PLAY BALL!
Here's your comprehensive 2023 Houston Astros season primer
Feb 14, 2023, 4:29 pm
It's that time of year again! Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
What the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson meant to say, or at least should have said, was … “in the spring training, a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of baseball.”
It seems like only yesterday that Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker was racing into foul territory down the right field line and snaring Nick Castellanos’ pop fly to clinch the 2022 World Series title. Time sure flies when you’re picking up trophies and celebrating another championship because …
In two short days, Astros pitchers and catchers report to the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches for spring training and another season of wrecking the American League. Wow, that was fast.
Position players report for duty next week and the Astros first spring training game is Feb. 25 against, thank you Mr. Schedule Maker, the New York Mets. You know the Mets, the team that Justin Verlander left the Astros for $86 million of fool’s gold. More precisely, one fool’s gold. How’s that song go? Money can’t buy you love. Or a World Series ring.
The spring training opener will be televised on AT&T SportsNet SW. First pitch is 12:05 p.m. Houston time. AT&T SportsNet will air several spring games, including March 8 against Team Venezuela. The entire Astros TV crew is back: Todd Kalas, Geoff Blum and Julia Morales.
The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, 5454 Haverhill Road in West Palm Beach, Fla., is home to both the Astros and the Washington Nationals for spring training. The stadium will be even-Steven this year: the Astros finished 2022 with the World Series title and best record in the American League (106-56), while the Nationals were dead last in the National League (55-107). If you’re going to a game in West Palm, you might want to check the schedule to make sure you get an Astros day.
Spring training used to be a bargain for fans and families who were in Florida on spring break. Not so much anymore. Depending on the opponent, Astros tickets on the secondary market can range from $36 for the Banana Boat Lawn to as high as $151 behind home plate. This isn’t your grandfather’s spring training anymore.
This should be the calmest and most carefree spring training for the Astros. No one can deny they are the best team in MLB with their second World Series championship in six years and multiple World Series and League Championship Series appearances during that span. Their legacy is unchallenged.
The roster is pretty much set, with their last slot appearing to be filled by Matt Gage. Manager Dusty Baker is back to turn toothpicks into splinters and All-Star Jose Abreu joins the fold for another charge to the World Series. All is good, and under budget, in Astros World.
The Astros have a new general manager this season, Dana Brown. Let’s describe his job, at least for the near future, this way: he’s driving a Tesla.
Here are the rules if you’re attending a spring training hoping to have Jose Altuve sign your Astros cap. MLB dictates no autographs during a game, even if Altuve is done after three innings and heading to the clubhouse. Better to show up before the game and catch your favorite player at a practice field outside the stadium.
The Astros will play 28 pre-season games, wrapping up their Florida stay against the Cardinals on March 26, before heading north (technically north by northwest) for their first game of the 2023 season March 30 against the White Sox at Minute Maid Park.
The Astros need to beat the Pale Hose that night or they won’t be able to sell beer the rest of the season. (They will have lost the opener - thank you Highlights Magazine in my dentist’s office.)
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If the Astros were going to win one series and lose the other on their six-game road trip out of the All-Star break, they got it right in taking two out of three games at Seattle then losing two out of three to lousy Oakland. Had they inverted those results, the Astros would not be alone atop the American League West starting this weekend’s series against the Dodgers at Minute Maid Park.
By the schedule the Astros’ sledding now gets tougher. The Dodgers are rolling toward their 11th National League West crown in 12 years, despite their pitching staff having been battered by injuries every bit as much as the Astros’. The Astros will face three rookie starters this weekend. National League Rookie of the Year candidate (non-Paul Skenes division) Gavin Stone goes Friday. Saturday it’s Justin Wrobleski making his fourth big league start, Sunday River Ryan makes his second. 325 million dollar addition Yoshinobu Yamamoto last pitched June 15. Tony Gonsolin is out for the year without throwing a pitch. Clayton Kershaw’s first pitch Thursday marks the first of his season. Tyler Glasnow’s Wednesday return from the Injured List means the Astros won’t face him this weekend.
Aside: Astros’ fan favorite Joe Kelly is back in the Dodgers’ bullpen. He was activated from the IL out of the break, so the opportunity to welcome him back to Minute Maid Park looms!
After the Dodgers, the Pirates hit town with Skenes slated to pitch Monday opposite Jake Bloss. Gulp. Hey, in one game, you never know. Skenes has been the most electric rookie pitcher since Dwight Gooden with the Mets in 1984.
Sleepless in Seattle
The Mariners’ unraveling has reached historic proportions. It’s not easy losing six straight matchups with the lowly Angels but the Mariners were down to the challenge and pulled it off. The M’s have stumble-bummed their way to a 9-20 record over their last 29 games. That’s actually a better winning percentage than the Astros’ had after staggering from the starting gate to a 7-19 mark. Like the Astros did, the Mariners can right their ship, though if they don’t add quality offense before Tuesday’s trade deadline it seems unlikely. Seattle has scored more than two runs in one of its last eight games, the only win among those eight when the Mariners got to Ronel Blanco and Seth Martinez Sunday to avoid an Astros’ sweep. Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers whipping up on the laughingstock Chicago White Sox this week has their World Series title defense very much alive and a threat to overtake both the Astros and Mariners.
The trade deadline is this Tuesday
Tick-tock toward Tuesday’s 5PM Central Time trade deadline. General Manager Dana Brown is on the clock. Let’s start with starting pitchers. Tarik Skubal! Garrett Crochet! Jack Flaherty! Any would be a fabulous addition. If Brown acquires one, he will have done phenomenal work cajoling the trade partner into thinking the Astros’ offer the best. Frankly it seems impossible. The Orioles are in the starting pitcher market. Their farm system runs laps around what the Astros have. Numerous other teams on the hunt for pitching have higher rated minor league talent. The Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys are having a fabulous season, but until the Astros Thursday moved up soon to be 24-year-old Jacob Melton (who was batting just .248 with a .307 on-base percentage at Double-A Corpus Christi) there was not one non-pitcher of any consequence younger than 25 on the roster. Pedro Leon, Shay Whitcomb, Will Wagner, and include Joey Loperfido: it would be shocking if any of them can be the best player in an offer good enough to land one of the potential big trade fish. All four of them wouldn’t be enough to land a Skubal or Crochet.
On the hitter side, if the Blue Jays shop Vlad Jr. and/or the Rays take offers for Paredes, of course Brown better try. Either would be a sharp upgrade over Jon Singleton, and Guerrero can’t become a free agent until after next season, with Paredes under team control through 2027. Reality check time. Seattle’s offense is in dire straits. The Mariners have four prospects rated higher than any Astros’ prospect. If the Mariners didn’t make a winning offer over what the Astros proposed, Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto would look like a timid clown.
That said, there will be several second and third tier starters and relievers moved who would boost the Astros. If Spencer Arrighetti and Jake Bloss are both still in the Astros’ starting rotation after the deadline, Dana Brown will have failed. That said, the Astros could well stand pat and win the Mild, Mild West. They could also finish third.
Go for the gold!
With the Olympics underway, a medal podium-style ranking of the Astros’ greatest trade deadline acquisitions:
No medal but cannot be omitted: Randy Johnson. It was a brief fling with “The Big Unit” in 1998 but it was spectacular. It elevated Houston as a baseball city. In 11 regular season starts Johnson went 10-1 with a 1.28 earned run average. He threw shutouts in his first four Astrodome starts. He spiked attendance like no other player in franchise history. Even though the San Diego Padres beat Johnson twice (Johnson pitched fine, the Astros scored two runs total in the two games) and bounced the Astros in a National League Division Series, and prospects Freddy Garcia and Carlos Guillen included in the deal both went on to have excellent careers, it was a trade that in hindsight you make 100 times out of 100.
Bronze: Jeff Bagwell. Reliever Larry Andersen was outstanding in helping the Boston Red Sox win the AL East in 1990, but the BoSox got swept in the ALCS and Andersen left as a free agent. Bagwell has the greatest offensive resume in Astros’ history (I know, I know, postseason aside) and is quite arguably one of the 10 greatest first basemen of all-time.
Silver: Yordan Alvarez. He has longevity to prove but to this point in his career, while not the all-around player Bagwell was, Yordan is clearly the more destructive force in the batter’s box. Throw in his three monstrously significant home runs in the 2022 Astros’ title run, and his awesome 2023 postseason, and what could still lie ahead for him and the Gold could be his if we revisit this topic 10 years from now. Imagine the Dodgers if they hadn’t gifted Yordan to the Astros for Josh Fields.
Gold: Justin Verlander. Astros’ World Series championships pre-JV, zero. With him, two. Even though his World Series resume is terrible. The finishing piece to the Astros’ initial championship winner in 2017 with a 1.06 ERA in five starts ahead of winning the 2017 ALCS MVP, a second crown in 2022, two Cy Young Awards and a Cy runner-up. Interesting decision to make for the cap on his Hall of Fame plaque. Much more body of work with the Tigers but the championships and legend cemented with the Astros.
*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.