Astros Insights: Hampton, Ortiz pass first test.

Well, well, well. The moment that I have been waiting for since Brad Lidge closed out the Rays in last year World Series is here... baseball games!! I know the regular season is about a month away but Spring Training games gets my blood pumping. Not only that, we have the World Baseball Classic coming up as well (GO VENEZUELA!!)
But first, the Astros' first game of the Grapefruit league is finally in the book. A 6-3 win over the Nationals. Now, I know that this games are more of a tune-up for the real thing since both pitchers and batters are tinkering with their machanics and what not, but it is still fun to talk about it. Of note, I want to bring up Mike Hampton and Russ Ortiz, two pitchers the Astros are hoping to round out their rotation behind Roy Oswalt, Wandy Rodriguez and Brian Moehler.
Both pitched two innings to start out the game and neither allowed a run. Hampton started the game a little shaky, hitting the first batter he faced and walking the next two to load the bases with no out (ay!) but then struck out the next batter and induced a double play to get out of the inning unscathed and proceeded with a 1-2-3 second inning. Not a bad Houidini impression there. Ortiz followed suit and got the next nine outs with little problem other than a harmless hit and a walk. He struck out three.
Although it's only the first game, it is a good sign that both pitchers, who have lost significant time due to injuries the last few years, are on the right track. If both can regain the form that made them former all-stars and are able to avoid the injury bug, the Astros will contend in the NL Central. Simple as that. They are the wild card of this Astros team. Those who have counted the Astros out in each of the last 5 years have learned that we are always the sleepers of the NL Central.
In other front, a couple of rookies made good impressions on manager Cecil Cooper. Infielder Drew Sutton took over second base halfway through the game and went 2-2 with 2 runs scored. And third baseman Chris Johnson launched a solo home run in his only hit of the day. Both Sutton and Johnson are trying to make the case to be in the 25-man roster on opening night and they didn't dissapoint. There are still many Spring games left but it is an encouraging beginning. Go Astros.

Quotes about A-Rod

"One thing that really upsets me a lot is when you hear everybody say it was the 'Steroid Era' and everybody was doing it. Well, that's not true. Everybody wasn't doing it." – N.Y. Yankees captain, SS Derek Jeter.

"I'd welcome him if he got elected to the Hall of Fame. I always seem to walk down the middle of the fence. I understand the old hard-line guys that use the words, 'He cheated. He cheated.' And the other guys that go, 'It was a culture thing back then.' If you played then, you would have been tempted, too. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I don't want to get that wrong. We've all got some things in our closet."- Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt.

"On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am saddened by the revelations concerning Alex Rodriguez's use of performance-enhancing substances. While Alex deserves credit for publicly confronting the issue, there is no valid excuse for using such substances and those who use them have shamed the game.” – MLB Commissioner Bud Selig.

"When you get beyond that, for him, I think there's going to be some redemption. Because when you come clean the way you should come clean, and you face a problem or an issue, that's human nature how somebody deals with a problem. [Either] you store it up inside and it compounds into a bigger problem, or you say, 'This is something I did,' and admit that it was a problem, and it was wrong. And from there, it'll take some time, but I think there'll be some redemption." – Detroit Tigers pitcher Nate Robertson.

“A-Rod's numbers shouldn't count for anything. I feel like he cheated me out of the game. The few times we played them, when he got hits, it could have cost me a game. It could have cost me money in my contract. He cheated me out of the game and I take it personally, because I've never done [PEDs], haven't done it, and they're cheating me out of the game."- Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt.

"I think it had to be a big monkey for him to get off his back. It's another big cloud over all baseball, and his accomplishments, but I think it will be good for him in the long run."- Cleveland Cavalier All-Star LeBron James.

"I feel personally betrayed and deceived by Alex. He was supposed to be one of the hardest working players in baseball. He had legendary offseason workouts that he told me lasted five hours a day in Florida. Now I don't know who to believe or what to believe." - Texas Ranger owner Tom Hicks.

"I consider myself a friend of A-Rod's and someone I had a lot of faith in and trusted and, I don't know, he's lied before when he did the '60 Minutes' deal and now he comes out ... and says 'Well, I did do it. But I only did it for two years.' Where does the circle of trust end here? It's a real bad story. The one thing I am impressed with is he came right out and admitted it. But I don't think that that's going to -- I mean, God, the poor guy, his career's ruined, and, for what? Just trying to compete with everybody else." – Hall of Famer George Brett.

"I knew we weren't taking Tic Tacs."- A-Rod

What’s your take? Does A-Rod still belongs in the Hall of Fame? Take the poll and let the world know. Also If you have any other interesting quotes feel free to share them with me in the comment box.

5 Names to Know in Baseball for 2009

With pitchers and catchers reporting to their respective Spring Training camps, I want to dish out who I think are the top 5 prospects that everyone should know about. Every spring, rookies set out to impress their managers, battling out veterans to compete for a starting job and trying to make a case for the Rookie of the Year award. In past years, a new crop of impressive rookies have dazzled major league baseball with their hustle, enthusiasm, and eagerness to be thrust into the spotlight. Last year it was Evan Longoria and Geovanny Soto who captured the ROY award. Before that it was Ryan Braun and Dustin Pedroia. We also had Hanley Ramirez and Justin Verlander to name a few more. But without further ado, here are the 5 guys to watch this year.

1. David Price, 23, P, Tampa Bay Rays: The first overall pick in the 2007 draft is now a bone fide, genuine phenom. Last year was a year to remember for this hurler, going a combined 12-1 with a 2.30 ERA in 19 minor league starts between the A, AA and AAA level. And, after being called up Sept. 14 to the bigs, he yielded a 1.93 ERA with 12 K in 14 innings in five regular season appearances. Never mind the playoffs, in which he compiled a 1-0 record with a 1.59 ERA, including a save in game 7 to close out the Red Sox in the ALCS. He is poised to have a breakout year and become the ace of this young Rays team.

2. Pablo Sandoval, 22, IF, San Francisco Giants: The Giants might be a little closer to be the NL West champion this year, even after four consecutive losing seasons, thanks in part to a youthful core that includes Tim Lincecum and this young, fellow Venezuelan in Sandoval. He was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2002 and last year he split time in AA and AAA, hitting .350 with 20 home runs and 96 RBIs by the time he was called up to the big leagues. He didn’t disappoint once he got there either, batting an eye-catching .345 with 24 RBIs in 145 at-bats. The only question mark for Sandoval is where the Giants plan on playing him. He can be their catcher, first or third baseman, but his bat will force the team to play him somewhere.

3. Travis Snider, 21, OF, Toronto Blue Jays: This 14th overall pick of 2006 is slated to become the Jays starting left fielder after a brief call-up last year in which he hit .301 with 2 homers and 13 RBIs in 73 at-bats. The Blue Jays are in dire need of a power hitter after finishing 10th in the AL in home run last year. They hope Snider, who hit a cumulative 23 homers last year, can change that. This left-hander can also hit for average and to all fields. The only catch against him is that he strikes out a lot, having done so 177 times last year between the majors and the minors. With some patience and more seasoning he should be among the elite players in its class.

4. Kenshin Kawakami, 33, P, Atlanta Braves: Granted, he is an 11 year veteran of the Japanese league, having won the Sawamura award (similar to the Cy Young) in 2004 after going 17-7 for the Chunichi Dragons. Last year, he went 9-5 with a 2.30 ERA in a 117 innings. But he still qualifies as a rookie and he will try to make his mark pitching for the Atlanta Braves in 2009. He could wind up being a better pitcher than Daisuke Matsusaka has been for the Red Sox. He’s said his style is “all about putting my soul into my pitches”. We’ll see if he has the stuff to regularly get major leaguers out, but working for manager Bobby Cox should be a plus.

5. Matt Wieters, 22, C, Baltimore Orioles: This little-known catcher played in his first pro-season last year after being the 5th round pick of the 2007 draft and had a monster year. Between A ball and AA he hit .355 with 27 homers and 91 RBIs, poising himself into the driver seat for the catching job. The top brass want to start him at AAA (the Orioles signed Greg Zaun as a stopgap) but he should be up in Baltimore by the All-Star break. There hasn’t been a dominant catcher like him since the Mike Piazza days. He will probably be an all-star himself for years to come.

There are a lot more players that deserve mention, too many to count. But these 5 players stand out the most to me for their immense potential that they carry.

Honorable Mention: Bud Norris, P, Astros; Matt LaPorta, OF, Indians; Carlos Carrasco, P, Phillies; Clayton Richard, P, White Sox; Cameron Maybin, OF, Marlins.

Guilty until proven innocent.

With all of baseball now talking about Alex Rodriguez recent admission of steroid use, I have no choice but to join this fray. This is truly a sad day for me. A-Rod is not only one of the best players in the planet, but also one of my favorites. I have all his rookie cards, and I have followed his entire career with excitement. The steroid monster strikes again. Soon after that, in another twist, Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada is now pleading guilty to charges from Washington that he lied to federal investigators about his own substance abuse. So much for the end of the Steroid saga. Those are two former MVP players. Since everyone is weighing in on this here is my take. I applaud A-Rod for coming clean so soon after Sports Illustrated published a report that he tested positive for steroids twice during the 2003 season, one of his MVP seasons, instead of letting it drag on through Spring Training, and I respect him more as a human being for admitting his mistakes. I feel like I understand him now, since there was a time in my life where I was also young and naïve and made some bad choices. Don’t we all? We seek forgiveness and vow to ourselves not to get down again, and I’m sure he regrets this choice. He realizes now that it wasn’t worth it. All those people who are understandably angry at him need to give him another chance. I got another chance.
There is more to this though. A-Rod was only one of 104 players that tested positive for steroids in 2003. That was the first year that major league baseball implemented a random drug test, and if more than 5% of the players tested positive that year they would continue but with penalties (104 players is roughly 14%, almost three times what MLB thought). There were no repercussions if you used prior to 2004. Curt Schilling suggested that the rest of the list be made public, and I agree. If they don’t it would be unfair to A-Rod and it would cast a shadow of doubt to every player that played in that era. Looking back at this “loosey-goosey” era, say from 1996 to 2003, there are a lot of players who might be in that list. I looked at some of the players who had career year in between those years and see if there might be a connection. There is Luis Gonzalez, who from 1999 to 2003 his numbers stand out dramatically, including a 57-homer season in 2001 when his Diamondbacks team won the World Series. On those 5 years he averaged 34 homers a season. In all his other years he averaged 14 per season. There is also Tejada who was an iron man in his Athletics days, playing in every game and winning the MVP in 2002. Ironically his production has decreased ever since Rafael Palmeiro implicated him in this scandal. Talking about former Orioles, do you remember Brady Anderson? In 1996, this leadoff hitter hit 50 homers, 26 more than any of his other seasons! Another former MVP, catcher Ivan Rodriguez, won the award in 1999 after hitting a career high 35 homers to go with a .332 average. His name is also in the Mitchell Report. Eric Gagne saved a record 84 consecutives games between 2002 and 2004 and won the Cy Young in 2003. He's been a bust since. How about Randy Johnson and Schilling himself? I mean, besides being teammates with Gonzalez in Arizona, they matched each other pitch by pitch. Between 1999 and 2002, Johnson won four consecutive Cy Young awards, winning 81 games against 27 loses. He reached over 300 strikeouts in every one of those seasons and averaged 257 innings pitched per season. Oh, and by the way, he was 36 in 1999. His names has never been brought up in this scandal, and believe me, I hope it never does. I wouldn’t be surprise though. Schilling finished second in the Cy Young voting in both 2001 and 2002, both to Johnson, and was a close friend of his. If you look at the MVP winners in this era you can see players that might also be in that list: Juan Gonzales, Chipper Jones, Jeff Kent, Larry Walker, Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds. Were they all juiced up on their MVP campaign like A-Rod and Tejada were? Who knows? Unless the list is released every player should be guilty by association.

Manny being Manny and Boras being Boras

I can't believe that Manny Ramirez turned down the latest contract offer from the Dodgers of one year at $25 million dollars. I would have taken it and ran with it! I mean, he would have been the second highest paid player in baseball this season. And by the way, this is the third time that the Dodgers have tried to secure Manny's services and failed. It doesn't help either that he is represented by mega-agent Scott Boras. Manny Ramirez, who turns 37 in May, thinks that he is living in this dream world where a team is going to finally budge and give him what he wants, a 4-5 year contract probably at around a 100 mills. I think he fails to realize that his market is not as strong as first thought. In the first offer the Dodgers presented to Manny back in November, they offered him a 2 year contract worth $45 millions dollars with an option for a third year and he never responded and they took it off the table. It seems to me now that that was the best offer he's going to get this off season. Other than the Dodgers, the Giants have also expressed interest in the slugger but have yet to make an offer, and if they do, it probably will be similar to what the Dodgers have made. Boras claims that there are several teams interested and it may be true, but I think he is just trying to get other clubs to start a biding war for his client and nobody is biting his bait. If you are an Astros fan, you may remember Carlos Beltran, who bolted to the Mets much in part thanks to Boras achieving the bidding war he wanted. The longer the contract and the numbers, the more he gets paid. And if Manny were to sign for a 1 or 2 year contract, it would minimize Boras's potential profit as oppose to a 5-6 years contract. I wonder who is really running this show. I mean, it can't be the money. Certainly $25 millions is fair. If it's because it is only a 1 year contract, what's wrong with that? He'll get to explore the free agent market one more time and do whatever he wants again. Maybe he is worried that he is not going to have as good of a year as last and his stock may fall even more. By signing a 4 or 5 year contract it obliges the team to pay him his money regardless of production from the player.
Here is the thing. It's not that the Dodgers don't want to spend money, but it doesn't make sense for them to sign Manny for that long of a contract. In five years Manny will be almost 42, where will the Dodgers play him then, still in the outfield? The only way Manny will get that kind contract as far as years will have to be from an American League team where his bat can remain in the lineup as a designated hitter. But in the NL, two years should be the max offered to him. Remember on the field, routine flies are an adventure to him. The Dodgers and Manny make sense. He obviously enjoyed playing in the city, hitting .396 with 17 homers and 53 RBI's after the trade. He expressed that he liked Los Angeles and playing for the Dodgers. Then he should sign. The Dodgers should make him one final offer with 48 hours to decide. If he chooses to say no again he might find himself still unemployed by the beginning of the regular season. And then what? Neither Manny Ramirez nor Scott Boras will get paid.

The end of the Steroid Era?

With recent news about Barry Bond's perjury case and his steroid scandal, I couldn't help but be taken back to the time when the home runs where flying out the ballpark in record numbers. I remember vividly the summer of 1998 when Sammy Sosa and Mark Mcwire were going back and forth trying to break Roger Maris record of most home runs in a season. For the record, Mcgwire finished with 70 to Sosa's 66. I remember in 2001 when Bonds hit 73 o f them! (Number 70 was against my beloved Astros in their ballpark, then Enron Field) Nobody seemed to question where those guys where getting their power from. Fans were loving it. Owners, I'm sure, were loving it. Heck, even I was amazed. At the time I was sure I was witnessing something of historic proportions. Something I could brag about to my kids when they get older. Since then, names of iconic baseball players have been falling out of a hat, one after the other, accused of using steroids: Bonds, Mcgwire, Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi, Andy Pettite, Roger Clemens. To a lesser extent but still damaging to the psyche were the likes of Eric Gagne, Chuck Knoublauch, Paul LoDuca, David Justice, Kevin Brown, David Segui, Mo Vaughn. All of them and more listed in the Mitchell's report will now be known as the poster child of the Steroid Era.

A lot of memories are now marred by this report, and with a former teammate of Bonds, catcher Bobby Estallela, now posed to testify against Bonds with damaging evidence, who knows? Maybe we can finally find some closure to all this. Wouldn't it be nice NOT to hear about steroids on sports radio for a change? But baseball will always survive. I get excited seeing the next wave of steroid-free superstars that are developing into future hall of famers. Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter, Ryan Howard, Dustin Pedroia, Miguel Cabrera. These are the kind of guys that we need to root for. Players who represent the true grit and spirit of the game of baseball. The new generation of baseball players. The New Era.