In less than three weeks, on Thursday, March 28, the Astros will start the 2024 season for real against their close and personal friends – the New York Yankees. (My sarcastic font is on the blink again). This Spring Training has flown by, and it really won’t be long before some folks will be packing…

Way back in early 2020, after the Astros were “punished” for the cheating scandal and before a pandemic from China wiped the Astros off the everyday headlines, we decided to call the scandal “it”. For one, it sure abbreviated typing out Astros’ sign-stealing scandal and other alternates to that every time the subject came up.

Reading about young Spencer Arrighetti and his hopes and dreams for making an impact to the Astros, brought a number of thoughts to the mind.

Saturday night, the Astros (or likely a subset from the lower part of the 40-man roster) will face off against their Spring Training park-mates, the Washington Nationals, in the first exhibition game of 2024.

The beginning of Spring Training has brought the usual litany of quotations from the Astros. The ones you hear every spring reminded me of something.

All the recent talk about the Astros saying they will tender an extension offer to Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman has led to discussions about possibly letting Breggy follow the free agent paths of Gerrit Cole, George Springer, Charlie Morton, Carlos Correa and Justin Verlander (with JV bouncing back at the trade deadline).