COVERITLIVE.COM

11:35

Chronicle Sports - Good morning, and thanks for joining us on Chron.com. David Gottfried will be along in roughly 25 minutes, so feel free to submit any questions you have in advance.

11:57

[Comment From Gabriel Corral]
Are there any concerns with the possibility of replacing Miguel Tejada's position given his current legal matters? IF he is to be replaced, which player(s) is/are a viable choice for short stop?

11:59

David Gottfried -

Every indication is that Miguel will be with us for all of the 2009 season.

11:59

[Comment From native_astro]
Does the front office get a sense that morale is down among the Astros fans? Speaking as a fan, it's really frustrating when we were so close last year to contending that we seemed to get worse over the offseason.

12:02

David Gottfried - We haven't gotten that sense - but critics are often the loudest...We don't think the team is worse - it seems like most off-seasons some people expect the worst - we are excited about the Club and think once the games begin the product on the field will speak for itself.

12:02

[Comment From Trevor]
Knowing what you now know about how the free agent market unfolded, there must be regrets at throwing multi-millions at Hawkins, Hampton, and Mohler. For that amount of money the Astros could have signed the long coveted #2 starter who would pitch many, many more innings than those 3 players combined. Please comment.

12:06

David Gottfried -

Hawkins was lights out for us last season and several relief pitchers received either more years or money than LaTroy.

Brian was one of our best starters during a stretch last season and just wore down a little at the end.

Mike has a contract that loaded with incentives - the most he can make this year is 4m - that would be around 30 starts and 190 innings - money well spent.

12:06

[Comment From Andrew]
how far along are preparations for this years amateur draft?

12:08

David Gottfried - Bobby Heck and his staff are out in full force. They spent the fall and winter meeting with players and their families and they are now out watching games.

12:08

[Comment From TexasMarine]
Why are we not in persuit of a #2 starter?

Page 1 Next >