Astros 'situating' for another run
03/08/2006
KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Call it Tim Purpura's state of the Astros speech, but the club's general manager hit all the pressing points in evaluating the first three weeks of Spring Training on Wednesday.
"I think everybody expected us to have pandemonium here with all the 'issues' we have here," Purpura said. "But it's been pretty much a normal spring for us, you know.
"Guys are going about their work. I think the one thing that's impressed me the most is that nobody is resting on the fact that we went to the World Series."
It would be foolish, as Purpura pointed out, to rest on last year's performance, but it would be hard to rest too much on it anyway. The Astros didn't go into the '05 season looking to lose in the World Series; they went into the season expecting to win it.
The goal remains the same in 2006.
"Everybody's got their sights set on getting there and doing a better job once we get there," Purpura said. "That's a lofty goal, but it's a realistic goal, given what the talent level is."
But talent and performance must meet at some point in the season, and the two must continue to play in concert with each other for success to happen. They didn't do so last October in the Series, where the Astros lost to the White Sox.
Purpura and his staff spent a lot of time in the offseason dissecting what went badly for the Astros in the World Series. Their conclusion: The team didn't do well enough with its situational hitting.
"That's one area where we failed," Purpura said. "There's no doubt about it."
So he and his top lieutenants held a series of meetings in the offseason and talked about the problem.
The question they weighed: "How do we become better situational hitters?"
In the end, they found answers, and they decided to use those answers in rewriting the team's hitting manual. They are now preaching its benefits from top to bottom within the organization.
Purpura said they want the hitters in the organization to improve their on-base percentage, which means see more pitches, work the count better and take walks, among other things.
"Simply put, though, we have to hit better situationally," he said. "We have to produce more runs."
Bringing in Preston Wilson should help, but so should a more structured approach to getting runners on base.
Still, hitting isn't the only thing that Purpura has his eyes on in Spring Training. He's looking to see the defense and the bullpen improve, particularly the latter with the addition of left-hander Trever Miller.
Purpura would also like to make certain the pitching staff, overall, remains a plus, as it was in '05.
"Not having Roger [Clemens] here, that will be a challenge," he said. "But we've got a lot of good arms coming through the system, and if some of them progress to the point that they can help us, we should be OK there."
Source: http://houston.astros.mlb.com/
KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Call it Tim Purpura's state of the Astros speech, but the club's general manager hit all the pressing points in evaluating the first three weeks of Spring Training on Wednesday.
"I think everybody expected us to have pandemonium here with all the 'issues' we have here," Purpura said. "But it's been pretty much a normal spring for us, you know.
"Guys are going about their work. I think the one thing that's impressed me the most is that nobody is resting on the fact that we went to the World Series."
It would be foolish, as Purpura pointed out, to rest on last year's performance, but it would be hard to rest too much on it anyway. The Astros didn't go into the '05 season looking to lose in the World Series; they went into the season expecting to win it.
The goal remains the same in 2006.
"Everybody's got their sights set on getting there and doing a better job once we get there," Purpura said. "That's a lofty goal, but it's a realistic goal, given what the talent level is."
But talent and performance must meet at some point in the season, and the two must continue to play in concert with each other for success to happen. They didn't do so last October in the Series, where the Astros lost to the White Sox.
Purpura and his staff spent a lot of time in the offseason dissecting what went badly for the Astros in the World Series. Their conclusion: The team didn't do well enough with its situational hitting.
"That's one area where we failed," Purpura said. "There's no doubt about it."
So he and his top lieutenants held a series of meetings in the offseason and talked about the problem.
The question they weighed: "How do we become better situational hitters?"
In the end, they found answers, and they decided to use those answers in rewriting the team's hitting manual. They are now preaching its benefits from top to bottom within the organization.
Purpura said they want the hitters in the organization to improve their on-base percentage, which means see more pitches, work the count better and take walks, among other things.
"Simply put, though, we have to hit better situationally," he said. "We have to produce more runs."
Bringing in Preston Wilson should help, but so should a more structured approach to getting runners on base.
Still, hitting isn't the only thing that Purpura has his eyes on in Spring Training. He's looking to see the defense and the bullpen improve, particularly the latter with the addition of left-hander Trever Miller.
Purpura would also like to make certain the pitching staff, overall, remains a plus, as it was in '05.
"Not having Roger [Clemens] here, that will be a challenge," he said. "But we've got a lot of good arms coming through the system, and if some of them progress to the point that they can help us, we should be OK there."
Source: http://houston.astros.mlb.com/
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