*There was a thought experiment floating around today about an expansion draft: What would happen if there was one, and who would the Astros protect? The rules are quirky, and the ones from the last expansion draft - in 1997 - (in which the Astros lost Bobby Abreu to Tampa, who turned around and traded him to Philly) would seemingly still apply. That said, here's my list of 15 protected players, were I the Astros' GM...and I think I should be:
Bryan Abreu, Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, Zack Greinke, Josh James, Cristian Javier, Lance McCullers, Roberto Osuna, Ryan Pressly, George Springer, Kyle Tucker, Jose Urquidy, Justin Verlander,
Here's the 40-Man Roster. It's hard!
*Jake Kaplan: The time an Astros GM ripped the umpires on the scoreboard.
*Any version of a 2020 MLB season would feature a universal DH.
*Chandler Rome notes that a shortened draft is still alright with Rice's Trei Cruz.
*ESPN: Meet Dan Kurtz, the stay-at-home dad who has become an international expert on the KBO.
*SI: Before ruling baseball's economics, Scott Boras sucked at baseball.
*Tim Kurkjian: Stan Musial and a called shot to end an All-Star Game.
*I'm not a huge board game guy, but Keith Law's review of The Sherlock Files has me interested. Also, make your plans to buy Godspeed, which my actual cousin designed and wrote.
*Rolling Stone: An oral history of The Dinner Party episode from The Office.
*Vice: This guy got hit by lightning and became a concert pianist.
*Spencer Hall & Jason Kirk: What were sports?
Here's an entire performance by the Thievery Corporation:
Watch this whole documentary soon:
It's going to get worse before it gets better.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
