The Crawfish Boxes

Grapefruit League record (thought meaningless): 7-7

Today's starters: RHP Bud Norris vs. RHP Brandon Morrow

Lineups will be posted as soon as we see them.

Listen to the game here. If you are in the Houston area, you can listen to the game on 790 KBME.

UPDATE: Josh Banks will start for the Astros because Bud Norris  is suffering from stomach flu.

Throw another interesting kink in the minor league ballparks coming to the Houston area. This story talks about Montgomery County possibly getting an independant team from the Atlantic League, which could start play as early as 2012. The land for the stadium has already been purchased but construction has not begun.

What would a second Houston-area team mean? Sounds like neither team will be affiliated with a major league club outside of the Astros. Houston also hasn't shown much interest in making either of the two bids into one of its minor league affiliates, leaving the independant route for both.

Independant minor league baseball has a lot of potential, but I'm not sure how well it will do so close to Houston. While the summer league team here in Bryan does well, that probably wouldn't be the case if people could also go watch the Astros. On the other hand, these teams could have a good crop of talent to work with, as there are a ton of college and pro players from the Houston area. All it takes is one guy like Rickey Henderson to play for one of the teams to create some buzz.

This isn't nearly as exciting as having a Double-A or Triple-A affiliate at the doorstep to The Woodlands Mall. I do think, however, that the more clubs a city can support will give Houston a better chance to earn a reputation as a baseball town.

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Another day, another Astros victory over the Washington Nationals. I know it's not the case, but it seems like Houston has played them every other day so far this spring. In fact, the teams have played each other three times, with the Astros taking all three games by a combined score of 34 to 14. They were actually scheduled to play Washington in another game that was rained out last week.

Of course, the Astros haven't faced possibly the Nationals best pitcher in Stephen Strasburg. That leads me to my question of the day: is it a good thing that Houston has played such a bad team so often? Does their competition level play a role in preparing them for the season, or is any team capable of tuning them up in time? I guess it boils down to whether preparing for the regular season is about the process or the results?

We are five days away from the TCB Fantasy draft, so let's have an open thread to talk about where guys should be drafted. With a 16-team league, this is going to be one of the deeper drafts that I've hosted, so where should guys like Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman go?

For that matter, who goes in the first round? As a reminder, our point system does reward defense. Does that push Hanley Ramirez up to the top? Or is Albert Pujols still the unquestioned No. 1?

The other interesting thing about this league is that there are no rate stats. It's purely based on counting stats. Should that change the draft boards?

As a reference, here's the top 10 for our scoring system that was provided by CBSSports.com

This projection system doesn't include any of the fielding stats or HBP. As a comparison, here's the top 10 pitchers (while HBP and holds aren't projected).

We also need to come up with a good way to select draft position. I'm not averse to picking out of a hat, but if someone has a more creative idea, I'm all for it.

Oh, and here's a look at the divisions and team names so far. Some of the teams are still "Team 11," but we've got some creative entries so far.

If you haven't signed up for your league yet and are looking for a site to host it, the Commissioner League is 50 percent off for SBNation users. Just follow this link to get the discount. As an added bonus, any SBNation user who signs up for a league will get a free TCB t-shirt for the league champion. Pretty sweet, huh? We can also run your league standings in our monthly update post during the season and you can keep us updated on how things are going with FanPosts. Reason enough to sign up, right?

CBSSports.com is an SB Nation partner and paying sponsor of the SB Nation baseball communities.
This post is one of a series of sponsor endorsed posts related to the CBSSports.com Fantasy Baseball
Commissioner League.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

UPDATE: The Astros cut 12 players from camp Wednesday, reassigning Fernando Abad, Brian Bogusevic, Evan Englebrook, Chia-jen Lo, Matt Nevarez, Yordany Ramirez, Lou Santangelo, Wladimir Sutil, Polin Trinidad, Jose G Valdez and Henry Villar to minor league camp. The team also gave Alex Romero his unconditional release, meaning he becomes a free agent immediately. Any surprises here?

Let's lead this off with another note from Morgan Ensberg's excellent blog. In this one, he responds to a user's question about whether he used steroids with a very well-thought out and insightful answer.

The only thing I saw in the clubhouse was "greenies" which I have done about 10 times. Greenies are basically "uppers" and they didn’t do anything to me. I am not sure if that is a good thing.

I drink a ton of coffee and would drink something like 2 redbulls before a game if I felt sluggish.

I always use this analogy. In Hermosa Beach, where I grew up, there were a bunch of kids who smoked weed. I was asked if I wanted to smoke, but I said no and that was the end of it.

I eventually smoked in college about 30 times and I liked it. But I noticed that it made me eat a lot and I didn’t need any help in that department.

Back to the point, I didn’t smoke so I wasn’t in "that club". If you are not in the group then you have no idea what guys are doing it. The same thing happened in college with cocaine. I have never done cocaine, but some of my buddies did and I had no idea. I just thought that they were really hyper.

My opinion is this. I can’t fault anyone for doing steroids because they are trying to do everything they can to get to the big leagues. I played in the Dominican and Venezuela and nothing you say will change my opinion on a guy making a decision to feed his family. This isn’t apples and apples.

I don’t even think that those guys who did do steroids pushed me out of the game. I had the ability to play the game at the highest level and that is really cool to me.

It's an interesting analogy made about the pot smokers and the non-users. Extrapolating it out further, doesn't it make sense that guys who were 'in the club' like Jose Canseco would want to paint more people with the same brush stroke? What was the real percentage of users in baseball? My guess is that it was lower than the Mitchell Report would have us believe but higher than they admitted at the time.

Another interesting point is made about Latin American players. How many of these guys have been popped for steroids? Miguel Tejada is the only one I can think of off the top of my head. I know there have been some minor leaguers recently hit with 50-game bans for taking controlled substances, but was there anyone from that late 90's era? Just an interesting point to ponder.

The more major leaguers and former major leaguers we can get to talk about these things, the better. This blog by Ensberg is the one thing baseball fans lack lots of time: first-hand interaction with guys playing the game at its highest level. I can't wait for more posts!

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Let me start off by admitting that I haven't been the most optimistic person about Tommy Manzella, who will be the Astros' starting shortstop.  My fear has been that his offense will be very bad in his first year, and that his defense will not be as good as advertised.  Manzella is having a nice spring so far.  He is hitting and bunting as well as can be expected.  I haven't watched a game yet (audio only for me, so far this spring), but based on what I've heard, his defense has looked good.

For a number of reasons that we all know about, spring training performance shouldn't be given a lot of weight. And the sample size at this point of the spring training is ridiculously small.  So, I won't lean on Manzella's spring performance to say that he is better than we think.  However, in keeping with the optimism that surrounds spring training, I asked myself, "What kind of realistically possible comparable performance would I want from Manzella as a starting shortstop?"

Two of the Astros' rivals in the NL Central, Chicago and St. Louis, have starting shortstops who might be reasonably compared to Manzella.  Ryan Theriot of the Cubs and Brendan Ryan of the Cardinals were older minor leaguers with the good defense/weak offense reps whom were handed starting shortstop jobs over the last couple of years.  Both have had reasonable success so far.  Theriot had a 3.1 WAR season in 08 and a 2.8 WAR season in 09.  Ryan had a poor 2008 (0.8 WAR) and a good 2009 (3.1 WAR). CHONE and fans predict Theriot with a 2.2 - 3.1 WAR, and Ryan is projected at 2.7 - 2.8 WAR.  Looking at their stats, I view Manzella as more similar to Brendan Ryan than Theriot.  Theriot profiles as a player with better plate discipline, a better walk rate, and better OBP than Ryan and Manzella.   

Looking into their minor league records, I was surprised at the similarity between Brendan Ryan and Tommy Manzella.

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Here are some tidbits from last night's 30 Clubs in 30 Days:

• Mitch Williams claims that if Berkman just had debris cleaned out of his knee, he should be back in no time. In fact, Williams said he had the same procedure when he was with the Astros and was throwing within three days.
• Berkman says he's back into baseball activities within a week and a half to two weeks. He downplayed the possibility of starting on Opening Day, saying he'd rather be healthy than rushing back for "one game." Sounds like he might not have even had the surgery if it happened during the season.
  
• It's a good thing too, because I saw on the scroll that Darin Erstad is still unsigned. I just hope Wade doesn't get trigger-happy and call him in if Berkman misses too much time.
  
• Roy Oswalt said the younger guys do come to him for advice, but the real problem is getting "Cudly Budly" to shut up at times. He also said that the important thing about a pitching coach is not to try and change mechanics during games. He said Brad Arnsberg had talked to him about changing a couple things on his hand and glove placement, but they haven't changed anything since then. Sounds like the problem Oswalt may have had with Dewey Robinson was messing with his delivery during the game.
  
• Roy said Wandy has the best curveball in the majors. He even said, "guys sit on his curve and still can't hit it." Surprisingly, he didn't mention any of Brian Moehler's pitches in the same glowing terms.
  
• Both John Hart and Roy said the biggest concern with Bud Norris is his control. Roy mentioned his problems are keeping the ball down in the zone while Hart and Williams both commented that Norris has top-of-the-rotation stuff if his control is good.
  
• The studio guys have been talking a lot about Myers as a reliever. Williams said Myers is in Houston because Wade is a "loyal guy." He also said Myers has "different gears" when on the mound and implied that he might take some effort off at times when he's starting.
• Terms used to describe Manzella "not good range," "steady," "fundamentally sound." Why does that not conjure up images of Ozzie Smith? Williams did make the point that he's got to be an improvement over Miguel Tejada, who "was a third baseman by the middle of last season." That made me chuckle.
• Also funny: Carlos Lee hitting like Ichiro in batting practice. Because, you know, he can beat out so many infield hits.
• The talk about the minor leagues was predictable and what we've heard before. Top ten of note: Jay Austin, Jason Castro, Collin DeLome, Jon Gaston, Chris Johnson, Chia-jen Lo, Jordan Lyles, Tommy Manzella, Jio MIer, Ross Seaton. Hart liked Mier best, saying he's got the best upside in the system. Hart also went out on a limb and said Jason Castro could make an impact this season.
• The homegrown all-time team? Craig Biggio at catcher, Ken Caminiti at third, Julio Lugo at short, Joe Morgan at second, Lance Berkman at first, Luis Gonzalez in left, Cesar Cedeno in center, Rusty Staub in right, JR RIchard as a starter, Billy Wagner as reliever. Apparently, Jimmy Wynn wasn't eligible since he came up as Reds property. What do you think of this list?
• Hah. Funniest Geoff Blum lines: "Lance who?" while in the cage, "This is the Lance Drill" as he ran to third and then put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. AND HE QUOTED BULL DURHAM! I know I've been down on Blum this offseason, but that's too awesome. Geoff Blum for MVP!
  
• Prime 9 Astros moments: 9) Roger Clemens moves up on strikeout list 8) Craig Biggio gets 3,000th hit 7) MIke Scott's no-hitter clinches NL West 6) Mike Scott strikes out 14 in NLCS 5) Denny Walling sac-fly in 1980 NLCS 4) Jeff Kent home run in 2004 NLCS 3) Chris Burke walk-off in 2005 NLDS (falsely reported as being in 2004) 2) Nolan Ryan throws fifth no-hitter 1) Astros advance to World Series in 2005

Let's end on this. Discuss those moments and anything else from the program.

Grapefruit League Record (essentially meaningless anyways): 5-5

Today's starters: RHP Roy Oswalt vs. LHP Jon Lester; RHP Brian Moehler vs. RHP A.J. Burnett

Per Zach Levine:

Against Boston

1) Michael Bourn, CF

2) Kazuo Matsui, 2B

3) J.R. Towles, C

4) Carlos Lee, LF

5) Chris Johnson, 3B

6) Chris Shelton, 1B

7) Cory Sullivan, RF

8) Humberto Quintero, DH

9) Tommy Manzella, SS

Against New York:

1) Jason Bourgeois, CF

2) Jeff Keppinger, 2B

3) Hunter Pence, RF

4) Geoff Blum, 1B

5) Pedro Feliz, 3B

6) Jason Michaels, LF

7) Jason Castro, C

8) Edwin Maysonet, SS

9) Brian Bogusevic, DH

Farmstros correspondant in Spring Training, Jonathan Fixler is on the roster for the Boston game and could see his first big league action this spring.

Listen to the games here. If you are in the Houston area, listen to the game on 790 KBME.