It’s been a crazy week of plays that have injured players with line drives to the head and others running into the wall. Houston Astros’ closer Jose Valverde took over the National League saves lead after finishing the game against the Philadelphia Phillies Friday night at Minute Maid Park. However, earlier in the inning, Valverde was hit with a line drive off the bat of Pedro Feliz that first hit the tip of his glove before making contact with his face.
Valverde hit the ground immediately and after being attended to by members of the Astros athletic training and …read more

On Thursday, the Houston Astros will begin spring training as they prepare for the first pitch of the 2008 baseball season. Pitchers and catchers report on Thursday, while next Tuesday is the date that position players report.
The top two catchers for the Astros in 2008 are expected to be J.R. Towles and Brad Ausmus. Towles joined the Astros at the end of the 2007 campaign and hit .375 in 14 games for Houston. The 38-year-old Ausmus is entering his tenth season as a member of the Astros.
Roy Oswalt headlines the pitchers this season for the Astros. Oswalt has been one …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.

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