Houston Astros

The Houston Astros will open the regular season at home on March 31st, hosting the Texas Rangers on Sunday Night Baseball.

In 2013, the Houston Astros will leave the National League Central division after two years of negotiations. They will switch instead to the American League West, with this switch balancing the number of teams in each league. 

Veteran relief pitcher José Veras signed a one year deal with the Houston Astros, according to the Twitter feed of ESPNDeportes writer Enrique Rojas.

The right hander will be 32 next season as he enters his eighth season in the majors. The product of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays farm system made his debut with the 2006 New York Yankees and played in the 2007 Division Series.

For every Alex Rodriguez, there is a Matt Bush. For every David Price, there is a Bryan Bullington.

We won't know if the Houston Astros' No. 1 overall pick, Carlos Correa will be an A-Rod or Bush, but we do know what kind of abilities he has at the dish and in the field.

Here we will asses his skill set and evaluate his chances to, one day, become an MLB star.

Correa as a Hitter

Position: LHP

Height/Weight: 6’3”/175 lbs

Bats/Throws: R/L

DOB: 1/22/1994

High School: Camarillo (Calif.)

College Commitment: UCLA

Since picking up pitching as a sophomore, Hunter Virant has continually asserted himself as one of the top prep left-handed pitching prospects in the 2012 draft class.

Raise your hand if your team has been hit by the injured closer epidemic spreading like wildfire around Major League Baseball this season.

Most of you should have your hands up, for what it's worth.

That's why teams willing to sell at the trade deadline this year might be able to acquire premium returns for their closers. One such team might be the Houston Astros, and one such player could be Brett Myers.

Houston Astros fans were surprised when Brad Mills announced Brett Myers would be the Astros' primary closer heading into the 2012 season. The biggest reason was Myers was expected to be No. 1 or No. 2 in the rotation; a rotation that was atrocious last year.

Houston Astros outfielder J.D. Martinez had a decent rookie season, compiling a .274/.319/.423 slash average with six home runs and 35 RBI in 226 plate appearances after joining the team in late July. 

Though he's slated to be the Astros starting left fielder this season, Martinez wanted to be in great shape when he got to spring training. To achieve that, he wanted to be pushed hard. So hard that he'd leave his effort all over the training room. Literally. 

If the Astros continue to struggle, they could start to move some of their valuable pieces like Brett Myers and Wandy Rodriguez. I see Myers being the most likely of the two to be traded but Wandy could bring back more prospects.

Entering the season, the pitching staff for the Astros was suppose to be a strength for this team but after two weeks the results have not been good outside of Brett Myers. The Astros have a team ERA of 5.57, which makes the team 28th out of 30 teams.

This was partially expected as some of the Astros pitchers, like Wandy Rodriguez and Bud Norris, is perennially slow starters and usually get it together the second half of the season. However, there are some pitchers within the Astros organization that could potentially help the Astros pitching staff.