Houston Astros Spring Training 2024

I love this time of year. Everything seems new, even the Houston Astros. Like a strong plant the roots are basically the same as previous years but several new branches are starting to produce flowers in hopes that they will produce good fruit for the upcoming season.

I have been a Houston Astros fan since they were the Colt 45’s. When I was a kid the Colt 45’s held an open tryout in our small town of Alice, TX. The story that was related to me was that my older brother, Richard, (may he rest in peace), was offered to join their organization, but our father objected. I don’t think he really wanted to go anyhow. He was only in high school, and he had other plans for his life.

Where to go

We drove up to West Palm Beach, where the Houston Astros hold their Spring Training. They workout at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches which is a nice complex with an 8000 seat stadium where they play their spring home games. It is also the spring training home of the Washington Nationals. Each team has their own training facilities that includes several ball fields, state of the art batting cages, covered pitching lanes, and anything a professional baseball team needs to prepare for the season ahead. Entrance to the practice fields is free and open to the public, but they do charge to enter the stadium and watch the games.

A great day for baseball

It was a nice sunny day with the temperature in the low 80’s. A perfect day to watch some of the best baseball players in the world practice their trade, then watch them play a practice game against another professional team while enjoying hot dogs and ice cold beverages. The only thing missing was apple pie.

How about a little fielding practice

My favorite part of a trip to spring training is watching the infielders and pitchers go through their fielding drills. Last year the whole team gathered on one of the fields with latin salsa music blaring as they went through their drills. It was all very upbeat and exciting. This year was a bit more subdued. They came out and ran through their drills in a new field just outside of the clubhouse. No music.

No autographs this time

Since they did not have to go to one of the outer fields for their pre-game warm up practice they did not have to walk through the fans lined up along the fences hoping for autographs. I don’t know if that is the new norm, or just the way they handled that day’s warm up. They did send out Jeff Bagwell to sign autographs, which was pretty cool because he is one of my favorite Houston Astros. I did get him to sign my cap.   

Some of the differences

Every year is a bit different. The biggest difference this year is the new Manager, Joe Espada. He’s not new to the team though. He was hired after the 2017 season to serve as their Bench Coach, and was promoted to Manager of the Houston Astros after Dusty Baker retired last November. The one thing that stood out to me this year was the changes to the batting lineup. He has switched Yordon Alvarez to bat second behind Altuve and Bregman to follow Alvarez, with Kyle Tucker hitting clean-up. It’s not a huge change, he basically just swapped Alvarez and Bregman’s spots, but it is interesting.

The back half of the lineup is still in flux, but with guys like Mauricio Dubon, Yanier Diaz, Corey Julks, and others, he is in pretty good shape. Jeremy Pena is among those in the back half of the lineup as he works on his swing, but he did hit a solid RBI double in the game against Detroit that day, so he’s looking good. 

Working on getting better

I believe that the Houston Astros are in good shape offensively, and defensively. My concern is with the pitching. I think that was their weak point last year, so we’ll have to wait and see how the off-season addition of Josh Hader as the closer will work. Ryan Pressly is taking on a reliever role and has a great attitude about it. His thought is that they pay him to go out and get 3 outs, no matter what inning. They do have a good staff, it’s just a question of whether they can put it all together or not. We got to watch Framber Valdez pitch 4 innings of 2 hit, no runs, and 4 strikeouts baseball. He looked good, but his relief didn’t. His reliever, I forget his name, gave up 4 runs in the 5th, and then the rest of the bullpen gave up 2 more. 

By the 4th inning of the game that day all of the starters were out and replaced by players that I was not familiar with. That’s typical for spring training games. The coaching staff wants to see how the new guys are doing. Last year I had never heard of Dubon, Diaz, or Julks, but they were impressive when I watched them during the practice and game. The year before, who had heard of Jeremy Pena? We’ll see who rises above the crowd this year. This is spring training so these games don’t mean much. Espada is still trying to figure out who will make the opening day roster. I think they are in good shape and have what it takes to take it all again this year. LET’S GO HOUSTON ASTROS!!