*As Hunter Atkins notes, Alex Bregman was in the minors in 2016, the World Baseball Classic in 2017, so this is his first actual full Spring Training. And he's going to start at shortstop today.
*Buster Olney and Keith Law talked about the Forrest Whitley suspension.
In Law's chat transcript we see something...interesting:
Wait....caffeine? pic.twitter.com/zjqb2XzHfS— Aaron Ashcraft (@Aarcraft9) February 22, 2018
*Jake Kaplan says that Derek Fisher's consistency will be the key to him playing a significant role in 2018.
Fisher, 2017: 53G (166 PAs), .212/.307/.356, 54K:17BB
Springer, 2014: 78G (345 PAs), .231/.336/.468, 114K:39BB
Fisher's 32.5% K/PA rate is concering, but it was lower than Springer's 33.0% K/PA rate. Let's just see what happens, but I think Derek Fisher's gonna be alright.
*Tony Kemp, a self-described "Alfred," is looking for a place to play in Houston. I don't know if you know this but Kemp, a 5th Round pick from Vandy in 2013, is a career .310/.388/.419 hitter in Triple-A, with 256K:238BB and 131 stolen bases. Dude's good.
*Brian McTaggart has your dark-horse candidates to make the Opening Day roster.
*Our Boy Jeff Blogwell makes his debut for The Athletic, looking at Jose Altuve's home/road splits.
*Check out my favorite Mariners blog Lookout Landing with their 2018 Astros preview.
*Josh Reddick might coulda been on The Bachelor.
*Kate Upton threw Justin Verlander a nice little birthday party.
*Grant Brisbee has the best over/under bet of the 2018 season.
*Mike Fiers is reunited with old pitching coach Chris Bosio, and he's here for it. Fiers:
It sucks when you know you are a lot better than [2017]. That's pretty much what I pride myself on - making these [hitters] earn their way on base and throwing a lot of strikes and not giving all those free passes.
*Jon Heyman rides the Jonathan Lucroy-to-the-Astros bit so hard that he's gonna need to elevate his entire body tomorrow.
*
Closest MLB team by drive time. pic.twitter.com/k1BWfltnvW— Paul Moehringer (@PMoehringer) February 23, 2018
