Breathin' Orange Fire

Richard Justice feels the spirit of Spring Training. Deducing that the Astros are in first place at the moment, he writes the traditional "you never know" article about the Astros chances this season. Justice does not fall into the trap of asking the local team to hire older players he has heard of before, and commends GM Tim Purpura for sticking with youngsters (may he continue to push this on Purpura when Palmiero, Vizcaino, and Ausmus come up for new contracts). And for most people, youth is the great unknown in baseball. Justice falls into this trap, stating that "Lane and Burke might both be impact players offensively" and that "Taveras has blazing speed." But a great advantage of Sabrmetrics is that it has reduced the uncertainty of youth, by demonstrating that a player's performance in the major leagues can be anticipated by his performance in the minor leagues. Over the next few days, I'll look at the young players Justice identified, ex...

Life has meaning again.

The Chronicle reports today that the Astros are close to signing Roy Oswalt to a 2-year deal worth $17 million. The deal would not buy out any of Roy-O's free agent years, as he'll become a free agent after the 2007 season. The deal would allow the Astros to avoid going to arbitration with Oswalt this and next year, a standard practice for Drayton. Several things are interesting about the article. 1.) There are named quotes from Drayton, Tim Purpura, and Roy-O's agent Bob Garber. This indicates that this is not an attempt by one of the sides to negotiate via the media. 2.) The deal appears to be backloaded. Oswalt may make less than the $6 million the Astros offered in arbitration, and make that up next year. This follows an interest pattern of the Astros, who signed a backloaded deal with Andy Pettitte, and an essentially backloaded deal with Roger Clemens. 3.) That could mean that the Astros have some money to spend before or during the season. But it's ...

A blast from the Astros past in the Dallas Morning News-- an article about Astros great (see his retired number) Mike Scott. The story recounts the well-known tale of how Roger Craig resurrected Scott's career by teaching him the split-finger. The other focus of the article, not surprisingly, is on the accusations that Scott scuffed the ball. Scott's explanation: "Whenever I got an 0-2 count, I would throw a splitter as hard as I could," he said. "I would let it fly and the thing would break half a foot and usually bounce in the dirt. Guys would say, `How did he do that? That's not normal.' It wasn't close to being a strike and I might throw those two or three like that in a game, but that's the ones batters remembered because the ball got scratched." Whether of not that explanation passes the smell test is besides the point now. And Scott never got caught scuffing, no matter how many times he was checked, or who checked him (I rem...

I enjoyed this article by Dayn Perry on thesportingnews.com for two reasons: 1.) The line in the Giants section: "One rare talent surrounded by dreck. It's a bit like Bono fronting Hoobastank." 2.) I share his frustration at finding a whole bunch of teams have improved this off season. Looking at the NL, the only teams that improved were those that were down anyway, and no one West of the Applachains seems to be better today than on October 1. P.S. is Hoobastank the worse band name ever.

The Cubs signed the intriguingly spelled Jeromy Burnitz to a 1-year, $5 million contract with a mutual option for 2006. Cubs fans have been extremely negative about this deal, to the point of comparing Burnitz to Tony Womack . I'm not that negative on the deal from a baseball standpoint, as Burnitz can provide a decent bit of pop down the order. But I do agree with them on the financial commitment. The Cubs have now spent nearly $22 of the $25 million they would have spent on Sammy, and gotten worse production. I think the best course of action for the Cubs would have been to start the season with an outfield platoon of Todd Hollandsworth , Jason DuBois , and Jerry Hairston , and use the money to buy a potential free agent on the cheap around June 1. Burnitz, Jeromy - 2005 ZiPS Projection --------------------------------------------------------- AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB BA OBP SLG --------------------------------------------------------- 499 62 116 23 2 29 75 53 126 5...

Baseball America , the foremost authority on traditional scouting, posted its annual rankings of the Top 10 prospects in the Astros organization , as well as its list of the "Best Tools" in the organization. Most notable to me is the absense of C Hector Gimenez from the list of Top 10 prospects (though he is listed as the organization's "Best Defensive Catcher"). The absence of Gimenez should not surprise me, as his ZIPS projection of 13/.256/.300 is even worse than Brad Ausmus's . But Gimenez is vital to the Astros in two ways. Next season, the Astros should be able to move on past their strange obsessive relationship with Ausmus, as his contract expires then. This will provide the Astros a unique opportunity to get a catcher who hits better than the pitchers he catches. The second is that Gimenez is being groomed for the job, and his development prompted the club to include John Buck in the deal for the half season of Carlos Beltran . But if Gime...

Presumably like all baseball fans, childhood memories of watching the hometown team are seared into my memory. Near the top of my head are the advertising slogans the Astros used to sell the team, and the cheesy song's that went along with them. Sometime in the early '80's, the Astros had a song in their advertisement: Here come the Astros, burnin' with desire. Here come the Astros, breathin' orange fire. The chorus said "Astros Number 1." Even at a young age, I couldn't figure out why it was necessarily good for the Astros to be "breathin' orange fire." While this could help offensive linemen in football and post players in basketball, this skill seems more dubious in baseball. Just remember, the blog name could be worse. One of the Astros' slogans/songs was "Astros Baseball: Who Says It's Only a Game?" I always answered "I do."