This is all I got from chron.com and JJO:

“Hoping to lift doubts about Cecil Cooper being a lame duck, the Astros pick up the manager’s extension for the 2010 season.

“This is so we can move forward,” Astros owner Drayton McLane said before the team’s press conference with Cooper.”

Not much from the chron but interesting indeed.  I was hoping they would do this so Coop could relax a little bit.  Hopefully this will somehow translate to some more W’s.

From astros.mlb.com:

“The Astros announced Thursday that they have sent Minor Leaguer Drew Sutton to the Cincinnati Reds to complete the trade that brought Jeff Keppinger to Houston near the end of Spring Training.

Sutton, 25, will report to the Louisville, the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate. He was hitting .267 (4-for-15) over his first five games with Triple-A Round Rock. The utilityman had a breakout season last year at Double-A, hitting .315 for Corpus Christi with 20 home runs and 20 steals, all while playing a variety of positions.

Sutton was Corpus Christi’s Most Valuable Player and was a Texas League All-Star in 2008. He led the Astros organization in a host of offensive categories, including batting average, hits, runs, walks, doubles and extra-base hits. He was originally drafted by the Astros in the 14th round of the 2004 First-Year Player Draft.”

Sutton? I was really hoping it would be someone else. Bummer.

Hopefully we can hold on to Kepp and get more out of him than just this season.

After today’s game against the Red Legs, Chris Johnson was informed that he will be sent down to AAA Round Rock following the Astros contest against the Corpus Christi Hooks.

“He took it well — it wouldn’t be fair to leave him wondering about all of this,” Cooper said. “This kid’s handled himself like a big leaguer. He’s handled himself well, he’s held his own here. He handled his business in a professional manner. I could tell he was all ears — not as much talking, just listening. His work habits were great.”" – astros.com

Although Johnson didn’t make the club out of Spring Training, he did open up a lot of eyes and turn a lot of heads.  It wont be long until we see him in an Astros uniform.  It is nice to know that if and when Houston suffers injuries this season, they have some capable players who can come up and fill in.

The Astros returned Gilibert De La Vara back to the Royals today per the Rule 5 Draft:

“After De La Vara, 24, cleared waivers, general manager Ed Wade offered him back to the Royals for $25,000, half of what the Astros paid when they selected him during the Rule 5 Draft at the Winter Meetings last December. ”

The team also sent down Edwin Maysonet after acquiring Jeff Keppinger (J-Kepp!), pretty much giving the back up infielder position to Jason Smith.

Here is Footer on Edwin, Jason, and the rest of the prospects:

“The Astros roster is pretty much set. Edwin Maysonet was sent down today, which means Jason Smith probably has locked up the utility infielder job. Chris Johnson is still in big league camp, but now that Jeff Keppinger is joining the club, it’s likely Johnson will start the year at Triple-A. I would expect Johnson to accompany the team home to Houston this weekend and then head to Round Rock after Saturday’s game. ”

Also from Footer’s blog, Ed Wade on Maysonet:

“He’s going to play in the big leagues for a long time. At some point, he’s going to get the opportunity to do it. I just told him, when I got here before last season, people like Tal [Smith] and David [Gottfried] and Ricky [Bennett] and others talked about Maysonet and his ability to play defense all over the place, and his bat was coming, and that’s exaclty what we saw when he was here.”

“He had a few rough spots in Spring Training defensively, but he has exceptional hands and a strong arm and great instincts. He’s going to hit enough to play a lot of games in the big leagues. Right now, with the ability to get a guy like Keppinger, I think it’s more appropriate for Edwin to go back and get those at-bats at Triple-A.”

The Houston Astros have acquired Jeff Kieepinger from the Cincinnati Reds for a minor league player to be named later.  Here is the news from stros.com:

“Nearly two weeks after losing Aaron Boone for the season due to a heart ailment, the Astros found an alternative solution. Keppinger will assume Boone’s duties as the right-handed complement to Blum at third, but he’ll also receive time at short and second when Tejada and Matsui get those promised days off this season.

Keppinger, who turns 29 on April 21, hit .266 with three home runs and 43 RBIs over 121 games for Cincinnati in 2008. He struck out just once every 20.9 plate appearances, the best ratio in the Major Leagues last season.”

The strike out ratio is definitely a plus for the impatient Astros.  Keppinger, or as I am going to call him until anyone thinks of a better nickname J-Kepp, post good numbers against lefties.

“An even bigger selling point: Keppinger hit .351 and slugged .515 against left-handers last year. He logged 94 hits in 268 at-bats versus lefties, recording 17 doubles, three triples, seven home runs and 35 RBIs. He drew 22 walks and struck out eight times.”

This should make for a nice platoon at third for the Astros.  Hey it’s no Wiggy but it’ll do. Heck, even Brian McTaggart thinks so. “[I agree. I think that could be a nice platoon for sure.]“

In an article on astros.com Alyson Footer discusses Bud Norris’ and J.R. Towles’ demotion to minor league camp.  However, much of the article is spent in praise of Norris:

“Norris didn’t pitch his way onto the team this spring, but he accomplished something just as important — he flew up the depth chart, and as soon as a need arises on the Major League level, the 24-year-old right-hander is going to be the first considered.”

Sounds like things are going well for Air-Bud.

On the drive to the town where I grew up today (liberty, tx) I went through Houston and caught an interview on 1560 with Alyson Footer. (apparently her nickname is scrunci?)  In her interview she discussed the demotion of the two prospects and went further in to detail on Towles. 

She basically said that Towles did not help himself at all with his spring performance and with Pudge on the club this year and Castro on his way J.R. may have missed his window of opportunity. 

Tough news for J.R. especially since it isn’t his fault the club handled him so poorly last season. 

According the Jason Stark of ESPN.com Geoff Geary is on the market.

“ATTENTION SHOPPERS: A few extra parts who are being made available right now: Blue Jays reliever Shawn Camp, Astros reliever Geoff Geary, Royals catcher John Buck, Phillies outfielder Geoff Jenkins. Counting Jenkins’ $1.25 million buyout of his 2010 option, he’s still owed $8 million. The Phillies have offered to pay “almost all of it,” according to one club, but still haven’t found a taker.”

The club could be looking to ship Geary and perhaps replace him with Dilbert De La Vara in hopes of getting someone to play 3rd.

Stark also covers a few more Astros tid bits in the article, including possibles for third base.

You can now add 9 for 15 with two homers to the numbers of the Houston Astros catchers this spring with the soon-to-be signing of Pudge Rodriguez.

Here’s the news from Astros.mlb.com:”Ivan Rodriguez is expected to sign with the Astros, pending a physical exam that will be taken upon the completion of Puerto Rico’s participation in the World Baseball Classic.”

So let’s all hope Pudge doesn’t hurt himself in the classic.

Here are the specs for the deal:”The contract will be for one year at $1.5 million with another $1.5 million possible in incentive bonuses, ESPN.com reported. “  

Good acquisition for a good price.  Pudge doesn’t deserve to make more than that and Houston doesn’t have to concern themselves with the offensive hole at the catchers position…unless the Pudge from the New York Yankees shows up.

Thanks Uncle D-Mac.

From Astros.mlb.com: 

“The Astros trimmed four from their Spring Training roster on Tuesday, optioning right-hander Brad James to Triple-A Round Rock while also reassigning catchers Jason Castro and Brian Esposito and right-hander Sergio Perez to Minor League camp. ”

No surprises here.  However, Coop had some comments about the re-assigned players:  “Castro had been real impressive here, and we felt it was time to send him over there so he could get a lot more work,” Cooper said. “James and Perez are guys we like, but they seemed to be a little overwhelmed by all this stuff.” ” -chron.com

Ken Davindoff of Baseball Insider judges each team in the majors on their offseason success.  He groups the teams into 4 categories: winners, winners with downside, losers with upside, and losers. Care to guess where the Astros rank?

If you said losers you are correct!

Davindorf: “Losers: 3. Houston: Despite some internal lobbying, GM Ed Wade wouldn’t even consider a one-year deal for Andy Pettitte”

Andy Pettitte? Really? That’s the reason why we are “losers”?  Would our rotation be that much more stable with another aging hurler?

I guess it was a short column and he couldn’t go in to detail.  If he could have I imagine he would have said that GM Ed Wade was handcuffed by the economic situation facing the Houston Astros instead of the whole Andy Pettitte bit.

Losers? Maybe.  We lost 2 key components to our second half push last season in IF/OF Ty Wigginton and SP Randy Wolf.  However, our pitching staff would still be considered suspect even with Wolf so I think the fact that we swapped Mike Hampton for Randy Wolf isn’t a big deal, as long as Mikey can stay healthy. He likes it!

And Ty? Well, you got me there.  Defensively he wasn’t real sharp but his missing bat is gonna hurt.  I think we start the season with a Blum Boone platoon (poet and didn’t know it) and, if Chris Johnson keeps up his Spring Training Numbers for the rest of March and continues to do well in AAA, he will be our 3rd baseman come June.  Maybe sooner.  Once this occurs, I think the Wiggy Wolf loss is gonna sting less.  Guess we will see.

Also, if Wade can have success with his Rule 5 draftees as he has in the past, Houston’s offseason could turn out better than people currently think.  Lou Palmisano and Gilbert De La Vara are both making a push to make the club out of Spring Training.  And if they can repeat Wesley Wright’s success of last season and make this club better, props to Ed Wade.

Of course, that is a lot of “ifs.”  As of now, Houston’s offseason looks unproductive, but the results of this season will be the true testimony to the clubs offseason moves.