The Skeeters will open the season on the road with 6 games at Reno starting April 8 followed by 6 games at Sacramento.
First home game at Constellation Field is April 22 versus the Salt Lake Bees.
The season will end on Sep 21.
The limited travel in 2021 does have a huge side benefit if you previously hung out at the Dell–the Skeeters will play a whopping 24 games in Round Rock.
RR will be the opponent in 36 games this season overall.
Other frequent opponents (all within the division) with # of games: OKC Dodgers (24), El Paso Chihuahuas (24), Albuquerque Isotopes (30). So including the Express, SL will play 114 of their 142 games against just 4 opponents.
It’s all very much up in the air. The way I’m interpreting things right now is that AAA players for the Astros will go to Sugar Land in April. All other minor league players will still report to WPB for spring training next month.
Hasn’t really played much this spring but De La Cruz has definitely caught Dusty’s eye. The 24 year old Dominican player needs to add some pop to his skillset. He’ll again be a minor league free agent at the end of the season (just as he was this past year before the Astros re-signed him).
The alternate site roster is below. Obviously most of these guys will transition to the Skeeters roster in May. As noted in the accompanying press release, clubs “may place healthy Minor League players on a newly created Minor League Development List for any non-disciplinary reason. The Development List is an Inactive List, and the minimum period of inactivity for a player on the Development List shall be seven days.” You’ll see it used for pitchers a lot this season just as the inactive list in the past was used to rest guys.
The box score from last night’s game. Nothing new as regards to those positions he’s playing but Toro sees time in both the infield and outfield thru the 1st 3 games (3B twice, LF twice, 1B once). 21 year old Jairo Solis struggles with his control but still manages an effective outing. And Jose Siri has now whiffed 5 times in 12 ABs thru 3 games.
Box score from the other night re the Rangers/Astros ATS exhibition game. Kent Emanuel with a very solid outing while Cristian Javier remains stretched out as was the plan. The loss put the Astros’ record at 2-2-1 vs the Rangers. SS Jeremy Pena hasn’t played the last couple of games. Freudis Nova played those games instead and is now on the Astros taxi squad on the 5-game road trip to Seattle and Denver suggesting Pena has an injury of some sort.
The Astros ATS squad fell to the Rangers ATS squad last night to run their record in exhibition contests to 2-3-1. Not a great outing for Kent Emanuel who might be the next pitching callup for the big club. Both he and Cristian Javier had pitched back on the 14th so somewhat odd that Javier didn’t pitch last night as well (unless he replaced Peter Solomon on the Astros’ taxi squad). Shawn Dubin has now whiffed 14 in 9 innings of exhibition work. Jeremy Pena again does not play so continue to assume he’s injured.
