Astros Spring Training Notebook
by David Coleman on Feb 23, 2010 1:22 PM CST
in News
15 comments
You know, it might be helpful to have one post each day during spring training that would function as sort of a notebook. I'm sure Peter Gammons would be proud, but the purpose here is to talk about any number of things that may not justify a whole post or would be too long for a FanShot AND you get it all in one place. At least, that's the idea. What's up in this first edition?
Three out of 100?: Baseball America released it's Top 100 list today and three of Houston's prospects made it. Care to guess who? Tanner Bushue, Brandon Wikoff and Jose Altuve...Nope, not them either. The Big Three of Jason Castro, Jiovanni Mier and Jordan Lyles clocked in at 41, 73 and 91 respectively. The interesting thing was Baseball America went a step further and provided a Best Skill & Grade feature on one of its lists. Jason Castro's best skill is his bat, which BA lists as a 60. A catcher with his defensive skills that can also hit? Yep, that works for me. Jio Mier's best skill is his defense, also listed as a 60. Jordan Lyles had his command praised, with a grade of 60.
I'm not sure what I think about all three of these guys grading out at 60, nor whether Castro's best skill should have been defense and higher than a 60. But, I don't want to quibble here, just reflect that both Lyles and Mier have advanced skill sets already and they're both just 19 years old. Just one more shard of hope to add to this burgeoning farm system Bobby Heck is building.
Here's a nice breakdown of who shows up on the list. The Astros have more players listed than the Dodgers, Pirates, Yankees, Cardinals and Diamondbacks. Ahh, progress!
Fulchino tweaks ankle: Bernardo Fallas tweeted yesterday about Jeff Fulchino spraining an ankle. Today, he updates that Fulchino has aggravated the injury and will be limited in drills for the next few days.
When we talked about different relievers (especially the minor league ones), I tried to say that while I don't think any of our current pitchers will disappoint in 2010, there is always the possibility of them not performing well. Injuries can be a big part of that. If this is the most severe injury Houston's relief corps suffers through this spring, consider us lucky. However, with Lyon already delayed because of that shoulder cyst, the Astros are now two relievers down. Luckily, games don't start for another week...
Astros FO wins award: The Astros front office has won an award for Best Overall Video Display for the fifth straight season. I've always enjoyed the game presentation at MMP, but it's nice to see them be nationally recognized. I've heard that the old video board in the Astrodome was a sight to behold, so this is a good legacy to uphold.
More affiliate talk: Clack had a very informed rundown of the two articles up at chron.com regarding the Astros affiliate issues that could crop up after the season. Zachary Levine was all over the Sugar Land story and actually thought to talk with people down there to get more of the story. What a reporter thing to do...
There were some very interesting things that came out of this, but I'll pose this question to you: would you rather go see independent baseball in Sugar Land or a Triple-A affiliate in San Antonio?
Broadcasting 101: I saw one of MLB Network's Prime 9 shows last night on broadcasters. For those of you unfamiliar with the program, through a bunch of talking heads with former players, coaches and journalists, the show tries to answer all sorts of baseball questions. Who had the most unique delivery? Which home run was most iconic? And so on and so forth. Milo Hamilton popped up on the list, which isn't surprising, since he was given the Ford C. Frick Award in 1992, which is housed at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
With broadcasters on my mind, I saw this guest article over at Baseball Prospectus on how to build a better broadcast. What I want to know from you is: do you like Milo's homer style or would you want someone who could talk about wOBA or first-pitch strikes? For that matter, how many of you listen to baseball on the radio any more?
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Me too
The tag will now be abused by me.
The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.
by Stephen Higdon on Feb 24, 2010 8:36 AM CST up reply actions
Milwaukee also has 3 in the 100
Escobar, Lawrie and Gamel although considering Escobar a prospect is more of a technicality. He’s going to start at SS for a while.
Was going off the breakdown’s numbers instead of the actual list. Fixed.
by David Coleman on Feb 23, 2010 3:27 PM CST up reply actions
Yeah, that was their mistake. As a sidenote, the Pirates sister blog has a season preview up and takes some shots at the farm system. I’m not all that knowledgeable and don’t want to wade in. I also don’t want to seem contrarian – hard to believe right? ;-)
Interesting note about top 100
The fact that 50 out of the top 100 prospects were picked in the 1st, supp, and 2nd rounds.
This just goes to show exactly how important those early picks are. I am getting excited about this years draft, 3rd times a charm Bobby.
Speaking of which, The Angels have 5 of the first 40 picks. Wow.
In a recent Chronicle article, Heck’s own personal ranking of the Astros’ farm system is in the 20th – 24th range. Didn’t the Hardball Times rank the Astros’ farm system at 21st (if I recall), which is the only rating of the Astros’ system which is in his range. Heck also believes that the this will be a make or break draft for the franchise, because of the number of high picks.
I still listen to the radio broadcasts of the game, but not on a radio
Not living in Texas anymore I rely on the MLB iphone app that allows you to tune into the radio broadcast of games. Combined with an aux jack in the car, it’s just like home. Also for day games, at work, I usually tune into the radio broadcast through the MLB website.
In South Texas, I grew up listening to the games more than watching them so I still really enjoy the radio broadcasts.
Personally I like the Milo style – maybe just because it sounds like Astros baseball to me. But, like Jon Sciambi suggests in his guest column at BP, I think that better stats can be slowly worked into the mix without knocking people over the head with anything confusing. I never heard him call a Braves game, but his description of bantering w/ the old-school guy about the new stats sounds like an effective way to introduce it. And I’d love to hear it in the broadcast.
Also, there were some good comments on that article suggesting that displaying the stats in a more graphical format for TV broadcasts would be an easy first step.
It helps if the hitter thinks you're a little crazy. - Nolan
How to make a better broadcast?
Clone Jim Deshaies!
by AstroAndy on Feb 23, 2010 10:44 PM CST reply actions 1 recs
I miss Ashby
I’ll be honest. There were a couple of times when I heard him on XM Radio last season calling the Blue Jays games and I realized how great he was as the color guy with Milo. He wasn’t afraid of pulling punches about the team, but obviously had quite a bit of affection for the group.
yes, I liked Ashby.
..and I didn’t really like the way that McLane let him go. It gave people a suspicion that he was too frank in telling what he thought about players’ performance.
One of the new guys (I’m sorry I still have trouble distinguishing them) at times seems almost adversarial to sabermetric analysis. By that, I mean he will sometimes summarize what sabermetric people say (usually not a completely correct representation) about a subject, and then explain why he disagrees.
I don’t know If I necessarily want my broadcasters to be hardcore stat heads, but I do prefer announcers who acknowledge that sabermetrics can be useful and attempt to understand them.
As AstroAndy said above clone Jim Deshaies, I think he does a very good broadcast, that keeps the mood light and attempts to understand some of the more advanced stats. When Milo retires I’d love for the Stros to do a Vin Scully type of thing with Deshaies and Brownie where they’re on both the tv and radio broadcasts.
Learned a new pitch article
Yes… position players haven’t even reported yet. Also, who uses an 84 lb weight?
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/albert_chen/02/23/homer.bailey/index.html
Hopefully that new pitch will keep his arm from coming off after Dusty overworked him so much last season.
by David Coleman on Feb 23, 2010 11:11 PM CST up reply actions
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Current Series
4 game series vs Dodgers @ Minute Maid Park
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Los Angeles Dodgers
Thursday, Sep 9, 2010, 7:05 PM CDT Partly cloudy,rain. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 90. |
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| Fri 09/10 | 7:05 PM CDT | |
| Sat 09/11 | 6:05 PM CDT | |
| Sun 09/12 | 1:05 PM CDT | |
NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cincinnati
|
79 | 60 | .568 | 0 | Lost 4 |
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St. Louis
|
72 | 65 | .525 | 6 | Lost 2 |
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Houston
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66 | 73 | .474 | 13 | Won 2 |
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Milwaukee
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65 | 74 | .467 | 14 | Won 2 |
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Chicago
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60 | 80 | .428 | 19.5 | Lost 2 |
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Pittsburgh
|
47 | 92 | .338 | 32 | Lost 1 |
(updated 9.9.2010 at 9:41 AM CDT)
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