Well Hitter Pence and JR Towles are hitting up a storm – at least so far, small sample size, I know. I know that Richard Justice has taken some, um, stuff, for being so open about the players’ um, unhappiness (ahem) with Cecil Cooper these past few years, but anyone who actually watched the team even outside the clubhouse could see it. And anyone could see that the pitchers were NOT happy with Dewey. From the clips I have seen (and from communications sent by my friends Ann Onnamuss, Bea Tzme and Ida No-Hu) the guys look incredibly happier and more relaxed than they did last year.

I’m actually not surprised that Towles is hitting like crazy – he hit like crazy in AAA, and has good strike zone judgement and he now has a manager who, at least, doesn’t, uh, not like him – yeah, let’s put it like that – as Cooper obviously did not. This year, he actually has a good shot at playing on the ML club. I hear tell that Fast Eddie wants Quintero as the backup, regardless of whether Castro or Towles wins the starting job, don’t ask me why. Supposedly, it is because he NOW is crediting Q with Wandy’s development last year??? Development last year? LAST YEAR??? O RLY??? Here and I thought it was Pudge’s doing – at least Wandy told Jose Ortiz something like that before Jose was banished to soccer. Catchers who can hit are pretty rare and catchers who can hit AND run well are usually moved to a different position ala Saint Biggio back in 92.

However, Edwin Maysonet SHOULD have the backup 2B/IF job sewn up, as he is OBVIOUSLY head and shoulders better than Keppinger. It will be interesting to see if Brad Mills is going to be allowed to actually decide whether or not Maysonet will make the team instead of Keppinger. It will be interesting to see if Brad Mills will be allowed to sit veterans (Kaz Matsui) and play Maysonet. And it will be interesting to see if Brad Mills will be allowed to put Chris Johnson on the ML roster or play him, if he hits up a storm. I hear tell that Fast Eddie and Mills have some different opinions about who should or should not be on the 25 man AND who should be playing. The Organization has been dictating to the manager who will/will not play where since the 2007 Saint Biggio farewell tour. Bout time for the manager to manage.

So far, Mills has been playing Bogusevic in right, and a little bit in center, and he has done well as a fielder, per my friend Ann. Alex Romero has been playing only in left, as a DR. Not sure why that division of labor, and not sure whether or not Yordany Ramirez stands a chance of making the cut as the 5th OF.

Ann and Ida have told me that both Lance and Clank look great with the bat, ready to start the season today. Not surprised. Lance, I guess, will have to wait until the swelling in his knee goes down before he starts seriously fielding. And speaking of fielding, I hear that Manzella has a fabulous glove and is everything we’ve heard. With the glove. He’s Adam Everett all ovah again with the bat. But run prevention really IS a good thing, as I’ve said for umpty ump years. And it will be great to see a good glove at short again. I’m tired of the Loretta/Miggy slop.

As for the pitchers, well, all the starting candidates have pitched 2 innings, none of them have looked exactly in top form, which is to be expected. Only Brandon Lyon hasn’t pitched yet (still recovering from surgery, but he should go sometime next week) and Polin Trinidad had the outing from, uh, heck – on the few times he DID find the plate, he got smashed to heck. The rest of the guys are getting their rhythm, as expected, and Arnsberg and Mills, unlike their predecessors, are making sure that everyone is getting work, even at “B” games. And the minor leaguers are getting fed good quality food, so no matter what, their time spent at ST is time well spent.

I thought there wouldn’t really BE any ST questions, but, I just might could be wrong and it just might could be that Brad Mills will take the players HE considers best for winning, not just the best PAID ones.

Last but not least, Morgan Ensberg is blogging – he is answering and replying to every single question posted AND he hasn’t gone all Bull Durham. He even said – yes, he really did – that he met and he LIKES The Hated Milton Bradley. And that he LOVED Jimy Williams as a manager – that he would run through a wall for him. That sure as heck doesn’t sound like the usual crap lies/PR stuff I’ve come to despise having to hear.

And speaking of Milton Bradley, he’s a guy who needs to go meet Jeff Francoeur and tell him – dude, like, I’ll pay you to tell me how to talk to make the media absolutely LOVE you, no matter HOW you play. Because I’ve never seen anything like the Francoeur Phenomena – in which a ballplayer who really isn’t that good makes total groupies of every media person, who thinks Francoeur really REALLY is God’s Gift to MLB. When Francoeur retires from baseball, the guy will make the worlds biggest fortune if he can figure out how to teach people the secret of his success…

Stros have an off day, and meanwhile, I’m going to investigate the preposterous claim that somehow, Quintero is the secret of Wandy’s success last year…

Tags: Houston Astros, MLB

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Astros baseball, J.R. Towles, spring training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.