Since my son is now school age and his April spring break doesn’t coordinate with a spring training trip, my family’s week-long baseball vacation this year will be a visit to Houston. We’ll get to catch two games in the home opener series, in addition to hitting the beach and other cool Houston stuff. There should be some awesome photos on Red Hot Mama in April.

In the meantime, the Astros are splitting their squad today to go up against the Braves and the Nationals, and The Crawfish Boxes has the scoop.

Lisa Gray at The Astros Dugout is analyzing some spring training performances. She’s not seeing as much as she’d like out of the ‘stros pitching:

The important thing is for pitchers to locate and to throw to live batters. So far, seems only Roy and Wandy are doing that well. I watched a clip of Wandy and he seemed to be a lot more in control of himself than he usually is when he starts out. Wandy controls the ball best when he controls his own self best.

Lisa was also the contributor of the Astros poem on the Fanhouse, so you’ll want to check that out.

I hit the Cubs official site tonight and saw that you can get Cubs.com in Spanish now. A quick tour of the other NLC official sites showed that you can also get Astros.com in Spanish.

Totally awesome, in my opinion. I’m very much in favor of making baseball more accessible. And I’m also in favor of getting Scott Spezio eye replacement–if that’s what he needs–as apparently mentioned in this headline on the Cardinals official site that I saw when looking for more sites in Spanish. I had no idea team doctors were making such impressive strides.

OK, finally here’s an update on player transactions in the NL Central. Egad, Feb. 11, has it really been that long? How time flies. Fortunately, many of the deals that have transpired since have already been reported by my colleagues here on RHM and there were a few “slow news days” so hopefully this won’t be too painful if I move along quickly

Yes, Feb. 11 – the Pirates signed 1B Doug Mientkiewicz to a MLCWSTI.

Feb 15 – The Pirates invited nonroster C Steve Lerud to spring training, while the Reds locked up their probable 2008 cleanup hitter for the next four years by signing 2B Brandon Phillips to a four-year, $27 million contract through the 2011 season with a club option for 2012.

Feb. 18 – The Cubs signed IF Alex Cintron to a MLCWSTI (Also on this date, Leatherpants Vampire added Bret Boone to his collection of former Reds).

Feb. 19 -  The Cardinals signed LHP Ron Villone, a former Red, Brewer, Astro, and Pirate, to a MLCWSTI – and Bubba copped a job.

Feb. 20 – The Astros signed free agent RHP Shawn Chacon, a former Pirate, to a $2 million, one-year contract. The Brewers signed LHP Mitch Stetter to a one-year contract and signed 3B/OF Russell Branyan, a former Red Brewer, and Cardinal, to a minor league contract (Incidentally, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel erroneously reported that Branyan was with the Reds, Padres, and Cardinals last year. Oops. Well, two out of three ain’t bad, right? Russ was with the Phillies, Padres, and Cardinals last year and hasn’t worn a Reds uni since 2003. You Brewers fans might want to tip off Tom Haudricourt about the existence of Baseball Reference).

Feb. 21 – The Brewers signed C Lou Palmisano to a one-year contract. The Reds signed RHP Josh Fogg, a former Pirate, to a one-year, $1 million contract, placing LHP Bobby Livingston on the 60-day DL to make room for Fogg on the 40-man roster.

Feb. 22 – The Reds released OF/1B Craig Wilson after he reportedly failed his physical. Wilson spent most of last year on the DL with shoulder problems and even had surgery to try to clean things up. I wish Craig the best of luck.

Feb. 24 – As previously reported here on RHM, the Pirates signed RHP Byung-Hyun Kim to a one-year, $850,000 contract.

What wasn’t reported is how they made room for Kim on their 40-man roster: They DFA’ed Little Ray Ray.

🙁

I hope they finish in the cellar…but then, what are the odds of that? Oh, wait…

That’s a wrap. You’re now caught up on all the wheeling and dealing in the NLC since our last update. I’ll have more to contribute soon, if I don’t completely trash my computers upgrading the operating systems later this week (it really is about time for me to ditch Windows ME, don’t you think?).

HMZ

This week on the podcast we talk fantasy baseball with Brad Stewart of MLB Front Office. I’m no fantasy expert, but the advice he gives sounds pretty sound, and the breadth of information available on the site sure couldn’t hurt your extensive baseball research time.

Dusty Baker should stop talking

Prince Fielder is a Vegetarian?

• “I tell people I don’t eat meat, and they’re like, ‘Oh!'” Fielder said, raising his hands and making a sour face. “They forget there’s so much other food out there. Beans, rice, tofu. You’ve got a lot of good food, baby!”
• Fielder made the decision to cut out meat after reading a bestselling book, Skinny Bitch.

The Cubs Mark DeRosa is undergoing heart tests

The Pirates signed Byung-Hyun Kim

• A $1 M Major League deal.
• Ray Olmedo DFA’d to make room.

The Astros signed Shawn Chacon to help with their rotation

The Cardinals signed Ron Villone.

Cincinnati signed Josh Fogg.

Joe Nuxhall didn’t win the Ford C. Frick Hall of Fame award

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Somehow I missed the Astros signing Shawn Chacon this week for $2 million. Chacon basically moves from the Pirates to the Astros.

It seems like a good signing. Chacon will be 30 this season, but he’s shown success in the past in both starting and relieving roles. Of course, he’s had moments of suckage, too. In fact, like Star Trek movies, he seems to alternate between good years and bad years. Too bad he wasted his good year in Pittsburgh. Well, I guess he didn’t exactly waste it. 😉