Monday Morning Hot Links

AL West Recap: Dallas Keuchel had a rare terrible 1st inning and the Astros lost to the Royals. Rangers and A's lost, leaving the Angels (who beat the Rangers) and the Mariners with wins. The Astros are a game back of the Angels with an off-day today and a three-game series with the Angels starting tomorrow. FanGraphs gives the Astros a 42.1% chance of winning the division and a 78.9% of making the playoffs.

*Keuchel's streak of five straight quality starts comes to an end after yesterday's 6.2IP, 10H/5ER performance, and he gave up 5ER for just the 2nd time this season.

Keuchel:
This wasn't a terrible day. I had good stuff. I had a good slider. I made good pitches with my changeup...This is one I wouldn't take back. The only thing I would take back is some of those first-inning runs, but against a quality team like the Royals before a good crowd, I can't ask for more except a few inches to the left or right and those balls going into somebody's glove.

*Velasquez made his first relief appearance of the season, and it reminded him of the old days with the piggyback system.

Hall of Fame Links

*Here's Biggio's plaque.

*You can watch Biggio's speech in its entirety (scroll down).

*A good tweet:

The fetishization of intangibles turns a gold glove 2B w .400 OBP and big SB totals over long career into "a guy who played the right way".

— Internet Contrarian! (@bogcommenter) July 26, 2015

*A.J. Hinch would like MLB to rearrange start times of games on Induction Day so players can watch speeches.

Another good tweet:

Next year's @BaseballHall induction ceremony should have Griffey, Bagwell, Piazza, and @TimRaines30. Anything less is unacceptable.

— keithlaw (@keithlaw) July 27, 2015

Trade Deadline Links

*The Rangers and Dodgers became the weekend favorites to land Cole Hamels, while the Astros (among others) had scouts present at Wrigley for Hamels' no-hitter. One scout, who apparently is narrow-minded and is perfectly willing to give undue weight to a mediocre half-season and ignore years of Hamels' pitching excellence:
After watching that, there's no doubt in my mind he's still one of the best pitchers in baseball. He's a difference-maker for somebody.

*The Tigers want an MLB-ready starter in return for David Price, says Jon-Paul Morosi, and the Astros weren't one of the teams he named as showing interest...which may actually mean more than if they were.

Other Link

*4100 words about Ed Wade, Shawn Chacon, and the crazy 1st half of the 2008 season.