First of all, I’d like to thank all of you for the great feedback on the Erstad nickname and all the good questions.

For the record, I have been calling Erstad “Dadio” because it’s really funny to me. Someone asked if he has a nickname for me and in fact he does, he calls me “son”. It’s turned into quite the joke and we both have fun with it. I did like D-Stud as well but, I’ve grown attached to Dadio and it’s a lot of fun to mess with him like that … so it’s probably going to stick.

Today, I am going to answer your questions by regarding what I do on game days. Let’s see, a typical game day during the season is somewhat of a process for me. I have a ritual routine. I start first thing in the morning with a HUGE breakfast to get some fuel in the system. My breakfast generally consists of fruit, eggs, pancakes, bacon, and coffee.

For a night game (7:00 p.m.) I usually head to the field at around 1:30 pm so that I have plenty of time to get loose and make sure I’m prepared before team practice (around 4:30 pm). When I get to the field, I’ll always read over the scouting report covering the pitcher that will be starting. Then, I head to the hot tub to loosen up my muscles. After the hot tub and stretching, I head to the batting cage to go through my hitting routine which consists of tee work and front toss with our hitting coach, Sean Berry. I’m consistent with every part of this routine because, in my mind, it’s how I get my swing right before the day starts.

After I’m happy with my swing, I will watch the last start of the pitcher we are facing until batting practice begins. After batting practice, I eat a banana, one grilled chicken breast and down a lot of water to get hydrated. By 6:00 pm (one hour before game time) I’ll go through one more short hitting routine that generally ends at 6:15. Then I just try to relax for fifteen minutes and mentally prepare for the game before I head to the field to stretch at 6:30 pm.

When the game is over I grab a protein bar and head to the weight room for a 30-45 min workout. Needless to say when I get home, I’m ready for bed. It’s all going to start over as soon as I wake up the next morning. =)

Talk to you soon!

Hunter

Post from: EveryJoe

From Hunter: Game Day Routine

Finally spring training is here and I have some baseball to talk about! Even though I haven’t been able to do much in spring training, other than watch, there’s still a lot going on. And for the record, I’m healing quickly and rather excited because I am supposed to be back at practice tomorrow!

It’s been a bummer that the accident had me sidelined, but I was very fortunate that my injuries were not serious and that my recovery has been quick. So back to spring training …

When I arrived, I was happy to see that my locker was right between Bourn and Erstad. It’s been nice getting to know Bourn. I was also excited to talk to Erstad and found it interesting to hear what his impression of me was last year. You see, Erstad is one of my favorite players to watch so it’s weird to think that he has seen me play. I found out that he initially I thought I was some know-it-all rookie!!

I asked him why he thought that and he said that when we played against the White Sox, last season, he saw me taking my 100 practice swings before the game. During my swings, he saw me walk over to the home plate where I started talking to the umpires. So it appeared to him as though I was acting like I ran the show. Keep in mind, he saw me doing this when I hadn’t been in the League for long. Little did he know that the umpires had called me over and I was just following their orders.

For whatever reason, last year, the umpires got a kick out of picking on me, in good nature. I remember the day Erstad referenced, the umpires had called me over to tell me that they heard I was a big trouble maker and to watch it because I was on a tight leash. I just laughed and said, “Yes sir.” Anyways, I got that all straightened out with D-stad and have gotten to know him pretty well now. As a matter of fact, I’m actually debating on what his nickname is going to be and I figured I could ask you guys for some help? Any suggestions would be good!

As a joke, I told Erstad I was going to call him by his first initial and the last two letters in his last name “Dad” or possibly even Fred Derstad. I don’t think either of those are going to stick, so help me out and send me some suggestions =) In baseball, you can’t call anyone by their regular name, everyone has to have a nickname.

Just to wrap things up, I wanted to share that there is a great feeling in the locker room this year because everyone has high expectations and a new attitude. On the field, I’ve mainly been standing behind the cage watching all of our pitchers and I’m excited because, as I’ve mentioned before, we are going to have a solid staff this year. In addition, with a little more help from the defense, things are looking good for the Astros this year.

The thing is we can’t just talk about it, we have to do it. I really liked how Tejada put it to me when I told him we were going to have a lot of fun with this team, I think I’ll stick with his plan. Next week I’ll gladly get to talk about PLAYING in spring training! haha, ’til next week.

Thanks.

Hunter

Post from: EveryJoe

From Hunter: Erstad Needs a Nickname

I hope that you all had a Happy New Year! For New Year’s Eve, me and my roommate, Ryan Patterson, whom I have played baseball with since I was 8 years old, made a road trip to Houston, Texas. We met up with a bunch of our buddies including Tommy Manzella from the Astros. Tommy came all the way from New Orleans to celebrate with us. We also had friends come from Austin and Mississippi. On New Years Eve, we had a small get together and broke the News Year in right!

On the baseball front, the newest from me is that the Astros just signed Darin Erstad. I am really excited about him joining our team because we brought in another guy who plays the game with the right mentality. Having watched Darin play, he seems like a hard nosed ball player who will do anything to win. The Astros have brought in a lot of guys with this attitude, which makes this an exciting off season! I keep looking more and more forward to Spring Training. As far as I am concerned, we have made a lot of adjustments in the bullpen as well. I feel like our starters from last year are going to do a lot better because the defense that we have added to the team with guys like Matsui, Bourn and Tejada. Everyone knows that defense is a pitcher’s best friend. All and all, it looks like we are solid with the pitching and have added a lot to our bullpen.

As far as my training, I am still working out six days a week. We have added hitting, throwing and defense to my daily routine. Basically I have the typical “January Swing”. My strength is back, I feel really strong, but I have a little work to do as far as my timing is concerned. So my goals for January are to get my timing and rhythm back.

Okay, do you have time for a quick training story…

During one of my running days, I was running with Sean Danielson (AA Red Sox player). We were running 40 yard dashes at the end of our workout (after running for 45 minutes). After three 40’s we kept tying each other’s marks so our trainer, Steve, finally put us against one another to see who the fastest runner was. And sure enough, we tied again with a 4.47. We were both really proud of our time and are very happy with how far we have come with our workouts because a month ago, we were not able to do this. It’s nice because we are feeling our improvements. We owe a lot to our trainer and REPS. What’s even more exciting right now is that we still have a month to go with our training!

So stay tuned until next week.

–Hunter

Post from: EveryJoe

New Year’s Greetings, New Astros & More