Where Houston and Austin meet
Posted in Preseason Previews on Apr 6th, 2012
First Base: Joey Votto, Reds Last year, the NL Central was stacked with first base talent. With the departure of Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder, it’s suddenly threadbare at that position. But that doesn’t take anything away from Votto, who is still one of the game’s best. Anticipate another MVP-caliber season from him. Second Base: [...]
Posted in Preseason Previews on Apr 6th, 2012
Thanks to the decision the Astros have made to carry 13 pitchers, the summary of the bench is pretty short and simple. That leaves only four backup players and, with one of them being a catcher that isn’t a viable substitute even for pinch hitting, the Astros really only have three backup guys on the [...]
Posted in Preseason Previews on Apr 6th, 2012
It’s hard to imagine the Astros rotation being much worse than it was last year, when it contributed greatly to the Astros being 28th in the league in ERA and WHIP and 22nd in quality starts. I don’t imagine the pitching rotation being worse than that, even with the completely illogical move of Brett Myers [...]
Posted in Preseason Previews on Apr 6th, 2012
A year ago I loved the corners of the Astros infield and hated the middle. What a difference a year makes. I liked Chris Johnson a lot going into 2011, I even expected him to be the best third baseman in the NL Central. Even though the Central was very weak at the hot corner, [...]
Posted in Preseason Previews on Apr 6th, 2012
With Carlos Lee starting the season at first base for the first time in his career, the Astros have traded literal heft in their outfield for a mass of left-handers. Three of the four outfielders (Jordan Shafer, Brian Bogusevic and Travis Buck) on their opening day roster are lefties. That’s a really surprising move that [...]
Posted in Preseason Previews, Prospects Watch on Feb 17th, 2012
The good people at the SweetSpot Blog did a season preview today in which all of the SweetSpot bloggers were asked what players they are most excited about watching this year. I wanted to expand on that a little bit because honestly, even with a team that’s as bad off as the Astros, how can you [...]
Posted in Preseason Previews on Jun 30th, 2011
As the season approaches its halfway mark, I wanted to take a look back at some of my preseason predictions and see how they’re panning out so far. Before the beginning of the season, I selected my top five choices for NL MVP and so far…they’re panning out even worse than my NL Central All [...]
Posted in Preseason Previews on Jun 28th, 2011
As the season approaches its halfway mark, I wanted to take a look back at some of my preseason predictions and see how they’re panning out so far. In one of my preseason posts, I selected my NL Central All-Star team. While I didn’t expect to be right on everything, I wasn’t quite prepared for [...]
Posted in Game Previews, Good Reads, Preseason Previews on Apr 1st, 2011
Bill Bear, fellow SweeSpot blogger, has a nice preview of the opening series from the Phillies perspective. Good stats, even if they don’t leave a lot of optimism for Astros fans. They would have to open against Roy Halladay. I’m a tad more optimistic about Saturday (Wandy vs. Cliff Lee) and Sunday (Happ vs. Oswalt). [...]
Posted in Preseason Previews on Apr 1st, 2011
Want to know what it looks like when a team actually invests in its minor league system and builds a young pitching staff? Look at the Reds. They’re not a perfect team and I don’t know that they have what it takes in the post season, but they’re certainly built to win the NL Central. [...]
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