The Mariners don't a sell big outside their own market and in the past few years they haven't done much IN THEIR OWN MARKET. However, there is an Astros angle to their 2016 makeup . Their new mgr is former Astros catcher Scott Servais. He put a staff together than sure looks familiar to us. His new first base coach is the likable and humor driven Casey Candaele. His new bullpen coach is the likeable and bulldog driven Mike Hampton. To round out the ASTROS former employees, Servais has Tim Bogar, Manny Acta, and Mel Stottlemeyer. That group has Houston written all over it, although now it reads SEATTLE.
Bogar was in the running for the Astros managerial job at one time and so was Acta. Casey is always in the running for funniest former player. He spent all or part of 5 seasons with Houston. His best year was 1991 when he got in 151 games. He hit 4 of his career 9 homers that year. He also taught me a valuable lesson during the 1991 spring training.
I was doing a story for ch. 2 on the lack of "infield chatter". You know the things kids yell when playing Little League or beyond. "Batter, batter", "Big Fish, no hitter", "Chuck to me", comes to mind. Big leaguers don't chatter. Guys in the bigs don't "talk it up" for fear of swallowing the slime they are chewing or they just figured it was "bush league". Casey did say there was one expression making the rounds of every club the Astros played and the Astros were yelling it too.
I was at a cold and windy Kissimmee when Casey let me in on the secret. He looked dead serious and said "The new magic phrase is Yo Tengo, Yo Tengo". It is still taking the sport by storm. ADIOS.