The winners were selected, and there was much rejoicing. Seems though that this admin totally forgot to add the information on this here venerable site. There is no doubt, I need to slow down and make better “to do” list. So to the honored ones, mea culpa mis amigos, I suck!

Any way, just to do a little recap, Spikes and Stars (dot com) has decided to jump into the fray and honor Houston Astros players for their outstanding monthly contributions to entertain the unwashed masses, including those who hang around here. We love our bread and circuses like no other, but I digress. We give out two awards monthly: A Spike Award to the one player who exhibits the hard nose play that shows heart, dedication and all out “what was he thinking?” responses from your typical SnS’er. The other award is the Star Award and true to it’s name, it’s about the best baseball performance of the month by a player.

So without further adeu, here are the winners of the April 2009 Spike and Star Awards:

April 2009 Spike Award
The first ever Spike Award goes to Jose “Papa Grande” Valverde. Valverde is currently enjoying an extended vacation away from the team to recuperate from his exploit that earned him the recognition from this site and it’s members. Jose was pitching to try and save a game against the hated LA Dodgers in an early season series when, after one out, he was struck in the calf by a batted ball traveling about 1,000 miles per hour. Or so it looked like to us. Valverde proceeded to attempt to throw out the perpetrator while wincing his way to the ground. He did not succeed to secure the out, but he did get up from the shot to the leg and took the hill to continue pitching. He proceeded to secure the necessary two outs to close the game by way of strikeouts. He did this with just one leg, as was evident to all who watched in amazement.

Jose celebrates like a Cossack!

This sort of thing was nothing new for Valverde as memories of last year’s incident, taking a batted ball off the face, was talked about extensively as this drama unfurled. A truly deserving honor for Papa Grande, although truth be told we would not recommend anyone on the Astros attempt this sort of thing to win our award (not that they would mind you, but juneberno), a simple bounce off an outfield wall to rob an opposing homerun, a sliding dive into a dugout or a punch of Cub fan in the face while leaning over a rail to catch a foul ball will certainly do.

Honorable mention: Props to Pudge Rodriquez who came in second in the voting.

We’ll borrow a frame of reference from Russ Ortiz here and point out that wins and loses are a product of team and not a reflection of the starter’s performance. That’s good, because in terms of w/l, the 30 year old Rodriquez did not set the world on fire, posting a 2/2 record in Mar/April. It is Rodriquez’s stellar 1.69 ERA, 27 strikeouts with only 12 walks and no homeruns allowed that made everyone stand up and notice. He pitched 32 innings in 5 appearances in Mar/April, basically averaging 6.4 Inning per Game pitched. Imagine if Cecil Cooper would just let him stay in a little longer, what Wandy could have averaged so far this season. Wandy’s goal is to solidify Houston’s number two starter in the rotation while pitching at or over 200 innings this season. Lofty goals, so far so good.

Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-galunga

Wany has been working exclusively with Pudge Rodriquez, who is said to be a calming influence on Wandy, not allowing him to get flustered in stressful situations. It’s showing, as little Eny is showing great poise on the mound (the proverbial “mound presence”), spotting a well located fastball (92 mph variety) inside and outside. This sets up his curveball, an almost unhittable pitch if the batter is trying to stay on top of Wandy’s fastball. All in all, a good game plan executed to perfection by the Rodriquez battery leading to good things for the lefty hurler.

Honorable Mention: Props to Michael Bourn who gave Wandy a run for his money as the Star Player of the Month.