ST Game No. 23: Houston Astros vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
by David Coleman on Mar 26, 2010 12:00 PM CDT
in Events
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PrintGrapefruit League record (you know the drill): 11-10
Today's starters: RHP Roy Oswalt vs. LHP Zach Duke
Today's lineups, via McTaggart:
1) T.J. Steele, CF
2) Jeff Keppinger, 2B
3) Jason Michaels, RF
4) Carlos Lee, LF
5) Geoff Blum, 1B
6) Pedro Feliz, 3B
7) Edwin Maysonet, SS
8) Humberto Quintero, C
9) Roy Oswalt, P
Three players were cut this morning, as Wesley Wright, Shane Loux and Oswaldo Navarro were sent to the Minor League camp. That leaves the Astros with 38 guys on the roster. Wright is probably the most surprising cut, though McTaggart tweeted that he is going down to Round Rock to start more games.
Also of note, Bud Norris will follow Oswalt in the Pirates game, because Brad Mills wants to see him in person and not have him throw in a minor leauge game. Michael Bourn and J.R. Towles will be playing in the minor league game, however, which just lends credence to my theory that Towles has the starting catcher gig locked up. You want him playing every day right now to get into a rhythm, right?
As always, listen to the game here. If you are in the Houston area, you can hear the game on 790 KBME.
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top of the first was 1-2-3 inning for Oswalt. But I lost audio as the bottom of the first was beginning.
no audio on MLB.com either
on either KBME or MLB.com feeds
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Mar 26, 2010 12:25 PM CDT up reply actions
Not surprising
that Wright went down to AAA. They are trying to make him into a starter should be interesting to see how that turns out. Good to see Shelton still hanging around.
"now you chunkin' in there.."
from online boxscore...
Roy looking good….1.2 IP and 3 K’s no hits or BB’s
"now you chunkin' in there.."
still 0-0 bottom of 2...
I may have to invest in small radio for the office….
"now you chunkin' in there.."
Box Score says Roy O recorded
6 strikeouts through 3 innings
0 walks
1 hit
0 runs
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Mar 26, 2010 12:42 PM CDT reply actions
And the only hit was by the pitcher, Zach Dukes
by David Coleman on Mar 26, 2010 12:43 PM CDT up reply actions
Zach Duke, Pirates pitcher, got the hit
Astros hitless after 2
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Mar 26, 2010 12:44 PM CDT up reply actions
top 5th
1-0 Pirates. Roy out, Lyons in.
Milledge doubled and scored on a two-out single in the 4th.
by littlevisigoth on Mar 26, 2010 1:03 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
Roy's scoreless streak
Of over 9IP comes to an end. Scrub…
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 Mar 26, 2010 1:09 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Roy with a groin injury?
Milo saying he may have to head back to Houston to get it checked out. Other guy saying he just did a post-game interview with Roy and he didn’t say anything about it.
by littlevisigoth on Mar 26, 2010 1:44 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
now they're saying
Hamstring. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what the official report is on what it is or how serious.
by littlevisigoth on Mar 26, 2010 1:49 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Via Twitter
From: @alysonfooter
Sent: Mar 26, 2010 1:44p
Roy: “it’s nothing. I could have kept pitching. But I’m not going to fight them over another spring training inning.”
sent via Tweetie
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/alysonfooter/status/11104075032
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 Mar 26, 2010 1:49 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
Typical Roy
can’t really tell how bad it is with this Country Boy….just through some duct tape on it and get back out there…
Probably nothing….but damn another little nagging injury. Astro can not afford this
"now you chunkin' in there.."
Amen
First, Myers goes down with a ‘minor injury’ and now Roy??
Has anyone seen Wandy lately? Can we encase him in bubble wrap from now until Opening Day?
by David Coleman on Mar 26, 2010 2:05 PM CDT up reply actions
Know there is not much chance....
But would really like Locke to get a shot this year. He tore up AA last year. Another college guy a little slow to develop. If nothing else I guess he will be insurance at RR or CC.
"now you chunkin' in there.."
Astros Win 6-4.
Two run walk off HR by Chris Johnson wins it for Astros. The HR was preceded by a Shelton double.
thanks clack...
These invitees to camp are making those roster decisions a little tough on Mills. This spring sure feels much better than last…
"now you chunkin' in there.."
Fifth homerun of the spring for CJ. He leads the club with two more than Pence (although his overall SLG is slightly lower at a mere .791 compared to Hunter’s .810).
Are we getting to the point where you start seriously considering putting him on the Opening Day roster, yet?
No. I would want to see him hit with power consistently in AAA first. He also needs to work on his defense in AAA. In addition, what would you do with him in the majors? Unless he plays 1st base in place of Berkman (and he hasn’t played any 1st base this spring), he would be sitting on the bench and acting as a utility player. That doesn’t seem like a good way to use him.
by clack on Mar 26, 2010 3:53 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
I would tend to agree, and was just throwing it out there as a possibility. I assume if he did make the big league club he would split time with Feliz at third base; however, it’s hard to see how to make that work from a roster standpoint, unless you get rid of either Blum or Keppinger.
or trade Feliz
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Mar 26, 2010 6:47 PM CDT up reply actions
Probably wouldn’t happen until closer to the deadline anyway, which would definitely look like a good idea if Johnson is still tearing the cover off the ball at that point.
Keppinger doesn’t have any option years left, does he?
Keppinger may have an additional option year left. He appears to have used three option years, which is the normal option limit. But I think a player with less than 5 years service time gets a 4th option. He is getting close to 5 years service time, which also allows him to block a minor league assignment.
I don’t see a minor league assignment happening to Keppinger. He probably is tradeable if a team has an infield injury. Given his ability to destroy LHP and versatility, I think there are teams which might trade for him. The Red Sox just traded for SF’s Kevin Frandsen, who has some similarities to Keppinger. I don’t think the Giants will get much in return….the trade was for the PTBNL.
I say this because if we didn’t have Blum, even if CJ starts out at Round Rock, there’s nothing standing in the way of calling him up as soon as the front office thinks he’s ready. With Blum on the roster, we have to get rid of somebody to call him up.
if you consider
that Blum is one of the few in the Astros organization that can: a) post an OBP above .300 in the bigs and b) play short stop and not look horrible, he is valuable in that regard. i agree on your overall sentiment though. even signing feliz for $4.5 million in December was sort of jumping the gun, even if ed really wanted to improve infield defense. it may work, but ultimately tejada probably will turn out to be worth perhaps as much as a win over feliz when it’s all said and done.
The Crawfish Boxes, Astros blogging at its finest.
by Evan Hochschild on Mar 26, 2010 9:38 PM CDT up reply actions
Thing is, I just don’t buy that Blum’s age 37 season is going to be much better than the seasons of guys like Edwin Maysonet or even Wladimir Sutil.
I know all the arguments—career “clutch hitting”, “great clubhouse presence”, “gritty veteran”—I just don’t believe that they’re worth $1.1 million dollars. I can’t get past the fact that guys like Maysonet and Sutil, both likely better defensive players than Blum at this point in their respective careers, are projected to post similar offensive numbers to Blum in 2010. Either of them would be over $1M cheaper, and can be optioned to AAA and called up as needed.
Furthermore, Keppinger is projected to bat much better off the bench, even though his defense isn’t as good as Blum’s.
I simply don’t see it is as cost-effective or a smart move to spend $1.5M and a valuable 25-man roster spot on a guy easily replaceable with marginal minor leaguers.
Do I buy that Johnson is going to be a starter-quality big league player? I have plenty of doubts, but he’s definitely surprised me this spring in that I didn’t expect as much in the way of raw power tool as he’s shown. With that newfound optimism, and with nothing against Blum as a person, it becomes doubly frustrating that Johnson is being blocked by a “cagey veteran” on the tail end of his declining, never-better-than-average career
Anyway, rant over :)
Its a little premature to throw Wladimir Sutil into the mix. He may have a nice projection but I wouldn’t put much stock in a guy who has yet to see a pitch over the AA level.
As far as being cost effective, I agree Ed Wade is quick to pull the trigger on vets, there is some value in knowing exactly what you are getting as opposed to taking a risk. A guy like maysonet who could fail miserably and you get screwed over or hit it good. More often than not, they’ll fail. With blum you know exactly what you are going to get. I know thats another one of those same arguments you’ve heard many times. But, it does make sense. While i’m with you that Wade should have waited longer and that i like Maysonet and wish he could make the team, but i’m still not convinced he can be a servicable bench player because his success last year was in way too small of a sample size.
It’s not so much that Maysonet and Sutil are projected to perform well—their projections (well below average offensively) are reasonable, I think. The issue is more that Geoff Blum is projected to bat very poorly. Both CHONE and Bill James have him under .300 OBP, and other projection systems tend to have him just barely over.
I can easily buy these projections. The aging curve does not treat batters in their late 30s well, even good ones, and Blum has only had one season in his entire career (2002 with the Astros) where he was above major league average with the stick.
I won’t argue with signing Blum for $1.1 million. He is probably worth that amount, and I also don’t see much reason to argue how the team spends $1 million. But I do think Wade has a mindset of signing players early which doesn’t serve him well. My main complaint about signing Blum early is that it preempted the ability to sign a Felipe Lopez or Orlando Hudson later in the offseason, as the salary requirements of those players declined.
Right now, though, I’m not bothered by the Blum-Johnson trade-off because Blum is now a part time player and if Johnson replaced him, Chris would be a part time player. And that’s not a good way to use him. I think CJ would be better served with a full year starting in AAA than a part time role in the majors.
Also, Blum is the Astros’ LHB off the bench, and his LHB ability gives him flexibility to platoon at other positions, if necessary. As RHBs, Johnson and Maysonet probably fit better as a replacement for a Keppinger than a Blum. As an aside, when I wrote the blurb about GIDPs earlier, I was struck by the RH heavy nature of the Astros’ lineup…and the extent that avoiding DPs correllates with LHBs. I had often wondered why Blum’s GIDP rate isn’t bad even though he is both slow and a contact hitter.
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