Friday, March 18, 2005

Spring training stats don't matter...
but they're still fun to talk about. Particularly for players trying to make the team. I'm not too concerned about how Biggio / Bagwell / Ausmus / Oswalt are doing, because they have an established level of performance. But the youngsters; well, that's another story. With that in mind, here are some interesting stats from a few of the young guys:

Jason Lane: 6 extra base hits, slugging .700, in 30 AB's. His defense might never be suited to CF, but he can hit for power. I'm hoping for a .280 / .350 / .500 line.

Adam Everett / Willy Taveras: hitting .276 and .308, respectively, with 7 SB and 0 CS.....but they've combined for 2 extra base hits in 55 AB's. Ouch. Still, no one really expected them to hit for power. But both of them + Ausmus in a lineup is a lot of guys that can't slug .400

Chris Burke: the bad? He's hitting .261. The good? He's slugging .522. I still don't understand why the Astros seem so set on having Biggio start at 2B when we have our TOP PROSPECT ready to go at that position.

Morgan Ensberg: well, he's not really young, but he's got 3 doubles and a HR in only 22 AB's, so maybe he's rediscovering his power stroke. I'll take an average of '03 and '04, which would put him at .280 / .370 / .450 or so. He'd make a fine #2 hitter, in my opinion.

Luke Scott: He's slugging .667, and he's left handed. He and
Carlos Rivera: have been a powerful combination (Rivera is slugging .824). I hope at least one of these guys makes the team, as we have one truly dangerous left handed hitter (Mike Lamb) at the moment.

Tim Redding / Brandon Duckworth both have solid BB/K ratios (2/6 and 2/7, respectively), which I like to see.

Carlos Hernandez, on the other hand, has SUCKED. A lot. 3 HR, 6 ER, and 5 walks in 5 innings. He's not close to being ready. Send him down to AAA and hope he finds his missing velocity sometime.

Chad Qualls should be our 8th inning set-up guy. 6 IP, 7 H, 0 BB, 6 K's? Pretty solid, Mr. Qualls.

John Franco. 6 hits. 6 walks. 3.2 innings. And the Mets got Beltran.

Chad Harville has been almost as bad as Franco. 7 hits and 3 walks in 3 innings. Yuck.

Ezequiel Astacio: 1 H, 1 BB, 3 K's, 0 runs in 3.1 innings. That's pretty good.


Summary:

Well, based on all this, here's my Opening Day Lineup:

Biggio LF
Ensberg 3B
Bagwell 1B
Lane CF
Scott RF
Burke 2B
Everett SS
Ausmus C

Oswalt SP
Clemens SP
Backe SP
Pettitte SP
Brandon Duckworth / Tim Redding SP (other one gets traded)

Brad Lidge
Chad Qualls
Dan Wheeler
Chad Harville
John Franco / Mike Gallo
Ezequiel Astacio

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