By Brian McTaggart
Wallace, Castro stay hot in win over Tigers
What happened: The split-squad Astros got a two-run homer from Jason Castro — his second in as many games — and a solo shot from Brett Wallace to pull away from the Tigers for a 9-4 win on Tuesday afternoon at rainy Osceola County Stadium (boxscore).
For the game story and boxcore on the Astros’ 7-2 split-squad loss to the Rays in Port Charlotte.
Wallace tries out tweaks to swing
There were moments when Brett Wallace felt right last season. His stroke was smooth, his swing was solid, and his bat cracked upon contact. Wallace was too often off-balance, though, hitting .253 and striking out 73 times in 66 games.
A strong 2013 spring training could make Wallace the opening-day first baseman. He arrived at Osceola County Stadium prepared for the challenge.
Astros shake up coaching staff, front office
Posted on October 19, 2012 | By Brian T. Smith
Jeff Luhnow and Bo Porter got the men they wanted, and the first phase of the Astros’ coaching and front office changes to the 2013 team is complete.
John Mallee was named hitting coach Friday, and former major league manager Dave Trembley was added as a coach. Doug Brocail was retained as pitching coach and Dave Clark will remain as a coach.
Excerpts from an interview Friday with Houston manager Bo Porter.
Porter on new coach Dave Trembley: His baseball career and résumé pretty much speaks for itself. You can Google him and look at his résumé and it’ll tell you what he’s done and what he’s done in this game. But more importantly, I’ve worked with him. I was one of his players. I watched him teach. He actually played a major role in my development, so I know he knows how to teach. Which, when you look at our situation, having a guy of his background, his ability, it’s going to bode well for our organization. He’s a former manager in the major leagues, in the American League. He’s been in baseball for 26 some-odd years. He’s a very articulate person, he’s a very detail-oriented person – a lot of the things that I look at as basically key components of getting where it is we’re trying to go at an accelerated pace.
BY GEORGE CASTLE Times Correspondent
The Houston Astros have hired John Mallee as their new big-league hitting coach, Mallee confirmed Friday.
Mallee, the longtime Schererville pro and amateur batting instructor, had four employment offers in the last two weeks — from the Cubs, New York Yankees, Houston Astros and Cleveland Indians.
He picked the Astros because of his long-standing relationship with new manager Bo Porter.