With one year under his belt, Astros manager Cecil Cooper is ready for the 2009 season to begin. After a rough first half which saw the Astros at 6-12 to start the season, Cooper and his team got hot after the All-Star break to go an best 42-24 while just missing a Wild Card birth by 3.5 games. We can all thank Hurricane Ike and Bud Seling for that.
Houstonist caught up with the Astros skipper at Thursday's Baseball Writers Association of America Awards Dinner to talk baseball.
Coach, with spring training just right around the corner, how exciting is it for you this time of the year?
Well, it's extremely exciting. We want to make a stronger showing than we did a year ago and we think we have a chance to do that. It's pretty exciting to get there (spring training) knowing that I'll pretty much have the same team that I had a year ago and we'll be familiar with each other knowing we can just go out and play baseball.
What was the difference between the first half and second half of last year? It was a rough start, but the team rebounded for a strong second half finish.
Well, I think number one, they got used to our style of doing things. Then I think everybody's role was really determined a little bit better and then I thought the biggest key was that Carlos Lee got hot and Roy Oswalt became the Roy Oswalt that we all know and love.
The interview continues after the jump.
Results tagged “springtraining”
>> Wintry mix blasts Panhandle, North Texas with sleet, snow: They came from the north and helped freeze your tootsies. Yep, those darn north winds are to blame for the uber chill around town today writes Meteorologist Tim Heller on the Houston Weather Blog. The same system that blanketed North Texas with nine inches of snow and caused Dallas-Ft. Worth airport to cancel 200 flights will share its chill with Houston. "This type of storm system is very typical of the end of winter and early spring, and the same storm may cause different impacts on different places," said Ron McQueen, an NWS meteorologist. Houstonist says bring on the spring. Of course we'll likely be regretting that statement as August rolls around.
As the Astros start their Spring Training schedule today in Osceola County, the college baseball season has been underway for a couple of weeks now. The annual Houston College Classic returns to Minute Maid Park this weekend as one of the premier regional showcases of top-level NCAA baseball.
Spring Training is the time for all things to be made new, for minor league farmhands to have their shot at the big league club, for mid-career players to reinvent themselves, and veterans to try to hang on for one more year. As the Astros assemble the position players who will come off the bench in 2008, there are some familiar faces, one very home town name, and a lot of unknowns.
A week after the pitchers and catchers arrived, the Astros' position players are due in Kissimmee today. Some, including Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn, and Kaz Matsui, have already arrived to get a jump on the rest of the team. Others, like focal point Miguel Tejada, arrived on time today. Like we did with the pitchers and catchers, we'll take a look at the guys out in the field and see where things lie.
On this lazy, semi-holiday, it feels like the perfect opportunity to browse around the 'net and find out what's been going on with our local teams. Only the Rockets are actually playing games right now, though the Astros are gearing up for theirs in Florida right now. The Texans continue to be a topic of discussion even though the NFL draft is yet two months away. With that in mind, let's take a look at what's been happening:
Yesterday, we took at look at the Astros starting rotation as spring training starts. Today, we'll move on to the rest of the players who are currently in camp: the relief pitchers and the catchers. Last year, the Astros bullpen often had the look of Brad Pitt at the end of Seven, and reacted about as predictably, too. Despite some really talented arms, the overall effect was less than satisfactory. Fortunately, new Astros GM Ed Wade has traded and signed a lot this offseason, and one of the greatest areas of benefit has been in the back-inning pitching.
The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and on a day like today, a young person's heart turns, naturally, to baseball. The baseball season is almost upon us, with the evaluation period known as spring training beginning in earnest today. The Astros major league camp starts today, with just the pitchers and catchers in camp. The position players will arrive later, but for today we'll take a look at everyone who's currently at the Astros' facility in Kissimmee, Florida, who has a chance of making the team this year, and what role they'll play on the 2008 Astros roster.
It's a struggle not to talk about how awesome the Super Bowl was last night, but since we're here to talk about Houston teams first and foremost, we'll have to stick to our mission. But how 'bout those commercials, huh? We went and looked at the GoDaddy.com Danica Patrick one online; who knew that she could put both legs behind her head while playing "Smoke On The Water" on kazoo?
We usually run this column on Mondays, but the Clemens press conference inspired us to be petulant and storm out of things, so we walked away from our keyboard in a huff, drove back to our mansion in Memorial, and injected our kids whose names all begin with K's with horse steroids. After we calmed down and called our lawyer, we compiled this list of links. Here's what the sports blogosphere is talking about this week.
beating the Texans received at the hands of the Colts. We saw beleaguered soccer moms parking their Suburbans at the mall with better timing and depth perception than some of Sage Rosenfels' passes on Sunday. Anyway, on to the links:
After Friday night's 4-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Houston Astros have decided to purchase the contract of Triple A Round Rock star, Hunter Pence. Pence, who exploded onto the scene in Spring Training with a .571 batting average in 19 games, has continued his dominance at Round Rock and is currently batting .341 with three home runs with 19 RBI through 22 games. Pence will make his MLB debut Saturday night as...
Well hello, Houston! It's the greatest day in America: Opening Day 2007! Spring Training is over, the roster is set and now it's time to play ball. The Astros' main concern last year was hitting. Heck, it was pathetic, but Uncle Drayton broke out the checkbook, signed power hitter Carlos Lee for a cool $100 million and added utility player and 2006 All-Star Mark Loretta. Also new to the team are a pair of native...