The Houston Astros finished off their Grapefruit League season with an 8-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, leaving them with a 12-17-1 record. Unfortunately, the end of the Grapefruit League, isn't the end of spring training games as the Astros head back home to take on the Tigers for 2 exhibition games at Minute Maid Park on Friday and Saturday.
The spring season has been pretty rough for the Astros. They proved they can score a lot of runs (184 this spring) by averaging just over 6 runs a game(6.13), but then again, they proved they can give up a lot of runs as well(215) by averaging just over 7 runs against per game(7.16). Many people say that defense wins championships(for just about any sport) and one thing that was shown this spring training is that the Astros really need to work on their defense. The only player with any blaring weaknesses is Ty Wigginton who had 9 errors in his 20 games played this spring. If he keeps this pace up, he would be on pace(if he played 162 games) to have 73 errors this season! He's averaging almost an error every other game. Pathetic! I'm pretty sure I would have less errors then that at 3rd base. Now we knew when we got Wiggy that he wasn't Ken Caminiti by any means... but 9 errors in 20 games is terrible... even for him. I'm not even going to start on his .200 avg, .235 OBP and his 1 measly home run this spring.
There were a few bright spots this spring though... Hunter Pence obviously heads this list with his 0 errors, batting .385 and an OBP of .417. That to go with the team leading(tied with Lance) 4 home runs! I stated in a fanpost that Pence was my call for MVP. That was league MVP, not team MVP. I know I'm being homeristic but choosing him, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he was in the top 10 for MVP this year. Jose Cruz Jr. was another bright spot. I didn't expect him to have a chance to make the team this season, but he did all that he could do this spring and I'm sure made his Papi' proud. Cruz Jr. lead the team in RBI's with 19, hit 3 home runs as well as batted .355, slugged.661 and had an OBP of .438. I'll be shocked if he doesn't make the final cut. He deserves it.
There are multiple other good things and bad things that happened this spring training for the Astros. Trying to mention them all would leave me here writing a 12 page article and leave you here sleeping(if you aren't already). I don't want to even bother with the pitching, so let's just say that if your name isn't Roy Oswalt or Wesley Wright... you pretty much had a bad spring training. Well, Super Dave wasn't too bad either.