Astros to play exhibitions vs. Mexican League team

HOUSTON -- The Astros announced on Saturday they had scheduled two exhibition games against the Veracruz Red Devils of the Mexican Baseball League next spring. The games will be played March 29-30 at Minute Maid Park.

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, who was born in Mexico, had been working on scheduling the games for quite some time and was joined at Saturday's news conference by Veracruz chairman Jose Antonio Mansur, vice president Jose Antonio Mansur Jr., executive chairman Jean Paul Mansur and administrative chair Chara Mansur.

"It's something, depending on how it goes next year -- and I expect it to be very successful -- we expect to be continued in the future," said Luhnow, who added that he wouldn't mind taking the Astros to Mexico for games in the future.

The Mexican Baseball League is considered by most scouts to have talent equal to Double-A or Triple-A teams.

"There's a lot of good players down there who make decent money," Luhnow said. "A lot of players have left Mexico and come to the States and have done well. The players with the highest upside are typically the younger players that haven't really established themselves in the Mexican League yet."

The Astros are still trying to schedule a couple of exhibition games for San Antonio's Alamodome next spring to face the Rangers, who have a contract to play exhibition games there for the second straight year.