Author: Dan P
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Astros 2016 spring training: Who really has a shot?
The Astros have gotten off to a strong 6-2 start in games that don’t matter and so far in the 2016 Spring Training season they have utilized 33 position players and a whopping 29 pitchers. That is great, except for the probability that the team will break camp with 13 position players and 12 pitchers. A…
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Astros 2016: Back to the future with projections
Predicting anything is a very inexact science, which is why Biff became a Gazillionaire in Back to the Future Part II by taking a sports almanac from the future back to 1955. One web site has compiled what they call a consensus of seven different sports mystics predicting what MLB hitters and pitchers will produce…
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Astros WTSWTM: Early spring training edition
It is not surprising that spring training is a prime time for baseball quotes as this is a time of speculation and anticipation and lots of discussion. Of course being baseball-speak, the speakers often don’t say exactly what they mean, which brings us to the newest edition of WTSWTM (What They Said What They Meant), where…
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Spring training 2016: The non roster invitees
Every year teams bring the members of their 40 man roster to Spring Training. These include the most likely folks to go west with the team on the 25 man roster, and the 5 to 10 players who will be the next men up, plus a number of other players who likely need seasoning, but…
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Houston Astros 2016: Seventy-Nine Opportunities to Improve
The Astros record in 2015 was 86-76 and including the post-season they were 89-79. That means there are 79 opportunities for improvement for the team entering 2016. Some overall numbers relative to their 2015 season, including the post-season: Road record. 35-50 even though they outscored the opposition 376-351 Home record. 54-29 outscoring the opposition 377-292…
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Untouchable: Which Astros are like Eliot Ness?
Over the last few seasons, the Astros’ front office under the reign of GM Jeff Luhnow has been very active and fairly unpredictable in their actions. Many of the trades they made seemed to come out of left field with very few whispers ahead of time (the Ken Giles trade being an exception). The players…
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Astros 2016: Ranking the 25-man roster
It is always a bit touchy to rank pitchers and everyday players together. Is a player who pitches every 5th day worth as much as a player who is on the field everyday? (Try removing Dallas Keuchel from the team last year and see if they make the playoffs or not). But this is for…
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Astros 2016: Bring back the nicknames
The recent passing of Walt “No Neck” Williams harkened back to a time when nicknames were fun and often descriptive of the players. Whether it was the “Toy Cannon” Jimmy Wynn or the “Red Rooster” Doug Rader or “Le Grand Orange” Rusty Staub, nicknames were plentiful and known by all. In this more corporate baseball…
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