in one of their team by team series discussed the top prospects from each team that are in a make or break season coming in 2016. The BR singled out former 1st pick in the 2013 draft, Mark Appel, as Houston's MOB guy. I'm not sure that Appel really qualifies here. He pitched 140 innings in the minors in 2013 and he missed a couple of months in 2014 when he had to have an emergency appendectomy in early February. Appel struggled much of the 2014 season because of the late start he got and because he was getting into shape while he was pitching. Despite his struggles he advanced all the way to the AA Corpus Christi Hooks during the season. In 2015 he again struggled early but he did show improvement and by the summer he was promoted to AAA Fresno. The guy has only been a pro for 2 years so I think we need to tap the breaks a little. He ERA isn't great (4.26) but he went 5-1 in Corpus and he was chosen for the All Star Futures Game. In Fresno he finished with a 4.48 ERA in 12 starts. Appel deserves a little more patience and you have to trust that the Astros are not rushing him up through the minors too fast. To me, if anyone is needing to make a big jump is Jon Singleton who has been quite disappointing. He needs to show something or it will be time to cut bait. He will hit okay in the minors but he just sucks with the big club. He is a strike out machine and that needs to be addressed if he's going to be a big leaguer.

KABrother88

12-10-2015, 11:11 AM

A report I saw yesterday claimed 2015 2nd round pick Thomas Eshelman was to be the PTBNL. In baseball a player can not be traded until after 1 year from when he was drafted (or signed if he was an UDFA). Typically the deal is made and the PTBNL is already set but the PTBNL just can't be announced. Eshelman was a guy I liked at Cal State-Fullerton but he won't pop off the charts in terms of arm strength...he's a control pitcher and really good at it. He walked 17 batters in 362+ innings of work in college...that's less that 1/2 walk per 9 innings. I think he's a good prospect but probably not someone who would ever end up at the top half of a rotation.

In regards to Fisher. I think he will turn out to be a good player but he is strictly a LF due to his arm. With Houston having drafted Cameron and little Tucker, along with Springer, big Tucker and some other young guys, Fisher became expendable.

Also saw today that Houston had 1 pitch all season that was 99 MPH or higher (Velasquez). Giles hit 99+ 37 times alone.

Big T

12-11-2015, 05:59 AM

eagle eye

12-11-2015, 08:46 AM

The Astros are reportedly done with their search for bullpen help after resigning LHP Tony Sipp to a 3 year $18MM deal on Thursday. Sipp has been pretty good out of the bullpen. He's not a dominating type of pitcher but, except for Ken Giles, everyone in the bullpen is kind of the same--solid, good stuff but nobody is overpowering in terms of velocity. I envy the Royals BP because they have 3 or 4 guys who can throw in the upper 90's for strikes. It's a pretty nice feeling to have that kind of talent to come in late in games and shut down the other team. Last year's 'pen was good most of the time but they did have some slumps, of course the worst slump can in the whole dang month of September. There was some dead weight on the bullpen last year--guys who never really did squat like Oliver Perez who was just in the lineup because of injuries. I hope the search isn't over for a left handed power arm (if one is out there). I would hope that the Astros can find a top lefty starting pitcher too but then again there may not be one available. Right now, except for Dallas Keuchel we are right handed in the starting rotation.

I found an article in Bleacher Report that headlined, 'Astros "open" to trade offers for George Springer. Immediately I'm like WTF!!!! That's crazy. So, obviously, I had to check that out. I linked the article below but the bottom line is the Astros would need a helluva deal to pull the trigger on a trade involving Springer. Another guy who is reportedly being discussed is OF Carlos Gomez. To be honest, I wasn't real impressed with Gomez and if Houston got some nice prospects or a quality pitcher I have no problem with dealing Gomez. A guy with a so-called fiery personality like Gomez isn't worth the hassle if he doesn't produce and for Houston he didn't really do all that much. I wish we had just kept the prospect we gave up for him. The Astros got P Mike Fiers in the same deal and his no-hitter was a highlight of the season. Bang for buck there even though he didn't do much else for the Astros. I like Jeff Luhnow and his plan for the organization but even a genius makes a bonehead move every once in a while and there were a couple of deals I really scratched my head over this past season. The Carlos Gomez deal was one of those moves IMO.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2597370-george-springer-trade-rumors-latest-news-speculation-on-astros-ofs-future

KABrother88

12-11-2015, 10:03 AM

Perhaps the best part of the trade is that Giles is under team control until 2020. If it were not for that then this trade would be a disaster in my opinion. But this is not a rental type of trade which is what makes it such a great move. And while Fisher was expendable, there is no assurance that either little Tucker, big Tucker, or Cameron are going to pan out. I tend to like options.

No such thing as a guarantee that a prospect will pan out. But when you have a wealth of options it's easier to move 1-2 of them because odds are you have someone who will. Obviously Houston was high on Fisher since they took him with their 2nd pick in 2014 (Comp Round A). To me he is more of a high floor, low ceiling guy...you know what your gonna get and there isn't much of a gamble. Cameron and little Tucker are both high ceiling guys with a lower floor to me...you might strike Carlos Correa or you might strike Jiovanni Mier. Being under team control until 2020 as you mentioned makes that price tag higher than normal as well. Rebuilding the way Houston did serves 2 purposes...A.) you build your team with young talent under team control and B.) have chips to use to get more proven players at need positions.

eagle eye

12-12-2015, 03:14 PM

The deal for Ken Giles is done but it has cost the Astros dearly. Unlike the original deal that would bring Giles to Houston and the Astros would send P Brett Oberholzer, P Vincent Velasquez, OF Derek Fisher and P Thomas Eschelman to Philadelphia. The problem was Derek Fisher's physical which raised some questions about his health. The deal had to be augmented to please the Phillies. What pleased the Phillies was getting two of Houston top pitching prospects, former #1 draft pick Mark Appel and Vincent Velasquez who was part of the orginal deal, and Fisher was off the table. Here's the link to the article from Astros.com about the trade.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/159500100/astros-acquire-closer-ken-giles-from-phillies

A note or two about the deal. I think Ken Giles better be a damn good closer for a long freaking time to justify this deal. I think Jeff Luhnow lost his damn mind. What ever made him feel it was okay to give up a 24 year old pitcher with only 2 years of pro experience who was your #1 pick in the draft just 2 years ago expendable is beyond my understanding. It was bad enough to give up Velasquez, the only pitcher to throw a pitch 97 mph on the whole damn team last year, but to give up Appel too? That's just too much. The Phillies must have drugged Luhnow's iced tea to get him to agree to a deal like this. Appel looked to be the only real power arm in the starting rotation as it currently stands for Houston. He would have been given a chance to play his way onto the big league club next spring because there would be definitely room for him. If he was the 3rd, 4th or even 5th man in the rotation that would be okay. It would have given him a chance to evolve in much the same way Dallas Keuchel evolved into the staff ace. Who better to learn from than a guy like Keuchel? I am very, very disappointed in this deal. I just hope the Astros don't have to feel the same way down the road.
As for Derek Fisher, the Astros still have him but the outfield will get pretty crowded with the prospects the Astros have in their system. Players that are better than Fisher quite frankly. Fisher has some nice power but his type of player is too much a part of the problem in the Houston organization. Strike outs. Fisher strikes out a whopping 23% of his at-bats and that is just not going to get him to the bigs. It's bad luck Fisher couldn't pass the physical because it cost us yet another top pitching prospect.
The other part of the deal is the swap of minor league prospects. The Astros get 17 year old SS prospect from Panama Jonathan Arauz from the Phillies and they send P 20 year old prospect Harold Arauz to Philly. One thing I found out is that while these two young men are both named Arauz it is not believed they are related. If you look at it this deal looks even worse considering that Houston has lost 5 pitcher from their organization and gotten one pitcher and a 2nd base/SS prospect. Considering Houston has Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa acquiring a middle infield prospect seems pointless. I still can't believe Houston made this deal. All deals can't be judged when they are made, I get that, but this sure looks like a bonehead deal to me.

I think I missed this because it happened way back in November but Houston declined to exercise their option for Chad Qualls making him a free agent. This past week the chance of resigning Qualls went out the window when, on Tuesday, Colorado signed Qualls to a contract. I really don't know of anyone sad to see Qualls go judging by the poor season he had this past year.

eagle eye

01-01-2016, 05:00 PM

Baseball Hall of Fame voting begins soon and the case for Jeff Bagwell needs to be trumpeted to the BBWAA to bring these snobs to their senses. Jeff Bagwell deserves to be in the HoF. I've said this before and I'm saying it again, the numbers show he deserves to be in the Hall. This article from Astros.com backs up my, and a lot of people's petitions for Bagwell. Let's hope that now that Biggio has opened the door it was enough to get his buddy in too.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/160484806/hall-of-fame-case-for-jeff-bagwell

Another guy who made his bones in the Astros organization will be looking at his first shot at HoF consideration. That guy is closer Billy Wagner and this article from Astros.com makes a pretty good case for the man.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/160589854/billy-wagner-has-case-for-hall-of-fame

In case you were hoping that Houston could get Aroldis Chapman on the cheap can forget it. The Yankees got him despite all the baggage he carries with him for domestic violence.

The Astros have signed a pitching prospect from Cuba. They did it on Christmas Eve and if Carlos Sierra turns out to be as good as the recent signees from Cuba the Astros may have something. Here's the news blurb from Astros.com.

Source: Astros, Cuba's Sierra agree to deal21-year-old righty subject to international signing rulesDecember 24th, 2015

Email
Print

By Cash Kruth / MLB.com | December 24th, 2015 +
18 COMMENTS

The Astros have agreed to a deal with Cuban right-hander Carlos Sierra, a source told MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez on Thursday.
Sierra, 21, is subject to international signing rules.

The righty features a fastball thrown at three different angles, as well as a slider, curve and circle-change. He played three seasons for Sancti SpÃ*ritus in Cuba's Serie Nacional and for the island's 16-and-under and 18-and-under national teams.
â€¢ Hot Stove Tracker (http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/news/hot_stove/y2015/free_agent_tracker.jsp?position_or_team=any_team&team=HOU)
Unlike many Cuban players who must defect the island in order to establish residency outside of Cuba and the United States, the first step in becoming eligible to sign with a Major League team, Sierra was granted Spanish citizenship due to his grandfather's roots. He left Cuba legally, flying from Havana to Madrid in February.

Cash Kruth (Cash.Kruth@mlb.com) is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cashkruth (http://twitter.com/cashkruth).
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

eagle eye

01-05-2016, 06:30 AM

It's a different world out there. You know, you've seen it all around. Baseball is no different. Changes abound. The only part of baseball has been the slow acceptance that we now live in the 21st century. I'm not talking about the teams or the players the youth of the game is always driving it forward and advancement in social media and teams embracing the "Money Ball" notion of analytics is morphing the game in positive directions. It's the commissioner's office and the powers that be that won't grow. It took way too long for baseball to embrace replay as a tool to help the game move along and rectifying bad calls with a challenge. Replay hasn't made games appreciably longer and it has helped the umps on the field get calls right. The good thing is it has reversed the missed calls but it has also shown that the umps are pretty good at their jobs. Under former commissioner Bug Selig the use of modern technology was looked at like the Salem elders used to look at witches. They were something to be feared and shunned and ultimately burned at the stake. It's a wonder Selig finally relented and allowed limited use of replay saying he was more inclined to embrace the "human element" of baseball. Yep, ol' Bud would have fit right in at Salem. I really wish that baseball would embrace the notion of calling balls and strike electronically. I get so sick of umps who squeeze pitchers who piss them off and at the opposite end of the spectrum giving other pitchers 3" off the black. Want to enforce the strike zone? Take the "human element" out of the equation. The home plate ump will continue to manage the game and make calls at the plate but you take his ass out of the balls and strikes business. My original point was the evolution of baseball and the latest example of that is a brand new position created by Houston called Minor League Mindset Coach. It's a player support job that will be filled by former Astros MVP third baseman Morgan Ensberg. Here's an article from Astros.com sort of explaining what Ensberg will be doing for the organization.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/161014220/morgan-ensberg-now-astros-minors-mindset-coach

The return to his home town of Houston was a short lived homecoming only lasted about two months and it's over. Scott Kazmir signed a deal with the Dodgers last week. For the Dodgers it's a poor trade off as they lost a dominant starter, Zack Grienke in free agency to the Arizona Diamondbacks and replaced him with Kazmir. I shouldn't poo-poo Kaz because he had a nice year this year up until he came to Houston. Kazmir never really paid dividends to Houston the way you would hope a guy acquired at the August trading deadline would. The September swoon that cost the Astros winning the AL West division title and ultimately cost AJ Hinch AL Manager of the Year honors was not all on Kaz but he was certainly part of the problem. In fact the 3 predominant players Houston got for the stretch run under performed and did not deliver the boost expected of them. The other two players were CF Carlos Gomez and P Mike Fiers. Now, Fiers did throw the no-hitter, the first at Minute Maid Park history, but over all in his 10 starts he went 2-1 which isn't what you would hope he would do. The other part of the deal for Fiers was Carlos Gomez and he is just a joke. Some say he is a fiery sort of player but from what I saw he was just a tool bag. To me, Jake Marisnick provided just as much spark as Gomez did. He appears to be an ego driven player and he seems to be, according to his demeanor on the field, a guy who is a bigger pain in the ass than a help especially in the locker room. I've seen guys like him at my job and it's not good. He creates tension and rubs people who aren't in his circle of friends the wrong way. I could see Gomez' influence on the young guys in the Astros locker room as mostly negative. I could be wrong because I'm not there but a guy like Gomez can influence the attitude of the young guys in a negative way without them even realizing it. Personally, I wouldn't mind one bit if Houston dealt Gomez for draft picks or a prospect. In the long haul I think it would be a good move for everyone concerned.

eagle eye

01-06-2016, 09:01 AM

Jeff Bagwell and others are being voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. We will know Bagwell's fate sometime between 2 and 6 PM CT today. If you have time the whole thing will be live on the MLB Network and MLB.com. This is Bagwell's sixth time to go through this and the most votes by percent he's gotten so far is 59%. To be inducted a player needs 75%. Will the voters lighten up and push Bagwell through? Will the induction of his buddy Craig Biggio last year grease the wheels for him? Check it out, the numbers say he deserves to get in and keep in mind that his numbers were stifled by quite a lot because he played half of his games through the 1999 season at the cavernous Astrodome that was definitely a pitcher's ball park. Let's hope this gets done for a great player, a great Astro. We'll all find out this afternoon.

eagle eye

01-06-2016, 07:15 PM

Man, it was so close. Not as close as the near miss by Craig Biggio in 2014 when he missed the HOF by 2 lousy votes but it is still just as frustrating. Bagwell missed the HOF by just 15 votes. On the glass-half-full side the jump from the 59% of the vote to enter the hall to this year's 71.6% bodes well for his induction next January. The fact is only two of the ten potential inductees made the HOF this year. Ken Griffey Jr was a pure lock to make it in his first year of eligibility and Mike Piazza also got in in his third try. Such luminary players like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Tim Raines, Trevor Hoffman, Curt Schilling, Mike Mussina and Alan Trammel. An interesting fact that gives hope to Bagwell's induction next year is the stat there have been 17 players who got over 70% of the HOF vote and 16 made the hall the very next year. The only guy who didn't get in was Jim Bunning who played between 1955 and 1971. He got 74.2% in 1988 didn't get in the hall the next year. Bunning did eventually got in when he was elected by the Veterans Committee in 1996, Tough luck Jeff. Lord knows you deserve HOF honors. My sights are set on 2017 when I just know it's going to get done.

eagle eye

01-15-2016, 08:33 AM

There is still stuff going on in Astro-land. There are a number of players who are eligible for salary arbitration with Dallas Keuchel at the top of the list. If anyone deserved a pay raise it's Keuchel after leading the Astros, and the American League, with 20 wins, 5th in all of baseball in ERA and 2nd in MLB in innings pitched. Keuchel pitched 232.0 innings coming in second to Zack Greinke of the Dodgers who had 232.2 IP. Oh BTW, he won the AL Cy Young Award too. This could be Houston's best opportunity to sign Keuchel long term at a reasonable number. Reasonable is a relative term but Keuchel is no fool and neither is his agent and this could cost Houston a pretty penny to keep him. Now, Houston could go through the arbitration process and sign him to a one year deal wanting to see if he can do it again. Consistency counts but it also costs. 2015 wasn't Keuchel's first good season. He was good in 2014 and was victimized by poor offense and an even poorer bullpen. The fact is Keuchel has shown steady improvement since Houston drafted him in the 2009 MLB draft (thank you Ed Wade!). Besides the above items in Keuchel's resume he won AL Pitcher of the Month 3 times (April, May, August) in 2015, he was named the starting pitcher in the 2015 All Star game, he won the Gold Glove Award for the second time in 2 years and he set a record for going undefeated at his home stadium for the season. No pitcher in MLB history had accomplished this feat. C'mon, Jeff Luhnow, pay the man. He deserves it.

The other players eligible for arbitration are Jason Castro, Luis Valbuena, Marwin Gonzalez, Evan Gattis and Josh Fields. I don't care if Houston pays Jason Castro or Marwin Gonzalez. Castro displays his value as a defensive catcher but he needs to improve his numbers at the plate. Castro makes a guy like Brad Ausmus look like Babe-freaking-Ruth. Gonazlez is a really good utility man who ended up hitting .270+ last season. To be honest, I'd rather pay Marwin and let Valbuena go because Valbuena epitomizes the Astros all or nothing offense. Valbuena strikes out was too much and he's not one who seems to be good at situational hitting. I would probably stick with Gattis but he strikes out way too much as well. I think at time this whole roster got home run fever and it became an ego thing. I honestly wish Houston would get a new hitting coach and I honestly wish manager AJ Hinch would stress contact hitting and situational hitting a whole lot more. I would get film of how the Royal stayed alive, not only against Houston in the divisional round of the playoffs, but all season. The Astros really need to cut down on K's and put the ball in play more often. Josh Fields won't get much money in arbitration because, while he can throw hard, his consistency isn't a strong point of his game. Houston has already signed OF Colby Rasmus to a deal and I like Rasmus but he's another guy who struck out way too much. He's a good outfielder and has some power but he needs to join his teammates learning to make more consistent contact.

Do you realize that pitchers and catchers report to spring training in 34 days? Yep, on February 18 is the reporting day and the 19th is the first scheduled workout.

This week MLB announced that Houston and San Diego will play two spring training games in Mexico City. On March 26 and 27 the Astros and Padres will face each other in the Fray Nano Stadium home of the Diablos Rojos de Mexico (Red Devils of Mexico) which is a 4,500 seat stadium in Mexico City. The stadium will be expanded to 8,000 seats for this even. This is especially meaningful to Astros GM Jeff Luhnow who was born and raised in Mexico City. Luhnow has said it is his hope to play a regular season game in Mexico City at some point in time.

I'm really late with this news and I know you fans out there already know this but I'll mention it anyway. Remember the hacking story about the St Louis Cardinals hacking into the Astros computer data base? I know many thought that this story just went away but it didn't. Cards former scouting director Chris Correa admitted in his arraignment last Friday in a Houston district court that he was guilty of 5 counts of hacking the Astros computers. Correa will be facing up to 5 years in prison, up to $250K in fines and provide restitution (whatever than could mean). Correa waived his right of appeal and chose not to have his case go to the grand jury. This is a big ole plea bargain deal to minimize the penalties for his actions. His sentencing hearing will be on April 11th.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/161363154/chris-correa-pleads-guilty-to-hacking-astros

BREAKING NEWS THAT JUST CAME OUT THIS SECOND, LUIS VALBUENA AND THE ASTROS AGREED TO A ONE YEAR, $6.125MM CONTRACT TO AVOID ARBITRATION. I woke up from a nap for this? Not excited about this at all. The only good thing is it is only a one year deal.

Big T

01-15-2016, 12:30 PM

I have not been happy with this off season. The Astros still have a huge gap in their line up and are relying on Carlos Correa to be their be-all-end-all player and quite frankly I don't feel he is ready for that. I compare his mental game to that of Harper. It took Harper four years before he was ready. There needs to be another top of the line-up bat and a fifth hitter added to the roster. The Astros relied upon the long ball for their run support last season yet they lost power this off season and did nothing to add any. They did nothing to add Average or OBP either. Have to admit that I am very worried about next season.

eagle eye

01-16-2016, 08:10 AM

Big T, I totally agree.

Houston avoided arbitration with Dallas Keuchel when the two parties agreed on a 1 year $7.25 MM deal which shatters the previous record for 1st year arbitration eligible starting pitchers. The old record was $4.35 MM set by David Price and Dontrelle Willis.
There was also a couple of more deals for arbitration eligible players on the rosters. As posted before, Luis Valbuena got a deal earlier this week. Yesterday, when Keuchel's deal was announced the Houston Chronicle also reported that IF Marwin Gonzalez agreed to a $2 MM deal and P Josh Fields agreed to a $900K deal. That leaves only Jason Castro and Evan Gattis left to deal with or have them go through arbitration.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/162021304/astros-dallas-keuchel-avoid-arbitration

eagle eye

01-24-2016, 10:42 AM

Yesterday the Astros unveiled a new jersey that, for now, will be the team's Sunday jersey. It is similar to the batting practice jersey worn in 2014 but had to be discontinued. The jersey is navy with rainbow strips down the sides of the jersey. Rather than waste your time describing it to you check out this video and article about the new jersey from Astros.com.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/162670436/astros-unveil-new-alternate-jerseys

Check out this article and accompanying videos and pics about Carlos Correa and Dallas Keuchel accepting their Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards at a ceremony in New York at the Baseball Writers Association of America banquet last night (Saturday). The event will be televised on the MLB Network this coming Friday night if you are interested.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/162697238/astros-correa-keuchel-accept-bbwaa-awards

The Astros 1B prospect AJ Reed is the top prospect at his position in baseball according to MLBPipeline.com. MLBPipeline.com has been unveiling its top 10 prospects for a while and in the article linked below there are links to the top 10 RHP's, LHP's and catchers. Tomorrow they will be releasing their top ten 2B prospects.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/162516062/prospect-watch-top-10-1b-for-2016

Countdown to spring training--25 days until pitchers and catchers report to the Kissimmee spring training site. I know it's too cold right now but, if you close your eyes, you can almost catch a whiff of freshly cut grass.

eagle eye

01-29-2016, 12:28 AM

choBoy, a lot of news for cold January day.
First, Houston has signed a new starting pitcher. The Astros have inked RHP Doug Fister to a one year $7MM deal with incentives that could make it $12MM. The Astros have added depth to their starting rotation which wasc already pretty good with Dallas Keuchel, Colin McHugh and Lance McCullers at the top of the rotation and Mike Fiers a good bottom half rotation guy. Now, Houston won't have to rely on a Brad Peacock or a Asher Wojciechowski to step up. Here's an article from MLB.com talking about the potential for Fister to be one of the best bargains of the hot stove season.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/163065830/doug-fister-is-a-free-agent-fit-for-the-astros

As I was taking a look at Houston's 40-man roster I had to do a double take as I went down the list of pitchers. I don't know how I missed it but there he was former and present Astro Wandy Rodriguez. One January 21st the Astros announced the signing of Wandy to a minor league contract with an invitation to go to spring training with the Astros. Here's an article from crawfishboxes.com via the Bleacher Report about the signing.

http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2016/1/21/10808820/astros-sign-wandy-rodriguez-to-minor-league-contract

The Astros have been busy this off season stacking their roster with young and veteran pitchers as they prepare to head to spring training. Among the starting pitching prospects discussed about don't forget about Scott Feldman. Feldman is coming off some injury issues that plagued him the second half of 2015 but he wasn't bad in the first half. Just looking at the roster I think this is the best group of pitchers Houston has seen on its roster in a long, long time. That's what good teams do, create competition between talented players, and Houston looks like the pitchers will have plenty of quality competition this spring. As excited as I am I still feel the hit of the loss of Mark Appel. I can't see the need to give up on the #1 pick in the 2013 draft to get a guy who was a closer for just half a season in Philly. You can bet I'll be watching the progress of Appel going forward and I will also see if Ken Giles is going to be the real deal.
I
Houston could be feeling the loss of Hank Conger more that we realize as Houston will be putting all their eggs in the young guys on the roster to back up Jason Castro. You hope that Max Stassi or a Roberto Pena can step up.

The battle this spring to fill the 1B and 3B positions will be hot and heavy. Alex Bregman is on the 40 man but I doubt he is ready for the bigs yet so 3B is wide open. 1B looks like it could Luis Valbuena's to lose but I hope somebody beats him out. Valbuena strikes out way too often and I would hope that Jeff Luhnow is in the process of weeding out guys like him. I don't care that he hit 20-something homers because he struck out 5 million times last season. We still have Jason Castro to do that. I think the hitting instructors need to hammer home the idea that you NEED to make contact with guys like Castro, Valbuena and Colby Rasmus.

I sure would like to see an outfield with George Springer, Jake Marisnick and Preston Tucker. Marisnick needs to get with the learn-to-make-contact guys mentioned above but I love his defense and he's got a great arm to go with his D. I'm sorry but, I'm not in at all on Carlos Gomez. If Houston could trade Gomez for a catcher or a third baseman I would be happy as hell. I just don't think Gomez was worth what we gave up for him. To me, Mike Fiers was the best part of the deal that brought Gomez to Houston.

One thing I have been forgetting and that is Evan Gattis came to Houston as a catcher. I don't know if Gattis is worth a darn as a catcher but he certainly could be in the mix for backing up Castro. Personally, I'd take Gattis' bat over Castro if he is worth a darn as a catcher and Gattis could still DH quite a bit because he's only catch one or two days a week. Where's Johnny Bench when you need him.

Some Houston additions to MLB's top 10 prospects by position 2B Tony Kemp who came in at #8, SS Alex Bregman came in at #8 as well. It was disheartening not have any more top 10's at any other position although Bregman will likely be a third baseman when it is all said and done. I'll say it just one last time. With Houston giving up Mark Appel and Vincent Velasquez in the Ken Giles deal the Astros gave up two guys who didn't make the top 10 anyway but probably should have.

Excuse me while go pout for a while.

eagle eye

01-30-2016, 11:41 AM

Just a reminder, spring training first practice is just 20 days away.

eagle eye

01-31-2016, 07:12 AM

MLB has released it's top 100 prospects for 2016 and Houston has 5 players on the list.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/163129948/astros-have-5-in-2016-top-100-prospects-list

eagle eye

02-04-2016, 05:32 AM

It's exactly two weeks until spring training! Yep, 14 days and the pitchers and catchers get started in the marathon that is called the MLB regular season. It's a long season and it's got to be a grind. You play at least 5 games a week, more often than not it's six and there are stretches when you don't get a day off for two weeks. The only real break is the 3 days of the All Star break and it's not even that if you are chosen to go to the ASG. With all that said, I am not sure if there is a time in any sport so full of hope and excitement than when MLB and college and high school, shoot, even little league baseball begins. Two weeks until MLB's version of the prep for the regular season begins.

Here's an article from Astros.com about Colin McHugh as he is looking forward to backing up the 19-8 season he posted last year. As the article points out, when the Astros claimed him off waivers two years ago he hadn't even won a game as a big leaguer and in the last two seasons he's 30-16 with a 3.39 ERA. Hopefully, there won't be any drop off by him or Dallas Keuchel as they lead the starting pitching staff into this coming season. Both guys have been really consistent in their steady improvement and you would hope that they are both hungry enough to not rest on their laurels.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/163523612/astros-collin-mchugh-preparing-for-2016

I think I've mentioned it before but it you look at the Astros depth at starting pitcher you have to be rather impressed with what Jeff Luhnow has done. Not even counting the prospects in the minors who are working their way up the ladder Houston has got no less than seven viable pitchers to compete for a starting job. Keuchel, McHugh, Lance McCullers, Mike Fiers, the recently acquired Doug Fister, Brad Peacock, Kevin Chapman and let's not forget Scott Feldman. That makes 8 guys not even counting minor leaguers like Michael Feliz and Dan Straily. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is so huge that Houston doesn't have grasp at straws if somebody gets hurt. Houston could actually start the season with a six man rotation if they wanted to. Now, the question begs, how will that affect a pitcher's effectiveness with the extra day off? But, there I go counting chickens before their hatched. Two weeks. Yep, I am definitely getting excited.

Big T

02-04-2016, 06:06 AM

I will say this, as much as I don't like some of the moves made this off season, Luhnow has managed to add two quality players without losing a first round draft pick. So, the Astros won't be effected in the upcoming draft this year. That will help fill the holes that were opened in our farm system with the Giles and Gomez trades. That is something at least. I am staying optimistic this year, but they either need Gomez to step up big time, or they are going to have to go get another bat at the All-Star break as this line up looks pretty anemic in spots. Here is to hoping that Gomez steps it up and Singleton or Reed are able to step up to the plate and become the players they are supposed to be.

eagle eye

02-05-2016, 11:24 AM

Astros.com began a series recently called "Around the Horn" breaking down the team by position group. Today I will share the link to the first installment of that series. We get a glimpse of how things are shaking out at catcher.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/161406764/jason-castro-max-stassi-to-catch-for-astros

First spring training practice for the Astros is exactly two week away! Pitchers and catchers report to Kissimmee on the 18th and their first workout will be the next day.

Big T, you said that Luhnow and company didn't give away any first round picks but what would you call Mark Appel? He was the #1 pick in the draft just 3 years ago. What about Vincent Velasquez? He wasn't a first rounder but he was a second rounder and right now, if they were still on the team, they would be the top pitching prospects in the Astros system and Velasquez has had some big league game experience and done pretty well, especially for a guy who probably wasn't totally ready to pitch in the bigs. I'm sorry but I'm still pissed off about that deal. The only thing different about the original deal was that an outfield prospect failed his physical and for some reason Appel was the next choice. The thing that is most galling is Giles isn't really a PROVEN closer. He did it for two months after the Phillies dealt Jonathan Pappelbon to Washington. I believe Luhnow saw what the fire ballers for Kansas City have done the past couple of years and fell in love with Giles as a result. What will be will be but, as I've said before, I'm going to be comparing Giles to Appel, and Velasquez too, for a while.

Big T

02-05-2016, 12:55 PM

eagle eye

02-05-2016, 05:31 PM

I am talking about signing a Class-A free agent which would mean the Astros would lose their first round pick of the 2016 draft. I am not talking about the players that the Astros gave up. They traded for Giles and Fister was not a Class-A free agent. Which means that the Astros can use the draft to plug the holes made by the Giles trade. That is all I was saying.

If I seemed harsh I'm sorry. I'm not sure what Class A free agent means but Fister wasn't acquired by trade, he was just signed. Giles is the point of contention for me. I know we didn't give up any future draft picks for Giles but the loss of Appel just bothers me. We had a string of 4 straight years of having the #1 pick in the draft. We lost one when Brady Aiken refused to sign his deal and now we've just given away another. The circumstances of how Appel was included in the deal for Giles is unforgivable IMO. If things go as they seem to being going it will be a long, long time before we get a high first round draft pick and I really hope we never do because that means we have gotten to the place we wanted to get to when those 100+ loss seasons gave us the ability to kick start the franchise. How the deal escalated from a minor league outfielder to the #1 pick in the draft in 2013 I cannot imagine. If I ever get to talk to Jeff Luhnow it will one of the first questions I ask him. All that said I sincerely hope Giles is worth what we gave up for him. If he's the final piece of the puzzle to get us to the World Series then I'll have to admit it was a good deal. Right now, the best I can do is admit the jury is still out on judgement of the Giles trade. BTW, the 2014 draft when we lost Aiken we had the opportunity to draft Carlos Rodon. Wow, what a whiff that was! The White Sox are happy I guess.

eagle eye

02-08-2016, 04:57 PM

In a continuation of the Around the Horn series Astros.com takes a look at Houston's starting pitching.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/163745236/keuchel-fister-lead-proven-astros-starters

eagle eye

02-10-2016, 11:53 AM

Another installment of the "Around the Horn" series analyzing the Astros roster as they head into spring training. Today is Astros.com's look at the bullpen.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/164025274/astros-bullpen-revolves-around-ken-giles

The Astros got some crappy news yesterday as Evan Gattis will miss 4-6 weeks following surgery he had yesterday for a hernia. It's bad news for Gattis for two reasons. One, in terms of his salary, he is about to go through salary arbitration. The Astros are offering $3MM for a one year deal and he is asking for $3.8MM. That's actually not a big gap and that should be resolved pretty easily although it would seem the Astros have a leg up in things going their way due to Gattis' surgery and the resulting missed time in spring training. The position players don't begin practice until February 23rd. The second reason this is bad news is in the off season Gattis lost 20 pounds so he could compete for a position at 1B or catcher this spring. This is a very disappointing setback for him. Last season Gattis ended up hitting .246 with 11 triples, 27 home runs and 88 RBI's in his first year on the team. If you throw out the first month of the season when Gattis was horrible at the plate he hit a respectable .267 from May through September. His 11 triples was a real surprise because Gattis had only one major league triple in his career until last season.

Jason Castro lost his salary arbitration hearing this week but it's not as bad as you might think. He was asking for $5.25MM this year and the Astros had been offering $5MM. For whatever reason Castro was not awarded his asking price as the arbiter ruled in favor of the Astros. Castro is one of the best defensive catchers in baseball but last year his offensive numbers were pretty terrible. He hit a meager .211 with 11 HR's and just 31 RBI's.

eagle eye

02-11-2016, 06:50 AM

The 'Around the Horn' series continues today with Astros.com looking at the infield. IMO the infield is as solid as it gets up the middle. Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve are about as good as it gets coupled with the fact that Carlos Correa has nowhere to go but up as he learns how to be a big leaguer. I have to say that I don't share the Astros.com writer's optimism for the corner infield spots. Either Houston will go with what they have, or they go younger as they integrate players from the minor leagues. I have zero faith in Jon Singleton. The guy strikes out a lot and despite being pretty good in AAA he has sucked the big one in the majors. Evan Gattis lost 20 pounds so he could actually compete for a position, either first base of catcher, but his hernia surgery this week puts any plans he had on hold for a month or more. Maybe one of the outfielders. Houston has a plethora of outfielders you would like to get on the field. Houston, right now, is weak at 1st and 3rd. Let's see what Brian McTaggert of MLB.com thinks.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/162966460/jose-altuve-carlos-correa-headline-infield

Did I happen to mention that the first workout in spring training is only 8 days away?

eagle eye

02-12-2016, 05:46 AM

Astros.com's 'Around the Horn' series moves into the outfield today. The unquestioned star of the outfield is George Springer. He's got it all, he can run, he can throw, he has a good glove and he can hit. You would like to see him progress at the plate in terms of cutting down on strike outs and adjusting his 2-strike approach that allows him to make contact and put the ball in play. He struck out 109 times in 388 ABs which translates to 28% of his ABs resulted in a K. Way too high for a guy like Springer. Another thing that is troubling is the fact that he missed 38% of the season mainly due to injury. This is not a one year deal either. So far he's missed big chunks of every season he's been in the majors. A lot of that has to do with his balls-out style of play. You kind of feel like his injuries have been bad luck because there are a lot of guys who play hard every day and don't break their thumb sliding into a base or pulling his hamstring or as was the case last season when he was hit by a pitch in Kansas City breaking his wrist. You hope that he's gotten that bad karma out of his system and can enjoy a full season of play for around 15 years. His .276 BA isn't bad but it would be seriously be awesome if he could replace about 25 of the K's he had last year with 25 hits. That would mean the 96 hits he got last season would have been 121 hit and it would have lowered his K total from 109 to 84 making his K/Hit ratio very acceptable and bump his BA up to .312. I would take that all day, every day. Project that to a full season of 152 games, allowing him a day off once in a while, and you get that .312 BA, 180 hits, 125 K's and his stolen base count would go up from last year's 16 would go up to 24 SB's. Probably more with a higher OBP and fewer K's. Springer could be a legit 30-30 guy. Look at Jose Altuve by comparison. He played in 154 games and he hit an AL best .313 in 638 AB's. With that he had an MLB best 200 hits, 15 HR's, 38 SB's and 33 BB's and just 67 K's. If Altuve walked more his OBP would skyrocket from a very healthy .353 to near .400 or better and his stolen base count could be in the 50 range. That's a place Springer is capable of being at if he could just cut down on K's. I would love to see Jake Marisnick do the same. Cut down on K's and take a 2-strike approach to just put the ball in play. With Marisnick's speed he could leg out an infield hit or two. The only thing you can do after a K is leg your way back to the dugout. My worry about this whole roster is they become too infatuated with the HR to the extent that it hurts them overall.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/163679300/gomez-rasmus-springer-form-solid-astros-of

eagle eye

02-13-2016, 10:30 AM

The Astros wrap up their "Around the Horn" series with a look at the players they will have coming in off the bench. Guys like Robbie Grossman, Chris Carter and the other familiar faces will give way to brand new role players. One those guys isn't new at all. Marwin Gonzalez, who had a really good year last season playing both infield and outfield positions, will be the mainstay off the bench for Houston. Personally, I wouldn't mind if Gonzalez was given a shot at starting at either 1st or 3rd base. I believe he earned at least a look.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/164264176/gonzalez-marisnick-tucker-lead-astros-bench

The next article from Astros.com concerns minor league prospects coming to spring training. It is not inconceivable that one or more of these guys gets a serious shot at making the big club. Last season Houston featured the MLB debut of Carlos Correa and Lance McCullers. Both players made a positive impact on the Astros roster and look to be a big part of the nucleus of the club this season and beyond. Houston also used Vincent Velasquez a lot which upped his trade stock in the process. Velasquez was part of the deal that brought Ken Giles to the Astros this offseason. In the article pay attention to the part featuring 1st base prospect Tyler White and notice he is just the ticket for a team plagued with too many strikeouts.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/164372566/astros-minor-league-system-remains-strong

We are now down to referring to the start of spring training in terms of days rather than weeks. The Astros report to their spring training home in Kissimmee Florida this Thursday. Or should I say pitchers and catcher report Thursday and their first practice will be Friday. The rest of the team begins on the following Tuesday, February 23rd. Linked is an article about the Astros loading up their big trucks with uniforms and equipment they will need in Florida. Six days and the 2016 MLB baseball season begins. Thank heaven! With football done all we have is a bunch of basketball talk. Now, I have had my interest in the NBA rekindled over the last few years but the people who cover the NBA have nothing fresh to say. The media jumps on a subject and rides that horse to death and after the poor beast is dead they tie a rope around it's neck and drag it along for a while longer. I'm sick of hearing about Kobe's farewell tour of the NBA. I'm sick of hearing about Steph Curry and his Golden State Warriors. There is some talk about the ever powerful San Antonio Spurs and a smidgen of info on OKC but mostly it's Kobe and Steph....blah, blah, blah. The Rockets suck more often than they are good and it seems last year's run was just smoke or maybe Kevin McHale isn't the slug of a coach everyone painted him as. Basketball won't get interesting until the playoffs anyway. This weekend's NBA All Star Game and surrounding festivities are not anything to get excited about either. So, the impending start of baseball is an awesome break from all that.
Pretty soon we will have baseball to think about. In truth we already have baseball to talk about with the Lamar Cards beginning practice. Is it unreasonable to be a little excited about what 2016 will be like in Jim Gilligan's last season at the helm? Hell no! In the mean time here is real evidence that the Astros will be getting started in their 2016 quest to win a World Series. (Has a nice "ring" to it, doesn't it?)

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/164379258/astros-truck-begins-journey-to-spring-home

eagle eye

02-14-2016, 09:43 AM

Check out Lance McCullers' customized PS4 controller.

http://img.bleacherreport.net/cms/media/image/34/47/f2/01/0efa/4bd0/a1f8/989a8d20d5e9/crop_exact_Screen_Shot_2016-02-10_at_5.21.26_PM.jpg?h=310&w=527&q=70&crop_x=center&crop_y=top

Check out the article from Bleacher Report that talks about a protective head gear for pitchers that will be tried out this spring.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2616178-mlb-mlbpa-to-debut-new-protective-headgear-for-pitchers-at-spring-training

http://img.bleacherreport.net/cms/media/image/dc/c6/8f/f9/98cc/4aae/81c8/66d91c977368/crop_exact_Screen_Shot_2016-02-12_at_10.04.31_AM.jpg?h=310&w=527&q=70&crop_x=center&crop_y=top (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2616178-mlb-mlbpa-to-debut-new-protective-headgear-for-pitchers-at-spring-training)

This article from Bleacher Report talks about free agents still available going into spring training.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2615699-scott-millers-starting-9-last-minute-bargains-as-spring-training-beckons

eagle eye

02-16-2016, 02:06 PM

The Astros and Evan Gattis avoided arbitration when they agreed to a one year deal for $3.4MM. It is smack in the middle of the asking price by Gattis of $3.8MM and the $3MM the Astros were offering. I knew this wouldn't be a big deal and would get done. At first glance you could say a guy with a .246 BA for 2015 wasn't worth 3+MM dollars but, as I mentioned in a previous post, if you throw out the horrendous start to the season last year Gattis hit .267 with good power numbers. As a DH Gattis did well when those power numbers showed up with men on base. The Astros also get an option for 2017 for $5.2MM or, if they pass on him, the buyout is just $100K.

There are 3 guys who the Astros will be leaning on a lot in 2016. Jason Castro, Doug Fister and Scott Feldman are all coming off seasons they would probably like to forget. Castro probably just wants to forget the year he had at the plate where it had you dreaming of another great defensive catcher who hit 40 points higher in his BA than Castro had last year. The guy I'm talking about is Brad Ausmus who was a career .251 hitter vs Castro who hit an anemic .211 on the season. Crap Batting Average, crap power numbers, crap number of RBI's (31). On the flip side Castro reaffirmed his status an elite, or close to elite, defensive catcher. You could rightly argue his defense, especially his ability to throw out base runners helped to make up for his poor batting performance and you'd be right---to a point. Castro's best season as pro was in 2013 when he hit .276 and made the All Star team, his only season to do so. Castro missed the last part of September in 2013 to have a cyst removed from behind his knee, and I'm sure it's not the reason why, but he hasn't been worth a darn at the plate since. In 2014 he hit .222 and last year he fell to that .211. In fact, it took about 3 months for him get above the Mendoza Line where he floundered for a long time. You would love to see him get back to 2013 form. Even if he never makes it back to that level but hits between .250 and .260 it would be a huge improvement. If he can do that then he will be a lot more expensive this time next year.
Scott Feldman was an Astros last season but he didn't get to pitch much. He did have 18 starts and ended up with a 5-5 record. He should have had another win or two but the bullpen let him down or the offense failed to give him any run support. He had a couple of games before he went on the DL because of a shoulder issue that contributed to his being ineffective. He missed two months during the summer following knee surgery. All in all it was a season I'm sure Feldman would like to forget other than to use it as motivation for 2015. Feldman turned 33 on Feb 7.
The other guy is pitcher Doug Fister who the Astros got when he was allowed to test free agency by the Washington Nationals. Fister had some nagging health issues in 2015 that caused him to struggle most of the year. In 2014 Fister was 16-6 with a 2.41 ERA but in 2015 he struggled to 5-7 record with a 4.19 ERA. He did make the same amount of appearances, 25, as in 2014 but only 15 were starts and the results weren't nearly as good. Fister is a year younger than Feldman and his birthday was on Feb 4. So, both players will not be getting any old age-wise this season.
All three guys will be looking to bounce back to previous form and if that happens Houston will really be a hard team to beat all season.

eagle eye

02-18-2016, 01:15 PM

The Astros pitchers and catchers are in Kissimmee at the training camp facility and the 2016 process begins tomorrow. It's not months, weeks or even days. No, we're down to hours and we will have real news about the team as they begin preparing for the upcoming season. The rest of the team will report on Monday with the first full team workout taking place on Tuesday. Yep, I'm excited because we actually have something to be excited about. After all, we are coming off our first playoff appearance in a decade. We have 2 All Stars which should balloon up to 3 or 4 this season as long as the players stay healthy. (I am beating like Lars Ulrich on every piece of wood in my office!) Cy Young winner, AL Rookie of the Year and players who are on their way up in through the minor league system gives fans the more than just hollow hope as we head back into the spring.

When questioned Luke Gregerson said he still wants to be the Astros closer despite the fact that Houston signed Ken Giles in the off season. You gotta love that competitive spirit.

Astros.com tries to answer what they believe are 3 pressing questions needing an answer in spring training.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/164834064/biggest-questions-for-astros-entering-spring

The coaches and executives are meeting to discuss their big league roster. Not just the big league coaches and execs but everyone from the minor leagues are on hand to discuss the 61 players Houston will have in training camp.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/164793642/astros-coaches-meet-for-spring-training-camp

There is a link inside this link to the article about surgery on Pat Neshak's foot in the offseason. The link is to a picture of the bone that came out of his foot. Kind of gross.

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2016/02/18/164837550/photo-pat-neshek-had-a-bone-removed-from-his-foot

eagle eye

02-24-2016, 10:25 AM

The Astros have completely begun. For the first 4 days of spring training it was just pitchers and catchers but, yesterday, the rest of the team had their first workout of the spring. Hopes are high in Kissimmee as the Astros set their sights on going to the next level. Last season they reached the playoffs for the first time in a decade and only a disturbing September swoon cost the team a division title. They did make the playoffs as a wildcard team and they actually beat the New York Yankees to advance to the divisional round of the playoffs. It's difficult to grasp, even now 5 months later, but Houston had the eventual World Series champion Kansas City Royals 6 outs away from defeat when a stunning comeback from a 4 run 6-2 lead for Houston eventually became a 9-6 loss in Game 4 of the ALDS. The Royals Game 5 win to take the series, and the bitterness of that pill, should be a motivating factor for the Astros 2016 season.

I think it's safe to say Jon Singleton has been a big disappointment to the Astros organization so far as he big league resume is concerned. He has torn up the minor leagues despite a strike out rate that is kind of disturbing. During his stints in the bigs over the last year and a half he has failed to get over the Mendoza Line with his batting average and he has been a virtual strike out machine in the process. This spring there is a hole at 1B that Singleton is looking to fill but it won't be given to him. There are three other guys who are just as hungry as he is. Fellow minor leaguers AJ Reed, Tyler White and Matt Duffy along with veteran Evan Gattis who is looking to become more than just the Astros DH, are all vying for the opening at first. Singleton has been working hard and has actually put on about 20 pounds or so of muscle showing a new found dedication to baseball in the offseason.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/165130880/astros-jon-singleton-shows-off-new-physique

AJ Reed, the 4th ranked player in the Astros system is not going to be easy for Singleton to overcome. Despite going into minor league camp last season he put up some impressive numbers in both AA and AAA last season.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/165144940/prospect-aj-reed-arrives-at-astros-camp

Then there is Tyler White. He's a third baseman who could play 1st if Houston is determined to use Luis Valbuena at 3rd. White had 403 AB's combined in AA and AAA with only 73 K's. That means White only struck out in 18% of his official AB's. It's even better than that when you consider his total plate appearances, 495. His K % would drop to 15% which is far and away better than 95% of the guys who are on the big league squad. White had 131 hits in his 403 AB's for a .325 BA and his H/K ratio was nearly 2 to 1.

Gattis is not so much in the mix because he had surgery for a sports hernia recently and the worry is Gattis will miss opening day. Gattis did drop 20 pounds in the offseason and worked on his fielding because he wants to be more than just the DH. AJ Hinch talked recently about giving him a real shot at backup catcher. Gattis has played catcher in the bigs for Atlanta and he showed some skills it would just be a matter of knocking off some rust. First and foremost he's got to get well and get back on the field.

Houston has broken new ground in the world of pro baseball when they hired a woman named Rachel Balkovec to be the strength and conditioning coach for the Astros Latin American program. She was the first woman to be a strength and conditioning coach in baseball history when she was hired by the St Louis Cardinals as an intern S&C coach in 2012. Doors are opening to women as the battle for sexual equality continues to make progress.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/165143530/astros-rachel-balkovec-breaking-down-barriers

eagle eye

02-26-2016, 07:46 AM

I don't know why I continue to punish myself on my evening drive home from work by listening to "The Blitz" on 97.5 ESPN, I really don't. Both AJ Hoffman and Fred Faour constantly piss me off. Faour is tolerable when AJ is off but Hoffman is just a douche. The thing that drives me the most crazy is how they absolutely dog all the Houston sports franchises. I seriously can't believe the fans in Houston haven't risen up and burned these guys at the stake. They constantly dog the Rockets and, to be fair, the Rockets deserve it. They were the second seed in the Western Conference last season and instead of building on that they came out and played aweful basketball, got their coach fired and are really on the bubble as to whether or not they even make the playoffs this season. I get that. Bash away at will guys. They have no mercy when they talk about the Texans. Two seasons ago I predicted they would go 9-7 that could be 10-6 if things fell right. The Texans went 9-7 missing out on the playoffs by hair. AJ and Fred? They both said the Texans would be lucky, LUCKY, to win 4 games. This past season it was more of the same. Can't get to .500 with crap at QB. It looked like the Blitz Boys were right as Houston stumbled out of the gate losing four of their first 5 games and at the half way point of the season Houston was 3-5 and looked clueless. After their Week 9 bye Houston was a different team. They went 6-2 in their final 8 games and in so doing took over first place in the AFC South and they actually won the division with a convincing win in a Week 17 blowout of division rival Jacksonville who had been on a bit of a roll themselves. Houston finished 9-7 but this time it was good enough to win the division and earn a first round home game vs Kansas City. Fred and AJ saved a little face when Brian Hoyer stunk up NRG Stadium with a horrendous performance which saw him personally turn the ball over 5 times. But the fact remained AJ and Fred undersold the hometown team again. They have done the same thing with the Astros. Their contempt of the boys in orange and blue is unexplainable. On Wednesday, which is dubbed "What are the odds Wednesday" they encourage callers to call in to ask what the odds are something will happen in the world of sports, a caller asked what were the odds that Houston would win more than 85 games this season. Now, in case you didn't know Houston started their climb back to respectability in 2014 after 3 straight 100+ loss seasons. Again, AJ and Fred saw no hope for the Astros saying the team sucked and there was another 100 loss season in their future. Wrong. Now, you have to understand Houston set a franchise worst 111 losses in 2013 against just 51 wins so there was some basis for Fred and AJ to be skeptical about the Astros prospects. I, on the other hand, said Houston would win 75 games in 2014. That would have been a 24 game improvement over what was the worst season in franchise history. Big T said I was crazy and we bet a fitted cap that Houston would not get to 75. Turns out Big T was right. Houston won 70 games in 2014, an improvement of 19 games which was the second best improvement in the majors. I paid off my bet when I met Big T at a Lamar baseball game. My point is, I saw the improvement coming even though I overshot the mark a little. The fact is Houston could have won at least ten more games in 2014 except for a bullpen that sucked the big one. That's why prior to 2015 the Astros signed Pat Neshak and Luke Gregerson to shore up the 'pen. It paid off too as you all well know. Houston won 85 regular season games that could easily have been 95 if not for a total collapse of the pitching staff except for Keuchel and McHugh. Houston went 11-16 in September of last year and it seemed much worse than that. It was the only month that they had a losing record. Despite this the Astros improved another 15 games in 2015 over the previous season and made the playoffs. That's a 34 game improvement over two years. According to AJ and Fred the Astros would still be floundering around between 60-70 wins. On Wednesday the response to the caller's question was that the odds weren't good the Astros would win more than 85 games. Both said there was a about 30-40% chance they would or looking at it the other way a 60-70% chance they would not. That's pretty bleak for a team that added a starting pitcher, cut loose some dead weight and have promising prospects looking to make the team and brand new 100 mph throwing closer. I just can't fathom why the boys on The Blitz can't be a little more hopeful. I think it's not only possible but probable that Houston will bust 85. In fact I could easily see them win 95 games this season. This is a young and talented team with even more young and talented players looking to crack the roster like George Springer, Lance McCullers and Carlos Correa have done. And the question begs to be asked again, 'Why do I torture myself listening to guys who's outlook on Houston sports is mostly negative?'.

eagle eye

03-01-2016, 06:08 AM

Spring training games begin on Thursday when Houston travels to Clearwater Fla to take on the Phillies. Doug Fister will get the start because, as AJ Hinch said, he wants to get a good look at Fister this spring and getting more starts will allow him to do that. It looks like Wandy Rodriguez will start Friday against the Cardinals in Kissimmee. It was great to see the Astros report and begin practice for spring training and now games are right around the corner. It's nice to see the season get started. With Lamar 10 games into the college season it's beginning to look like spring.

AJ Hinch is going to give the players a day of rest today after two weeks of work so far. Several pitchers will get the bullpen or throwing work in and Evan Gattis will do his rehab thing from his offseason hernia surgery. Other than that, everyone else is getting a little break.

The Astros will have a guy in his second big league camp competing for a spot in the bullpen. James Hoyt, a 6'6" RHP is looking to make an impact this spring. He's a big, intimidating guy who throws in the 93-95 mph range with a good breaking ball. He was in Astros camp last year but he had played winter ball in Venezuela and he admittedly came to spring training fatigued. This past year he again played in Venezuela but he shut himself down in December giving himself a chance to rest up and be his best in spring training. AJ Hinch said that Hoyt is "intriguing" as a prospect but what is left unsaid is he will have a hard time cracking the Astros big league lineup filled with veteran arms. But, even if he ends up in AAA he is just one injury or one poor performance away from getting his shot. Another bit of evidence of how the Astros minor league system continues to produce quality talent.

eagle eye

03-02-2016, 05:30 AM

It was just a year ago that Houston had the #1 minor league system in baseball. That was a result of some good drafts over the last 5 years and getting good value in trades made when the Astros were cleaning house between 2010 and 2013. Yesterday MLB.com reported that Houston has the 10th ranked farm system in baseball. That seems like a precipitous drop over just one year but when you look at it the fall doesn't seem so drastic. In the last year Houston has added Carlos Correa and Lance McCullers to the roster. Not to mention bringing George Springer up in 2014 but last season was when Springer made his biggest impact. You also have to consider that Houston lost Mark Appel, Vincent Velasquez, Domingo Santana and Josh Hader via trades and you can see just how much talent Houston has taken out of their minor league system. However, Houston still has a wealth of talent to run with. AJ Reed, Daz Cameron, Kyle Tucker and last year's 2nd pick in the draft, Alex Bregman come immediately to mind. Not to mention pitching prospects like Francis Martes, David Paulino and Joe Musgrove who have emerged as viable prospects. Houston seems pretty set for a while to come. The only real hole in their list of prospects is at catcher. It seems like that position is a very difficult one to fill. The Astros have had Jason Castro but they have been hurting for backups. The main thing is finding a guy who can handle the defensive side of the ball and handle a pitching staff as well as provides some decent offensive numbers. Castro has become a pretty darn good defensive catcher. His trouble is that except for 2013 when he hit .276 on the season and earned a berth in the All Star game his batting numbers have been pretty bad. In a perfect world Castro will figure it out and get back to that 2013 form. Finding a backup is really the main problem.

Tomorrow spring training games begin for the Astros. They have already begun with games played last night. Spring training games actually started this past Sunday when the Phillies took on the University of Tampa which the Phils won 8-3. There have been several exhibitions between major league teams and college teams so far. The Red Sox actually had two games on Monday with different college teams. They played Boston College shutting them out 6-0 and they also played Northeastern winning 8-3. Baseball is cranking up people and that ain't nothing but a good thang.

eagle eye

03-04-2016, 07:21 AM

Yesterday was the first spring training game of 2016 for the Astros. They played the Phillies in Clearwater, Fla and they won the game 3-2. I'm not really about the score in spring training especially on March 3rd but I won't lie when I say I'm glad they won. The games right now are about looking at prospects and recent additions. The only guy who is a guaranteed opening day starter that played yesterday and that was George Springer. He had three AB's that went as follows, HBP, double, double. The double in the 3rd was probably going to be a triple except for the fact that Springer fell down as he approached first base. I don't know if he tripped over his own feet or a blade of grass but it had to be a little embarrassing.
So, here are the prospects/newbees and how they did.
P Doug Fister - 2 scoreless, looked pretty good for a first start.
LF Eury Perez - O-1 at the plate, threw out a man at home from LF.
3B Matt Duffy - shaky defense, booted a couple of balls. 1-2 at the plate with a monster HR.
SS Alex Bregman - didn't see him play D (quit watching after 6th to go to bed) he went 0-2 at the plate with 2 K's. He only played A ball last season.
1B AJ Reed - 1-2 with a K.
DH Tyler White - 1-3 with a run scored and no K's.
DH Joe Sclafani - 0-2 but no K's
SS Danny Worth - 1-1 with 2 BB's, no glaring issue at SS.
3B Colin Moran - 0-0 with a BB, No issues with fielding.
C Max Stassi - 1-3 officially but he got on another time due to a fielding error by Phillies 3B on a very hard hit ball. He could easily have been 2-3 but the Phillies 3B should have made the play. Made one throw to 2nd on steal attempt. Poor throw but the Astros got the out because the base runner came off the bag.
2B Nolan Fontana - went 0-2 with a BB, a K and an RBI.
P Kevin Chapman - 1 inning, 0 runs, 2 hits.
P Michael Feliz - 2 innings, 0 runs, 2 Hits, 2 BB's and 2 K's.
P James Hoyt - 1 inning, 0 runs, 2 BB's, 2 K's. Hoyt was the winning pitcher of the game.
P Brendon McCurry - Looked shaky and results prove it. 1 inning, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 error, 1 BB, 1 K and 2 wild pitches one of which scored a run for Philadelphia.
P Danny Reynolds - (Looks like he's about 14 instead of 24) 1 inning, 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 BB and 1 wild pitch.
P Jandel Gustav - 1 inning, 1 run, 1 hit, 1 BB and 2 K's. Gustav got the save to end the game.

I didn't see any of the game after the 7th other than Danny Reynolds looked like a kid skipping jr high. I'm sorry I missed Gustav pitch and a couple of the position players but it's the first game and it was nice to see the Astros in action again. Altuve, Correa, Keuchel and McHugh may see their first action this weekend sometime. Today an old new guy, Wandy Rodriguez, is starting for Houston.

eagle eye

03-07-2016, 05:39 AM

The Astros have been looking pretty good so far. The pitching has, for the most part been solid and the offense has been good except for Saturday's loss to the Mets. Jon Singleton finally got a hit in a game. He's played in 3 of the 5 games so far and until yesterday he had failed to get a hit. He made up for that by going 2-4 with a double and a HR with 2 runs scored and 3 RBI's. The encouraging thing was he did not strike out during the game. This is in contrast to a horrible AB against the Mets on Saturday which saw Singleton come up with men on 2nd and 3rd trailing by a score of 3-1 in which Singleton struck out on a pitch down and in that would surely have been a ball. That ended the game and it's sort of what we have come to expect out of Singleton as a big leaguer. Yesterday was much different. He swung at good pitches and he put the ball in play every single time he went to the plate. Was yesterday's game an anomaly or is this the new and improved Jon? Still way too early to tell.

The Young guys in camp have certainly been playing well and hitting well. We are just 5 games in and it's way too early to say anything definitive but these young guys have been playing pretty well.

The record during the spring is meaningless but it can be an indicator of how well the Astros prospects are playing since most of the games, especially early on, are showcase games for young players who probably won't be on the final 25 come April 4th. Houston has to be pleased with the young guys so far and the Astros record sort of reflects that. In their first 5 games of spring training Houston is 4-1. It seems like the Astros success so far is indicative of how strong their farm system really is.

eagle eye

03-11-2016, 06:56 AM

Since my last post on Monday Houston has played 4 games this week. Beginning with yesterday Colin McHugh got his 2nd spring start and got his first spring win. He went 3 innings this time out and he looked pretty good allowing no runs on two hits and no walks. Houston edged Washington 4-3 and guys got their work in as a total of 17 position players and 5 pitchers saw action.
On Wednesday Houston beat the Atlanta Braves 9-5 behind some good pitching for the most part. Dallas Kuechel made his spring debut pitching 2 innings allowing no runs with 1 hit, 1 Walk and 1 K. Of the 7 pitchers who worked for Houston in the game only 2, Neil Cotts and Dan Straily, were tagged with runs.
Tuesday Houston fell to the Nationals 4-2. Doug Fister had his second outing of the spring going 3 innings giving up a run on 2 hits, 3 BB's and 3 K's. You don't want to see that many walks but Fister didn't let them hurt him. Ken Giles, who has been struggling this spring took, the loss giving up a run, a hit, a walk and a K in his single inning of work. The fact is 4 of the 5 pitchers who worked on Tuesday gave up a run. Fister, Giles, Wandy Rodriguez, who pitched his second game of the spring went 3 innings, and Tony Sipp. Only Will Harris held the Braves scoreless.
Monday Houston began the week by shutting out the Yankees 1-0. Mike Fiers let it be known by his play he wants a spot in the Astros rotation with 2 solid innings of work. Michael Feliz made his second appearance going 3 innings and Cesar Valdez followed with 2 good innings. Jake Buchanan pitched one inning and prospect Juan Minaya closed out the game and preserved the shutout.

It looks like Houston is going to have a pretty damn good pitching staff as long as they stay healthy. I'm worried about Ken Giles though. He has not had a good spring. I know he's only had 2 appearances and he's pitched only 2 innings so far but he's given up 4 hits, 3 earned runs and had 2 BB's and only 1 K. Very small sample, I get that, but you want to see the guy dominate a little more don't you? Maybe I'm not being fair. Maybe I'm holding the Mark Appel deal against him a little. I probably should lighten up some but dammit if you throw 100 mph fastballs I want K's and not a run allowed. C'mon EE, calm down it's only the first part of March. Okay, I'm better now.

Guys who have looked good so far: Tyler White (just like advertised, makes contact and puts the ball in play) Matt Duffy (up and down but basically solid although I would like his glove to be a little more solid.), Andrew Aplin (been pretty good in the field and has shown some hitting skills), Colby Rasmus (maybe getting a contract and feeling wanted was just what he needed) Jason Castro (much better swing at the plate early on even though his BA doesn't reflect it) Luis Valbuena (man I don't like to give him too much credit but he has been pretty decent), AJ Reed (what can you say about the Astros top prospect?), Eury Perez (He's making Jake Marisnick or Kyle Tucker look expendable)
Guys who haven't looked so good: Jon Singleton (except for one game he's been his old no-hittin', strikin' out, no walk workin' hitter he's always been in the big leagues. He's batting himself right out of the bigs and he has nobody but himself to blame), Carlos Gomez (has yet to get a hit in the spring but he did screw himself into the ground over-swinging at a pitch or two), Alex Bregman (he's obviously not ready for the bigs yet. His .100 BA is indicative of the way he's been hitting. Not good)

Houston goes against Detroit led by Scott Feldman making his second start of the spring. Noon start.

eagle eye

03-11-2016, 09:54 AM

I was noticing in the box scores of the spring training games that Alex Bregman has been struggling at the plate. I haven't gotten to see many games so I'm not sure if he's been any good in the field but I suspect he has. Just this morning Houston made their first cuts of spring training by reassigning Bregman, JD Davis, Derek Fisher and Jon Kemmer to minor league camp. Here's the article from Astros.com about the moves.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/167044772/bregman-jd-davis-fisher-kemmer-sent-down

Spent today enjoying "live" MLB games via snap chat. Check out the article on Astros.com.

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2016/03/11/166521054/mlb-stars-and-snapchat-give-fans-a-look-at-spring-training

eagle eye

03-13-2016, 06:13 PM

The Astros have had a bit of a set back, the first real issue the Astros have had so far. C Max Stassi is back in Houston getting some tests on the hamate bone in his left hand. He injured earlier in spring training and it has been giving him some discomfort so the Astros decided to get him some attention. Here's a link to the article on Astros.com talking about Stassi and the depth they apparently have left behind Jason Castro.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/167294762/astros-max-stassi-to-see-hand-specialist

I guess Stassi isn't the only problem the Astros have to deal with. Lance McCullers, who has been a special pitching program so far this spring including the fact he hasn't made an appearance in a spring training game as yet. Recently he has been experiencing discomfort in his throwing shoulder. Apparently, the problem is not serious but will require rest and it is not quite certain whether he will be available when the season starts in three weeks. Here's a link to the article in Astros.com with more detail about McCuller's shoulder.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/167183830/lance-mccullers-to-rest-a-bit-after-clean-mri

It appears that P Mike Fiers wants a spot in the Astros starting rotation. This article linked below talks about the great start to spring training Fiers has had.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/167237876/astros-mike-fiers-posts-another-stellar-start

eagle eye

03-14-2016, 11:10 AM

Houston has made some more personnel moves sending Juan Minaya, Joe Musgrove, David Paulino and Danny Reynolds to minor league camp and they reassigned two other players, Brady Rodgers and Brendon McCurry. This, coupled with the Astros sending four other prospects to minor league camp it should have the spring training roster down to 52 players. Last Friday Houston sent SS Alex Bregman, IF JD Davis and OF's Derek Fisher and Jon Kemmer.

Today is Marwin Gonzalez' 27th birthday.

MLB.com released it's mid spring training power rankings and what do you know, Houston comes in a #9! Without knowing who will take the open spots at 1B and 3B and issues with backup catcher along with lingering issues with injuries to Max Stassi and Lance McCullers and Evan Gattis coming off hernia surgery there isn't enough there to rank the Astros any higher. It's looking like Gattis could be back on track to be ready for opening day as he's already been taking batting practice. It is also said he will get a crack at playing catcher but that may be a little too much to hope for at this point. If Gattis will be there to DH on April 4th that would be a good thing. The only other AL West team ranked higher than Houston is the confounded Rangers.

The battle for 1B was billed as a battle between 3 players, Jon Singleton, Tyler White and AJ Reed. Singleton has been awful so far and looks to be playing himself back to the minors leaving the job open between White and Reed. Both guys are 6-20 (.300 BA). White had 2-DBL and a HR while Reed has 2-DBL and no HR's. How about this? White plays 3B and Reed plays 1B with Valbuena backing them up or better yet, trading Valbuena for a prospect or a draft pick. According the best hitter of the spring for Houston is White.

Dallas Keuchel is making his 2nd start of the spring today in a game vs Nationals and Houston has already staked Keuchel to a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st.

eagle eye

03-16-2016, 05:50 AM

A couple of days ago I posted that Max Stassi went back to Houston to have some tests run on his injured left hand. He has a bad hamate bone, which is a bone in the heel of your hand near the wrist. I serves a function but it is not critical to structural integrity of the hand or wrist but it is quite painful. A break or hairline fracture of the hamate bone is a common injury for baseball players and a technique of removing the bone is frequently done. Many baseball players have had this surgery like Ken Griffey Jr, David Ortiz and Troy Tulowitzki. Stassi did not have the bone removed but rather he had a hook on the bone repaired by Dr Thomas Mehlhoff in Houston. Stassi is slated to be out 6 weeks recovering from the surgery meaning he won't be available on opening day. When Hank Conger was traded to Tampa in the off season it left the backup catcher job open and it looked like Stassi would be the guy most likely to be that guy on April 4th so this setback has got to be a bitter disappointment.

Colin McHugh was really good for 2 innings yesterday but his 3rd start of the spring had him slated to go more than that. McHugh came out in the 3th and couldn't seem to be able to get anyone out. In the space of 7 batters he gave up 3 runs to the Washington Nationals on the strength of RBI doubles by Daniel Murphy and Michael Taylor. It looked like McHugh was going to be tagged with more runs to begin the 4th inning when he sandwiched a double in between 2 walks to begin the inning. With the bases loaded McHugh got a K and line out to get the Astros to within an out of escaping without giving up a run. AJ Hinch relieved McHugh and brought in Tony Sipp who got Daniel Murphy to fly out to CF to end the threat. Houston battled back and chipped away at the 3-0 lead the Nationals had after the 3rd inning. Marwin Gonzalez, who had a good game yesterday, began the Astros comeback in the 4th with a solo HR, his fourth of the spring. In the 5th it was Marwin again with a bases loaded RBI single to get the Astros within one at 3-2. In the 8th Eury Perez and Preston Tucker each had an RBI single to give the Astros a 4-3 lead. Unfortunately, there was still the 9th inning to play and Jake Buchanan was tasked with nailing down the win for the Astros. Again, unfortunately, Buchanan wasn't up to the task as he gave up 3 runs in the inning allowing the Nats to retake the lead. Houston was unable to mount another comeback in the bottom of the 9th and that's how the game ended. You would have liked to see McHugh have a better outing in his 3rd start of the spring but he battled and kept the Astros within striking distance which is what you need from a starting pitcher. Buchanan, on the other hand, is not making a very good case for himself to make this roster. So far this spring Buchanan is 0-1 in 4 appearances going 1-1 in save opportunities. He's pitched 10 innings with a 6.75 ERA allowing 6 hits and 3 ER's with 4 K's. Not exactly MLB roster material.

BTW the statistically best pitcher this spring is Kevin Chapman who hasn't allowed a run so far this spring in 5 appearances with 4.1 IP. He's allowed 5 hits, 2 BB's and he has 1 K.
The best hitter so far is OF Colby Rasmus who sports a .545 BA (6-11) with a double and 2 HR's and 8 RBI's. He's only had one K and has one BB. He has a .538 OBP, a 1.182 slugging % and a 1.720 OPS. Rasmus had a career high 25 HR's in 2015 tying him with Luis Valbuena for 2nd most on the team behind Evan Gattis' 27 HR's. He hit just .238 last season but it seems he's found something in his swing and if it's the real thing then I'm sure Rasmus will be a major contributor to the team this year. Maybe the fact that the Astros seem to like, and want, Rasmus makes a big difference. If you listen to his interviews he IS an Astro. He feels comfortable here and accepted here unlike his old team, the Toronto Blue Jays who benched him for lack of performance. You wonder how oppressive working conditions affect an athlete sometimes and in Rasmus' case the affect of a good clubhouse atmosphere and feeling wanted and appreciated is seemingly making a big difference for him.

eagle eye

03-17-2016, 08:10 AM

It appears that Lance McCullers will not be on the opening day roster. As I posted the other day he's got issues with this right shoulder and the Astros are taking the cautious route in dealing with it. McCullers had an MRI on the shoulder and it showed no problems but he has been sidelined since March 6 because of pain in the joint. The Astros are wisely thinking long term with this and are giving the 22 pitcher time for any inflammation to subside before allowing him to throw. That is why AJ Hinch announced yesterday that McCullers would begin the season on the DL so he doesn't have any pressure on him to be ready for opening day.

Brad Peacock didn't do his hopes of being in the Astros starting rotation any favors yesterday when he got roughed up by the Detroit Tigers. In the 2nd inning yesterday Peacock got the first two outs of the inning and then in a 3 batter succession he gave up a HR, a walk and a 2 run HR to stake the Tigers to a 3-0 lead. Peacock has struggled to even stay on the field the past year and a half and this outing in his 2nd spring start isn't what he needed to have happen. AJ Hinch said he was glad that Peacock did go 3 innings and he was also glad he got his pitch count up. Peacock wasn't the only Astros pitcher who struggled yesterday. Dan Straily and Cesar Valdez both allowed the Tigers to score 2 runs. Straily worked 3 innings and Valdez worked 2. What was disappointing was Houston's offense struggled and the first few innings the Astros fielded what could very well have been their opening day lineup. Only George Springer and Jon Singleton hit the ball as they combined to go 4-7 with Singleton getting 3 RBIs and a run scored with an RBI double and a solo HR.

Singleton has been really struggling at the plate in the spring. He had one good game about a year ago (actually last week but it seems like longer than that) in which he went 2-4 like he did yesterday but he fell right back into the easy out rut he had been in. Hopefully, this will allow Singleton to start hitting more consistently. The before yesterday the 2 hits I mentioned before were the only two he's had all spring as he was hitting a mind numbing .103. After yesterday's game he is up to .152 and it doesn't take much to change your BA in the spring but yesterday's game doesn't mean squat if he doesn't keep hitting the ball. Personally, I am not going to hold my breath on this because I will definitely pass smooth out waiting on another big day for Singleton. I'm sorry to be so negative but if his history tells us anything it that he can't consistently hit big league pitching.

AJ Hinched voiced his displeasure about the frequency his hitters have been hit this spring. He said that teams are pounding the ball inside and a side effect of that is his players are getting hit. Yesterday Carlos Gomez and Jason Castro were hit by pitches and just a day earlier George Springer was hit in the elbow. That makes 3 times this spring Springer has been hit. It also is worth noting that Springer missed a lot of time in 2015 after a Kansas City pitcher hit Springer in the wrist breaking a bone that put him on the DL for about 6 weeks. I'm glad Hinch is making an issue of this but I'd like to see the pitchers protect their hitters by plunking the offending team. That's one of the unwritten rules of baseball -- you hit my guy I'm hitting your guy and if my gets injured I'm taking your guys head off. DL for DL and that is the check and balance for dirty pitchers. It was better when pitchers had to bat and the opposing pitcher could retaliate against the guy who hit his guy. I get a little blood thirsty when it comes to hitting batters. I know it really hurts and has the potential to do real damage and I don't like it. The Astros Dickie Thon was on his way to a stellar career when he got hit in the head and he was never the same player after that. Thon was touted as a future Hall of Fame player until he was hit in the face by a Mike Torrez fastball that broke the orbital bone around his left eye and his depth perception was never the same again. Thon was an excellent fielder as well as a really good hitter but his hitting was never the same as a result of being beaned. He had a real shot at being the Astros first HOF player had the incident not happened. Thon actually played another 9 years after being hit but the questions about what might have been should still linger. Umps have to do their part to stop that sort of thing too.

eagle eye

03-18-2016, 12:54 PM

Houston had their second split squad games of the spring yesterday and they won both games. In one game Houston topped Toronto 7-5 on the strength of the hitting of George Springer, Carlos Correa and two prospects, 3B Matt Duffy and C Tyler Heineman. Heineman went 3-4 on the day going the full 9 innings. Duffy went 1-3 with 2 RBI's and a stolen base in 5 innings of work. Heineman is battling for the backup catcher position behind Jason Castro and having a big day yesterday was important to that cause. Heineman could be the next man up after Max Stassi had to have surgery on a broken hamate bone in his left hand. Duffy is fighting for a roster spot at 3B. Tyler White and AJ Reed have been battling Jon Singleton for a spot at 1B. The intensity of these battles is nothing but a good thing for Houston.

It seems like Preston Tucker is working on flattening out his swing moving away from the upper cut swing he fell into the habit of as the 2015 season wore on. The work paid off yesterday against Toronto as he absolutely crushed a ball over the right center field wall for a 2-run HR.

Michael Feliz pitched 3 innings against the Jays allowing 3 hits and no runs. It was a good outing for him as he displayed a mid to upper 90's fastball and a change up and a slider. It's not likely Feliz will be on the final 25 but he's is developing into a quality pitcher. The only guy who really struggled among the 6 Astros pitchers was Jordan Jankowski. Janko went 1.1 innings allowing 3 hits, 3 runs with a BB and K.

In the other game Houston squared off against the Braves and they won that contest as well by a score of 5-3. While most of the regular position players were in the game against the Blue Jays there was enough firepower left over to beat the Braves. 1B AJ Reed and SS Danny Worth did most of the damage driving in all five Astros runs. Mike Fiers had a disappointing outing as he gave up 5 hits, 3 runs-2 earned and 3 BB's on the day. It should have been just 1 earned run as a throwing error by Nolan Fontana on a force play allowed two Braves base runners to score. But, Fiers put them on base so that part is on him. 5 pitchers followed Fiers to the mound and they combined to allow just one hit from the 4 inning to the end of the game.

eagle eye

03-21-2016, 06:34 AM

Houston didn't finish the week so good losing on Friday and Sunday but fortunately W's don't matter in March. Houston is getting to see players who can, and will, help them come April. Houston did make some roster moves this weekend. They went into the weekend with 49 players on their roster and the goal is to get down to the final 25 by April 4 (Opening Day). I'm not sure you realize it but that is only 15 days away!
Yesterday Houston optioned P Asher Wojciekowski, IF Nolan Fontana and OF Andrew Alpin to AAA Fresno and they reassigned Tony Kemp to minor league camp. That means the roster is down to 45. Here's a link to an Astros.com article about the four players and AJ Hinch's feeling that all 4 can, a will, contribute to the big club in the near future.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/168252202/astros-make-three-more-spring-training-cuts

Evan Gattis is ahead of schedule in his rehab from his hernia surgery back in February. He is actually doing DH work in the minor league camp spring training games. There was a plan for Gattis to begin working at playing catcher before his surgery 5 weeks ago but it is not clear if Gattis will be able to get the work in needed to actually catch a big league game before opening day. With Max Stassi going out because of surgery on a broken hamate bone in his wrist and unable to play for six weeks backup catcher is one of the positions AJ Hinch has to make a decision on. Gattis was catcher when he was with the Braves and he lost some weight in the off season with the intention of playing either 1B or C. He played some games in the outfield last season but he's not an outfielder and it's pretty clear that his best bet at playing a position was at first or behind the plate. The important thing is that Gattis' bat is in the lineup on opening day. He may not be able to leg out triples, like he did 11 times in 2015, at the start of the season, but his bat would definitely be missed if he was not able to play. He led Houston in 2015 with 27 HR's, 11 triples and 88 RBI's. His .246 BA in 2015 was hurt by a simply horrendous start to the season. If not for a dismal April Gattis would have hit in the neighborhood of .275 and for a power hitting DH that is totally acceptable. You'd like to see him cut down on the K's. He had the 3rd most K's on the team last year behind Colby Rasmus (154) and Chris Carter (151). So far this spring Rasmus is not striking out as much and he's hitting much better than last year too. Carter is gone so Gattis needs to follow Rasmus' lead and start making contact a little more often.

Ken Giles has struggled some this spring. He's giving up runs almost every outing which is not what you want to see from you big money, free agent power pitching, reliever that you gave up four players, including the #1 pick in the 2013 draft. Yesterday he pitched one inning giving up 3 hits, 2 earned runs while striking out 2 batters in Houston's 5-4 loss to the Phillies. Despite this line score Giles said afterward, "The results, you don't want, but this was the best outing I had so far. My timing was great today. The ball was coming out of my hand really well today. I was very, very pleased." Giles first pitch hit 101 mph on the radar gun which is what you are hoping to see from him. You would certainly like to see Giles dominating hitters even in spring training but it doesn't matter until the lights go on opening day. That is when you need Giles to dominate. AJ Hinch said he saw good things in Giles' performance yesterday. The extra velocity on the ball was chalked up by Hinch as a little extra adrenalin facing his old team but Giles disagreed. Giles said he has been working on getting his timing down and in sync with his mechanics and he claims he's finally there with both. He's also been working on getting his balance down and he says the extra velocity was a result of all the extra work he has put in. Yesterday was also the first time Giles has worked consecutive days this spring. He pitched an inning in a minor league game Saturday.
Giles hasn't been named the Astros closer officially but, considering his contract, it's probably his to lose. Luke Gregerson was the closer last season and he has said he isn't just giving the job to Giles but he has yet to pitch in spring training because of a strained oblique suffered just before spring training games began. Gregerson will have a lot of catching up to do when he is cleared to pitch again.

Wandy Rodriguez is making a push for the 5th starter position. He has pitched pretty will this spring and he went 4 innings allowing just 2 hits and one run with 5 K's and no walks yesterday against the Phillies. Colby Rasmus continued his hot spring going 1-3 but that one was a 3 run HR in the sixth inning that gave Houston a 4-3 lead. Unfortunately, Asher Wojciekowski couldn't hold the Phillies as he gave up 2 runs on one hit and 2 walks and no K's in the bottom of the seventh.

There were 3 players with an OPS of 1.000 or better in the Astros lineup yesterday. They had another 4 with an OPS over .900. If that carries over into the season, whoa Nellie! Houston also had 7 players who are hitting .300 or better this spring. I know they are facing a lot of pitchers who won't be on a big league roster in April but it is still impressive.

Scott Feldman makes his third start of the spring today against the Nationals at 12 noon.

eagle eye

03-24-2016, 01:05 PM

Houston has been rather run challenged lately. The 8 runs they scored in a win over Atlanta was the most since they scored 10 on March 11th against the Tigers.

Of the prospects hoping to make the opening day roster Tyler White is making it impossible for manager AJ Hinch not to keep him. He continues to play well in the field and he has gotten better as the spring has worn on. Beginning today White is hitting .371 for the spring and so far he's 1-2 with a double and run scored in the top of the 4th. His BA is now .378. Houston is facing the Mets today and so far it's all Astros. The Mets pitchers have combined to throw 108 pitches and it's only the top of the 4th inning. As I was writing this White walked.
AJ Reed is not just giving White a free pass to the bigs. He's played well this spring too. He's hitting .268 which isn't in White's territory but he's has shown some power and he's played better defense. Reed is 2-2 with a double a walk and 2 runs scored and an inside the park home run. The Mets pitching so far has been awful and you could say that the Mets are lucky to only be down 7-0.
The 3rd guy who is looking to make the big club at 1B is Jon Singleton. When spring training began it was generally considered that 1B was Singleton's to lose because of the contract Houston signed him to when the brought him up from AAA. So far this spring Singleton seems determined to hand the job over to either White or Reed. With the success that George Springer exhibited when he was called up Houston hoped lightning would strike again. Unfortunately, there has yet to even be a thunder cloud in the sky. Singleton has been unable to hit at the big league level not even able to crack the Mendoza Line of a .200 BA. The fact is he can't crack .150 and so far in the spring he's hitting .136. He's not even in the conversation with White and Reed and with 11 days to opening day his chances of making the final 25 are pretty slim. It's hard to explain why he struggles so much because he just has torn up pitching at the AAA level. He's always been seen as a player who strikes out a lot but he also hit the ball, most of the time with power in AAA but when he has been at the major league level he continues to strike out a lot but he doesn't hit the ball almost at all.

Last week the hottest hitter for the Astros was Colby Rasmus but he's cooled off a lot since. The guy who is the hottest hitter right now is Carlos Correa hitting a blistering .419 this spring with Marwin Gonzalez right behind him at .391.

Colin Moran is making his case for making the big league roster. So far this spring he's hitting .320 and he's playing some slick 3B too.

Dallas Keuchel made his 3rd spring start today and he went 5 innings allowing zero runs on 3 hits, a walk and notching 5 K's. He had 62 total pitches with 42 for strikes. All this in intermittent rain on a clay dirt infield. I'm just grateful he got his work in without getting hurt.

eagle eye

03-28-2016, 06:51 AM

The Astros and Padres just played two games in Mexico City over the weekend. It was a nice PR trip for MLB and a nice trip especially for the Latin American players, particularly the ones from Mexico. It wasn't much more than that. Both the Astros and Padres pitched guys who will not be in the bigs next week. The most AB's the Astros star players, Altuve, Gonzalez, Correa never got more than 3 AB's in either game. Both games were blowouts with the Astros winning 11-1 on Saturday and the Padres winning 21-6 on Sunday but, as I said, the best pitchers for both teams never made the trip. Houston also had a split squad game in Florida beating the Tigers 8-3. The story in this game was that Scott Feldman started and went 4 innings allowing 5 hits and one run with no BB's or K's. Solid is what you'd classify his outing. Luke Gregerson pitched one scoreless inning and Mike Fiers pitched the final 4 innings allowing 2 runs on four hits with no BB's and 3 K's. The runs he gave up came on a 2-run HR in the 7th by C James McCann. The bottom half of the roster was the part of the lineup that led the way offensively with every guy having a multi-hit game except for 3B prospect JD Davis who went 1-3. AJ Reed (3 H), Jason Castro (2 H) and 2B prospect Daniel Hyde (2 H) were the offensive stars of the game.

As of today we are 7 days away from opening day. It is no longer a question of weeks but it is down to days. Houston will leave Florida this week after Wednesday's game with Atlanta. They only play 4 games this week; today, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Doug Fister will get the start today vs Atlanta and he will be facing former Astro Mike Foltynewicz, Wednesday will be Dallas Keuchel's last spring start when they play Philadelphia. The Phillies starting pitcher has yet to be announced. Thursday and Friday at the Juice Box the Astros have not announced the starting pitchers as they close out the spring against Milwaukee. I would expect that Colin McHugh will get the start one of those two days. Getting close folks and the biggest news this week will be the 15 or so players who will be cut so the Astros can get down to their final 25 man roster.

One guy who we know will not be on the opening day roster is DH/C Evan Gattis. Gattis has been rehabbing from hernia surgery that he had just before spring training. He was going to get his shot at being the backup catcher but the surgery derailed that notion. The Astros concentrated as hard as possible to get Gattis ready for opening day as DH but he has not progressed enough for that to occur. As for the backup catcher, the guy who seemed to have the inside track on that position was Max Stassi but he had surgery to repair the hamate bone in his hand and he will miss the first month of the upcoming season. The next man up is Tyler Heineman who has been solid and I feel he will be the b/u catcher next Monday.

Jon Singleton had another 2 hit game this spring raising his BA .151. With a week left in the spring I can't help but believe Singleton has played his way off the big club. Tyler White and AJ Reed has both played much better than Singleton and IMO they both have earned the right to begin the season on the final 25. You can't say Houston hasn't given Singleton a chance this spring. He's had more AB's in the spring than anyone else on the roster and he has twice as many K's (17) as he has hits (8) in his 53 trips to the plate. He has also only walked 3 times in the 22 games (team high) he's played in.

I think it's pretty well known that I'm no Carlos Gomez fan and this spring he's stunk up the place. He's hitting an anemic .192 for the spring after going 0-4 yesterday against Detroit. I would much rather see Jake Marisnick in center over Gomez. I think Big Jake plays comparable defense and I believe he has a better arm than Gomez. Marisnick hasn't lit it up in the spring at the plate either though as he went 0-2 in Mexico City yesterday lowering his spring BA to .149. I just think Marisnick is better for a club house than Gomez. To me, Mike Fiers was the best part of the deal that brought Gomez to Houston last summer. That deal cost Houston 4 prospects and we'll have to see how time decides the true value of the deal but, as of right now, Milwaukee may have gotten the best of the deal even though Fiers has been pretty good so far. Fiers is vying for a spot in the Astros starting rotation and he will likely be the 4th or 5th starter.

Right now this is what I see as the opening day lineup:
1. 2B Jose Altuve
2. RF George Springer
3. SS Carlos Correa
4. DH Colby Rasmus
5. LF Preston Tucker
6. 1B Tyler White
7. CF Carlos Gomez
8. 3B Luis Valbuena - I would give the nod to Tyler White or Colin Moran considering the really good spring they had and have AJ Reed at 1B but I don't see Valbuena sitting.
9. C Jason Castro

SP - Dallas Keuchel

I could easily see Gomez hitting 9th considering the crappy spring he had but AJ Hinch probably won't do that to him even though he deserves it. I chose Rasmus as DH because it's just a spot that needs to be filled by a veteran player. Tyler White, AJ Reed and Colin Moran had 34 or more AB's this spring and all are hitting over .300. Rasmus value will be enhanced if he can cut out the K's and make contact more consistently which, for the most part, he's done this spring.

eagle eye

03-29-2016, 09:53 AM

After yesterday's high scoring game between the Astros and Braves in which Houston won 12-9 the cuts have begun in earnest as Houston makes it's way to their final 25 man roster. As for the game yesterday the stars were the stars. In order, George Springer went 3-3 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBI's, Colin Moran 3-5 with 2 runs scored and 4 RBI's, Carlos Correa 2-3 with a run and an RBI, Colby Rasmus 1-3 with an RBI, Carlos Gomez 1-5 with a solo HR. It's here that I stop because it was Gomez who the first man in the lineup with a strikeout. Dig this, the top five men in the Astros lineup had but one K in the game and that includes 4 subs as well. That my friends is good work. Houston banged out 17 hits yesterday with only 6 K's in the game and nobody had more than one strikeout. Springer hit 2 HR's, Gomez 1, Preston Tucker 1 and Colin Moran went deep once. Jeepers Batman, does this team have potential, or what? The downer of this game was the poor outing by starter Doug Fister. I guess it would have to be considered a disaster considering the team is a week away from opening day. Fister gave up 6 runs in 4.2 innings allowing 7 hits and 4 walks with 3 K's. Wandy Rodriguez didn't help himself much when he came on in the 7th inning and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk with no K's. He actually gave up the lead to the Braves at that point but Houston would not be denied as they put up 3 runs of their own in the top of the 8th to take the lead for good. Ken Giles, who is getting better the closer we get to games that mean something pitched a scoreless 8th but he did struggle a bit allowing 2 hits. It's not how you start, it's how you finish and as long as Giles brings good things to the table we'll gladly take it.

With a day off today it allowed Houston to make some roster moves. The team has either optioned or reassigned 8 players. Jon Singleton is gone and it's no surprise considering how he's struggled at the plate this spring. IF Joe Sclafani, P Jake Buchanan, C Tyler Heineman is gone and I am fairly surprised here as Houston is hurting for a backup catcher. More on that later. Also sent down is 1B/3B AJ Reed. This is also a bit of a surprise because he had a better than average spring. Gone are P Cesar Valdez and P Michael Feliz and C Carlos Perez.
The reassignment of Heineman and Perez was made possible because Houston made a deal with San Diego for a veteran catcher. Houston gets a veteran catcher in the person of Erik Kratz and they give up a top pitching prospect Dan Straily. I hate to be a hater but I don't like this deal. Straily is a guy who would have ended up in Houston at some point all they get out of the deal is a 35 year old catcher who will likely be gone after Max Stassi and/or Evan Gattis gets healthy. Another bad deal for Houston IMO. I would much rather have kept Straily and let Tyler Heineman backup Jason Castro until Stassi gets back.

Now, if you noticed, there are two names that are not on the cut list, Tyler White and Colin Moran. Both of these kids had a phenomenal spring. With just 3 games left in the spring White hit .348 in 46 AB's and Moran .385 in 39 AB's. Both guys will make the final 25 and White will likely be the opening day starter at 1B. White had just 9 K's and Moran just 4 as Houston has a couple of guys who will stem the tide of strikeout rich players on the roster. I can see Luis Valbuena giving way to Moran if he struggles. As it is they will likely platoon as Houston works Moran in as a big leaguer. Youth is being served as this roster gets younger and more talented each year. As a leadoff hitter all Jose Altuve has to do is what he does best, put the ball in play and get on base. This second point would mean Altuve needs to be a little more selective at the plate and work more walks. Altuve's OBP is not much higher than his batting average which means he doesn't walk much. With the firepower this lineup possesses they need their leadoff man just needs to get on base. It's amazing to think our leadoff man has been the #1 hitter in the AL the past two years. Lord this lineup can be so freaking good if they play like they have this spring.

eagle eye

03-31-2016, 06:08 AM

Yesterday's game was good, really good and it was bad, really bad. It had to be a case of nightmarish deja vu for Dallas Keuchel who pitched 7 shutout innings only to have the bullpen and negate his effort that resulted in a no-decision for him and an Astros loss after a disastrous 8th inning in which the Phillies erased a 3 run Astros lead and suddenly became an 8-3 lead. Pat Neshak faced 3 batters all of which got base hits to load the bases. Tony Sipp came on and gave up a run on a line drive out. How all 3 batters advanced on a liner to 1B Matt Duffy is still a source of confusion to be. I have got to find a highlight of that play to understand just what the hell happened. Anyway, that was the first out of the inning. The second out was a sac fly that was misplayed by CF Carlos Gomez allowing the man to score from 3rd and allowing the runner on 2nd to advance to 3B and the batter no not only NOT be out but he ended up on 2B because of Gomez' error. The next hitter bunted the ball back to Sipp but the runner on 3B scored and the batter made it to 1B on the play. Now it's 1st and 3rd still with just one out and all three of the runners allowed on base by Neshak scored. After facing 3 batters AJ Hinch had seen enough of Tony Sipp and he brought on James Hoyt. Hoyt takes the mound with the Astros and Phillies tied at 3. Obviously, Hoyt was supposed to stop the bleeding but it just wasn't in the cards. The first three batters Hoyt faced resulted in an RBI single, ground out and walk. The walk re-loaded the bases with the Phillies Andres Blanco, who began the inning with a leadoff single, coming to the plate. His second AB was a grand salami that gave the Phillies an 8-3 lead. Hoyt retired the next batter for the last out of the inning which was a little too little and little too late. Every runner that Neshak and Sipp allowed scored with Hoyt putting the icing on the cake with the meatball he served up to Blanco. Houston got an oh-by-the-way run in the top of the 9th on a double and RBI single by Preston Tucker and Jason Castro but losing 8-4 when the bullpen just had an evil flashback to the Kansas City playoff game just sucked and not what you wanted to see out of 2, possibly 3, relievers that will be on the final 25 5 days before the season begins. The Astros scored in the 5th on a 3-run HR by Jose Altuve that broke a scoreless tie at the time.

AJ Hinch has named the rest of the starting rotation to go along with Dallas Keuchel and Colin McHugh. Mike Fiers, Scott Feldman and Doug Fister will round out the starting rotation to begin the season hereafter being referred to as F Troop in honor of the last names of the back end of the rotation. All that will be broken up when Lance McCullers comes back.

Speaking of McCullers, the Astros took his shoulder issues he had early on in spring training and when uber conservative with him because they were thinking of his long term health. They have had him on a special throwing program since it was determined that there were no serious issues with the right shoulder. McCullers will be on the DL to begin the season but he won't be there long. They actually will probably go through the rotation at least once before he joins the team in uniform. He will be there for opening day anyway because AJ Hinch wants him to experience his first opening day as a big leaguer. Last season he was brought up from AA Corpus Christi in May after Scott Feldman went on the DL.

As for Keuchel, get this. In 4 starts this spring Keuchel pitched 17 innings and he allow zero runs. That's none, nada, zippo. He only allowed 7 hits and 3 BB's while striking out 16 batters. 16 in 17 innings. Keuchel is not a power pitcher so his success at striking out hitters is pretty phenomenal. It appears like he is absolutely ready for 2016 to begin.

The Astros know who will be on the final 25 with some question on if they take 12 or 13 pitchers to New York and thereafter. If they keep 12 then IF Matt Duffy will make the final 25. If they keep 13 pitchers then Duffy will end up in AAA and Hinch will have to decide which pitcher to cut between Wandy Rodriguez, Michael Feliz and James Hoyt who are in a battle for the 2 remaining spots in the bullpen. It's a shame that Wandy's and Hoyt's last outing were not good. Neither can say they have done much to elevate themselves ahead of the other. Throw in Neshak's and Sipp's lousy showing yesterday and you have to have serious concerns about the bullpen. Shoot, the closer role has not been decided yet between Luke Gregerson and Ken Giles. At this point in time you would have hoped such things would be settled and you would have a lot more faith in the pitching staff than you do right now.

Houston, earlier this week, played their last game at their old spring home in Kissimmee. Next season they will be in the new facility they will share with the Washington Nationals in West Palm Beach.

Houston will be back at the Juice Box in Houston today and tomorrow as they conclude the spring at home. Colin McHugh is likely getting a start either today or tomorrow but neither starting pitcher facing the Brewers has been named yet. The game today will be played at 7 o'clock this evening with the Friday game starting at 1 o'clock.

eagle eye

04-01-2016, 06:20 AM

Last night's game at the Juice Box was the final tune up game before the season begins Monday for P Colin McHugh and I'll bet he wishes he had another. McHugh wasn't sharp giving up 6 hits and 4 runs on the evening. He didn't get much help from his teammates either. McHugh pitched 5 full innings and to one batter in the 6th when AJ Hinch decided that his night was over. The final hit McHugh gave up resulted in the batter reaching second because of a throwing error by Carlos Correa. Luke Gregerson came on in relief and promptly gave up a ground rule RBI double. Gregerson followed that up with a strike out of the next batter and his night was done. Tony Sipp came on and pitched the final 2/3 of the 6th and you'd have to say he struggled by allowing two hits but he did not allow a run to score. Ken Giles pitched a scoreless 7th allowing one hit with 2 K's. Pat Neshak came on in the 8th and he pitched 1/3 of an inning allowing 2 hits. Michael Feliz closed out the final 1-2/3 innings allowing 2 hits and 1 run with 4 K's. The relievers didn't do a great job except for Giles and to some extent Feliz but you have to be disappointed in the rest of the bullpen. Gregerson allowed a run that was charged to McHugh and Sipp allowed a run charged to Gregerson. Every reliever struggled on the night and the to their credit they battled hard because the score could have, and maybe should have, been much worse. Sipp and Neshak were coming off terrible outings on Wednesday and they both continued to struggle last night. It's not what you want to see with opening day just 4 days away as of last night. Make no mistake though, Colin McHugh was not sharp last night and the initial damage was done with him on the mound. Unlike Keuchel who dominated in his final spring outing on Monday McHugh wasn't as sharp as you'd hope at this point.
You can't blame the whole game on bad pitching. The offense was nowhere in sight. As a team the Astros only had 4 hits in the game and the top five spots in the batting order, starters and subs, did not have a single hit in the game. In fact, the only hitter in the top 5 who even got on base was a walk by George Springer. Luis Valbuena, Preston Tucker, Tyler White and Jason Castro each had one hit and Tyler White accounted for the Astros lone run with an RBI double that scored Tucker. I'm going to say the Astros were tired after finishing a game late Wednesday afternoon, packing up and traveling to Houston and getting back to their homes. Exhausting. Really. Okay, they stunk up the place but it's preseason so don't put a lot of stock in it.

Houston have their final 25 set. The final piece was decided yesterday as the Astros let Wandy Rodriguez would not make the opening day roster. This means that Michael Feliz and James Hoyt have made the roster. Wandy has the option of accepting an assignment to AAA Fresno or he can shop for a team that needs a pitcher. As for the Astros, they hope he stays with the Astros organization.

Also yesterday, the Astros informed IF Matt Duffy that he was going to make the opening day roster. With Duffy making the roster that meant that the Astros would carry only 12 pitchers going into the season and it also meant they would have to cut a pitcher. Wandy Rodriguez was the odd man out.

Lance McCullers threw batting practice yesterday in Kissimmee as part of his prep for the season. He has been slowed by shoulder soreness and the Astros have him on a special throwing program to get him ready for the regular season. He will not be on the opening day roster but it shouldn't be long before he will be back in the Astros rotation.

The final spring game is today at noon at the Juice Box vs the Milwaukee Brewers. Mike Fiers will get the start for Houston and Matt Garza will start for the Brewers. Houston travels to New York for it's opening day game against the Yankees on Monday. It is all about to get started for real and I couldn't be happier.

eagle eye

04-02-2016, 07:50 AM

The Astros looked a little more ready for the season opener Monday when they beat the Brewers yesterday at the Juice Box by a score of 4-2. Starter Mike Fiers was good only allowing 2 runs on 2 solo HRs by the Brewers in his 5.1 innings of work. In all he allowed 5 hits with 7 K's and no walks. A very good outing indeed. The main goal of the last two games was to not get anyone hurt and the Astros accomplished that. The Brewers weren't so lucky because their starting pitcher Matt Garza left the game after 3.1 innings with shoulder soreness. The condition isn't considered serious and he is expected to make his scheduled start next week. Former Astro Domingo Santana led off the game with a home run giving Milwaukee an early lead. Ryan Braun made it 2-1 after Houston scored in the bottom of the 2nd on a Tyler White line drive HR. Braun hit his shot with 2 outs in the top of the 3rd but that was all the Brewers could manage on the day. The Astros rallied in the bottom of the 6th scoring on a 2-run double by Carlos Gomez and a single by C Erik Kratz that scored Gomez. That 3 run sixth gave Houston a 4-2 lead and that is how the game ended as Houston's bullpen held the Brewers scoreless the rest of the game. Will Harris, Luke Gregerson, James Hoyt and Josh Fields combined to shut the Brewers out and even better they didn't allow a single hit. Harris got the win as he got the final two outs in the sixth in relief of Fiers.

Prior to yesterday's game the roster was finalized when the Astros decided to send P James Hoyt to AAA Fresno to begin the season. Michael Feliz did make the final roster as well as Tyler White. White was informed earlier this week he would make the roster and yesterday just made it official. Houston also made it official when they placed Evan Gattis, Lance McCullers and Max Stassi on the 15 day DL to begin the season.

Monday's opener in New York will feature a rematch of the starters in the Wild Card game last season. Dallas Keuchel will face off against Masahiro Tanaka at Yankee Stadium.

Linked below is a discussion between MLB.com's Brian McTaggart and Astros radio announcer Robert Ford about the outlook for the upcoming season.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/170166208/astros-announcer-ford-previews-2016-season

With today's post it concludes my activity on this thread. Thanks to those who followed and contributed to this thread over the past few months.