So far Houston has only won one game in the Grapefruit League this Spring Training and people are wondering if it is time to hit the panic button. 

Before I get into what I think here is the opinion of a few Houston Astros’ sports writers:

Alyson Footer, Houston’s MLB.com beat writer, says she is “worried” in a recent post on her blog, Alyson’s Footnotes.

The fashionably negative Brian McTaggart, one of the Houston Astros beat writers from chron.com, surprisingly says it’s not time to hit the panic button…yet.

And chron.com fan blogger Chip Bailey needs Astros’ fans to tell him why he shouldn’t panic, because he is ready to.

I don’t think it is near time to panic.  Caution? maybe. Worried? sure. But definitely not time to panic. 

Houston has been outscored 31-78.  Pretty bad right? No.

This is without Carlos Lee (although he is on his way back to Florida after Panama was the first team to be eliminated in the WBC), Miguel Tejada, and Lance Berkman.  Wait, Berkman is still at Spring Training isn’t he? Well yeah, but he hasn’t traveled to hardly any of the road games.  So the potency of our line up is well…missing. 

So far, this Spring Training has been an opportunity for Houston to get a good look at their prospects and try to get their pitchers some work in. Btw, no Roy-O either.

Check back with me when Houston gets their big bats back in the lineup.  Until then, I am more concerned with Roy’s work load on team USA for the WBC.  He should have been out of that game a little earlier.

Panic time? No way.  Maybe if it were April.

From Alyson Footer over at Astros.com: Brocail taking it easy this Spring and Lance Berkmanto guest on Astroline.

One of the best Astros’ Blogs and my personal favorite Astros County looks at some surprising Spring Training numbers.

And Big League Stew discusses the media battle between Steve Phillips and Lou Piniella.  I personally agree with Lou.

Today’s game  against the Yankees ended with a 5-5 tie after the New York Yankees ran out of pitchers.

From astros.mlb.com

Astros at the plate: “Geoff Blum drove in Houston’s first run with a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, plating Lance Berkman. Matt Kata knocked a solo homer off Anthony Clagett in the fifth, and Chris Johnson drove in two more runs with a hit in the eighth. Brian Bogusevic knocked in the game-tying run with an infield hit later in the inning. ”

Astros on the mound: “Hampton was slated to throw three innings, but a high pitch count limited him to just two. Hampton yielded four runs on six hits, including an RBI triple by Cabrera that contributed to a three-run first. Jose Valverde struck out two in one inning, and Ortiz allowed one run over three frames.”

Astros Grapefruit League Record : 1-4-1

I’ve had the chance to watch a little Houston Baseball over the weekend and last week thanks to ESPN and the MLB Network.  Chris Johnson is a good looking prospect.  I think the kid contributes to the club sometime this year. 

In other news, Miguel Tejada has decided to pitch for the Japanese squad in the World Baseball Classic and Wandy Rodriguez has a rib-cage injury.  He is expected to miss two starts.

Alyson Footer gives some personal insight to the game against the Braves today in her blog, including photos of Jeff Bagwell in uniform chatting with Lance Berkman and John Kruk.

She also talks about Roy Oswalt and his future battery mate Brian McCann on Astros.mlb.com.

Jose de Jesus Ortiz writes about the pressure on the shoulders of Michael Bourn.

Finally, Big League Stew asks where in the world is Craig Biggio.

From astros.mlb.com

Stros at the plate : “Jason Smith put the Astros on the board first, driving in Darin Erstad with an RBI triple in the fifth frame. Michael Bourn knocked a double in the sixth to drive in Drew Sutton. Mark Saccomanno tripled to lead off the seventh and scored when center fielder Roger Bernadina overthrew home plate after fielding Humberto Quintero’s fly ball. Reggie Abercrombie drove in two with a double later in that inning, and Chris Johnson knocked a solo homer in the eighth”

Stros on the mound : “Mike Hampton turned a rough beginning into a solid outing, allowing no runs over two scoreless frames. He hit the first batter he faced and walked the next two to load the bases, but he struck out Austin Kearns and coaxed a double play from Jesus Flores to end the inning. Russ Ortiz, a fifth-starter hopeful, allowed one hit over two innings”

Sounds like Hampton got off to a shaky start but settled down.  From JJO of the Houston Chronicle, Hampton on his own performance and Cooper on Hampton:

“My arm felt good,” Hampton said after throwing two hitless innings. “My body felt good. Obviously location wasn’t where it needs to be, but all in all I felt good out there. Pitches and location will come. I got through with no hits, no runs. It wasn’t pretty at times, but I got there.”

“Mike seemed to be just a little bit tentative early, missing the zone a little bit,” Cooper said. “But then after … the first three (guys) he started to pitch a little bit and was real sharp. Russ, I thought, threw the ball really well.”

Apparently Hampton’s start was delayed due to the governor of Florida running late.

Houston’s Spring Training Record 1-0-0

So far so good.

Lance Berkman, Miguel Tejada, Carlos Lee, Hunter Pence all sat out of today’s game.  Berkman, Tejada, and Lee will all play tomorrow.

Here is the lineup Cooper used for the game today:

Matsui 2b
Bourn cf
Pence rf
Blum 3b
Michaels lf
Erstad dh
Boone 1b
Smith ss
Towles c

Houston will play the Atlanta Braves tomorrow at Disney starting at 1:05 ET.  Roy Oswalt will make the start.

Some media links for today:

Richard Justice makes 15 “rock-solid” predictions for the Astros’ 2009 season including Roy Oswalt winning the Cy Young and Lance Berkman winning the MVP.

Jose de Jesus Ortiz gives a look-in to Houston’s intra-squad game today.

Alyson Footer writes in her Spring Training blog about her day today at Spring Training, including her having to ask Darin Erstad about his face injury.

Finally, former star of Teen Wolf Tim Kurkjian posts an Astros video on his Spring Training blog.  The way the video finishes will make any Stros fan smile.

Roy Oswalt was looking good today Jose de Jesus Ortiz reports from Spring Training.  On Roy Oswalt throwing BP to Reggie Abercrombie and Lance Berkman.

“Two pitches later, Oswalt and the rest of the group broke out laughing at the unmistakable sound a ball makes when it breaks a bat.

“Man,” Abercrombie yelled. “That’s a brand new bat. That’s brand new.”

Not anymore. Berkman followed Abercrombie, and Oswalt broke one of the perennial All-Star’s bats, too.”

Here is what Cecil Cooper had to say about Roy :

“Roy actually threw the ball really, really well,” he said. “He seemed to have a lot of life on his ball. His ball was moving. He worked on his changeup a little bit. Roy looked pretty good. He actually threw some breaking balls too. The slow one and the hard one. He threw the ball well. It was good for him to see that up and down (five-minute break between throwing).

“Today he threw five (minutes) and then sat down for five and went back. We’re trying to simulate a little bit of what will happen in games to try to get them ready for games. It was good. I thought he threw the ball really well. He’s on pace to be able to do his pitching for the WBC. He’s good.”

Check out his post for more.

This is why I love Carlos Lee.

From Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle:

“Just days after several New York Yankees attended Alex Rodriguez’s press conference to support the disgraced steroids user, Carlos Lee, Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt parodied the Yankees as Lee held a brief press conference after his first workout of the spring Thursday.

After the Panamanian missed the club’s first full-squad workout Tuesday at Osceola County Stadium because he thought the reporting date was Thursday, Berkman chastised the slugger and Oswalt ridiculed Lee’s excuse. Once Lee was in camp, though, they all had fun with the misunderstanding.

Oswalt even suggested the gesture of mocking the infamous A-Rod press conference that was held last Tuesday afternoon in Tampa. Once practice was over, Berkman hugged Lee and sat at his side.

“We got to have one other person,” Lee said.

A few seconds later, and long after he had showered and dressed to go home, Oswalt sat nearby because he had waited for nearly an hour just to participate in the skit.

“He’s 100 percent backing me up,” Lee said as the sluggers declared love for each other.

“Let’s get through this together, Carlos,” Berkman said.

“I got confused with the reporting date,” Lee said. “I really thought it was on Thursday. It was on Tuesday, but I take full responsibility of it. There’s nothing I can do about it. All I can do is catch up with all the conditioning Lance got in the last two days.”

Berkman quickly chirped in: There’s no doubt. … It’s going to take you a lot longer than that to catch me.”

Lee has such a good relationship with his teammates and he consistently produces on the field.  What more can you ask for?  How about mocking Alex Rodriguez? That’s what I’m talking about.

In other Spring Training news, Astros non-roster invitee and veteran catcher hopeful Toby Hall is feeling discomfort in his throwing arm.  An MRI is scheduled to try and diagnose the problem.

Chris Sampson is scheduled to throw his first bullpen session Monday.

Roy Oswalt and Mike Hampton each threw batting practice today.  Oswalt is ahead of schedule relative to the other pitchers at Spring Training due to his preparation for the World Baseball Classic.

Today was the date for the first full squad workout, that means everyone…unless you’re Carlos Lee.  According to Alyson Footer of Astros.mlb.com, Lee didn’t report today because he had the “report for Spring Training” date mixed up.  Lee is now scheduled to arrive in camp on the 19th.  Fortunately for Stros fans and the media, Lance Berkman did show up and he wasn’t real happy with Lee:

“On one hand, it’s Carlos, Berkman said. “That’s just the way he is. He’s a great teammate, we love having him in here and obviously he’s a tremendous RBI guy. But part of you certainly is like…he and myself and Miggy and may be a couple other guys, we’re going to be looked to to carry the load. I think it’s a good example for the young guys and everybody else to be here when everybody gets here.”

Miguel Tejada DID arrive today and temporarily addressed his teammates and the media.  Nothing new however.

Finally, some good news from the camp, Mike Hampton’s heart “glitch” worked itself out and he should be back in camp Thursday at the latest.

For more on Berkman and what he thinks about Drayton McLane among other things, visit Alyson Footers Spring Training blog.  Pretty interesting stuff.

The Houston Astros got five shutout innings from Alberto Arias and went onto beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 on Monday night. It was a great start to the series for the Astros as the improved to 77-67 on the year.

The two runs that the Pirates did score came off of Wesley Wright in the sixth inning. He gave up rbi singles in the inning. Other then Wright’s two runs, the rest of the pitching staff pitched great. Doug Brocail, Chris Sampson, LaTroy Hawkins, and Jose Valverde all threw out of the bullpen after Wrigth was taken out. Valverde finished things up in the ninth inning for his 41st save of the season.

All three of the Astros runs came in the fifth inning when they were finally able to get to Pirates starting pitcher Ian Snell. Snell gave up a solo home run to Saccomanno and then Miguel Tejada and and Lance Berkman knocked in a run each with rbi singles.

The offense was lucky that the pitching staff threw the ball so well as they struggled against the Pirates pitchers. A win is a win however, and right now the the Astros need every win they can get.

Astros Blog