More photos » Rob Carr - AP

20 days ago: Houston Astros pitcher Brandon Lyon throws during spring training baseball, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010, in Kissimmee, Fla. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)

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It's a tough decision. None of us have ever been in the position to have to decide on who should close out games for a MLB team, but on a smaller scale, we've been there. Two situations come to mind:

• Women. It's the age old question of which girl do ya choose: the sensible, reliable, doesn't knock your socks off with her looks but you could do a whole lot worse, OR, the 10 who is sorta scatterbrained and likes American Idol a little too much, but...she's a 10! Either could ultimately make you happy, but their ways of getting you to that ultimate happiness are different.
  
• Cars. In the end, Point A to Point B is the goal, but we know that isn't everything that goes into someone's decision making process when deciding on a new car. Great gas mileage but not as sporty vs. 10 miles/gallon but wows you (and maybe Woman No. 2) with the aesthetics. Maybe you spend more time in the shop with the second car, but when everything is running smoothly...

It could be that these aren't perfect comparisons, but I think you can see what I'm going for here. Brandon Lyon is the sensible girl who may or may not listen to Iron and Wine while Matt Lindstrom is the beauty whose footwear choices may be a bit questionable. 

With Lyon coming back after an off season shoulder surgery, his progress will be slower in coming than that of Lindstrom who has pitched air-tight this spring.

The differences in their respective approaches are obvious. Matt Lindstrom has the more "traditional" closer stuff with a 96 MPH fastball and a sharp slider to his credit. On the other side of things, Brandon Lyon throws three pitches (fastball, slider, curve) and is coming off a season where all three were successful when thrown. His BABIP was low even for a reliever (.229), so an ERA regression is in order to some degree I would think.

All things considered, Lindstrom's heater/slider combo doesn't induce the high amount of strikeouts that you may expect. Coupled with his inability to control his pitches, Lindstrom would probably struggle in the closer's role to a fair extent. Among relief pitchers with at least 40 IP last season, none of the top ninth inning men had a K/9 rate at or near Lindstrom's 7.42.

Throw in the control issues and Lyon may be our best option in the ninth. If nothing else, going with a hot hand may not be the worst way to go. Potentially four pitchers could get time as the Astros' closer this season- Lindstrom, Lyon, Sammy Gervacio and Alberto Arias. All have their strengths. All of them have holes as well. We've covered Lindstrom and Lyon already, but Arias struggles with control as well, while Gervacio is a situational pitcher at this point due to tough times getting left handed hitters out.

If healthy, my vote goes to Brandon Lyon despite the fact that I would like him more as a set up man to a dare I say it...Jose Valverde-type closer. That's not the situation we have to deal with in 2010, so he may be the best bet to hold down the ninth inning.

We've gone through tons of team previews on TCB so far this off season and thankfully the season is approaching so we won't have to read any more. That all being said.....read one more.

I think I like this preview because it could very well have been written by David, Stephen or myself. It takes into account the fact that the team has seen better days, but isn't so bombastic as to make it appear that Drayton McLane eats puppies or that Ed Wade struggles worse as a GM than Charlie from Flowers for Algernon. In fact, the writer of this preview, Brian Joseph, believes that much like he did in Philadelphia, Wade will eventually get his due in Houston for helping to steady the ship that had blown off course.

I also liked how he ranked Koby Clemens are our fifth best prospect. I don't know if that's even close to fair, but the fact that somebody noticed Clemens is pretty cool/rare.

Joseph's assessment of the next three years for the Astros:

A continued effort of half rebuilding and half competing should keep the Astros fairly mediocre and slightly better or worse depending on luck. The door should close on the Berkman and Lee era with the Oswalt era not far behind. Although Baseball America projects Chris Johnson (at third), Jiovanni Mier (at short), Ross Seaton and Jordan Lyles (in the rotation), and Sam Gervacio (as closer), McLane’s desire to compete keeps at least one of these player’s off their major league path with another blocked for the usual "prospect fails to live up to expectations" occurrence.

It's NCAA Tourney time, and I created a Crawfish Boxes Tournament Pick'em league on Yahoo! for us to compete against each other and for the $1 million prize awarded for a perfect bracket. If you're interested in participating, shoot me an email, or just comment with your email address and I'll invite you to the league. The games begin on Thursday so early that morning is the latest you can join. Game on! 

More photos » Rob Carr - AP

Lance will be doing a lot of this kind of stuff over the next two to four weeks.

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I don't think I've ever in my life woke up and frantically checked Twitter, but I did this morning.  I needed to know how Lance Berkman was.  Skipping through the mass of emails, etc. on my Blackberry I quickly located the following and shouted with glee:

...David Crumbie removed loose cartiage debris and did NOT see any sign of ligament or meniscus damage. Lance will begin rehab today...

So let's all pause today and thank the god's of baseball/knee-innards for our good fortune.  Without the good grace which they have bestowed upon us, we'd be looking at two weeks of Geoff Blum as our starting 1B.  In a season which we're hoping that all the cards are dealt favorably to the Astros, that'd be like drawing a seven/two off-suit start.

Ok. I'm getting back to my NY vacation.

More photos » Charles Rex Arbogast - AP

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In one of her more recent blog posts, Alyson Footer devotes a few paragraphs to Wesley Wright and the possibility that he could be included as a starting pitcher on this year's team. At this point, I would consider him a long shot's long shot, but if he came out of the woodwork with solid performances this spring I won't complain.

Manager Brad Mills is going to give him his opportunities, which isn't really saying much, as guys like Roy Corcoran, Gary Majewski, Josh Banks and Casey Daigle have already pitched for the Astros this spring. Someone with the upside that Wright does should be force fed into as many conceivable roles as possible on a team like this. Footer notes that the rotation is awfully thin but it's not as if the bullpen is composed of five star studs either.

What Wesley Wright can offer is someone who has shown a tremendous ability to strike batters out, though his walk totals are scarily high. It appears that MLB has wiped the 2009 Dominican Winter League stats off the face of the earth, but if memory serves his K:BB rate in just over ten starts was right around 2:1. Not terrible by any stretch, but to be a major league caliber starting pitcher this will have to improve.He is projected to do decently well this season in a relief role, which is most likely where he ends up.

If I can make a track and field comparison here, it seems like Wesley Wright is the baseball equivalent of a middle distance (800m/1600m) runner. These are the athletes who aren't sprinters, but aren't distance runners either. However, in a pinch a good middle distance runner can run a leg on the 400m relay team, or even jump up and run a distance event if necessary. Athletes like these are prized because their abilities translate better into the non specialty events better than anyone else's do. Maurice Greene was a tremendous 100m runner, but he would have struggled to run the half mile. Same for someone like Dathan Ritzenhein who is an other worldly distance man who probably couldn't fill in all that well for a miler.

Wesley Wright could be our middle distance runner. True, he has the pure strikeout stuff to be a more than competent relief pitcher, but he also throws four pitches (three with regularity) and with improved control could move into the starting pitching conversation for the Astros.

Polin Trinidad doesn't appear ready for the majors, and neither does Wilton Lopez. Fernando Abad is an interesting case in that he is sort of the anti Wright with his dominant control. The Astros are wise to give all these pitchers their shots to impress because come 2011, these are the names this team is going to lean on to bridge the gap to the Jordan Lyles/Ross Seaton (hopefully)/Tanner Bushue generation. Wesley Wright belongs in this group of next generation pitchers, and while his role is undetermined, throwing him overboard to sink or swim in whatever role the Astros can think of is wise in my opinion.

This past weekend saw the city of Houston and Minute Maid Park play host the the Houston College Classic, an annual event which showcases some of the best collegiate baseball teams from the state of Texas as well as the Missouri Tigers. Texas and Texas Christian  are both top ten caliber teams, while Rice, U of H and Texas Tech are more than respectable clubs to say the least. Baseball America blogged the Classic, covering such topics as Rice coach Wayne Graham laying into his team for poor fundamentals, the Cougs upsetting UT, and almost Texas Ranger Matt Purke impressing in his start for TCU.

Texas is well known for it's history of producing a great deal of talent in college football, but our state's collegiate baseball talent is first rate as well. True, Texas is large and more universities than most states, but the quality of teams is excellent and often produces more per capita major league draftees than would normally be expected. Diamond Futures prospect guide has a top 100 pre season amateur draft chart has six players from TX schools as top 100 talents: (18) Brandon Workman, RHP, UT; (24) Chad Bettis, RHP, Texas Tech; (27) Ricky Hague, SS, Rice; (41) Michael Choice, OF, UT-Arlington; (64) Cameron Rupp, C, UT; (83) Dallas Gallant, RHP, Sam Houston St. Throw in another three players on the list who are Texas high school student athletes, and the Lone Star State is well represented at the highest levels of amateur baseball.

More photos » Rob Carr - AP

The knee seems fine there.

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When I first saw all the information break on Lance Berkman's knee injury, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. After all, players get bruises all the time. He's hasn't seen live action yet, doesn't need a ton of spring at-bats to get ready for the season and it would probably work itself out in no time.

Then, I started paying attention to what I was reading. From Alyson Footer's tweets:

Lance Berkman has a left knee contusion. He had an MRI yesterday. He'll receive treatment and will be evaluated day to day. MRI will be sent to Dr. Lintner in Houston for further evaluation.

Uh-oh.

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More photos » Rob Carr - AP

We are two WILD and CRAZY GUYS.

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It's been a while since we've had a notebook on Spring Training because I don't know that there is enough news to do it every day. First off, the most important news of the day is a Twitter account set up by Alyson Footer. She'll be taking the best anecdotes and non-cliche stories from the team. Follow @PumaOneLiners for hilarious stories like how Craig Biggio once chewed Roy Oswalt's ABC gum. For more non-gross news, let's get to it:

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More photos » Rob Carr - AP

Soon...very soon...

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Grey from Razzball.com wanted me to let you all know about a fantasy baseball league he and his website are putting together. Catch is that instead of going with A-Rod, Ian Kinsler and Lance Berkman with your first three picks, you're going to want to pick Jose Molina, Hank Blaylock and Tommy Manzella to start off. Drafting the worst team possible? Dare you play the role of [insert name of stereotypical GM name here]?

The way I see it, fantasy baseball is great for many reasons:

• First off, if you're like me and the inner gambler in you screams out every once in a while, fantasy baseball is a good way to satiate those demons in a way that won't get your thumbs broken. Sure, sure, gambling on sports isn't illegal and it's easier than ever to do via the internet. But if you have your qualms about wiring money to the Cayman Islands after David Weathers gave up a grand slam in the ninth inning to cost you yet another wager, the league set ups for Yahoo! and others are a little more wholesome. Meaning you won't have to shuffle papers around and cover the screen every time your wife/husband/girl/boy friend/buddies walk in the room.
  
• Are you the competitive type? The kind of person who likes to prove that you're superior to others every chance you get? What if you ran a moderately successful Houston Astros blog with a buddy of yours, and you two also happened to play fantasy baseball together every season since you've been friends? Would you two like to compete tit for tat for fantasy glory with 8 other friends? I think you would. I think you would. Fantasy baseball will allow you to use all the nerdy knowledge you've accumulated throughout the years and put it to good use, bludgeoning your league-mates with crafty trades and excellent draft choices.
  
• Not so confident in our Astros chances this season? Feelin' a little woebegone since you realized that Pedro Feliz may not OPS over .700 while playing a position where offense is at a premium? Take a trip into a true fantasy land, where you play Ed Wade and Bobby Heck. And instead of having to draft junior college players from Wyoming in the later rounds of the draft, you get to select a fading veteran who is in line for one last hurrah (Paul Konerko, perhaps?), or the next big thing (Cameron Maybin?). Then you can watch your fictitious team play game in and game out no matter how many times Kaz Matsui has to leave a game in the fifth inning because he pulled his hamstring. Trust me, you'll be entertained and end up watching a lot more baseball as a result. The Chicago White Sox aren't that interesting of a team, but when you have Gavin Floyd as your fourth starter, you'll take an interest in the South Siders. 

Thanks to Grey for passing the word on. Good luck to any of y'all who decide to play.

Don't look now, but there's a doings a transpirin' behind the dish for our Astros. For the first time that I can remember there is battle for playing time at catcher between two guys that have the ability to be above average offensive catchers. JR Towles has had his chances, but then again he really hasn't....if that makes sense. After tearing the cover off the ball in limited at bats in September of 2007, he struggled after earning the starting job in 2008. The projection outlets aren't overly optimistic about him this season, and this will probably be Towles' best chance to be a starter for this team.

After reading up on Jason Castro, and seeing what the great minds at Diamond Futures have to say, I am actually confident that the former Standford Cardinal is just about ready to take the reigns as the Astros' full time catcher. After an unimpressive AFL, and a power outage in AA Corpus Christi, I was actually a little down on the guy, perhaps buying too much into the "low ceiling, high floor" critique that seems to be the most wide spread critique of Castro.

What really struck me as positive about Jason was that he is displaying the sort of plate discipline and on base skills that are always a plus, especially for a catcher, where you don't always expect great offense to lie. With slightly above average power, and the aforementioned plate discipline and on base skills to compliment a strong defensive game, I'm not so certain that an average big leaguer is all Jason Castro will become. The last time a top Astros prospect left me feeling this confident was Hunter Pence. Outside of his statistical output, he didn't appear to be out of place taking his hacks and playing outfield with his major league brethren. Maybe it's the pedigree of playing big time college ball, or his quick rise through the minors, but I get the impression that Jason is going to keep progressing to the point where the Astros won't be able to say no to him if not for Opening Day, then quickly thereafter.

More photos » Rob Carr - AP

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SBN/Baseball Prospectus have been gracious enough to get the "head" baseball blog writers complimentary subscriptions to Baseball Prospectus. I speak for David, Stephen and myself when I say, "Big ups to the powers that be", for making all this happen.

This is (was?) the preeminent source online and otherwise, for innovative statistical analysis and discussion, so access to their writers and stat database will inevitably come in handy for us.

For instance, yesterday one of their contributors had a breakdown concerning positional battles for the NL Central. As is the custom in the saber-world, the Astros' portion of the article was pessimistic to extreme. Their discussion of the Astros' second and third base options was like listening to a Foodie discuss the fare at McDonalds. What's puzzling is that PECOTA doesn't exactly hate Jeff Keppinger (.297/.358/.427) or Kaz Matsui (.282/.340/.418), but I'm guessing that their opinions of Pedro Feliz, Geoff Blum and Chris Johnson more than overshadow the able play of Matsui and Kepp.

But what's a Astro-personnel article without a poke at Ed Wade? I'm seriously asking that question. I can't recall there being such an article. Anyways, here's the dig at Wade:

These aren't really job battles, they're squalid compromises with the present that you're left with when you get this far out on the weak branch of Ed Wade's decision tree, the upshot of a course taken back when the new GM elected to go for it in 2008.

Hold on. Hold on. So we're supposed to believe that Ed Wade put the Astros in this situation, because he traded for Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins at the tail end of 2008?

A breakdown of the "toll" this put on the Astros' developmental ladder goes something like this:

• To acquire Wolf, the Astros gave up....Chad Reineke.
  
• To acquire LaTroy Hawkins, the Astros gave up....Matt Cusick, a minor league second baseman.

Judging by the stats, Matt Cusick would not be able to help the Astros at all this season. Or in 2011. Or in 2012. So Christina Kahrl thinks Ed Wade sold the Astros' future short by trading for Wolf and Hawkins in 2008? Both players had key roles in helping the Astros come within a game before our ill fated trip to Miller Park to face the Cubs after Hurricane Ike hit town.

Maybe she's arguing that the Astros should have traded players instead of trading for players? That argument has merit, but when your club is in contention like the Astros were in 2008, Wade would have been doing the team a disservice by giving up at that point, as making the playoffs is so difficult in MLB. I'm sure Christina Kahrl knows these things, but it's even more likely that she knows where sabermetric bread is buttered now a days: piling on Ed Wade, decrying the Astros' talent evaluators as dopes, and writing about the 2010 club in near mocking fashion.

Richard Justice came to Wade's defense in a blog post yesterday. Right on cue, RJ lauds the same signings that Kahrl lampoons:

He added Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins during the 2008 season, and both those moves turned out extraordinarily well.

While Justice knows Wade personally, I don't, and my motivation to defend him comes from the same place as my motivation to do a lot of things in my life: because most people don't. Still, this line from RJ's post makes me like Wade a little more:

Ed is an interesting guy. Gets up and runs seven miles in the dark many mornings.

The runner in me appreciates this tremendously.

I'll throw in a personal comparison here: many mornings, I'll finish up my morning run by going past the law library here where I go to school. It's not infrequent that I see classmates of mine piling into the library to catch up on homework, do research or just be studious.

Now, I'm not going to graduate first in my class, but I do a competent job with my studies nonetheless. If I joined them in the library when it was still dark out, it's a possibility that I could join them as scholars. Probably not, but maybe. After three years though, I still prefer to put on my running shoes and start my day off that way.

Like me and some of my high GPA classmates, Ed Wade's not Theo Epstein, but he's not the worst GM either. He's a well-rounded guy, who knows his strengths and weaknesses. No one is perfect, whether your craft is making pottery, learning the law, or making baseball decisions. The Astros have a GM who doesn't seem to get the praise he deserves, but will always be criticized for one thing or another.

Check out this cool graph of sorts that shows all the stadiums that ML teams have played in since each team came to be. I think the Marlins get the record for playing in the same building that has had the most number of names (5), over the fewest number of years (17).

More photos » Rob Carr - AP

Brad Mills and his patented "Two Ball" pitch.

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Three quick notes today that are too good to pass up.

'Breaking' into the bigs: The Astros held live batting practice on Thursday, but temperatures had dipped down to the low 40's in Kissimmee, meaning many of the hitters chose not to take any swings. McTaggart related in his latest notebook that Lance Berkman told Roy Oswalt to 'just move that screen' in front of the pitcher's mound, since he wouldn't be swinging anyways. Oh, that Lance. Such a cutup.

Apparently, though, rookie third baseman Chris Johnson was swinging away and hit a home run into the player's parking lot. It's a nice sign, right? Except that the homer broke Hunter Pence's windshield. Pence had one of those one-hour repair people out to the clubhouse to get it fixed, but didn't let Johnson pay for it.

Team Meeting: Not all meetings are alike. Except that every year, Astros owner Drayton McLane addresses his team and says, 'Are you ready to be a champion?' Well, here's some video proof.

I may not have said it here, but I often think it. We are living in a glorious age, my friends. Isn't technology wonderful?

Flamethrower: It's not a big thing, but Bernardo Fallas tweeted earlier today that Matt Lindstrom is the hardest thrower in camp...already. Lindstrom's fastball has been clocked as fast as 102 MPH before and his arm is apparently in top shape right now.

There's also an interesting story in Fallas' notes column from a couple days ago about Lindstrom's Mormon mission to Sweden. Great, now I'm going to have to watch my language around the clubhouse....