A Sneak Peak from Disney

(Photo by Jason Getz/AJC)

Consider this just a preview of the full length motion picture due to come out this April. 

The Houston Astros opened their Grapefruit League schedule today with a rousing 13-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. An amazing outing by our the leader of our pitching rotation, Wandy Rodriguez, is the best part.  And by "amazing", what I really mean is "disgusting".  He managed to give up 6 runs in an inning and 2/3. On the offensive side,  Jason Michaels went 0-for-3 and left 5 men on base.  Solid!

The only thing somewhat positive to say is that Carlos Lee went 2-for-3 with an RBI, and Brett Wallace went 3-for-3 with 2 runs scored.   According to the boxscore, our offense couldn't have been too terrible compared to the Braves with our hit totals almost even.  The Astros knocked around 14 hits to the Braves 15, but just like typical Astros teams, we can't put the hits together to equal any runs.  Just ask Roger Clemens in 2005, and Roy Oswalt in 2007-2010. 

Now, I do have to admit a couple of things:  1) I didn't get to watch the game, I am only looking at the post game boxscore,  and 2) I never really put too much stock into what happens in spring training.  (Especially final scores)

But. . .  things that do concern me during spring training, are things like star players batting around .200 or .175 through March, and pitchers giving up too many walks and home runs.  So obviously, I can't get too worked up about either of these things yet, but talk to me in about 3 weeks and let's see how I feel then.

Oh, and by the way, I just found out last week that the Astros open the regular season against the Philadelphia Phillies in Philly.  I don't know if you've heard, but they just happen to have the best starting rotation I've ever heard of:

1. Roy Halladay
2. Cliff Lee
3. Roy Oswalt
4. Cole Hamels
5. Who cares about this spot when you've got those four?! 

You can bet that this will be something for us all to think about as we watch the offense try to get some sort of confidence so we don't open our 2011 campaign with 3 consecutive no-hit losses. 

Well, that's all for now.  Now that the Astros are playing games, expect quite a bit more posts on them.  BUT, my wonderful mother did purchase a new camera for Blythe and that takes HD Pictures and HD Video, so hopefully I will be able to post videos and higher quality pictures here as well!  I'll be playing with that a little bit tonight, so we'll see how soon I can put it to some good use!

Peace Out,
Luke

p.s.  391 page views through my first full month of blogging as of 3:27pm today!   Thanks for reading!!