This USA pitching staff leaves a lot to be desired

League is screwed!!! https://t.co/zoeJUPIx4i

— Michael Schwab (@michaelschwab13) March 16, 2023

He looks quite a bit faster

Project Gemini said:

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I went to journalism school so I could provide you with this exclusive exposé: The Yankees charge their players for internet on the team plane.

“It’s your fault,” they tell one another. “Your contract is too big, so they can’t pay for the Wi-Fi.”https://t.co/m0Gkio541d

— Stephanie Apstein (@stephapstein) March 15, 2023

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ttha_aggie_09 said:

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League is screwed!!! https://t.co/zoeJUPIx4i

— Michael Schwab (@michaelschwab13) March 16, 2023

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awesome, but, maldy, please don't dive/fall into first, easy way to get hurt

Project Gemini said:

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I went to journalism school so I could provide you with this exclusive exposé: The Yankees charge their players for internet on the team plane.

“It’s your fault,” they tell one another. “Your contract is too big, so they can’t pay for the Wi-Fi.”https://t.co/m0Gkio541d

— Stephanie Apstein (@stephapstein) March 15, 2023

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why do so many baseball writers hate writing about baseball? she and chandler rome seem to be bitter, sad people

also, isn't she the one who also likes to write astro hit pieces?

Injuries are 99% of my concern in ST. We don't exactly have an open competition for a starting so at best we're watching the back up catcher and 13th man competition. And even then you can only tell so much from a few ST at bats. The coaches are getting more info watching them work each day.

Alvarez, Brantley, and McCullers are all getting right. They'll probably be back in that order. If Brantley doesn't make it back by opening day, we'll get to add the "14th man" too. Lance also opens up another bullpen spot.

Kind of boring, but that's good news for us.

My takeaway from spring training is that Machete is going to hit .330 and steal 40 bases this year

I think the players consider this much more than an exhibition game.

Yeah, I don't get it. It's huge for the players.

Fans complain about Baseball being so stagnant and doing nothing to grow the game, then a worldwide tournament comes around and the same fans complain that America is sending literally the best players in the world to play and they MIGHT get injured in an "exhibition" game.

The Japan vs Korea game had 62.3 million viewers in Japan. 2022 World Series averaged 12 million a game. It's more than just an exhibition.

TWO WEEKS until Opening Day and that's 14 days by my math, which gets us to #14 on the jersey countdown. #14 has been worn by some remarkably popular players, and also by Derek Bell. That's break it down!



Aspro the Astro, Bob Aspromonte, a great good-will guy wore the # from 1962-1968. Aspro has some AMAZING trivia attached to him - he was the Colt 45s first-ever batter in a regular season game, but he also was the final batter in the final game for the Brooklyn Dodgers before they moved to Hell. He also recorded the Colt 45s first-ever hit and scored our first-ever run. In that 1962 season he hit .266 with 11 HR and 59 RBI.
He was a slick fielding 3B who finished in the top five of fielding percentage in the NL 5 years in a row. His best year was 1964 when he hit .280 with 12 HR and 69 RBI. He also had the team record for grand slams with 6, which was broken by Carlos Lee in 2011. He's also still alive and kicking at age 84.



A few years after Aspromonte, Roger Metzger put on #14 from 1972 to 1978. Born in Fredrisckburg and a graduate of St. Edward's University, he was the first-round draft pick of the Cubs in 1969. The Astros got JR RIchard with the #2 pick that year. In typical Cubs' fashion, Chicago gave him 2 at-bats before trading him. He led the lead in triples with 11 the next year for the Astros, then again with 14 in 1973. He was not a good hitter overall, but won a Gold Glove in 1973. If you're eating something, go ahead and put it down because in November 1979, Metzger lost the tips of all four of his fingers on his right hand while using an electric saw to build his kids a playhouse for Christmas. And that pretty much did it for his playing career.



After Metzger came Alan Ashy, who wore the number from 1979 to 1989, when the Astros cut him while he was getting on the bus during a road trip. You stay classy, McMullen!

AA hit the first walk-off home run in Astros playoff history, which came against the Dodgers in 1981, and caught three no-hitters for the team: Ken Forsch's in 1979, Nolan's in 1981, Scotty's in 1986. Ashby didn't play catcher until his senior year of high school and was with the Indians and the Blue Jays before getting to the H. He was a pretty decent hitter for most of his career. In 1987, he hit .288 with 14 HR and 63 RBi in the juiced ball year. He also hit a 2-run shot off SId Fernandez in the Astros' 3-0 win in Game 4 of the '86 NLCS.

He went straight into TV after his career ended, working for the Rockets, the Houston Cougars, and the Astros as their color commentator from 1998-2005. He returned to the job in 2012 and stayed there until 2016.






After Ashby, it was 6 years before Derek Bell took the number and wore it from 1995-1999. Acquired in one of our 35-man trades to either San Diego or Detroit, Bell quicky found that batting between two future HOFers was a good career move. He hit .334 in 1995 and drove in 113 runs in 1996. In 1998, he was one of the best players in the league, batting .314 with 111 runs scored, 198 hits, 41 doubles, 22 HR, and 108 RBI.

In 1999, Bell proved that you don't have to be smart to play baseball when he decided to have a confrontation with manager Larry Dierker about being dropped from 2nd to 6th in the lineup. He did this on July 22. Why is that date significant? Because it was the day that DIerker returned to the field following his grand mal seizure a month earlier that had resulted in emergency brain surgery. Great timing, Derek! He ended up getting benched, then traded with Mike Hampton to the Mets. We'll save the laughs about Bell's Operation Shutdown for another post.

I have to shout out the brief career of Charlie Hayes wearing #14 for the Astros because he only played 31 games before getting cut, and his best defensive play of the season was when he threw a chair onto the field at the Metrodome in 2001. And by the way, he was not actually playing in the game. He was out on the field helping Roy Oswalt warm up.

Charlie Hayes is also the subject of one of my favorite Kramer moments on Seinfeld, where he came to the Yankees after getting traded by the Phillies after famously blowing a perfect game for Terry Mullholland with an error.



After Hayes, #14 went to Morgan Ensberg, who wore it from 2002-2007. Morgan broke out in 2003 with 25 HR and a .291 average in 127 games. He was 4th in the MVP voting in 2005 with 36 HR, 101 RBI and a .283 average as the Astros went to the World Series for the first time.

JD Martinez wore #14 for 3 years in the early 2010s, but unfortunately it was before he started taking steroids. He hit 24 home runs in 3 years with the Astros, and has hit 258 since then. Nothing to see here!

And of course, the current #14 on your roster but #1 in your heart, Mauricio "Big Irish" Dubon. He hit a powerful .208 last year but fortunately was not allowed to bat in the post-season.

New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz tore the patellar tendon in his right knee during the celebration after Puerto Rico’s WBC victory against the Dominican Republic. He will need surgery and is expected to miss the season.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 16, 2023