I’ve watched too many spring games to believe that what you see in March is what you’ll see in April. But I wouldn’t mind seeing some consistency out of the projected starting pitching, some decent defense, no further base running injuries and maybe a little hitting out of the team’s touted prospects.

I’d dreaded recapping the last five games I’d seen. And so I hadn’t.  They were mostly shitfests, variations on the same theme. But apparently spicy Vietnamese crawfish give Limey an adrenaline burst and he managed to beat me to it. Thanks, Limey!

Let me first address the Bill Hall – Cole Hamels standoff. This is really all on Laz Diaz. Remember, Carlos had just hit a home run. Hall strides to the plate, raises his right hand to signal for time like he always does as he digs in and readies himself. I personally don’t think Hall takes an inordinately long time – he scrapes four or five times with his back foot, taps the bat, grabs it with the back hand and is ready to go. Hamels was obviously pissed that he’d left the last pitch up. I’d noticed that when Carlos emerged onto the on-deck area he didn’t use any sort of weight, he just had his bat and didn’t even swing it to warm up at all. He stood there with the bat on his shoulder and watched the warm-up pitches. He strode out into the batter’s box and smashed the first pitch he saw over the left field fence.

So Hamels is pissed. Hall enters the box and has his back hand up asking for time. He’s looking down at the dirt as he readies himself. I have no idea what Diaz was looking at because he’s just standing there with his hands hanging naturally, not signaling time out at all.  Hamels goes into his wind-up and about midway through Hall realizes that Hamels is trying to pitch to him right about the same time that Diaz realizes that he should have been signaling time out. Diaz waves his arms for time out and Hamels stops his delivery mid-stream.

Hall again raises his back hand, his right hand, and digs in. This time Diaz is raising his hands, too. Hamels ignores all of this and begins his motion. He’s still pissed and is intent to pitch. Hall seems to know that Diaz has time out so he’s not looking at Hamels, but Diaz is. Once Hamels gets into his wind-up Diaz shouts for time out and Hall, annoyed, steps out of the box entirely and takes a couple of steps, takes a breath, composes himself and does it all over again.

At last Hamels waits until Hall drops the hand and, more relevantly, until the home plate umpire gives him the signal to pitch. Hamels winds up and delivers a fastball high and tight, chest high, maybe ten inches off the plate. It’s not meant to hit Hall, but definitely meant to deliver a message. Hall steps out of the box with his left foot, right foot still in the box. He knows what’s happened, of course, but he’s calm. Hamels gets the ball back from Ruiz and turns towards the mound and after a step or two suddenly turns back towards the plate and shouts something at Hall. Hall stiffens up, surprised, and then strides towards the mound, shouting at the pitcher. Diaz immediately jumps in front of Hall and shoves him back although Hall never made a move to charge.

Hall is not the bad guy here. Hamels got taken deep, was a dick, was a dick again, threw inside to Hall and then chirped about it. Fuck that prick. Hall got a knock his next at bat and was followed by a Chris Johnson home run. When CJ crossed the plate Hall slapped his open palm forcefully on Johnson’s chest, shouting in catharsis.

What else?

Steele had, what, five at bats? He never managed to get the ball out of the infield. He’s fast, though, I can tell you that. Drew Locke gave the Phillies their tying run. With a runner on third he caught a fly in very shallow right and his throw sailed over the cutoff man and was at least fifteen feet up the line. It was a shockingly bad throw, worse than anything Pence could dream up. I have no idea why Martinez was sent back to the minors camp while the team continues to evaluate Steele, Shuck and Locke.

The Phillies’ winning run came on a colossal, Little League style fuck-up. Esposito was catching and with a fast runner on second he let a ball get through his legs. He definitely should have blocked it; it really wasn’t that hard a chance. As he jogged back to retrieve the ball the runner made an aggressive turn around third. Esposito fired to Navarro at third but mistimed the throw and gave Navarro a difficult throw to handle. The runner broke for home once he knew that the ball was coming back to third and made it easily. It was very, very ugly. Just for balance Corporan threw one into right field giving the Phillies a run. There were men on first and second and the runner on second stole third easily. This was with Figueroa pitching, and he paid no attention to the base runners at all. Corporan had the good idea of throwing to first but Wallace was tardy to the bag and the throw went wide. Free run.

Last thing – late in the game Q singled and took an unwisely aggressive turn himself. He beat the throw back to first but just barely. He slid awkwardly head-first back to the bag and lay there for some time in apparent pain. Great, I’m thinking, the team’s two starting catchers are out thanks to base running misadventures and we’re stuck with Moe Bandy.

Q got up finally. He was promptly advanced to second where he slid again, awkwardly, and the team immediately sent Bogusevic in to pinch run.

Opening Day at Osceola

Today was a lovely day for baseball and a thin crowd dominated by Braves fans opened Osceola County Stadium for the spring. We watched our guys get slapped around by the Braves for the second day in a row in another game where the final score means dick.

Let me relay two observations from previous days that I’d neglected to mention. At the plate Towles’ hands look very, very slow. He didn’t always look this disjointed. In fact, I remember a couple of years ago when he looked like a star in the making here in Orlando. His swing just looked very different to me in the intra-squad game and I started to watch him carefully. I noticed that in his stance and through his swing he appears to roll his right foot outward and put all of his weight on the outer edge of his foot almost like he’s on snow skis and is making a sweeping turn to the right. I can’t imagine how he maintains balance like that, and I certainly don’t see how he can have any sort of consistent rhythm in his swing.

That reminds me – yesterday Hunter was taking his first at bat and unadvisedly swung wildly at a pitch that was going to hit him. I know I’m straining credulity here, please bear with me for a moment. Hunter sort of leapt out of the way as he swung and somehow managed to foul the pitch off. Everyone on the Astros bench was laughing and Carlos, the batter on deck, looked over at the bench with a broad smile and shouted at his new hitting coach, Mike! Teach me how to do that!

The other thing I forgot to mention was during the intra-squad game Brett Myers (who looked great today, more on that in a moment) commandeered a spot on Clark’s bench and basically raised hell throughout the entire six inning game. It was playful – shouting at the umpires, yelling words of encouragement and derision at the pitchers and hitters, he’d pop up and position himself at the entrance of the dugout like any good Little League coach and pretend to give signs to the catcher pitch by pitch. The highlight came in the fourth or so when Myers, in the middle of the inning, ran out onto the field and accosted catcher Brian Esposito (who looks really strong behind the plate) with a baseball card, mockingly beseeching him for a signature. It was brilliant. Myers dashed out of the dugout and in three strides was beside Esposito, waving the card in his mask-obscured face. Before Esposito could complete the question, Dude, what the fu- Myers with perfect timing had turned around and was back in the dugout.

Myers looked very much in control today. If he starts here and builds, getting better steadily, he’ll at the very least replicate last year’s surprising performance. He threw strikes, he seemed to hit his spots, he looked very, very good for early spring.

Every pitcher looked pretty good, actually, with the exception of my man Urckfitz. He got hit pretty hard, mainly because he was not keeping the ball down at all. I’m excited about Rowland-Smith. He has a very nice breaking ball and decent velocity. If Arnsberg works some magic we may see a pretty good pitcher emerge.

After Heyward’s double he immediately and quite foolishly tried to steal third. Needless to say, Q threw his ass out.

Koby started and finished a nice 3-6-3 double play which is never routine with a right handed first baseman, especially one who’s not out there for his glove to begin with.

Bourgeois and Steele both made very nice diving catches charging in from center.

Sadly I’ll be absent from the next week’s slate of games but will be back in action on the 10th, just in time to host Mr and Miss Limey as they make a pilgrimage to Osceola for a long weekend of baseball, sun, and, if history is any guide, plentiful libations shared with Ty in Tampa.

Yes, it’s that time again. Goodbye void and hello baseball, Spring Training style.  And as usual, we don’t mess around here at SnS.  In keeping with our long-standing tradition of providing excellent, informative, and thought-provoking commentary here on the SnS front page, we’ve decided to bring back our man in the park for an encore edition of “Chuck, Live From Kissimmee.”

Chuck, Live from Kissimmee (pt. 1, 2/28/11)

For me the void ended on Sunday. I’d been in the Orlando area a couple of days by then and had seen a few workouts, but Sunday offered an intra-squad game and that seemed to me an appropriate marking of the beginning of spring and of the beginning of spring training.

The turnout on a very warm Sunday was incredibly light. The majority of the fans inside the complex seemed to be socially maladjusted autograph seekers. If you’ve ever been to spring training you know the type. Fuck me, maybe you ARE the type. If you have irreconcilable differences with basic social norms, break long periods of uneasy silence with machine gun bursts of random observations at an inappropriate volume, lug around enormous binders filled with baseball cards of every conceivable variety while two-strapping a large backpack surely filled with more of the same, wear free promotional caps and only free promotional caps, if your sandaled stride as you leg it across grass and asphalt in hysterical pursuit of the one minor leaguer you missed last year is remarkably reminiscent of Borat, then yes, you are the type. And I thank you for your lurking presence near the batting cages and the parking lot while I sat happily in the bleachers and watched the game in relative peace.

By the way, where the FUCK do you work?

For the second year in a row Koby Clemens brought his bat. Very few pitchers threw many offspeed or breaking pitches (with the strange exception of Douglas Arguello who threw all sorts of breaking balls) so it’s impossible to extrapolate what I’m seeing now but like last year I’m struck by the obvious fact that Clemens can hit. At the time I thought drafting him was purely a PR move (and it may have been), but he is plainly shaping up to be a major league hitter. His defense
though needs a lot of work. That’s a charitable way of saying he is terrible. He was hit two balls at first. He bobbled one and let the other pass right through the wickets. I’ve watched him in several workouts thus far as well and it doesn’t get any better there, either.  He works hard and doesn’t seem to let his errors eat at him, but he’ll need to improve dramatically to offer big league defense.

You’ll likely have read that Anderson Hernandez made a couple of very nice plays at third and Manzella also made an impressive play at third diving to stab a sharply hit ball up the line and springing up to fire out the runner easily. I got my first look at Jordan Lyles who looks very much like a pitcher out there and had no trouble getting through his inning 1-2-3.

After the game I wandered over to a field in the back and watched a group of high-level minor leaguers go through some fielding drills.  This was my second chance to watch Delino DeShields, Jr. Last year I read that the team was considering moving him in to second from the outfield. So far, I know not why. His hands are stony and his arm is inaccurate.  I mean, he’s 18 years old and since I’m a casual fan and not a professional scout I can’t project what I see today into what might be five years from now. I have no idea what Adam Everett looked like at 18, but I would have to guess that he looked a damn site better than DeShields does.

I’ll leave it at this – in every workout I’ve seen DeShields lines up in tandem with fellow second baseman Enrique Hernandez. Maybe you busriders know all about this Hernandez kid but I don’t. All I know is that he has great hands and shows a very accurate arm. I think he’s 20, not too much older than Delino. Hell, he’s almost old enough to drink. But watching the two side by side it’s obvious who’s the more advanced defensive player, by far.

I love watching the minor leaguers’ workouts. It’s amazing how fundamental many of the things they practice are – how to call for an infield popup for example. I really enjoyed a fast paced drill where the pitchers fielded balls and threw to various bases and into various situations as dictated by the coach in charge. Squeeze! or 1-5! Or 1-4-3! or In between! and the pitcher and the first baseman would both charge the ball and communicate who’d get it over to the second baseman. The fellow in charge of these drills by the way was Dave Borkowski. Again, the pace of these drills is incredibly fast; a new pitcher appears at the front of the line every few seconds to execute the play directed by Borkowski.

I also enjoyed watching the pitchers, catchers and infielders work on various bunting plays and a wheel play designed to pick off a runner on second base. An added bonus is I now know the current signs the catcher gives the infield for these plays.

This morning I attended the meet and greet the team hosts for the season ticket holders. It was about 120 elderly shut-ins, three or four of the hardcore autograph seekers and me. I tell you what, I have never heard so many people complaining about free Starbucks coffee. I guess Starbucks is too robust for the velcro-shoe set.

Wade and Mills came out and gave a bit of a pep talk. Good thing, too, because after a hearty fruit cup a lot of these folks were beginning to nod off. After they opened the floor to a Q&A one lady leapt up and declared that she had noticed an uptick in the paehshin of the club. Don’t you people from Michigan have your own team? I wondered.
Another codger stood up and braced himself against his walker as he demanded to know why the hell the team was planning to move to Disney after all the county had done for the team. No, this codger was not I, nor did I put him up to it. I did befriend him, though. I would guess he’s close to 70 and far more profane than I am. In our friendly chat he called me a prick, a bastard and cheerfully told me Fuck you!

Afterwards I watched the minor league guys do some infield drills and then take BP. Mixed in were some of the big league players who wouldn’t be making the trip to Disney, most interestingly Barmes and Hall. I didn’t see a whole lot of these two fielding but from what I did see they both look very good, very comfortable. They look like a tandem that’s been playing together for a while. And both of them showed considerable pop in BP. I’m fascinated to learn what the team does with the infield this year, who the back-ups are, whether Manzella makes the team. There’s no Geoff Blum, no guy who can play all the positions. I could see a guy like Jimmy Paredes having a shot.

On to Disney for the game. I hate that fucking stadium. I really do.  The bright spots were several, despite the final score. The Astros got lots of hits. Look at the box and you’ll see. Wallace, Lee, Steele, Pence ripped one, even Manzella had a couple of hits. Later in the game Paredes and Mier turned a tight double play. I was sitting directly behind Tal Smith and at the play he straightened up and clapped with excitement, the only time he displayed any emotion at all throughout the game. Castro effortlessly threw out some idiot who tried to advance to second on a ball that had bounced off of Castro’s chest.

All in all it was great to see our guys back out there again.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Chuck, Live from Kissimmee (pt. 1, 3/3/10)

Players day

As a spring training season ticket holder I was invited to what the ticket office calls a ‘Players Day.’ I imagined it would be a sort of meet and greet with a breakfast and a protracted autograph session. It was scheduled for 7:30 AM, which is not an hour of the day I am typically possessed by thoughts of baseball, or bagels, or autographs, but there I was, pulling into Osceola County Stadium at 7:35 or so. The players’ lot was already full, by the way. The assembled crowd unsurprisingly tilted heavily towards retirees. There were also several socially maladjusted individuals who seemed intent on securing as many signatures as possible when not hectoring the staff or mumbling to themselves. After a while a few of the players cowered out of the locker room in the 40-degree weather to sign memorabilia and pose for pictures with the collected crowd – Wandy, Pedro Feliz, Bud Norris (a very animated young man) and, finally, Jeff Bagwell. Quite a bit of the crowd had dispersed once Bags emerged but those remaining quickly gathered round and I heard several people wishing him a successful season as they toddled off with their signed baseball or pennant or hat or whatever.

Practice fields

From there I walked back to the practice fields in order to watch an intrasquad game that was scheduled to begin after a few hours. The practice complex is a collection of five normal size fields plus a sixth field that is simply an infield as well as a covered and mostly enclosed set of ten or so batting cages. There’s also a building that serves as a sort of minor league headquarters with several locker rooms, offices, trainers’ rooms and a weight room. By the time I got back there at 9 or so there was already plenty of activity – minor leaguers emerging from the bating cages or the weight room, players scheduled to play in the upcoming game stretching. Before long the major league position players filed out of the locker room inside the stadium and made their way to field 4 for their practice session.

Mills running the show

The practice began with infield work, Feliz on third, Manzella and Keppinger rotating at short, Matsui at second and Berkman and Blum rotating at first. Mills and Pedrique ran the practice although there were six or eight other Astros coaches and staff in uniform working the practice as well. The tempo of the workout was impressive. There were four coaches, Mills included, fungoing grounders to the various infield positions at once. Just as, say, the shortstop was releasing his throw to first a ball was being hit to Matsui. Very crisp, very fast. After about twenty minutes of this the practice shifted to what was clearly its main focus – working on cutoffs. Mills gathered the infield and outfield players together (the outfielders hadn’t been doing too much during the infield work, playing lazy catch and stretching) and went over some of the key things that he wanted to accomplish. They had obviously worked on many of the concepts he was teaching before because he continually referred to previous practices.

Mills stood in the infield beyond the pitchers mound and called out the number of outs and on which base the runner stood. He’d hit to one side or another of the outfielder and guide the infield on where he wanted them to be as the throw was coming in. He directed each infield player to be in a specific spot in each situation. Each player has a responsibility on each play. This may seem obvious, but Mills was plainly teaching new concepts because there were plenty of questions (particularly from the first base tandem) and plenty of re-instruction and plenty of repetition. Mills is clearly a hands-on sort of teacher. I observed him to be very encouraging but very exacting. I watched them work on cutoffs for well over an hour. Many of the players on the field are veterans and make 4, 6, 8, even 15 million dollars a year and here’s a first year manager out there working with all of them, enthusiastically, on something that every player begins to learn the basics of in Little League. It was an inspiring thing to see.

Catchers

Three catchers worked the practice, by the way, Castro, Towles and Q. I was standing within earshot of a couple of the coaches when Bourn was fielding balls and sending them home through Manzella. Manzella is a big kid, very rangey, much taller than I’d remembered. He’s very smooth with a very strong arm. ‘Man, that shit gets in there quick,’ said one coach, smiling, after an 8-6-2 relay. Another time after a Blum bobble on a relay Lance announced, ‘The guy fell down rounding third.’

Intrasquad game

For a while I wandered back and forth between field 4 where the major leaguers were now on to BP and field 1 where the minor league intrasquad game was happening. By this time Mills and his coaches were all watching the game. You will have read about the game already so I’ll say only that out of all the players who played unless I missed a pitcher or two only Moehler and Norris are likely to make the big league team at the outset. The game was watched by Tal, Wade, Mills and all of the coaches. There were a couple of bleachers the same as you’d find at any Little League field. At one point I was sitting on a picnic table and suddenly Mills and a coach were standing three feet away. They were speaking quietly but with a bit of effort I could hear Mills. He was talking about the cutoff drills, discussing what went well and what still needed work.

Castro, Bogusevic and Mier take BP

I watched some of the presumable major league players take BP and some notable minor league players as well. I’ll mention a couple of them. Many of the major league players are still getting tuned up. You can see it in their swings and you can hear them say as much as they come out of the cage and speak as the other two players in their rotating threesome get in and hit. Jason Castro’s swing looks like it’s in midseason form. He is a big kid, as tall as Manzella, maybe a bit broader. But he has a very sweet left handed swing. It looks fluid and natural and not at all rushed. Bogusevic has a pretty swing, too, but it often looks over-eager, rushed, forced. Castro just casually drops the head of the bat onto the ball and hits it hard. He looked great in BP, very relaxed, very fluid. I also watched Jiovanni Mier take BP. He is a big kid too, maybe not quite as tall as Manzella but he has plenty of size. I know he hit .750 or something stupid in high school but his swing seems raw to me; it doesn’t seem effortlessly athletic. He didn’t make a great deal of solid contact. I realize that he may have been working on something specific and in any event he’s only 19 years old. I was excited to see him, though, and I’ll enjoy watching his progress.

Miscellaneous sights from Spring Training (click to enlarge)