Leading up to Spring Training, we want to take a closer look at Hunter’s Astros teammates.
When you think of the Houston Astros’ pitching staff, you think of Roy Oswalt. Not only is Oswalt the ace of the pitching staff, he’s one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Since being called up to the big leagues in 2001, Oswalt has simply been dominant.
Oswalt was born in Weir, Mississippi, a town with a population of less than a thousand residents, and played various sports growing up. In his senior year of high school, he played wide receiver …read more

After a self-imposed deadline past for the Houston Astros on Wednesday night, general manager Ed Wade announced that the team will proceed to salary arbitration with Jose Valverde and Mark Loretta.
Said Wade: “That’s why we felt it was appropriate to let the agents know up front. The right way to handle this was to create a deadline. In order for us to be men of our words, we will stick by the deadline.”
Valverde was acquired in the offseason and is expected to be the closer for the Astros in 2008. Last year for the Arizona Diamondback, Valverde had 47 …read more

Avoiding arbitration, the Houston Astros signed relief pitcher Dave Borkowski to a one-year contract on Tuesday. The right-handed Borkowski will give the Astros more quality depth in their bullpen.
The 30-year-old from Detroit, Michigan will enter his third season with the Astros in 2008. During the 2007 campaign, Borkowski had five wins, three losses and a save while posting a 5.15 ERA. In 2006, he had three wins, two losses and a 4.69 ERA.
The Astros still have two arbitration-eligible players in pitcher Jose Valverde and infielder Mark Loretta.

The Houston Astros signed a pair of arbitration-eligible players to contracts recently. Ty Wigginton and Geoff Geary, who were both acquired in trades within the last year, both agreed on one-year deals.
Wigginton is expected to be the team’s starting third baseman this season. Acquired from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays during the middle of last season, Wigginton played 50 games for the Astros and hit .284 with six homeruns and 18 RBIs.
Geary was acquired earlier in the offseason from the Philadelphia Phillies. Geary is a right-handed relief pitcher who had a 4.41 ERA last season and has a career ERA …read more

Avoiding salary cap arbitration, the Houston Astros and right-handed pitcher Brandon Backe agreed on a one-year contract. Backe, who missed almost a year after an elbow injury, returned to the Astros late last season. In five starts, Backe went 3-1 with a 3.77 ERA. In six big league seasons, Backe has 22 wins – 21 of which were with the Astros.
In other new, the Houston Chronicle is reporting that the Astros and free-agent right-handed pitcher Runelvys Hernandez are close to coming to an agreement on a contract. The 29-year-old Hernandez has played all of his big league games for the …read more

On the Houston Astros official website, you can find an interesting article about J.R. Towles.
Towles has a chance be opening day starting catcher for the Astros in 2008. While Towles doesn’t have much big league experience, he did impress last season in the 14 games he played for Houston. During that time, he hit .375 and had one homerun and 12 RBIs.
The 6-foot-2 Towles will be 24-years-old on opening day. Brad Ausmus, who has spent nine of his 16 seasons as a catcher for the Astros, will also return to the team for a tenth season.

Hunter mentioned in his blog post about the new players that were acquired by the Houston Astros this offseason. In case you haven’t been keeping up with the latest news, here’s a rundown of the Astros’ offseason acquisitions.
Coming off of a disappointing 73-89 campaign in 2007, the Astros and new general manager Ed Wade decided to shake things up. While the legendary Craig Biggio decided to hang up his cleats following the 2007 season, many other players were brought on board to hopefully get Houston back to the playoffs.
Miguel Tejada
Tejada is a slugging shortstop who won the AL MVP …read more