In preparation of the 2012 season I decided to round-up our writers and ask them some hard hitting preseason questions.

What player in the majors are you keeping an eye on and why?

David: There are plenty of obvious answers, but the one that jumps to mind first is Jordan Lyles. How will he respond to another season in the majors? Will he start making progress or backslide with a bit of a sophomore slump? We all want Lyles to be more than a third or fourth starter, but he's going to need to show some more strikeout potential to get there.

AstroBrit: Brian Bogusevic. He's going to bust a move and be the player he always wanted to be out of Tulane, powering the club to an improbable 70 wins. Seriously? I just think he's come on an unusual path to the majors and I want him to succeed against the odds. And he has a cannon in right field.

CRPerry13: Justin Upton...he's been on my fantasy keeper teams since age 20 and he's a generational talent. I want to see if he can really turn physical tools into an MVP-level performance. By association, I'm also watching his brother BJ to see if HE can use his physical tools to turn around a disappointing career. I like 5-tool players, and these guys fit. I'm watching Jose Altuve because if he fixes his plate discipline I think he can be unique and also have a very good career. Also Eric Hosmer, because his approach and skills make him look like a young Albert Pujols. There aren't any pitchers that are grabbing my attention right now, but it's fun to watch Lincecum because of the things he can do that he probably shouldn't be able to. I'm not buying Strasburg-mania. Let's see if he turns into Mark Prior first.

Clack: Lowrie. (Runner up answer---Fernando Martinez, but I don’t know if he will be in the majors or minors)

Native_Astro: I'm a huge Matt Kemp fan. I enjoy watching Kemp because he to me is the ceiling that George Springer could have for the Astros.

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Sponsored by Leiturgia Communications

TCB Podcast ready and willing to invade your thoughts and tickle your ear drums.

In this episode David Coleman, Sean Feist, Bryan Trostel from Astros County and myself discuss:

My apologies in getting this up so late. It's been a pretty busy week for me but it should pay off as I've got some pretty cool stuff to post next week. Yesterday we posted audio interviews from Fan Fest
I'll be combining all three into one audio file and putting it on iTunes in the next couple days so keep an eye out for that.

The winner of TCB's 2012 Houston Astro logo is "Astros baseball: we've got uniforms and everything." Look for that at the top of the website starting Monday.

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[Direct Link]

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If you have any comments or questions in regards to the podcast you can email the show at thecrawfishboxes@gmail.com. If you have a question please be sure to include your name and where you're from. Also big thanks to those of you that have rated us on iTunes we appreciate the feedback.

The Houston Astros have only had two play-by-play announcers in the last 50 years. That is pretty damn amazing.

For many, the Voice Of The Astros will always be Gene Elston, the first PBP man Houston had as a major league team. He was with the team from 1962 until 1986 when he exited the team.

That left room for the New Voice Of The Astros, Milo Hamilton, to join and enlist a host of new fans who remember the team through his signature calls. That's my situation, as I've only really known Milo.

What's more, both of the Astros two play-by-play guys have received the Ford C. Frick Award, which is the Baseball Hall of Fame equivalent of inducting broadcasters. Milo was given the award in 1992 and Elston received his in 2006. Both are more than deserving, but doesn't that set the bar pretty high for whoever follows Milo?

That question took on more relevance on Wednesday, when Hamilton announced at a press conference that he was retiring after the 2012 season. It's not entirely surprising, since the man is 85 years old and has been slowly cutting back his responsibilities for a while now.

However, as recently as Saturday at Astros FanFest, Milo was talking about "chasing the rabbit" with the start of spring training and how the new thing he wanted to chase was 70 years of broadcasting, something he claimed no one else had done. To get there, he'd have to work for three more years, but seemed ready to do that.

When the news broke Tuesday night, I talked to a friend of mine about it and he'd heard from a source that Jim Crane was going to announce a lifetime contract for Milo. Of course, that was supposed to be on Tuesday, and then the presser was pushed back a day, allowing time for stories to break that Milo is retiring.

I'm not sure what to make of the change. I do know Crane is smart enough not to push Milo out, because he doesn't need to antagonize fans any more than he as to at this point. I know we criticize Milo a lot now, but he's still an institution and his exit needed to be handled carefully.

The Astros appear to have done that, as Milo said he had planned all along that this would be his last season calling games. Do you think Milo was just being excited on Saturday or do you think Crane pushed for a decision and Milo decided to announce his retirement?

More importantly, who will fill his rather enormous shoes? The duo of Dave Raymond and Brett Dolan have been around a while now, have they grown on you any more? Do you think that one of them could receive a Frick Award down the line? Or, do the Astros go out and grab someone more established to fill that role?

I guess it all depends on how important radio remains to baseball fans. I'm traditional enough to love listening to a baseball game on the radio. There's something great about it. But, with GameTracker, MLB Extra Innings, DVRs and all the other technology we have these days, is there a place for radio to make someone the Voice of the Astros in the future? Or, will one of the TV guys take that title for people?

As I promised last week, we have created a Fantasy League for our favorite readers of The Crawfish Boxes! Technically speaking, our favorite readers are all of our readers, so this Fantasy League is open to all of you. So that you don't have to wade through another of my attacks of verbosity, I'll go ahead and post the information right up top so you don't have to search for it.

Go to: http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/register/joinleague
League ID: 15011
Password: biggio

As I mentioned previously, the sooner this league fills up, the sooner I'll open a second one for spillover. Details about the league and obligatory babble to follow the jump.

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I've got the tapes.

On Monday and Tuesday David posted a running diary of his trip to Minute Maid Park for Fan Fest 2012 this past Saturday. Among the many behind the scenes things he got to do, as a representative of TCB, was a blogger exclusive interview with Brad Mills, Bud Norris and J.D. Martinez. He's handed off the audio of those interviews to me and now I'm releasing them for your listening pleasure

First up, Brad Mills who talked about his preparation for Spring Training, his accountability, Jose Altuve and Brian Bogusevic batting against left handers.

Direct Link: Brad Mills Interview

Next, Bud Norris talked about his rise through professional baseball, wanting to get to 200 innings and hanging with Jarred Cosart

Direct Link: Bud Norris Interview

The final interview was J.D. Martinez who talked about his surprising rise through the farm system, his unorthodox swing and learning how to handle Minute Maid Parks quirky left field.

Direct Link: J.D. Martinez Interview

Along with TCB were representatives from What The Heck, Bobby?, Tales From The Juice Box, Climbing Tal's Hill, Farmstros and Astros County (These are the blogs I've seen post stuff about Fan Fest; If I've missed a blog please let me know). I will be combining all three interviews into one audio file and posting it on iTunes later this week.

That's right, Part II of our epic adventure through the lands of Westeros, er, Astros FanFest is hitting right now. If you missed Part I, here's a link...now, onto the diary.

12:01 p.m. - After the open panel, our merry band of bloggers went upstairs into the Club Level for the meat of FanFest. First thing we see? Actual meat, in the form of a nachos competition. The competitors were Texas Brisket versus Cheeseburger. There was a pretty good line, so I did not try either, but c'mon. Brisket had to win, right? BBQ is delicious.

12:05 p.m. - Behind the Great Nacho Debate of 2012 was an alumni autograph signing for fans. This FanFest event wasn't entirely free. Fans had to pay $10 to get autographs from current players, but the alumni signings were free. Oh, and before you get all bent out of shape about this new ownership group pinching pennies, the money went to support the Astros' Urban Youth Academy. So, you know, it's a good cause.

At any rate, the biggest question from the blogosphere at this table of alumni is who the heck some of the players were. We got clarification on some of them, like Scipio Spinks, but the one that floored everyone there was the inclusion of...Charlie Hayes!

Everyone remembers Hayes from his Yankee days, but few remember the 31 games and 58 plate appearances he got for the 2001 (division-winning) Houston Astros. I did, but I was the only one and I even had the years off, thinking he played around 2002 or 2003. Oh well. I guess when trying to fill out these alumni events, sometimes you have to move down the bench a bit.

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