Wednesday Morning Hot Links

The Fightin' Rasmuses beat the A's 3-1 last night, with Collin McHugh throwing 6IP, 4H/0ER, 5K:1BB. Ken Giles needed 12 pitches to strike out two batters in the 9th for his 6th save. Evan Gattis hit his 22nd homer of the season and Alex Bregman recorded another RBI single.

Rasmus had an outfield assist and a home run to pace the Astros to the win. Rasmus:
It's about as good a feeling as you can have being a baseball player. I was just glad to be able to get out there and contribute and do some good for the team in a time where we needed a little spark. 

A fan ran on the field but it was nowhere near as great as this fan's hijinks.

Scoreboard Watchin' 

Who Won: The Rangers (of course), Blue Jays, Tigers, Yankees

Make it 30-8 in one-run games for the 2016 Rangers, the best one-run team in MLB history.

— Jonah Keri (@jonahkeri) August 31, 2016

Who Lost: The Orioles, Red Sox, Mariners, Royals

So the Astros are 70-62, 2.0 up on the Mariners, still 8.5 GB of the Rangers. Houston is 3.0 GB of Boston for WC1 and 2.0 GB of Baltimore for WC2. Wild Card looks essentially like this:

Boston: +1
Baltimore: 0
Detroit: -1
Houston: -2
Kansas City: -3
New York: -3.5
Seattle: -4

The Astros only have a 1.7% chance at winning the division, according to FanGraphs, but a 21.2% chance at making the playoffs. Here are the Wild Card odds for non-division leaders, again, according to FanGraphs:
Red Sox: 48.6%
Orioles: 34.4%
Tigers: 33.9%
Astros: 21.2%

*The Astros shook up their front office, most notably by not renewing director of minor league operations Allen Rowin's job and promoting scouting director Mike Elias to Assistant GM. Also receiving promotions are Pete Putila and Armando Velasco.

*Some Southern California company that has to do with 360-degree athletic performance evaluation has signed an endorsement deal with Carlos Correa. Correa ain't about that league-minimum life.

*Ken Rosenthal writes that 2016 could be the first year two 2Bs win MVP awards.

*Brady Rodgers and James Hoyt were named to the 2016 All-PCL Team.

*A team has claimed Yasiel Puig on revocable waivers. It wasn't the Astros.

*Does Mount Everest have a doping problem?

*This is why he must be stopped:

I love the fact @TimTebow wants to play baseball. Looks like a left handed version of Jeff Bagwell. #mlb #tebowdroppintankstime

— Josh Donaldson (@BringerOfRain20) August 30, 2016

*Before You Go: The Tweet of the Day:

Thank God they finally cloned Altuve. @AstrosCounty pic.twitter.com/bYl6qi2wmH

— Chris Jackson (@ChrisCJackson) August 30, 2016

Tuesday Morning Hot Links

*The Astros made a whole bunch of internal personnel changes yesterday. Notably:

-Quinton McCracken, who was director of player development and also apparently a possible GM candidate, is now Director of Player Personnel.
-Allen Rowin, who was assistant director of player development is now the Director of Minor League Operations
-Brandon Taubman is Director of Baseball Operations
-Mike Fast is Director of Research & Development
-Pete Putila is Assistant Director of Minor League Operations
-Tom Koch-Wiser is Manager of Advance Scouting
-Bill Firkus is Director of Sports Medicine and Performance

Luhnow, on the moves:
This is just sort of a next step, next wave. I challenged every functional leader to come up with a five-year vision of...how we can be the best, and a lot of the things you're seeing are as a result of that initiative.

Two weeks ago McCracken and Rowin were mentioned by Evan Drellich in a Chronicle piece about how Luhnow was looking to alter the landscape of the front office.

*Joel Sherman wrote yesterday about how Daniel Murphy's breakout postseason could put him in line for Chase Headley money (4yrs/$52m). Sherman asked executives where Murphy would land should he make it to free agency. First team up? Houston:
...because they love versatility and could use Murphy at first, third and DH, and want to diversify a lineup that strikes out too much. In addition, in private Astros notes leaked last year, it was revealed Houston and New York discussed a trade of Murphy for shortstop Jonathan Villar. 

Ahhh, good old Cardinals. While I look to see how close the Cardinals' front office is to getting indicted by a federal grand jury, I'll go along with TCB's take on this one: where would Murphy play? Doesn't mean that logjam can't be cleared with some trades or non-tenders, but it's hard to see happening.

*Johnny Cueto's Game 3 start last night:
2IP, 6H/8ER, 2K:4BB, HBP, HR.

With that Josh Donaldson home run, Johnny Cueto is the first pitcher in playoff history to go two or fewer IP and give up eight or more ER.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 20, 2015

I don't know if I'm elated or forlorn.

*Palm Beach County commissioners are scheduled to vote this morning on approving the budget that will allow the Astros/Nationals to begin work on their new Spring Training site. Work has not yet started, but it's already over budget by $9m.

*Bruce Markusen has been writing up a Where Are They Now of Jim Bouton's Ball Four and got to the 1969 Houston Astros.

Tuesday Morning Link Dump

In advance of tonight's Wild Card game at Yankee Stadium, here are some links for you to read while you pretend to work and can't think of anything but baseball.

*Don't miss our 1600-word Wild Card Tale of the Tape.

Astros: 2nd-lowest road win % among teams to make playoffs since 1900 1987 Twins (lowest), 2006 Cards (3rd-lowest) won World Series (Elias)

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 6, 2015

*FanGraphs' Dave Cameron: The Astros/Yankees game should be a bullpen affair. Lots of good information on aces pitching on short rest and the importance (and value) of bringing in relievers early and often.

Odds are not on Dallas Keuchel's side. Since '95, teams using starters on short rest in the playoffs against rested starters are 18-37.

— Phil Rogers (@philgrogers) October 6, 2015

*Dallas Keuchel doesn't care about that stat.

*Average tickets on TiqIQ for tonight's game are going for $180, far less than the $300 the Cubs/Pirates tickets are going for.

*Evan Drellich, on how the 2015 Astros were built. Keep reading until you get to the part about how huge Luhnow views the Dexter Fowler trade.

*Colby Rasmus stuck up for Josh Fields' camouflage suit, and a clubhouse leader was born, based on his apparently miserable experience in St. Louis:
I'd get there five, six hours before a game to just sit there and look at my clothes in my locker in a locker room where nobody really even wanted to talk to me anyway. And when they did, it was just to make fun of me about my clothes or things like that. To me, that's really not beneficial to a healthy environment. Call me a sissy or whatever, but I don't think that that's the way it should be.

*Jose de Jesus Ortiz, on how Club Astros was born.

*Jerome Solomon: The Astros' best is good enough

*Carlos Gomez plans to play tonight, but it's not really up to him:
I don't know. It's not be decision, but I should be there. That's on my mind that I'm going to be there. Tomorrow I'm going to come ready to start in the lineup and do my job.

*Collin McHugh is lined up to start a potential Game 1 of the ALDS on Thursday.

*This is weird: Luhnow is "putting forth a new vision" that could result in altered roles or the departures of farm director Quinton McCracken and assistant farm director Allen Rowin. Luhnow "has already made changes in player development, letting go of a slew of people last week." Seven of the nine affiliates made their respective playoffs in 2015.

*Howard Megdal wonders about all those Evan Gattis triples (stealing an off-season blog post idea right out from under me).

*Steve Wulf on how the Astros arrived ahead of schedule.

*The Astros and Yankees both think they're underdogs.

*Girardi won't reveal the lineup, and A-Rod and Reggie Jackson have nice things to say about Carlos Correa.

*Joel Sherman wonders if the 2015 Yankees can channel the 2000 Yankees.

*Surprise! Both beat writers from Enn Jayyy Dawt Cawm think the Yankees beat the Astros tonight.

*The New York Post introduces baseball fans in New York to the Astros.

*Luhnow's first Major League game was at Yankee Stadium, and the bright lights and big city await the youthful Astros - a good read from Gordon Edes.