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