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

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. 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)