Jeff Bagwell was the guest for Astroline, hosted by Hall of Fame announcer Milo Hamilton on January 24, 2007.  For the past three years, the live taping of Astroline has been held at the Live Sports Cafe, one of downtown Houston’s finest sports bars, located in a three storey building nestled in the heart of  Houston and only a few blocks from Minute Maid Park. 

I found The Live Sports Cafe to be a cozy and friendly place although the radio show was hard to hear in many parts of the bar due to the low volume necessary for a radio broadcast.  Ahmed, one of the owners said the shows with the Killer Bees are always the most popular and well-attended.  Biggio has garnered the most crowds so far.  He added that as a big Astros fan, it’s a lot of fun for him to host these Astroline shows.

Milo Hamilton started the show by saying the new faces of the Astros are now Berkman, Oswalt and Lee.  Bagwell agreed, adding he and Biggio can’t play forever and the lifespan of a baseball player is a lot shorter than golf or some other sports.  The Astros as a team have to make that transition now. 

When asked by a caller if he would like to someday manage a big league club, Jeff said he has no desire to manage a team in the near future–he is enjoying time off right now and the new job with the Astros will keep him very busy.  Brad Ausmus, on the other hand, would be a great manager.  According to Bagwell, Ausmus has almost been another guy on the coaching staff.  He cares very much about his pitchers. 

Responding to a question about his influence with the management due to his new position in bringing up players from the minors, Bagwell said he doesn’t think he has much pull with who comes up like Hunter Pence, but, Nolan Ryan was asked to evaluate players when he first took the personal services contract and Ryan singled out Roy Oswalt as a pitcher who should be in the majors–this about the time that Oswalt was being considered for a demotion to A ball.  Ryan’s glowing report led to Oswalt staying at Round Rock (AA at the time) and being called up to the bigs to stay the following year.  Bagwell added that he hopes he can be that kind of set of eyes for the hitters starting next week at Minute Maid Park and the Jeff Bagwell Elite Hitters Camp. 

Jeff then joked about being in the management means he is Ausmus and Biggio’s boss now and knows they have been very disrespectful towards the management, adding that such behavior will have to be addressed.

Bagwell’s one-time pool cleaner called in and talked about how great and humble Jeff is.  He wanted to know that now Willy Taveras is gone, where the speed on the base paths would come from.  Bagwell said the team is not going to be very speedy in 2007.  He mostly expects Berkman and Lee to be slugging; however, Burke and Everett both have speed and are good base runners and can be very effective. 

Jeff expects his new job to be mostly behind the scenes, traveling to Corpus Christi and Round Rock to evaluate talent.  When asked by a caller if he had played any other sports in high school or college and if there was a story behind #5 being awarded to him, Bagwell said he mostly played soccer a lot in high school.  He also skied and played some basketball.  He never did play any football in high school and is now glad he didn’t. 

As to how he got to wear #5, Bagwell said when he first got traded to the Astros by the Boston Red Sox, he found the clubhouse guy back then was from New England and decided to give the new guy from "back home" a low number almost as a dare to the organization saying "this guy’s going to succeed, even if you don’t think he will."

Milo Hamilton informed the listeners that Jeff Bagwell Day will happen in 2007 at Minute Maid Park and it will be one that the fans will remember for a long time.

Next week’s Astroline guest is slated to be Craig Biggio, barring scheduling conflicts.

Gregory Scott "Woody" Williams was the guest for the 17 January 2007 edition of Astroline. 

Woody started out by saying he was very, very glad to be home again and finally a Houston Astro–Woody as a youngster was an "Astro Buddy" and talked a bit about how great it was to be a member of the team he grew up cheering for.  Being diplomatic, he added that the Padres and Cardinals were also very good to him.  He praised Dave Duncan, the Cardinals pitching coach and in the process gave up one of Duncan’s secrets to success, namely, that he studies tapes and charts  a lot for every single pitcher on the roster and prepares his pitchers thoroughly, armed with the knowledge gained from that information.

When asked about how age is affecting his conditioning, Woody admitted it takes a lot longer for him to get in shape now–for instance, this year he started his off-season conditioning two weeks before Thanksgiving (and his signing with the Astros) to get ready for spring training. 

And as I had mentioned in my blog on November 23rd, Woody had indeed signed with the Astros before Thanksgiving–however, the team wanted to wait until that Friday to make it official.  Although puzzled at first, Woody admitted he was pleasantly surprised to see Carlos Lee at the press conference too. 

When questioned by a caller about being a fly ball pitcher and how that would affect him at a hitter’s park like Minute Maid, he said most of his fly balls tend to go dead center or center-right field and luckily for him, his new home park has very deep center and right fields so they should be routine outs.

Asked about the Jennings trade, (seems to be a hot topic for every Astroline guest in the past 30 days) Williams said he believes Jennings will be a good fit in Houston and he should have an easy transition to the Astros and Minute Maid Park. 

When another caller asked him about how he feels about umpires’ strike zones, Woody explained to the audience the types of pitches he is most comfortable with–fastball, curveball, cut fast-ball, and slider.  He said it’s basically "touch-and-feel" with the umpires and over the years he has learned many of their strike zones and he personally strives to pitch to the particular umpire’s zone.

Woody admitted that one of his greatest desires has always been to hit a home run at Minute Maid Park and hoped that he finally gets to do it in an Astros uniform in 2007.  He added that one of his greatest joys is to work with young pitchers and help them maximize their potential on and off the field. 

On the state of the Astros starting rotation, Williams said it stacks up better than people realize.  He believes that Oswalt should be the National League Pitcher of The Year and Lance Berkman is truly under appreciated on the national scene.  Mark Loretta is a perfect #2 hitter, but admitted he didn’t know what the Astros and Phil Garner plan for him.  He also praised Brad Ausmus for being a great catcher because he prepares the Astros pitchers thoroughly. 

I sensed that Woody and quite a few of the current and former Astros pitchers would love to see Ausmus transition to manager or pitching coach once his playing days are over.

A few days ago I had more questions than answers, like why are the Astros so high on Richard Hidalgo?  The answer to that question can be found here (Click on Estadisticas at the top of the page).   Richard is batting a cool .400 with 4 doubles and get this–EIGHT HOME RUNS in the last 12 games.  Oh yeah, he’s also slugging an outrageous .960 for an ungodly OPS of 1.415.  This is the Venezuelan Winter League’s Round Robin playoff games and I guess Hidalgo is so happy and relieved at having gotten that contract from the Astros, he’s showing them he’s worth every penny of it.

Which is a lot more than Jason Lane can say about his VWL performance, yet he and/or his agent have asked for $1.375 million as salary for 2007–the Astros offered to double his 2006 salary of $450,000…I just can’t see Lane getting even that much based on his 2006 performance, leave alone more than tripling his salary!

The other pressing and puzzling question I had was why did they sign Loretta?  Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle speculates on that in his blog and I’m glad to see that I wasn’t the only one who was puzzled over the official version of Loretta as a bench player…

Besides Justice, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports and The Rocky Mountain News have also reported that the Astros may be willing to trade Morgan Ensberg…now, The Rocky Mountain News may be quoting Rosenthal, but, Justice is closer to home and he doesn’t seem to be rehashing the Rosenthal rumor–he mentions something I didn’t know of–that Ensberg was on the block in November.  In fact, he talks about Ensberg being traded six more times after the initial mention in his blog article…to me at least, it sounds like Richard Justice may have some info that goes beyond regurgitating the Rosenthal rumor. 

12 Jan 07:  It’s Official!  Richard Hidalgo signed a minor league contract with an invite to Spring Training earlier today.  Welcome back Richard!  And here’s a video of Richard in Winter Ball this year.

The Houston Chronicle and 790 AM are both reporting the Astros are close to signing Richard Hidalgo to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.  The Chronicle is reporting that a deal could be done within 48 hours.

This is a no-lose situation for the Astros, who have stated that Richard will have a chance to win the starting job at right field in spring training.  If he doesn’t win that job outright, the Astros could use Richard off the bench as a late inning defensive replacement in Right Field and possibly Center Field.  Al Pedrique, the head of Astros baseball operations in Latin America and manager of Richard’s Winter League team, was sufficiently impressed by Hidalgo’s efforts in 2006 to push for this signing.

Seeing Richard back in an Astros uniform will bring back many memories for Astros fans.

The St Louis Cardinals agreed to terms with Mark Mulder today–2 years, $13 Million!!  Yep, the baseball Gods must be crazy!!  Now, I have no problem taking a chance on the guy–the Astros did the same with Carlos Hernandez in 2003.  But, they weren’t crazy enough to pay him a multi-million dollar contract.(granted Hernandez was just a rookie at the time)  In fact, they passed on Wade Miller two years later…My suspicion is it was based on the failed Carlos Hernandez experiment. 

Carlos Hernandez, the Astros rookie phenom Lefty injured his shoulder on a freak play sliding into second base in 2001 (turned out to be a torn labrum, underwent surgery in 2002)…Wade Miller tore his shoulder up in 2004 (another torn labrum), underwent surgery, got non-tendered by the Astros after the 2004 season, signed with the Red Sox in 2005, was riddled with injuries that year, underwent another shoulder surgery, signed with the Cubs in 2006, was ineffective, underwent more surgery, and has now been re-signed for 2007…this story is so similar to that of Carlos Hernandez, who worked so hard to try to come back, but never could–In the end, the Astros finally cut him after the 2006 season.

Why the Cardinals think that Mulder who had the same surgery as both Hernandez and Miller will turn out to be different, befuddles me…medical statistics have shown that only 8 percent of pitchers who undergo the type of labrum surgery that Mulder has, ever recover enough velocity to pitch in the majors again…the only successful example that I know of is Chris Carpenter.

Do the Cardinals believe they can catch lightning in a bottle twice?  If so, more power to them.  However, a betting man (or woman) would guess that it is more likely Mark Mulder will end up just like Carlos Hernandez and Wade Miller–trying to come back year after year after year, finally to be cut by his team.

One of the best setup men in the National League more than doubled his salary today.  The Astros and Dan Wheeler reached an agreement for one year, $2.1 million dollars today, avoiding arbitration.

Wheeler, who was acquired on 27 August 2004 from the New York Mets for minor leaguer Adam Seuss, made an immediate impact in his very first game as an Astro by hitting Derek Lee of the Chicago Cubs in the back as retaliation for the beanings of Berkman and Beltran earlier in the game and indicative of the acrimony created by Michael Barrett earlier in the week.  That game also changed the fortunes of the Houston Astros and they were well on their way to their miracle 36-10 run which ultimately culminated in the Astros winning the wild card and the first playoff series in their history by beating the Atlanta Braves.

Dan Wheeler was an instant hero in Houston that day and over the past two years has certainly done nothing to change that perception.  In 2005, Wheeler had an impressive ERA of 2.21 with a WHIP of 0.982 in 71 games and 73.1 innings pitched.  In 2006, "Wheels" was one of the few relievers the Astros could count on, pitching in 75 games and 71.1 innings with an ERA of 2.52, WHIP of 1.150–this after skipping part of spring training to participate in the inaugural World Baseball Classic.

Brandon Backe was the guest for a rare Thursday edition of Astroline on 4 January 2007.  Here are my observations and commentary about the questions he was asked by Milo Hamilton and fans.

Almost right after being introduced, Brandon was asked what he thought about the new signings.  He said he was thrilled to have Carlos Lee on the team and all additions made in the off-season were great pickups and a great job by the management.

When asked about his availability for the Astros FanFest in February, Brandon said he definitely will be there–so all you fans of Brandon’s good looks and purty blue eyes, better line up early for autographs!

The next question from a fan put poor Brandon in the rather uncomfortable position of playing GM…He handled it very well and diplomatically said the Astros had made good offensive pickups so far, including the Loretta deal, but, he believes the Astros still need another bonafide starting pitcher.

Backe then talked about Roger Clemens and the benefits of having him on the team for the past two years, citing that The Rocket has been a great mentor to him, teaching him many things and never shrugging him off–a sentiment echoed by Astros rookie pitcher Chris Sampson. 

A lighthearted question asked of Brandon brought smiles and grins from many–"Can you teach other Astros pitchers to hit ball like you?"  Brandon’s reply was that Roy Oswalt’s coming along pretty good; he even had a homerun in 2006.  He added that Brad Ausmus is just a great catcher and Backe gives a lot of credit to him for his pitching success. 

When asked about the 2007 spring training in Florida, Brandon said he is planning on being there because to him, competing is his favorite thing about playing professional baseball.  He admitted that at the present time, he’s not planning on adding on any new pitches and hopes to break sharper and throw harder on his current pitches and his batting will be just fine.

He then added that he has already started tossing to 45 feet for about 10 minutes at a time, not off the mound as of yet, but, he’s getting there.  According to Backe, the pitching and coaching staff is going to check on him in the next week or so–he mostly expects to work out with everyone in Florida for spring training and then continue working with the coaches and trainers at Minute Maid Park once the season starts.  Backe is hoping to be ready for the push to post-season in September.

As always, you can listen to all Astroline broadcasts here.

According to ESPN and the Astros Official Website, Mark Loretta and the Houston Astros have agreed to a one year, $2.5 million dollar contract plus incentives worth up to another million dollars pending a physical.  Apparently, Roy Oswalt asked Drayton McLane to talk to his and Loretta’s agent, Bob Garber, about Loretta.  Brad Ausmus’ role is a bit murkier, but one presumes that he talked Loretta into coming back to Houston.  Ausmus must have been pretty convincing for Loretta to take less guaranteed money than the Texas Rangers were offering.  I can’t get any official confirmation, but, Loretta was quoted as telling the Rangers "he wanted to go to a team where he would get significantly more playing time."  T.R. Sullivan, the Rangers’ beat writer does state that the team was told Loretta would sign elsewhere.

I have two main questions–what did the Astros promise Loretta?  Obviously, 2nd base will continue to be manned by Craig Biggio, at least until he gets his 3000 hits.  Berkman is entrenched at 1st base and Everett at short stop.  Those are no brainers.  So what constitutes "significantly more playing time"?  The only questionable infield spot happens to be 3rd base, currently and tentatively manned by Morgan Ensberg.  That leads me to my second major question…

Where does this leave Morgan Ensberg?  Right after the end of the regular season, this same question arose with Aubrey Huff being a free agent and clearly having made overtures to the Astros.  He finally took the offer from the Orioles, when it became clear the Astros weren’t looking for another left-handed 3rd baseman, and with the Right Field job looking to be Luke Scott’s to lose. 

At that juncture, it looked like the Astros had decided they were confident that Ensberg would rebound from his dismal 2006 season, maybe closer to his 2005 season where he was 4th in MVP voting and earned a Silver Slugger award.  Now, with the Loretta signing (pending that pesky physical), it looks like Ensberg’s position with the club is precarious once again.

Did the Astros really sign Mark Loretta to be the ultimate utility player they are claiming publicly, when they already have uber-utility man Eric Bruntlett already signed to a one year contract for a measly $525,000?  Or, is this a way to try to trade away an "on again, off again", by his own admission, injury-prone player in Morgan Ensberg? 

The Astros still have a hole in their starting rotation–anyone who thinks Woody Williams is really a #3 starter and Wandy Rodriguez is really a #4 starter is smoking something not sold at the local gas station…

With Pettitte’s departure, the Astros need a solid southpaw in the starting rotation.  Trading for one is about the only thing the Astros can do now with Lilly and Wolf gone to greener pastures–Mulder and Redman, the remaining lefty free agents have too many question marks. 

Again, what is going to happen with Ensberg?  Will the Astros trade him for a legitimate lefty starter, one who can fill the #3 or #4 slot for them?  Time will tell, but I, for one, believe time in an Astros uniform is running out for Morgan Ensberg.

Update 6:59 PM CST, 4 Jan 07, Mark Loretta is officially an Astro again!!!  Welcome back Mark!!!!