[Official] Astros Offseason thread

stobbartjohn · Feb 26, 2010

msn said:

[rquoter]You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to cardpire again.[/rquoter]
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what does this phrase mean? are you critizising or praising the post?

kaleidosky · Feb 27, 2010

Tim Kurkjian on Manzella

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2010/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=4949138

Taking nothing for granted

Rookie Tommy Manzella well-prepared for new role as Astros' every-day shortstop

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Astros shortstop Tommy Manzella delayed the start of an interview, saying "I have to pay up." He hadn't lost a bet; he laughed and said, "Lance [Berkman] wants all the young guys to pay off the clubhouse guys before they're sent to the minor leagues."

Manzella is not going to the minor leagues. At age 26, he's scheduled to be the Astros' every-day shortstop. The Astros' philosophy has changed in the past few months; now they're pushing prospects through the system faster, rather than erring on the side of patience. Had this new plan been in operation a few years ago, Manzella might have been in Houston two years ago. But he's here now, and he appears ready to fill an important position on a team that needs a big surprise from someone to be a contender in the NL Central.

"No one has told me, 'Hey, you're the starter,' but I was told when I went home last winter, 'Don't make us have to go get someone; don't make it a tough decision,'" Manzella said. "I'm a believer that a rookie shouldn't be handed anything. It's better to be pushed."

Manzella has been ready to play defense in the big leagues for several years; he has great hands, a strong arm and has excelled with the glove wherever he has been. He has also hit almost everywhere, including last year at Triple-A Round Rock, where he batted .289 with nine home runs and 56 RBIs. "He is Adam Everett [the Astros shortstop from 2001-07], but better offensively," one Astro said. "He'll be fine." Astros manager Brad Mills said Manzella "has done everything right so far."

He will turn 27 on April 16. This is his time.

"I think I'm a little more prepared than most rookies coming in because of my age, and because I played at a major program in college [at Tulane]," Manzella said. "I don't think I will be affected by the extra level, the big atmosphere, of playing in front of big crowds."

Manzella likely will handle the new pressure of the major leagues well, because has already dealt with a lot in his life. His home, the one he grew up in in Louisiana, was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

"It was bad," he said. "There was 10 feet of water inside the house. We had a white awning in the back yard. It was white, and you couldn't even see it. The house is near an oil refinery; there were oil spills. My mom had cancer, and my parents had to move out of there because of the oil. Some people stayed and had to be rescued off the top of their houses."

Manzella was playing in the minor leagues when Katrina hit.

"We stayed up all night watching," he said. "It looked like it wasn't going to be that bad, then the levee broke. We lost almost everything. My dad and I went back to see the house. We looked through the window and saw a shelf in my closet with things stacked down pretty tight. We put a big pole through the window and fished out some of my jerseys from high school and Tulane, and the Astros jersey I wore when I took BP after I signed [in 2005]. It was really weird. There were some plaques on the wall. There was still a phone hanging up on the wall, but the sofa was in the middle of the pool in the backyard."

Manzella's mom died of cancer a year and a half ago, which provided another setback. But he made his major league debut in September, playing in seven games. "I didn't get to play much," he said, "but I knocked out a lot of questions about what life in the big leagues is like."

Now the Astros are counting on him to fill one of two major holes on their team (the other being catcher). There is nothing to suggest that Manzella won't be able to keep the job. He's bright, and he doesn't seem to be overwhelmed in any way by the job at hand. Teammates have had fun with him this spring about being a huge Saints fan. In the clubhouse, Astros coach Dave Clark walked past him and yelled "Who Dat?"

"They're all over me," Manzella said. "My family has had season tickets for years. I don't miss Saints games. I go to all of them." He was able to attend all those games because his minor league season usually ended in time to be at the Saints' season opener in September. That won't be the case this season, because he will be in Houston in September.

"If we make the playoffs," Manzella said, "I would be happy to miss all the Saints' games."
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J.R. · Mar 2, 2010

Astros 1B Lance Berkman has a left knee contussion. Our for today. Day-to-day, says the team.

J.R. · Mar 2, 2010

Astros first baseman Lance Berkman will miss Tuesday's workout with swelling in his left knee. Berkman underwent at MRI on Monday in Kissimmee, Fla, and the Astros are sending the results to Houston so team medical director Dr. David Lintner can analyze them.

Berkman will get treatment on Tuesday and hopes to be ready for Thursday's Grapefruit League opener. Berkman, who had surgery on his left knee in 1999, said the knee began swelling after he ran the bases during a drill on Sunday.

"Obviously, it's concerning," Berkman said. "Heck, the first day we run the bases in spikes and your knee swells up that's never a good thing to have happen to you, but the doctors are hopeful it's minor. Whatever it is, it's minor. Even the worst-case scenario is minor so we'll see how it goes."

Berkman said he felt some discomfort in the knee, but it hadn't swollen like it did in recent days.

"Anybody that's ever played any length of time and gets over 30 you're going to have some aches and pains, and every once in a while working out my knee doesn't feel great but it never swelled," Berkman said. "Everybody's going to be like, 'Why didn't you get it taken care of in the offseason?' But it was never a problem at all.

"It was never debilitating in any of the stuff I was doing this offseason. I felt a twinge once in a while but my joints hurt from time to time all over the place. It's something that's not out of the ordinary but it was never swollen. This is the first time it has swollen up like that and that's an indications it's a standard ache and pain."

Berkman doesn't want to rush into action, but he's eager to return to workouts.

"I want to get out there as quickly as I can," he said. "I want to do everything I can possibly do. Everybody will say it's a veteran move and I'll miss a couple of days of Spring Trianing, but I don't feel like that at all.

"I want to be out there and get ready to go. We need to get off to a good start this year and a big part of that is going to be me getting ready to go on Opening Day. I don't want to miss any time, and I'm going to do whatever I can to get back out there."
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http://brianmctaggart.mlblogs.com/

kaleidosky · Mar 2, 2010

hsf09 said:

http://brianmctaggart.mlblogs.com/
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ugh--that really has the sound of one of those injuries that is minor.. and then it ends up lasting all preseason, and after trying to play on it, he has to have (minor) surgery to clean it up a few weeks into the season.

I really hope it doesn't play out like that, and that's a pure glass-half-empty guess..

Uprising · Mar 2, 2010

Just saw that on chron. Sucks.

msn · Mar 2, 2010

stobbartjohn said:

what does this phrase mean? are you critizising or praising the post?
Click to expand...

Praise.

It means that I clicked the "reputation" button to give him props for his post, but the last time I clicked a "reputation" button it must have also been one of his posts -- you're not allowed to prop the same guy twice in a row.

msn · Mar 2, 2010

msn said:

Praise.

It means that I clicked the "reputation" button to give him props for his post, but the last time I clicked a "reputation" button it must have also been one of his posts -- you're not allowed to prop the same guy twice in a row.
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...err, the "feedback" button. my bad.

juicystream · Mar 2, 2010

msn said:

Praise.

It means that I clicked the "reputation" button to give him props for his post, but the last time I clicked a "reputation" button it must have also been one of his posts -- you're not allowed to prop the same guy twice in a row.
Click to expand...

It is even longer then that. You have to rep like 10 different posters before you can rep the same one again.

J.R. · Mar 2, 2010

Astros' Mills draws on old-school lessons

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Brad Mills(notes) wears the stamp of Terry Francona, and proudly, from shaved head to cleated toe. Mills’ Houston Astros can only trust that one day they will resemble Francona’s Boston Red Sox half as much.

Mills, though, also draws from a deeper well as he embarks on his first season as a manager in the major leagues, earnestly raising the dead weight of the Astros one meticulously planned spring-training drill at a time. Thirty years ago, Mills broke in as a player, getting a June call-up to fill in for injured third baseman Larry Parrish of the Montreal Expos – at the time a veteran outfit hard on the heels of the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East standings.

(New Astros manager Brad Mills is the team's fourth skipper since the middle of the 2004 season.)

A 10-for-17 batting start by Mills didn’t matter when Parrish returned, and he found a seat in the dugout next to another reserve, Ken Macha. Later in the year, infielder Jerry Manuel joined them on the bench, and they spent nine innings a day memorizing every move made by their already legendary manager, Dick Williams.

Then they’d go to dinner or convene at the team hotel and dissect the game. Mills, Macha and Manuel were sharp guys, well aware they weren’t destined for speeches at Cooperstown, that their best opportunity to forge a long-lasting career was by becoming managers. The Dick Williams admiration society grew the next year when Francona, already Mills’ pal from their time at the University of Arizona, broke in with the Expos.

“Dick ran a game better than anybody I’ve ever seen,” Mills said. “It was impressive to sit and watch him. He never was outmanaged. He was always thinking about things two or three innings down the road that other guys hadn’t noticed yet.”

Macha is manager of the Milwaukee Brewers. Manuel is manager of the New York Mets. Francona has won two World Series with the Red Sox, and did so with Mills as his bench coach. All were ecstatic last November when Mills, 53, was hired by the Astros.

Said Francona: “He is such a genuine guy, and he loves and respects the game. He deserves the job, and I couldn’t be happier for him.”

Said Manuel: “Millsy is very cerebral. He was a gamer-type player and a very astute guy in the dugout. As a manager, he ought to have a lot of success.”

Until the day Mills stepped to the podium at Minute Maid Park and donned his new cap, though, the Astros reminded him of his failures. After four years of bouncing between Triple-A and the Expos, he was shipped to the Astros organization in 1984. He never made the majors again, batting .229 in two Triple-A seasons and retiring in 1986 – a bum knee enabling him to avoid admitting he flat couldn’t hit anymore.

Mills’ most memorable at-bat came against the Astros on April 27, 1983, when he was Nolan Ryan’s 3,509th strikeout victim. That K lifted Ryan past Walter Johnson as the all-time strikeout king.

Maybe Mills’ third brush with the Astros will be a charm. More likely it will be a struggle, even for someone so persistently upbeat, so detail-obsessed, so seemingly ripe for the challenge. He becomes the fourth Astros manager since the middle of the 2004 season and inherits a team that finished fifth in the NL Central, 14 games under .500.

“This is exactly the kind of challenge you want,” he said. “Everybody is receptive; they want to succeed. It’s a mix of veterans and young guys, and everybody has a reason to do things the right way here.”

The right way for Mills is the Red Sox way, and he is bleeding those colors into his new club without mentioning the name of his former employer.

“No doubt I’m bringing a lot of things over from where I was,” he said. “I know that in my head without even looking at it on paper. I’ve shared those things. I had to make adjustments with pitchers bunting and baserunning and hitting and so on, but the basic framework is the same as what we’ve done the last six years.”

Mills walks around camp carrying a fungo bat, and he uses it, slapping ground balls at infielders and comebackers at pitchers during drills. He’ll pitch batting practice and he’ll grab the attention of a cluster of players to give a baserunning demonstration. Delegating is an acquired skill of a successful manager, but so far Mills often appears to be a delegation of one.

“I can maybe tell somebody how to do things but a lot of time it’s easier to show them,” he said. “I think it makes sense. I’m not trying to keep my finger on anybody. I have the utmost confidence in [coaches] Bobby Meacham and Dave Clark and Brad Arnsberg and Al Pedrique and Sean Berry, our whole staff up and down. We have an outstanding staff, But at the same time, there are certain little tweaks, and we want to make sure we’re on the same page.”

The players get it.

“He’s a hands-on guy, that’s for sure,” said veteran first baseman Lance Berkman(notes). “And that’s OK. He sees how he wants stuff done and he wants it done now. He’s a communicator, and that will go a long way around here.”

Mills was the conduit between Francona and Red Sox players. He was the go-to guy for gripes and concerns, and he responded with hugs, high-fives and, occasionally, harsh words. His preparation was unsurpassed; he’d memorize scouting reports, then whisper pertinent information to Francona during ballgames. The most memorable example came in Game 2 of the 2007 World Series, when he became the man who brought Matt Holliday(notes) close to tears.

Holliday was on first base with two out in the eighth and Todd Helton(notes) at the plate, with the Red Sox leading by one run. Mills recalled that the scouting report mentioned that although Holliday was slow he would attempt to steal in a key situation if he felt no one was paying attention. Mills gave a sign and Jonathan Papelbon(notes) wheeled and picked off Holliday, who indeed was leaning toward second.

Insights like that will win over Astros players more than Mills’ crisply organized drills or the impassioned introductory speech he delivered last week. Nobody will truly be sold until he has successfully navigated the team’s questionable bullpen through the late innings a few times and emerged with W’s.

The Astros have many issues. The starting rotation is thin behind Roy Oswalt(notes) and Wandy Rodriguez(notes). Two free-agent signings with histories of injuries – Matt Lindstrom(notes) and Brandon Lyons – are competing for the closing job. Mills will be counting on light-hitting rookie Tony Manzella at shortstop and is hopeful that 22-year-old rookie Jason Castro(notes) will seize the job at catcher. Berkman is coming off a down year. Second baseman Kaz Matsui might have little left.

It’s no surprise that Mills’ statistical page on baseball-reference.com is sponsored by a wisecracker who wrote: “General Mills and Minute Maid Park. First in cereal, first in juice and fifth in the NL Central.”

Yet none of that seems to worry Mills. He’s locked in on the next five minutes, not the next five months. He’s at a point where his bench-coach mentality serves him well. Full-blown managerial countenance, the perch on the top step of the dugout, the brisk walk to the mound to take the ball – all that will come in due course.

“I think about Dick Williams and I think about Terry,” he said. “I’ve been privileged. I think they gave me a good idea how to go about this job. I’m really exited.”

And with that, Mills headed back to the practice field, fungo dangling from his hand, another tweak in another spring drill on his mind.[/rquoter]
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http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_y...5nYcB?slug=sh-mills030210&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

cardpire · Mar 2, 2010

msn said:

Praise.

It means that I clicked the "reputation" button to give him props for his post, but the last time I clicked a "reputation" button it must have also been one of his posts -- you're not allowed to prop the same guy twice in a row.
Click to expand...

ha. thanks buddy.

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[Official] Astros Offseason thread

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