First off, I'd like to apologize for falling off the face of the earth after two weeks of recaps. I really did need to adhere to my hiatus. But, I'm breaking it for this post to welcome the Class of 2021 to the Houston Astros organization.  Some of you are probably familiar with this post, in which I track down the draft picks on social media and list their accounts here. If you are so inclined, you're welcome to follow them. Unless noted otherwise, these are their Twitter accounts. Round 3, Pick 87: Tyler Whitaker, OF, Bishop Gorman High School, Las Vegas Twitter: @twhitaker00&nbs ..read more

Results for Week 2: May 13-18 The Sugar Land Skeeters, fresh off a 5-1 series win in Albuquerque, were in Round Rock for the second leg of their inaugural road trip as an affiliated Minor League Baseball club. Sugar Land and Round Rock played two at Dell Diamond on Monday. Again, as a reminder, I will not be doing recaps this week. Game 1 (Thursday, May 13): Sugar Land 10, Round Rock 4 W- Seth Martinez (2-0) L- Jason Bahr (0-1) SL home runs: Jake Meyers (4, 2-run in 2nd), Jose Siri (3, grand slam in 2nd) It was the Jose Siri Show on Thursday as he cleared the bases with a double in the ..read more

Results for Week 2: May 11-16 Let's play two in Frisco! Just a heads-up, I will not be recapping Week 3's action. I forget that I'm supposed to be on hiatus, so I will take a week off from recaps once a month. Corpus Christi @ Frisco Game 1 (Wednesday, May 12): Frisco 3, Corpus Christi 1 W- Jake Latz (1-0) L- J.P. France (1-1) S- Noah Bremer (1) CC home runs: None. This was the first game of a doubleheader. The Hooks did not win this game. Corey Julks led off the 6th with a double and he scored Corpus' only run of game one on Marty Costes' single. On the bright side, Enoli Paredes st ..read more

Sugar Land gets its own post because AAA operates on a different schedule. Game 1 (Thursday, May 6): Sugar Land 9, Albuquerque 4 W- Ralph Garza Jr. (1-0) L- Antonio Santos (0-1) SL home runs: None. The Sugar Land Skeeters' first game as an affiliated minor league baseball club ended in a victory. Albuquerque cut into a 5-0 lead with three runs in the 3rd, but the Skeeters hit back with three in the 6th to regain control. Six of the Skeeters' starting nine finished with multi-hit games. Alex De Goti finished 3-5 with a pair of RBI singles. The one guy who didn't finish with a multi-hit gam ..read more

Results for Week 1: May 4-9 For the first time in two years... Happy Minor League Opening Day! Obviously, with the sheer volume of games to cover, I'll try to keep it short and sweet for each individual game. Corpus Christi vs. San Antonio Game 1 (Tuesday, May 4): San Antonio 8, Corpus Christi 3 W- Reiss Knehr (1-0) L- Nick Hernandez (0-1) CC home runs: David Hensley (1, solo in 6th) Rough night in the field for the Hooks as four errors condemned them to an opening-night defeat. David Hensley went 2-4 with a solo homer to lead off the 6th inning. Marty Costes drove in Corpus Christi's ..read more

Wrapping up the Meet the Team series is the Fayetteville Woodpeckers! Photo from Chris Creamer's SportsLogos.Net Unfortunately, with the glut of minor league clubs in the Southeastern United States and the contraction of Minor League Baseball, some clubs in the region having to move down a level would be inevitable. The Fayetteville Woodpeckers, who entered MiLB as a Class A Advanced club, were one of the clubs to draw the short stick and dropped to Class A as a result. Fayetteville will begin its season on the road against the Carolina Mudcats Tuesday night. The Woodpeckers will now ..read more

In part three of our Meet the Team series, we head to Western North Carolina. Let's meet the Asheville Tourists! Photo from Chris Creamer's SportsLogos.Net The Asheville Tourists, formerly of the Class A South Atlantic League, will be moving up one level to Class A Advanced following the realignment of Minor League Baseball. The Tourists will begin their third stint as a Houston Astros minor league affiliate on Tuesday when they host the Brooklyn Cyclones. Before the 2021 season, the Tourists were the Class A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, a distinction they had held since 1994. Be ..read more

Part two of the Meet the Team series takes us down to South Texas. Let's get to know the 2021 Corpus Christi Hooks! Photo from Chris Creamer's SportsLogos.Net The Hooks have been an Astros affiliate since its inception in 2005. 2020 would have been the 15th anniversary of their inaugural season, but again, unless you have been living off the grid, there was no Minor League Baseball season. During the (still) ongoing pandemic, Whataburger Field has served as the Astros' Alternate Site. Following the MiLB realignment, Corpus was placed in the AA Central League, which is essentially a co ..read more

As Jayne is on her sabbatical, it looks like I will be assuming the responsibility of operating What the Heck, Bobby? I recently made the decision to step away from my own blog for the time being, so that process is very much up in the air. I might just recap according to who's playing. Since Triple-A and Double-A have Wednesdays off, I'll start the posts on Thursday, add to them, and post on Wednesday. The Class A clubs have Mondays off, so I'll utilize that same method starting on Tuesday and then adding to them until they're ready to post on Monday. So, I'll have at least two posts a week a ..read more

A year ago tomorrow, my life changed in ways that I never anticipated. My first 22,936 days on this planet had not prepared me for the next 365. Don’t get me wrong. I completely understand that I have been so much luckier than so many others, but luck is relative. I live alone and I have always enjoyed that. But more than enough of anything can be too much. I have struggled with depression and anxiety as so many of you have. Mix in more than a little heretofore uncharacteristic anger and bitterness toward the callousness of those whose selfish self-interest trumped simple basic human decency a ..read more