Sure Footer, Fallas, McTaggart and Levine provide plenty of Spring Training coverage from Kissimmee, but if you want to hear about the real happenings – SnS style – the buck stops with Chuck. Chuck is a long-time SnS’er and has been an Astros Spring Training season ticket holder for the past four years. This year we’ve conned and cajoled him into periodically writing about his Spring Training observations for us here at TRWD. Enjoy!

Chuck, Adios from Kissimmee

Monday, March 22: STL at HOU, L 6-4

Starter Wandy Rodriguez was touched up for five runs in the top of the first inning as visiting St Louis held on for a 6-4 win. Despite the ugly first inning there was plenty to like in this game. Wandy had no life on his fastball in the first and could not throw his curve for a strike at all. But in the three subsequent innings he looked like the pitcher we all hope he’ll be, finding some zip on the fastball and, more importantly, spotting the curve for strikes.
Sammy Gervacio worked some Dominican voodoo in two more scoreless innings, striking out the side in his final frame. I love seeing him pitch earlier in games rather than later so that he has the chance to face some of the major leaguers who have made the trip. But it doesn’t seem to matter whom he faces, he’s been infuriating batters all spring. He’s effectively wild, and the pitches he throws for strikes all have serious movement. Wilton Lopez followed and was equally effective if not quite as entertaining. Lopez and Gustavo Chacin are two pitchers who are both quietly having excellent springs and should give the team some bullpen help along the way.

Geoff Blum got a rare start at SS and treated fans to a couple of very nice plays. He dove to his left to steal a base hit and sprung up to throw the runner out easily. Another inning he timed his jump perfectly to snare a sure base hit. Pedro Feliz smashed a homer in the second and his eventual replacement Chris Johnson was busy at third looking more and more comfortable defensively.

Finally, Carlos Lee easily had his best all-around day at the plate going three for three. He sharply lined a single up the middle but fought out a pair of hits on two-strike flares to the opposite field, one of which went for a double.

I wish I could have remained in Kissimmee for the entirety of the spring. I know that those of you who will attend the upcoming games will have an outSTANDing time.

Sure Footer, Fallas, McTaggart and Levine provide plenty of Spring Training coverage from Kissimmee, but if you want to hear about the real happenings – SnS style – the buck stops with Chuck. Chuck is a long-time SnS’er and has been an Astros Spring Training season ticket holder for the past four years. This year we’ve conned and cajoled him into periodically writing about his Spring Training observations for us here at TRWD. Enjoy!

Chuck, Live from Kissimmee (pt 6)

Friday, March 19: TOR at HOU, W 2-0

Josh Banks got an emergency start filling in for a flu-struck Bud Norris Friday afternoon against the Blue Jays in from Dunedin. Banks infuriated the Jays with glacial change ups and slow breaking balls for three solid innings leading seven pitchers in a 2-0 shut out of the Jays. The Astros’ parade of pitchers was uniformly solid issuing two walks and scattering six hits.

Like the day before Bourgeois and Sullivan both had good days at the plate. J. R. Towles got the start behind the plate and was more active with the pitchers than I’ve seen so far. Keppinger played some shortstop. I noticed a couple of plays where he showed an arm strength that I’d never had a chance to see from him at second. I think he is a legitimate SS and will be an acceptable fill-in as long as Manzella’s sidelined.

Saturday, March 20: NYY at HOU, W 8-6

A record crowd of 7,020 packed Osceola County Stadium Saturday afternoon to witness the Astros prevail 8-6 in a topsy-turvy contest.  Obnoxious and foul-mouthed, most of the crowd went home disappointed, drunk and hoarse. I can honestly say that I do not enjoy the spectacle that the Yankees bring to Central Florida each year. Anyway, Brett Myers got the start and again struggled with command. He has good velocity and his breaking ball routinely fools hitters when he gets it close to the zone but for five innings he struggled with location.

Houston sent only three pitchers to the mound today. Myers was followed by Casey Daigle, a big right hander and Shane Loux. You may recall my description of Loux’s main pitch as a sort of sidearm forkball. I had a chance to ask him about the pitch the other day and he told me he considers it a simple two-seam fastball except he throws it nearly sidearm and he turns his wrist over dramatically as he throws it. He demonstrated by rolling his right wrist basically as far as he can to the left. It is a weird pitch and I have no idea how he gets any velocity on it but it has plenty of velocity (I don’t know the exact speed he typically reaches, there’s no speed gun at the Astros’ park) and an alarming, tumbling rotation.

Sure Footer, Fallas, McTaggart and Levine provide plenty of Spring Training coverage from Kissimmee, but if you want to hear about the real happenings – SnS style – the buck stops with Chuck. Chuck is a long-time SnS’er and has been an Astros Spring Training season ticket holder for the past four years. This year we’ve conned and cajoled him into periodically writing about his Spring Training observations for us here at TRWD. Enjoy!

Chuck, Live from Kissimmee (pt 5)

Sunday, March 14: ATL (ss) at HOU, W 8-5

The Astros beat the Braves Sunday afternoon. Carlos Lee and Hunter Pence both homered. Carlos is having a tough spring, not hitting many balls hard, and it’s good to see him find his swing. He’s hit more weak pop-ups than I can ever remember. Myers got the start and had trouble with his command. It looked like he threw his entire range of pitches but he has real trouble locating his fastball. Lots of hits, lots of walks and lots of strikeouts.

You may remember my hoping that Pedro Feliz would bring some of the leadership that departed with Tejada. In workouts I noticed that Feliz seemed to have the capacity to provide on-field leadership. I was impressed when Feliz called time out and jogged to the mound for a quick word with the pitcher – Byrdak, I think – when he was having trouble.

Tuesday, March 16: BOS (ss) at HOU (ss), W 3-0

The Astros shut out the Red Sox in front of a large crowd Tuesday. It was the Sox’s first trip to Osceola County since I’ve been attending Spring Training. It was a special game for many involved as new Astros skipper Brad Mills served as Red Sox bench coach under Terry  Francona prior to joining the Astros. Francona brought a very unusual number of top-line players to a road game, treating fans to an up-close view of Dustin Pedroia, Jason Varitek and Kevin Youkilis. The large contingent Red Sox Nation went home disappointed as Roy Oswalt and five teammates gave up just four hits over nine innings. Roy was especially sharp, locating his fast ball well and fooling lots of Sox with his slow curve. Matt Lindstrom has really started to lean on his breaking ball and to excellent effect. Gervacio continues to mystify batters with his sidearm delivery and bizarre pre-pitch ritual.

Ron Johnson, Red Sox first base coach and father of Astro third baseman Chris Johnson, was moved to third base for the game so he could be close to his son. Prior to the game Chris brought the line up out to the umpires meeting his father at the plate. I’m very impressed with Terry Francona, from little things like this to larger things such as pushing the Astros to hire his invaluable bench coach away he’s proven himself to be a quality person.

Wednesday, March 17: WSH at HOU, W 11-2

The Astros tagged Jason Marquis with five runs in the first and a pair in the second, cruising to an 11-2 win over the Nationals. Wandy got the start for the good guys giving up a pair of solo homers on careless pitches but otherwise looking very good. The game was a laugher from the opening frame, but it was good to see Tim Byrdak get back on track with a solid inning after a couple of rough appearances and Gustavo Chacin, a tough left hander, really got my attention with a pair of excellent innings and three Ks. The team really wanted to give him two innings of work because he actually notched a rare at bat as a Spring Training reliever.

Thursday, March 18: HOU at DET, L 5-4

Gary Majewski gave up three singles and the winning run in the bottom of the ninth at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland as the Tigers beat the Astros 5-4. Jason Bourgeois got the start in center over a gimpy Michael Bourn and wasted no time in collecting a couple of hits and stealing a pair of bases. I really like this kid. He’s not tall and a little stockier than you’d imagine but he as a ton of speed and seems to be an instinctive base runner. He’s been hitting the ball better than the box scores would indicate, he has some power, and I think he can contribute more to the team than other fast fifth outfielders have such as Charlton Jimerson and Reggie Abercrombie. For one thing, he has far more plate discipline than either of the two I mentioned and he definitely seems to have a plan at the plate that goes beyond ‘swing as hard as I can.’  He does not have Bourn’s laser-like ability to track balls deep in the outfield, but he’s good. The conventional wisdom is that Bourgeois is fighting with Cory Sullivan for the final OF spot. Sullivan had a nice day at the plate as well, he’s also fast and also hits for power. It’s a fun battle to watch.

Felipe Paulino started and went three frustrating innings. He is having terrible problems with his command. I suppose if anyone can get this straightened out it’s Arnsberg, but for now it’s tough to watch. Chris Sampson has looked sharp all spring and turned in another crisp inning. It was my first look at Brandon Lyon. Lyon looked tentative and scuffled through an inning giving up a run and had some help from a double play. Unlike the other new Astro at the back of the bullpen Matt Lindstrom, Lyon is not a fireballer but his fastball looked especially meaty today. He has both a curve and a slider and from what I’ve seen he really leans on the slider. I hope to be able to watch him a few more times this spring to get a better idea of what he brings. Right now I can’t see Lyon closing. He hasn’t been pitching and has a lot of ground to make up where Lindstrom looks stronger and stronger each outing.

Sure Footer, Fallas, McTaggart and Levine provide plenty of Spring Training coverage from Kissimmee, but if you want to hear about the real happenings – SnS style – the buck stops with Chuck. Chuck is a long-time SnS’er and has been an Astros Spring Training season ticket holder for the past four years. This year we’ve conned and cajoled him into periodically writing about his Spring Training observations for us here at TRWD. Enjoy!

The Marlins came to Kissimmee Wednesday and Astros fans were treated to a shitfest of bad Astros baseball. Pitching, hitting, defense, all bad. Wandy got the start followed by Paulino, two guys that the team is counting on to have career years, and both ran into lots of trouble – control problems, leaving balls up in the zone, the usual. Most of the big Astros bats were in the lineup this day and most were silent.

You’ll have read and discussed all of this already and I won’t re-open old wounds. I will, though, mention two things that will not have shown up in the box score, one negative and one positive. First, the negative. Pence had a rough day in right field. The day was neither cloudy nor especially windy, two things that can make Grapefruit League fielding an adventure. Pence badly misjudged a routine fly in the first inning. He broke back four or five steps only to realize his mistake and turn and run helplessly forward on a ball that he would have caught effortlessly with a couple of steps forward from his initial positioning. This Misplay was ruled a hit and saddled Wandy with an ugly run. Another time a couple of innings later with a runner on second Pence fielded a single on one hop charging in. I was very surprised to see the Florida third base coach wave the runner around as Hunter fielded the ball very shallow. His throw to the plate from very shallow right field was a dozen feet off line; Towles had to skip-step three times to his right from home plate simply to field the throw. It was a day of very poor defensive play all-around from the Astros, but the defense in right field was especially weak.

And on to the positive – Paulino pitched an inning and had lots of traffic. He gave up three hits, two walks and two earned runs. He also recorded two strikeouts which is why the team continues to be hopeful. Anyway, in the middle of the inning when the bases were busy and things were looking bleak Pedro Feliz called time out and trotted over to the mound for a quick, private word. I’d mentioned before how much I like what I’ve seen from Feliz. He’s swinging a hot bat at the moment but his glove is beyond reproach and he gives the team an upbeat, positive presence from a veteran that I’d hoped would fill the void created by Tejada’s departure. I was very pleased to see Feliz take the initiative and call time out and try to settle Paulino down. I hope that Feliz becomes comfortable with a role of quiet leadership.

After the game Limey arrived in Orlando and we made it to the ESPN Zone at the Disney Boardwalk for Astroline. The broadcast hour was most enjoyable, everything else was less so.

March 11: Rainout

Limey and I drove to Viera in a driving rain. The game was canceled prior to our arrival at the stadium. We drove back to Orlando. We discussed politics and religion the entire time.

March 12: Rainout

Limey and I drove to Tampa and met with Ty in Tampa. We three continued on to Dunedin in a steady rain. The game was canceled after our arrival and admission into the stadium. Limey was triumphant at the opportunity to gain entrance to a Grapefruit League stadium. We drove back to Tampa. We discussed politics and religion the entire time.

March 13: WAS at HOU, W 8-7

Astros fans enjoyed clear skies and strong winds Saturday afternoon at Osceola County Stadium. My guess is that the Astros players found little enjoyment in the winds. Fielders chased infield and outfield fly balls alike with comical ineptitude and pitchers saw routine flies hit to right field leave the yard entirely.

Bud Norris started, pitched three and looked pretty good. He issued a couple of walks early and was tagged with a wind-aided home run (which plainly got to him and affected his pitching for the next couple of batters), but on the whole his velocity was good and his breaking ball and change were both being thrown for strikes and he looked very comfortable from the stretch.

The only other time I’d seen Lindstrom he threw fastballs and very little else. Today he mixed in quite a number of offspeed pitches, sliders mostly, and while some reports say that Lindstrom looked “extremely sharp” I would say that this is true only in relative terms. He was effective but his control is still wanting and he’s a ways away from being sharp. The only pitcher who was truly sharp today was the Nats’ Drew Storen who pitched the fourth for Washington and struck out two while giving up a hit and a walk. Storen seemed to have the best command of anyone who took the mound today and threw an effective slider for strikes. Lindstrom struggled to get batters to offer at his slider, most of which were well out of the zone and not tempting to the batter.

Pedro Feliz continues to impress. He had his customary good day at the plate, but again he made some challenging plays at third look absolutely routine. If a challenging play is a play that an average third baseman will turn into an out two thirds of the time, Feliz will turn this play into an out damn near every time. And he will make spectacular plays that the average fielder would not be able to attempt. He may play for the Astros for no more than a single season but he will be fun to watch.

Sure Footer, Fallas, McTaggart and Levine provide plenty of Spring Training coverage from Kissimmee, but if you want to hear about the real happenings – SnS style – the buck stops with Chuck. Chuck is a long-time SnS’er and has been an Astros Spring Training season ticket holder for the past four years. This year we’ve conned and cajoled him into periodically writing about his Spring Training observations for us here at TRWD. Enjoy!

I don’t have a lot to say about this one, unfortunately. There was a surprisingly large crowd at Osceola this afternoon. The ticket taker mentioned that they were selling a lot of walk-up tickets because last week’s weather was so bad no one wanted to commit by purchasing tickets ahead of time. That may be. It was another nice day and the crowd was decent, maybe two thirds full, and split pretty much down the middle in terms of Astros fans and Blue Jays fans.

Norris started and looked pretty good for it being this early in the season. He got hurt on a pitch he left up but he worked quickly and seemed to retain his confidence through both his innings. Poor Yorman Bazardo gave up three hits but no walks and incredibly got out of the inning without allowing a run. This is a triumph in relation to the last few times he’s pitched and been roughed up badly. Today was my first look at Chia-Jen Lo in a game. I’d seen him throw off the mound before but not to a batter. He has an interesting delivery in that he rotates his hips more than average. It’s almost an exaggerated rotation, actually. He likes a four seam fastball that come from over the top and that he can throw hard. I’ll really enjoy watching him develop. Today was also my first look at Wilton Lopez who looked in fine form delivering the only 1-2-3 inning of the day for the Astros none too soon in the top of the 9th.

The bats were quiet. In general the good guys hit a lot of balls hard right at people. Towles continued his torrid pace by belting two doubles and, according to first base umpire Laz Diaz, arriving at first base just prior to the ball for an infield single. Castro and Manzella each contributed a hit and each continues to hit the ball hard which is all I really care about offensively at this point. That and getting Michael Bourn on track, which will happen. Yes, OSF, Bourn was very tough to watch at the plate for the first half or so of ST last year but at some point the light went on and he started spraying doubles all over the place. Plus, he won a Gold Glove so we know he must have had a good year at the plate.

One final note about the game – Joey Gathright led off for the Jays and drew a walk. Everyone in the crowd who hadn’t nodded off (man, it was quiet in the yard today, those Canadians are too polite to cheer…) or had his or her face stuck in a tub of cotton candy knew that at some point Gathright would set sail for second. Sure enough on the second pitch, a called strike, he broke. Castro calmly fired a bullet down to second and threw his ass out. It was not close.

Chuck and some random dude in Astros gear

And about the picture you jokers have up on the front page (thought I wouldn’t see it, did you?), I can’t tell whether I look like a failed theater student delivering an epicene admonition or if I’ve just taken the sting from a particularly tart Campari and soda. I’ll go with the latter. Anyway, OSF now has another more topical shot he may elect to use once the mirth recedes a bit.

Sure Footer, Fallas, McTaggart and Levine provide plenty of Spring Training coverage from Kissimmee, but if you want to hear about the real happenings – SnS style – the buck stops with Chuck. Chuck is a long-time SnS’er and has been an Astros Spring Training season ticket holder for the past four years. This year we’ve conned and cajoled him into periodically writing about his Spring Training observations for us here at TRWD. Enjoy!

Early in spring training you can expect to see a lot of pitchers struggling to find the strike zone with their fastballs and a lot of very sloppy infield play. This game had both of those things. In front of a very sparse crowd the Astros erased an early 5-0 deficit built largely on pitchers’ control problems and infield miscues by going crazy in a bat-around bottom of the 4th where just about everyone but Jason Castro got an extra base hit. Later, five pitchers threw an inning each of tidy, scoreless baseball (no walks issued by anyone after the Myers’ three in the first frame) after Sampson qualified for the win pitching the bottom of the fourth.

Last year the opening game at Osceola County featured Florida’s Governor and an opening day spectacle on the field led by Drayton McLane. This year there was no spectacle and no Governor and no Drayton.

The things about the opening game that stood out beyond the absence of the team owner and the very light crowd was the productive plate appearances by the pair of young players I am trying to watch closely – Manzella and Castro. Both of these guys figure to be very good defensive players. Manzella has been advertised as an Adam Everett replacement, all glove and just about no bat. Castro has hit well through the minors, but since seeing him for the first time last spring I have been very impressed with his defense. With Manzella and Castro holding down two critical defensive positions I expect the team to be very solid up the middle. Offensively, Manzella and Castro both had very credible plate appearances. Manzella, the starting shortstop, and Castro, the DH, each had a base hit and each hit the ball hard in most every plate appearance. Castro’s hit ironically was a dribbler up the first base line, but in other plate appearances he was aggressive and made solid contact. Manzella too was very aggressive and looked very confident. He has a batting stance vaguely reminiscent of Moises Alou in that he pinches his left knee in fairly dramatically. Manzella had four quality at-bats, putting the ball in play crisply each time. It’s exciting to imagine these two leading the team into its next chapter.

Anyway, Wandy started the game for the good guys and had some control issues. Most of the Astros pitchers had their difficulties with only Byrdak, Lindstrom and Loux looking good in the box score by not allowing an earned run in their appearance. Byrdak and Loux were fine. Both of these guys are ex-Tigers, by the way. Byrdak is almost certain to make the big league team, but Loux is an interesting pitcher. He throws what looks like a 3/4 split finger pitch. I happened to be able to watch him throw from behind the catcher a few days ago and his release point immediately caught my eye as well as something odd about the way his wrist is cocked prior to release. This was not every pitch, just the strange splitter that I was mentioning. I’d always thought that most splitter pitchers use more of a 12 o’clock release point so the ball dives on the hitter. Loux’s 3/4 delivery has the ball dancing around almost like a hard-thrown forkball. As I watch him more I’ll try to get a better handle on what he’s doing. But this day he turned in a nice inning with a hit and a K and no ER.

Lindstrom didn’t give up a run but neither did he make it through his allotted inning. Yes, he throws hard. But, in this game at least, that’s all he does. His fastball looked very straight and he had no other pitch that was at all effective. Of course he may have been working on something specific in the outing. Many times a pitcher early in spring training will take the mound intent on doing one or two things and completely ignoring whatever else he may ordinarily throw. Maybe this was the case today, but Lindstrom couldn’t throw a strike with anything other than his fastball, and after the first fastball the hitters were not missing it. If they weren’t hitting them they were fouling them off, a lot. Lindstrom threw six, eight, ten pitches to many if not most if not all of the batters he faced. I’ll be very interested to watch him throughout the spring, too, to see how his arsenal of pitches develops.

Bazardo arrived on the scene in time to give up three runs. Not to be outdone Polin Trinidad managed six runs, all earned, on four walks and two hits in one of the uglier outings you will see. I’m still trying to figure out how the Tigers got any hits because Trinidad was nowhere near the plate. Ever. And he recorded no outs so his ERA is currently infinity.

The fielding was terrible. There were Little League errors in the outfield (Bogusevic with two drops in RF) and infield (Shelton, another ex-Tiger, a wild throw to third from his post at first base). But these are the things that Brad Mills gets to be unhappy about. Give me another 20 years or so and maybe then I can lay claim to being a salty Spring Training attendee, but as of now I’ve seen enough of these games to know when to start paying attention to defensive miscues, and we’re nowhere close yet. Especially not when we’re talking about guys who aren’t going to be in Houston in April anyway.

As for the other pitchers there are a couple of things I’d like to mention. Arias looks different to me. As observed by homer of TZ fame who was kindly able to join me for a couple of games, Arias looks like he’s slinging the ball rather than throwing it. I’ll be watching this while I’m here and asking about it when I can. I’ve seen Gervacio twice now. He’s all over the place but somehow manages to get people out. Jose Valdez is a very tall, very lanky pitcher. I have no idea where the hell he came from but he throws a weird-ass forkball, a real forkball, not like Loux’s faux-fork, and it appears to confuse the shit out of batters. Unfortunately he seems to have only the vaguest notion of where it’s headed. But he’s an interesting guy. And finally, Fernando Abad. He gave up a couple of hits today and in so doing had the ugliest line score of any pitcher. I read somewhere that the team is giving Abad a real chance to make the squad. I can see why. He’s a stocky left hander, not too tall, but not short. Six feet? Six-two? He’s bigger than Wandy and throws harder. He goes right at guys and has an attitude out there that you’d immediately appreciate. I’ll keep watching him to try to get a better handle on what his breaking balls are all about because I think that this guy is someone to watch. I don’t necessarily think he’s a dark horse to make the team, but I do think we’ll be seeing him at some point in the future and I’d like to know what to expect.

And seeing a kid like Abad is another reason why I am always pleased when some bunch of jumped up shitheads dutifully informs the universe that the Astros have the worst farm system in baseball. You guys keep writing that, OK? Thanks.

Other than that, at the plate Bourn looks bad, Matsui looks really bad… It’s early. Everyone else looks about like you’d expect them to at this point. Pedro Feliz… Well, his defense is no joke. With Pedro and Manzella the Astros are going to have a defensive left side of the infield to remember. And he’s been productive with the bat so far. I should emphasize that so much of what you see here at this point between pitchers and hitters simply will not translate into the season because pitchers are not using all of their pitches and certainly not in the same sort of sequence that they might in the regular season. So when Hunter Pence went nutso three or four years ago it was fun but not necessarily indicative of what he might do elsewhere. Next thing you know he’s a NL All Star. Anyway, yeah, Feliz is going to prove to be a nice addition I think. Watching him in workouts I saw him to be very up, very energetic, very vocal, very fun. I’m hoping he brings the team some of the energy that Tejada injected. I don’t see him calling time out in the middle of an inning and giving pep talks on the mound, but I do think that he is a very positive, inclusive sort of player that will benefit the team beyond making Ole! grounders at third a thing of the past.

Photos from March 4 vs. Nationals and March 5 at Joker Marchant