Astros gear up for a season unlike any other.
Astros gear up for rapid-fire agenda of testing, training and then 60-game sprint
The news surprised Brent Strom, a 71year-old man who’s observed almost everything his sport has to offer. Bickering ended, and baseball finally charted a course for return amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The way things were looking,” Strom said Monday night, “I didn’t think we had a chance in hell, to be honest with you.”
Strom’s premonitions remain relevant, regardless of Tuesday’s agreement for a 60game major league season. How the sport plans to travel and play for four months amid a pandemic remains a hard-to-solve question. The two sides agreed to an extensive set of health and safety protocols, but continued spikes of cases around the country invite wonder whether it will even matter.
Texas reported a record 5,489 new cases Tuesday. The Astros canceled individual workouts at Minute Maid Park on Monday and Tuesday amid the state’s staggering numbers, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation.
Yet in one week, the 2020 club will reconvene in Houston hoping to start its season. Players agreed to report by July 1. Even before cases spiked in Texas and Florida, the Astros always planned to hold their camp at Minute Maid Park. Teams are allowed to invite up to 60 players, some of whom will comprise a taxi squad of players not on the active major league roster.
Bench coach Joe Espada oversees all spring training scheduling. Normally, he can utilize the team’s expansive south Florida facility, complete with multiple fields, batting cages and bullpen mounds. Minute Maid Park does not offer such luxuries.
Before the July 1 report date, all 60 Astros players must undergo an “intake process,” according to a copy of the league’s operations manual. It includes a temperature check and two COVID-19 tests — one a diagnostic PCR test and the other a blood-drawn antibody test. Players must quarantine for 24-48 hours at their spring training residence while awaiting the test results.
All players must complete a COVID-19 educational course before they can begin workouts, according to a copy of the league’s 2020 operations manual. Player
workouts will be staggered to maintain proper social distancing, and pitchers will report before position players.
Clubhouse workers and field managers will arrive before any players to ensure protocols are followed inside the stadium.
The league has divided training into three phases. Phase 1 includes individual and small group workouts. Phase 2 incorporates full team workouts before Phase 3 introduces a “limited number of spring training games against other clubs.”
“We’ve already (identified) people who are going to throw live batting practice on the very first day,” Strom said. “We have a cadre of people who are ready to go.”
In a normal six-week spring training, starting pitchers make six starts and throw five innings by the final one. Five innings in a spring training game can often translate to six or seven in a pitcher’s first regular-season start. Now, Strom said, his target shifts to three outings per starter. In the final one, they’d throw around three innings.
Strom said he’ll likely eliminate many of his pitchers’ side sessions in favor of facing hitters in either live batting practices or simulated games.
“It’s one thing to be throwing on the side and doing some (batting practices) and stuff like that. It’s another thing when it starts to get ramped up,” Strom said. “What’s going to be the concern is the ramp-up and how intense it’s going to be.”
Strom sounded optimistic about his established pitchers. Setup man Ryan Pressly and closer Roberto Osuna are “ready to go” after throwing on their own during the shutdown. Lance McCullers Jr. and Josh James did the same. Justin Verlander returned to throwing off a mound this month after undergoing groin surgery in March.
Strom has received encouraging reports about Verlander’s recovery but wants to reserve any absolute judgement until seeing him in person. If he’s healthy, Houston can take solace in Verlander and Zack Greinke atop its rotation.
“(Greinke) told me he needed two weeks from the day he’s told he’s got to pitch and he’ll be ready to roll,” Strom said.
Last year, the Astros’ franchiserecord 107-win regular season provided consistent 60-game sample sizes. Houston was 40-20 after its first 60 games and 42-18 from games 101 through 160.
The team was 39-21 from game 31 through 90 and 38-22 from contests 61 through 120. Eight of their nine everyday starters return, along with American League Cy Young winner Verlander. Cy Young runner-up Gerrit Cole does not.
“I think we’re the best team in the (American League) West still,” Strom said. “We’re one of the best defensive teams, which is good. We’re just going to have to see how everyone comes in, and their mindset is going to be the most important thing. More than physically, they’re going to have to get mentally geared up for this thing, especially given how other teams feel about us.”
Fallout from the team’s signstealing scandal, muted considerably in the midst of the pandemic, will return, a fact not lost on Strom.
“(Opponents) are going to be excited about beating our ass, and we’re just going to have to withstand that and play the best we can,” Strom said. “We’ve got some leaders like (Alex) Bregman and these kind of people who’s not going to let anybody not get after it.”
“More than physically, they’re going to have to get mentally geared up for this thing, especially given how other teams feel about us.” Astros pitching coach Brent Strom