A Healthy Dose of Grapefruit....LEAGUE, That Is!

Something for you readers to feel anything but "sour" about (Okay, enough of the citrus puns, I promise) is the fact that today was the first Houston Astros game in pre-season Grapefruit League. That's right, folks! BASEBALL IS OFFICIALLY BACK IN H-TOWN!!!! And even better news, your Houston Astros won their first game against the Philadelphia Phillies on the road. And man oh man, those boy never looked better!

The most notable performance of the day came via the newly acquired free agent, Doug Fister. He pitched two innings with only two hits, a walk and four strikeouts. My analysis of him and my other assigned players for the season is available here at:

My FantasyPros.com Correspondent Page

My editors and fellow correspondents gave me the following list of players to keep up with during the 2016 season. AND THEY ARE:

Doug Fister
Carlos Correa
Ken Giles
Jake Marisnick
Carlos Gomez
Colby Rasmus
George Springer
Preston Tucker
Andrew Aplin
Will Harris

And saving my favorite for last, your PEOPLE'S CHAMPION and mine:

Evan Gattis

Some good news on the Oso Blanco front, as Evan stayed behind at camp to do some accelerated 40-yard running drills, soft toss batting practice, and some more throwing and catching to work on rhythm. You can check out Evan Drellich's full article about the Big White Bear's ahead of schedule progress here.

Here are some of the quotes from Evan himself:

"I think it's right on or maybe a little ahead (of schedule)," Gattis said, while also warning, "you never know what's going to happen whenever you turn up the volume."

"I've been told (that) running, like, game speed is kind of later," Gattis said. "Wait on that. ... I think once minor league games going, inter squad or whatever, I think I'll probably have at-bats where I hit and don't run."
On some occasional pain he feels: "It's part of the healing," Gattis said. "Finding that balance... between how hard to push it and be OK the next day without any setbacks."

I'm overjoyed to see Evan getting through things so quickly and also being cautiously optimistic. It "bears" repeating that these things are the mark of a true champion, which he and this team all collectively are. I hope to do all of these boys a solid with my update reports on them throughout the 2016 season.

While we keep watching this team go on to World Champion glory, here are some more photos of Evan at camp, courtesy of Karen Warren and the good folks at The Houston Chronicle:


Evan cutting up with Marwin Gonzalez during down time.

Getting some insights from legendary pitcher, Roger Clemens!

Evan on that cart again. He may just end up tricking it out!

The Big White Bear is gonna be ready to help this stellar Houston Astros ball club to World Champion victory in October!!!!