2013 Spring Training

The problem is that all of their future shortstops are still a year or two away. They certainly don't want to invest a lot in that position at the immediate major league level.

 

Link

 

Today's game on CSNH -- 12:05 CT

 

Woot!! Sitting just behind 3rd base.

 

It's the weakest position on the team by far. There's pretty zero chance that the Astros will get even ML average performance from that position. It's not likely for a lot of other positions, but its possible.

 

Game called after 5(rain). Astros win 4-1.

 

Man, Brett Wallace really crushed that homerun ball. Hopefully he can keep up his power surge in the reg season.

 

oh, believe me, i understand. just crazy to see your starting SS picked up off waivers right before the season starts.

 

which is really cool for about 35% of the fan base

 

I'm always really skeptical of magical hitting coach swing fixes, but I heard an interview on 790 a few days ago with Brett Wallace where he talked about the hitting coach a lot. It didn't impress me so much that Brett said his hitting was better based on changes to his swing that the hitting coach had made. You always hear that kind of stuff, especially in spring training. What impressed me was that Wallace said that before he sat down with the hitting coach (website says his name is John Mallee...never heard of him), the coach had personally sat and watched every plate appearance of Wallace for the past 3 years.

That clearly is an investment in time and is more than just a guy standing and watching him from a batting cage and telling him his hips are flying open too early. So I have a twinge of hope that perhaps this guy's insight might be real and maybe Wallace will blossom based on his instruction.

It's Spring. Hope springs eternal and all that.

 

WTHB (@whattheheck57): Two minor league cuts today - Adam Bailey and Ben Heath.

 

I thought Luhnow said that the Astros needed depth at C in the minors. Go figure.

 

Anyone else uneasy about Justin Maxwell's status of being a "lock" to make the team even despite a pretty poor spring. He's been outperformed by just about every OF and quite handily too by Brandon Barnes both offensively and defensively. Take away Maxwell's homers last year and he was actually pretty bad.

I know whoever is playing CF is only there keeping Springer's seat warm but I'd like to see more competition allowed for the starting CF spot especially when you consider that JMax is no longer a prospect at 29yrs old and has shown no positive signs other than the 18 or 19 homers from last year. I'm just nitpicking I suppose.

 

Sucks for Bailey, he's still relatively young and had a great run in 2011 where he was raking the ball.

 

Take away his home runs?

Take away Mark McGwire's home runs and he was actually pretty bad.

It is Spring Training. Stats are to be taken with a grain of salt. Jeff Bagwell had some terrible springs, while Travis Buck looks like a HOF every Spring.

Do I think his spot should be guaranteed? No. I actually think it is pretty pointless to carry Barnes, Ankiel, and Maxwell, who all have similar skillsets. It was pretty much guaranteed that 2 of the 3 were going to make the team, because we need to carry 2 players that can patrol CF.

 

Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart #Astros roster clarifies even further, with Peacock & Barnes told they made the club, Laird reassigned to Triple-A. http://t.co/jRCkeXQQDT

 

With Wallace/Perez/Stassi/Morales/Heineman plus Castro in the majors, seems like we have a lot of catching depth. I thought it was strange when he said it.

 

The parentheses were supposed to be closed, by the way.

Tough news for Laird.

 

I have to figure that means Peacock is in the rotation.