Astros injury updates, plus an interesting note

Footer’s new job sounds like it could end up being quite good for fans…She’s been good as a beat writer, and it sounds like the new position will involve bringing the experience of games to those people who (like me) can’t make it to the ballpark with any sort of regularity. Footer’s always been good at getting the players’ personalities across, despite the fact that beat writing can be a largely formulaic genre. She might lose a little bit of player access with the job change, but I bet she’ll still be able to get ahold of them whenever she needs to. What I’m excited about is the new access she says she’ll be getting: draft day, winter meetings, arbitrations (the biz of baseball is fascinating to me).

And in my opinion, McTaggart has been the best professional covering the Astros’ minor leagues…and his sparse minors updates on BaseballAmerica.com have been one of the few reasons I’ve kept my subscription going. So I’m happy to see him jump on board and try his hand at Footer’s old job. I think he’ll be good at it.