Baseball

The 9 Innings Blog will be bringing you previews of every Major League Baseball team for the next 30 days. This is in accordance with our 30 teams in 30 days series. Today, we are bringing you the 2011 preview of the Houston Astros. The Astros are looking to bounce back from a less than stellar 2010.

The Astros finished up the 2010 season finishing 76-86 which was good for fourth place in the National League Central, finishing better than the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

News broke that Alex Anthopoulos and the the Toronto Blue Jays have signed Dominican Outfielder Fransisco Tejada to a reported $150,000 bonus.

According to www.mlb.com:

"Tejada is a 6-foot-4 outfielder with an above-average arm, plus bat speed and the potential to develop into a power hitter. He also is considered a plus runner having run the 60-yard dash in 6.5 seconds."

Colorado Rockies (2010 record: 83-79)

Notable additions: RHP Matt Lindstrom, INF Jose Lopez, C Jose Morales, INF/OF Ty Wiggington

Notable subtractions: 2B Clint Barmes, RHP Octavio Dotel, SP Jeff Francis, 3B Melvin Mora, C Miguel Olivo

The offense:

Our 2011 Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit is finally here, and although it's dirt cheap, 99 cents, we felt our fans would want a sneak peak at some of the great content that the guide boasts. Not only did our writers rank players at every position, the guide also contains a mock draft with round-by-round & team analysis, sleepers, busts, closer report and more!

As baseball season approaches, many of us look to the spring training statistics to get some players worth taking in our fantasy drafts. Let’s take a look at some of the leaders and weigh their draft-ability.

The Phillies played two games on Saturday in split squad action.  Kyle Kendrick started against the Rays in Clearwater and Vance Worley took the mound against the Pirates in Bradenton.

The Toronto Blue Jays were the league leaders in home runs in 2010, and it looks like they are starting to re-establish that trend in Spring Training.  Jose Bautista and Adam Lind hit their first home runs of spring against the New York Yankees on Friday, which helped power them to a 10-3 victory.

They joined Edwin Encarnacion and Eric Thames as Jays that have already hit one home run each, while Brett Lawrie and Rajai Davis have both hit two so far.

While I was watching today's spring training game, between the New York Mets and Florida Marlins, there were two things that jumped out at me. First, is the fact that the Marlins will have some very long days in the field this year—as they have in past years.

It happens to someone every year on fantasy baseball draft day.

Player X starts to fall below his average draft position. He keeps sliding down the round and into your lap. You shake your head in disbelief. Player X fell this far? I’m about to select the steal of the draft! You already hear league mates moan with disgust as you snipe away such a good draft day value.

The Cleveland Indians can’t possibly be much worse than they have been each of the last two two seasons. After going 65-97 in 2009, Cleveland improved slightly last season winning 69 games. They once again finished in fourth place in the AL Central, but could be looking at a last place finish in 2011.