Lisa Gray notices a discrepancy with Valverde's age.
See, one place says 32. She notes that the 2008 Astros Media Guide says his birth year is 1979, as does Baseball Cube and Baseball Refernce.
However ESPN and Yahoo says 1978. Odd.
This isn't my imagination or me mis-remembering. According to the Chron, Valverde was 28 in December of 07 when we obtained him from the Diamondbacks. In fact, almost every Chron story which lists Valverde's age corresponds to him having a July 79 birthday.
Might could be that the extra 15 months may affect Valverde's value as far as long term contracts go, even though he is still obviously a top-notch closer.
UPDATE at 2:30pm: Ed Wade says the age discrepancy is simply a mistake, and...
...Adding that extra year to [Valverde's] age at this point of time is of no great consequence.”
Papa Grande just became Papa Viejo.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
