HOUSTON – In the truncated 2020 MLB Draft, the Houston Astros had even further disadvantage without the team’s first two picks. That made it even more important to find value players in free agency and sign useful players. One of those hopefuls is Missouri first-baseman/left-fielder Peter Zimmermann, a power hitter the Astros picked up in free agency.
Q: You’re pretty familiar with Houston, playing at San Jacinto North College, what do you like about the city?
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A: I loved the downtown area of the city. I remember spending a lot of nights at San Jac, I would go down to Anytime Fitness. It’s a nice area and I would spend a lot of time going to a lot of those restaurants. I loved the food and the culture. The fans are so passionate, whether it’s the Texans or Rockets or Astros. I have friends that are die hard Rockets fans that would go to the grave defending James Harden.
Q: What’s your player profile?
A: I’m a power bat. I hit the ball hard, I hit the ball far and that’s what my goal is to do. I love the Astros organization and how they develop their power hitters is amazing, and that’s one of the reasons I chose Houston. The short porch in left there, the Crawford Boxes, that’s something you can dream about playing there one day.
Q: What’s the next step?
A: They’ve talked about bringing us down in the fall, they’ve talked about that but we don’t know for sure. We have zoom meetings all the time, getting to know the organization. They’re going to send us a bunch of stuff and put together a plan for the next six or seven months for us to work on. I’ll use this time to my advantage.
Q: What do you need to work on?
A: I need to work on getting the ball up in the air with my power, turn some of those doubles into home runs, keep raising that batting average. I try to work on my pitch selection and pitch recognition on an app called GameSense. I’m trying to work on my fielding and agility to become a more athletic person.
Lastly, Zimmermann is a St. Louis native and a Missouri baseball player. St. Louis is known for it’s square pizzas from Imo’s, while Columbia, Mo. has a famous pizzeria called Shakespeare’s.
Q: Imo’s or Shakespeare’s?
Imo’s, but it’s not my favorite. My favorite is a place in St. Louis called Fortel’s that I like a lot more.