News. Notes.

Borrowing the link from the previous post, we see that things are going swimmingly for Felipe Paulino, who threw a second simulated game yesterday.

Paulino:
"Everything is coming along well. I'll see how I feel tomorrow and what the next step is to be ready. Let me see how my arm feels tomorrow, and after that we'll see what we are going to do the next few days."

Mills:
"He threw the ball very well. We were very excited about the crispness of his breaking stuff, his curveball and slider. Those were nice. When he hasn't been out there and hasn't been throwing to hitters in a long time, it was sure nice to see."

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Also, Jeff Bagwell is not counting on being a first-ballot Hall of Famer when the voting takes place this winter.

Bagwell:
"I don't put that much thought into it, but I don't expect to get into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot-type thing. It took 'Hawk' 12, 13 years and he had similar kind of numbers. It's going to be an interesting time between November and January to see what happens. As we get close to that time, I'll be thinking about it."

You can bet that we'll be all over the Hall of Fame voting this off-season, and The Constable is head over heels in love with the Hall of Fame. I don't think Bagwell is a first-ballot guy, because there are just enough douchebags who won't vote for a guy on his first year. If Cal Ripken can't be a unanimous Hall of Famer, who the hell can?
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And hey, Brad Ausmus! Do you like Round Rock or Corpus? Ausmus would consider a job with the Astros once he retires at season's end:

I certainly would consider it. I played here for 10 years, and I would say my fondest memories in baseball happened in an Astros uniform."