Pistol: Just a heads up, especially for those who are Beer Clubbing it up today: the game starts at 1:05 pm (link)

Whoops, I was looking at the Astros site when I gave the time.

I was reading Gammons blurb on espn and his news and notes had a funny story: COMN

Pat Borders, a Mariners' non-roster invitee, will be 41 in May. Last year when he was catching in Triple-A, an opposing hitter said, "I watched your father play in the World Series for Toronto in the early 90s." Hmm.

Notes on today's game:

- How nice it is to have actual competent major league pitchers in
the bullpen. Adams, Speier, and Ligtenberg all seem to know what
they're doing. Ligtenberg has got one strange 'stache, though - it
runs halfway across his cheeks.

- I wonder whether Batista will always struggle in his first inning or
so of work, as he will have to sort through his arsenal of pitches to
see which four or five of them are working that day. (Slider, check.
Changeup, oops. Split-finger, oops. Strange bendy pitch, check.)
Catchers working with Batista usually suffer from a finger problem -
he has seven pitches, and they have only five fingers to work with
when putting down signs. (Apparently, they're using a wiggle for pitch
6 and 7.)

- The O-Dog has switched uniform numbers: he's now #1. W00t.

Damn. I keep forgetting that the comments here automatically word wrap. Think of this as blank verse, or something.

To build on Dave's post, I'll add a few observations (in no particular order)...

I saw three of Phelps' at-bats; the two singles seemed like he'd really nailed down his approach at the plate but then when Hernandez came in Josh looked lost and confused (the third strike was embarrasing)

I forgot how great Wells *looks* at the plate. He's ready to attack every pitch of every AB. He's always stepping into the pitch (even when he takes the pitch, you'll see him moving into the strike zone). I also liked Howie Clark's AB in the 9th. He ended up K-ing but he fouled off many tough pitches (though one or two were clearly balls).

Sparky lived up to his name today, first gunning down the player at the plate with a great toss from RF (I didn't realize he had an arm like that) and then coming to the plate in the bottom of the inning and forcing the pitcher into an erratic throw with a well placed bunt.

The Astro's SP seemed to be using a fielder's mit that could theoretically allow an opponent pick up his grip/pitch.

Lightenberg was simply over powering. The Astros just didn't look like they could catch up to him and his off-speed stuff had almost too much movement.

Ligtenberg looked like he had fine tilt on his slider today. I was worried that using a sidearm angle he would throw a flatter frisbee style slider which wouldn't be that useful against lefties. He's had a very strong spring though I don't know if he's faced many tough guys from the left side. Getting out Giambi, Williams, Nixon, and Ortiz isn't quite the same thing as retiring Vizcaino who seemed to make good contact on hard hit fouls unlike the righty batters who weren't close to touching KL. If he can continue to perform into the season then he just might get in there as a closer which would make him a nice tradeable asset with a fixed income for 2005.

i think batista's problems has something to do with greg myers, i think most starts that bastista has had was with cash

I noticed a little hitch in Batista's delivery, but it only came in the full windup, never from the stretch. Is this normal? I was also reminded of Steve Traschel a few times, especially the first inning.