Astros Spring Training Report

I spent the morning at camp today with family and my godson. I thought it was pretty sad that the defending NL Champs only had about 75 spectators for camp - thankfully there weren't a lot of the annoying autograph hounds. In the diary earlier this week, some people had asked for a report on stuff so here it goes: Brad Lidge was further working on a change up and was having lengthy discussions with Garner afterwards on how he had been talking to other pitchers in the off-season about their change-ups. Couldn't quite hear who though. Both Gothreaux and Hernandez are up and throwing. Both threw live BP sessions to groups today. Gothreaux's session looked OK but he was getting hit pretty good. For video proof that Hernandez was actually pitching, go see this link: Click here to watch 'Carlos-Hernandez-bullpen' Bagwell was in hitting groups today but did not see him do anything in the field. McLain was also there again today making his rounds. There was not as much media today as was reported yesterday.



One of the great things about going to camps is that you get to go up close to the players to watch them work. We saw Steve Sparks throw his knuckleball today with the wind in his face - boy was that thing dancing. However, Dan Wheeler's slider looks filthy up close. Click here to watch 'Dan-Wheeler---check-out-that-slider' The most impressive thing I saw in camp today was Felipe Paulino. Click here to watch 'Felipe-Paulino-bullpen' He comes pretty much over the top with good heat and he was throwing a lot of spike curveballs along with a few changeups (need work). He also pitched live BP to the a group of hitters that included Biggio and Ensberg under the watchful eyes of Garner, Cruz, and McLain.



Click here to watch 'Felipe-Paulino-live BP'
Some of the video was shot with my 7 month old in one arm and it was on my 2 yr old digital camera so the quality is average. Not to mention, it was pretty overcast out there today.