-
FREE BLOG WEEKEND: Trades, rules and questions
Hello friends, it’s a Free Blog Weekend, the tradition that began over a decade ago at the Chronicle. Today, you can take the discussion where you want, but I’ll get it started with a few thoughts. How do you like that trade now? The Astros have made quite a few eye-opening, head-scratching trades in the…
-
Seattle Mariners: AL West Division Rival’s Review
Seattle Mariners – Entering their 40th season 2016 Record – 86-76 – 2nd in the AL West Last Playoff Appearance – 2001 World Series Appearances / Wins – 0 / 0 Best Franchise Season – 2001 – 116-46 Worst Franchise Season – 1978 – 56-104 Manager – Former Astros’ Catcher Scott Servais. 2nd season GM…
-
Plan B: Those what happens if, backup plans for Astros
Going back just a few short years ago, the Astros front office was not too worried about a Plan B for their players, because in so many cases they did not have a Plan A. This season feels completely different from those days as the team has firm Plan A’s for almost every position and a…
-
Areas of improvement: A focus list for each player
Everyone in the world not only has the opportunity, but also the need for improvement in their jobs and in their home lives. Similarly, young and rich baseball players have the same kind of need, no matter how young and how rich they may be for showing improvement on the field. Today’s effort is to…
-
Now to the work: Putting together an Astros’ lineup
A lot of discussion in this off-season has revolved around how to utilize the Astros’ new offensive toys and specifically about constructing a lineup. Surfing around the ‘net, I found an interesting write-up on stat-driven model, but does not require an advance math degree to understand. There are plenty of other articles on this subject,…
-
10 questions Astros must address in spring training
Now that “other” sport is dead and gone for another year (Unbelievable Super Bowl – but did anyone else think it was an almost WWE fixed final half of the game?), the folks who don’t watch basketball can get revved up for the return of baseball. The Houston Astros’ pitchers and catchers report a week…
-
The Astros’ hitters right to left
In 2016, the Astros were a very right-centric hitting team. Except for Luis Valbuena, who missed a large chunk of the season injured, the Astros best hitters – Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, Evan Gattis and in a smaller sample Alex Bregman were all right handed batters. The Astros big off-season sea change on…
-
Astros bullpen: So many choices, but too many choices?
With pitching it is probably better to have more choices than fewer. If that is true then Manager A.J. Hinch and pitching coach Brent Strom are in great shape in regards to the 2017 Houston Astros bullpen. The bullpen could be a seven man or eight man set-up; seven man will be assumed for this post.…
ALL THINGS ASTROS 