*Kind of slow as players wrap up vacations (or honeymoons) and get ready to report for Spring Training.
How the 40-Man Roster was assembled:
International Signing
Jose Altuve (May 2007)
Reymin Guduan (Sept. 2009)
Yuli Gurriel (July 2016)
Jandel Gustave (May 2010)
Cionel Perez (Sept. 2016)
Draft
Alex Bregman (1st Round, 2015)
Carlos Correa (1st Round, 2012)
J.D. Davis (3rd Round, 2014)
Dean Deetz (11th Round, 2014)
Derek Fisher (1st Round, 2014)
Tony Kemp (5th Round, 2013)
Dallas Keuchel (7th Round, 2009)
Lance McCullers (1st Round, 2012)
A.J. Reed (2nd Round, 2014)
Brady Rodgers (3rd Round, 2012)
George Springer (1st Round, 2011)
Tyler White (33rd Round, 2013)
Trade
Gerrit Cole (Jan. 2018)
Chris Devenski (Aug. 2013)
Evan Gattis (Jan. 2015)
Ken Giles (Dec. 2015)
James Hoyt (Jan. 2015)
Jake Marisnick (July 2014)
Francis Martes (July 2014)
Brian McCann (Nov. 2016)
David Paulino (Sept. 2013)
Brad Peacock (Feb. 2013)
Max Stassi (Feb. 2013)
Justin Verlander (Aug. 2017)
Free Agent
Charlie Morton (Nov. 2016)
Josh Reddick (Nov. 2016)
Hector Rondon (Dec. 2017)
Joe Smith (Dec. 2017)
Tony Sipp (May 2014; Dec. 2015)
Waivers
Will Harris (Nov. 2014)
Collin McHugh (Dec. 2013
Rule 5 Pick
Marwin Gonzalez (Dec. 2011)
Anthony Gose (Dec. 2017)
*FanGraphs' David Laurilia talked to Alex Cora about Jose Altuve's strike zone:
When Jose is really, really, really good - because he's good, always - his strike zone shrinks. He doesn't chase his hits.
*NJ.com beat writers had a little roundtable in which the following line is used:
...And the Astros' lineup, although having no Giancarlo Stantons or Aaron Judges...
*As of right this minute (5:33am) it looks like Jim Thome, Edgar Martinez, Chipper Jones, and Vladimir Guerrero will be your 2018 Hall of Fame induction class. Mike Mussina is at 72.4%.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
