Sunday Astros Links

by Evan Hochschild on Apr 5, 2009 8:04 AM CDT

News and other interesting finds as the regular season thankfully begins..

The final roster heading into the season, is well final. Say what you will about age, Russ Ortiz making the big league team is a nice story. If he can contribute, and based on the spring it appears he can, it will be even better. Jason Smith, to nobody's surprise, is the utility middle infielder. Here is the roster, in full:

Rotation (5): RHP Roy Oswalt, LHP Wandy Rodriguez, RHP Brian Moehler, LHP Mike Hampton, RHP Russ Ortiz

Bullpen (7): RHP Chris Sampson, RHP Geoff Geary, LHP Wesley Wright, LHP Tim Byrdak, RHP Doug Brocail, RHP LaTroy Hawkins, RHP Jose Valverde

Infielders (6): Lance Berkman, Kazuo Matsui, Miguel Tejada, Geoff Blum, Jeff Keppinger, Jason Smith

Outfielders (5): Carlos Lee; Michael Bourn, Hunter Pence, Darin Erstad, Jason Michaels

Catchers (2): Ivan Rodriguez, Humberto Quintero

I suddenly dislike Carlos Zambrano a little less. This may have something to do with it. Makes you wonder if Z has any idea how special that place is to Cubs fans. The Yankees really relished playing in Yankee Stadium, it seems odd that Zambrano doesn't feel the same way about Wrigley

Speaking of the Yanks, check out their new digs. Palatial..

Fangraphs now has a Twitter feed where they tweet every play, and update the win probability for each team. Somebody buy Cecil Cooper an I-Phone, fast

Hicks Sports Group (headed by Rangers/Dallas Stars owner Tom Hicks) has defaulted on loans totaling $525 million. He asks that the banks be "reasonable"... What does one use to secure such a huge amount? Just speculating on my part, but could the Stars or Rangers franchises be foreclosed upon, for lack of a better term, if something can't be worked out? For what it's worth, Hicks recently said he'd be willing to sell part of his interest in the teams...

Brian McTaggart has the Astros going 83-79 this season, good for third in the NL Central. Over/Under on that win total, anyone?

First, an awesome website. Second, some interesting information I learned from that site which surprised me.Home runs traveled further and left bats quicker in the NL than in the AL. The difference is negligible in both regards, but for a league that is often seen as inferior, this is something to hang our hats on..

A hors d'oeuvre idea for any Opening Day game viewing, perhaps? What scares me is that I can see myself not only eating those, but enjoying them

What can grow faster? Economic optimism over a recent stock market surge, or...

Finally, for those of us who are aren't exactly the coolest, some help

0 recs | 13 comments

Comments

An article on Adam Everett.

Adam Everett, the Tigers’ new shortstop, plays in an era when some enterprising statisticians have found a way to more thoroughly evaluate defensive excellence. One of them, John Dewan, has come up with a system in which every play all season is examined to form a cumulative defensive rating for every player.

In Dewan’s calculations, Everett has been the best shortstop in baseball for each of his last four full seasons: 2003-06, all with Houston.

It’ll be interesting to see if he still has the range he displayed in Houston before his collision with Carlos. In 364 innings in Minnesota last season, he posted a 9.8 UZR/150. That’s very good, but it isn’t the sort of transcendent defense he showed off while an Astro, and I worry that, without the ridiculously good defense he played a few years ago, his poor hitting will outweigh whatever he does with the glove.

Only_A_Lad - April 5, 2009 reply

Tigers were desperate to improve their defense.

So, Everett probably will be fine with a very good, even if not spectacular, defensive result. It seems like his chronic back issues may be a more significant physical issue than the broken fibula bone. I would expect the impact on current performance of his fibula fracture to diminish significantly at this point—-at least based on my experience with a similar fibula fracture.

clack - April 5, 2009 reply

Quick thoughts

1. Thank goodness the season begins.

2. Hampton and Ortiz will far exceed “experts” current expectaitons.

3. Infact, the Astros pitching (starting and relief) shoud be very good ( until injuries hit -even then there are two or three solid options at Round Rock). MY main concerns are Byrdak who has to looked good this spring and Brocail, who being four years older than the next oldsst Astro might have an endurance issue..

4. Jasons who? – I don’t really see the role either Jason Smith or Jason Michaels has with the team.

5, I’d die for that corn dog casserole. On second thought, i might actually die – so iguess I’ll pass.

6. l wonder how MB would react to a bank becoming managing owner of Texas Rangers.

Joe in Birmingham - April 5, 2009 reply

you mention a bank as owner of the Rangers...

Back in the 70’s, GE Credit Corporation was the owner of the Astros for several years. Roy Hofheinz, the original owner had some financial problems, and the team ended up in the creditors’ hands. GECC naturally wanted tot sell the team, but it took a long time to do it, and there was a concern that investors who might want to move the franchise would try to buy it. I can’t remember many details, myself, but I have heard that it was a bad time for the franchise, because the creditors/owners didn’t care about the business.

clack - April 5, 2009 reply