Looking at Thursday's schedule, only the west coast teams are playing at their typical 7pm local time starts. The rest of the games are daytime or an hour early. Astros opening day is usually an hour early. Get with it west coast.
The “SHADOWS!” But in all seriousness... with limited fans in attendance, and a sport that already has inexplicable 11am local starts for some games due to “travel”, having all games start around 3pm or at worst 6pm local time shouldn’t be that hard...
Robel García makes the team on OD. A little surprised. He's more versatile than Toro, but Astros have Bregman and Straw who can slide to SS.
This is looking like the framework for the basic lineup except with Chazzyfizzz instead of Straw. Who had Tucker batting cleanup over Alvarez (I expect this will change as Alvarez gets his knees under him)?
My guess is they think Straw is a better hitter, and is less likely to be pinch hit. With the catcher batting 9th, it makes pinch hitting decisions easier as Dusty will know what Straw has done and that he has the top of the lineup next. I could see it being tough to pull the trigger on putting in a pinch hitter before Straw.
6. José Urquidy will get Cy Young votes. If you could draw up the perfect pitcher in terms of movement, you’d draw up José Urquidy. A hard, riding fastball, with a power change, a sweeping slider, and a diving curveball, he has oodles of vertical movement, and it’s just … it’s just beautiful. You might give him a little more velocity, if you’re picking the nits, but he’s at least average there. The writer of this article, Eno Sarris, is big into pitcher stuff. Astros (Strom and Baker to name 2) have talked about getting Urquidy to throw less strikes so that he can up his swing and misses on his secondary offerings.
Did Yuli just make a defensive play on a pop on the left side of the IF? The roof better be closed every day game as these guys have trouble with the sun.
It’s over! Hello real baseball! ________ Dusty Baker said Jake Odorizzi will be ready to start when the gets home from the first road trip. He's going to work at the alternate site in Corpus Christi. Dusty Baker said it will take RHP Pedro Baez a couple of weeks into the regular season to get ready to pitch in a Major League game. Baker also said Altuve will hit leadoff, which comes as no surprise at this point. He batted first the last two weeks of spring. Dusty Baker compared baseball season to Indy 500: "Start your engines and you know you have a long road ahead of you and you hope you don't have any crashes or any injuries. ... You have to run the race with perseverance, faith and prayer." Chas McCormick on making the club: "I'm ready. It's my turn. I feel like they're giving me a shot. They put it right in front of my face in Spring Training. ... I wish I would have played a little better, but we have a long season."
If Maldonado gets on base ahead of Straw, he limits Straw's ability to use his speed to take the extra base.
The rotation should be very, very good once Valdez returns. I wouldn't be shocked if Greinke, Valdez, LMJ, and Urquidy are each top 30 SPs this season by rate stats.
