The Astros have reached that point in Spring Training when everyone is checking their watches to see what day it is. The World Baseball Classic is already into their quarterfinals and Opening Day is two weeks away. Soon, it will be time to break camp and find out who is making the 40-man roster.
Unlike some teams who are going to have to scramble for channels and carriage agreements in the wake of the largest RSN, Bally's, filing Chapter 11 this week, both the Astros and Rockets are in good position thanks to their previous dealings with local cable networks when they were part of CSN Houston. Their deals to remain on Xfinity, DirecTV and AT&T are good through 2032 regardless of which RSN is carrying the games.
Michael Brantley will almost certainly miss the first week or two of the season because he missed some camp time dealing with an undisclosed family issue. It was a surprise when, early in Spring Training, the team said they expected him back for Opening Day following shoulder surgery late last season. In his place, could camp phenom Justin Dirden actually make the 40-man?
Finally, we got our first glimpse of rookie Pedro León after offseason sports hernia surgery. León was expected to at least challenge for a spot in the outfield, but was limited by his recovery. Astros fans should still expect to see him get a call up at some point this season. He has been a beast at Triple A Sugar Land.After some wicked struggles at the plate, both rookies vying for the backup catcher job have started to find their way. Yanier Diaz, who was .