Interesting post at The Space Race.
The blogger, Rafael Rojas, Cremonesi, is a correspondent for the team's official Spanish language site in real life, and he collates some recent Venezuelan newspaper coverage into a web album he's uploaded.
I don't read Spanish, but the level of interest in Astros Spring Training is clearly high in Venezuela, probably higher than it is in some places in Texas, even.
Like, here, Hidalgo is an interesting story, and he gets a sidebar or two. But in his home country, Hidalgo is still good for a 3/4 page splash. And stateside, Fernando Nieve is a nice young arm, one to watch, but down in Caracas, he just made the front page of the national sports daily. "Brazo dominador," it says, whatever that means.
And it's not just countrymen who are getting the coverage. Rafael tells us that Luke Scott has had an in depth interview with one of the Venezuelan dailies, as well. How do you say "Glock" in Spanish?
Speaking of Richard, this 0 for spring thing is getting painful to watch. I mean, I know he got the big contract, and promptly got fat, but he's in shape now.
He had to be named winter league playoffs MVP, practically, to even get the invite, and now he's watching his last chance dissolve into thin air in the space of a mere 14 AB's.
We like the underdog until he starts playing like one, and Hidalgo is very quickly being left for dead. "How long until this becomes a two-horse race for RF?" asked littlevisigoth yesterday, and the answer it seems is "any day now."