Tuesday Morning Hot Links

*The Astros enjoyed the first of two off-days this week an off-day yesterday (I don't know why I thought the Astros had Thursday off, as well.) And still, here are the number of games played by AL Teams:

49: Arlington
48: Houston
47: Boston, Toronto, Baltimore, Detroit, Kansas City, Anaheim, Oakland
46: Seattle
45: Tampa, Cleveland,
44: New York, Chicago
43: Minnesota

Did you check the Cleveland series recap from Jexas?

*So the big news that I missed because I overslept yesterday is Derek Fisher's transition to the DL with "GI discomfort." GI stands for "Gastrointestinal." It may be the first time the Astros put a player on the DL for crapping the bed. J.D. Davis was brought up from Fresno.

*Mike Petriello spends a decent amount of time making a case for the Astros' rotation being in the conversation as one of the best ever. Through 48 starts, the rotation has allowed just 83 runs. Note that the rotation's ERA of 2.25 is almost a quarter of a run lower than the 1968 Cardinals' modern-day best of 2.49. Also note that it is May 22. That said, no team this century has a lower ERA through 48 games than the Astros' rotation.

Dayn Perry at CBS Sports has a similar piece.

Here's Jake Kaplan with a deep dive into the numbers of the Astros' rotation. And here's another one wondering where J.D. Davis will actually play.

*Ken Giles is 8x8 in save situations in 2018, allowing a .167/.167/.167 line through 7IP with 4H/0ER, 8K:0BB. Also, Ken Giles: 36 batters faced, zero walks.

*Tonight Gerrit Cole will pitch to his wife's brother, Brandon Crawford. Crawford:
It's more fun for family, I think, than it is for us. It doesn't help that he's a really good pitcher - probably one of the best in baseball this year. That doesn't add to the fun of it for me.

*And so the Jon Singleton Era in Houston ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. Singleton - who had been outrighted off the 40-Man roster earlier this year, was summarily released by Houston today. The press release, in full:
The Astros have released minor league first baseman Jon Singleton, effective today. The club has no further comment on this. 

Singleton, of course, is serving a 100-game suspension for a third positive test for a drug of abuse (tweeds), of which there are still 54-ish games remaining. And it's the last year of his 5yr/$10m deal he signed back in 2014. (Side note: it does not feel like it's been five years since that deal).

Speaking of suspensions, Forrest Whitley's 50-game suspension ends at the beginning of next week.

*In McTaggart's Notebook, he actually dignified the "Shood We traid Kykull" question with a response. There is an interesting note about the Astros' future at catcher, and whether that involves Stassi in a full-time role. If you want to look to free agency to sign a catcher (because McCann likely isn't coming back for $15m), here's who is scheduled to be a free agent after this season:

Drew Butera, Robinson Chirinos, A.J. Ellis, Tyler Flowers, Yasmani Grandal, Nick Hundley, Jonathan Lucroy, Martin Maldonado, Jeff Mathis, Devin Mesoraco, Miguel Montero, Wilson Ramos, Rene Rivera, Kurt Suzuki, Matt Wieters.

At 30, Yasmani Grandal is the youngest player on this list. So this list gets a big ol' Ew.

*San Francisco hitting coach Alonzo Powell will get his World Series ring tonight.

*Fresno's Trent Thornton, who was hit on the elbow by a line drive, was moved to the 7-Day DL.

Here's something you don't see everyday. In the bottom of the third inning tonight between the Fresno Grizzlies and Reno Aces, pitcher Jake Buchanan had to wait while Tyler White put in eye drops! (White would later fly out to LF.) pic.twitter.com/eIeMbvWkGh

— Andrew Marden (@andrewmarden) May 22, 2018

*Corpus' Randy Cesar and Cionel Perez were both named Texas League Players of the Week.

*There was a plane crash in Cuba over the weekend that has now killed 111. One family was from Houston. Yuli Gurriel is paying for the travel for their relatives.

*An Astros-oriented fundraiser at Tootsies raised over $360,000 for the Sunshine Kids and the LMJ Foundation.

*The Rangers are officially open for business. Come and get their finest old players for prospects. It's rebuilding, not tanking, right?

*Meet Cy-Creek's Jordan Hicks, baseball's most confounding pitcher.

*PFT Commenter has managed to skyrocket to fame while somehow maintaining his anonymity.

*I'm on a big JFK kick, so I recommend reading this July 2014 piece in The Baffler: Dallas Killers Club.

Monday Morning Hot Links

It's light out there in the Astros News Department...

*Jose Altuve received his 2017 AL MVP trophy at the 95th annual BBWAA dinner in New York, while Justin Verlander, George Springer, and Carlos Correa were also honored.

*Former Astros assistant hitting coach (current Giants hitting coach) Alonzo Powell is battling prostate cancer.

*Forrest Whitley got a nod in Best Curveball among the MLB Pipeline Top 100 Prospects. J.B. Bukauskas saw a little love in the Best Slider category.

*Richard Justice: Ten players who can dictate a spot in the postseason.

*Zlatan to Los Angeles?

*A reporter rushed to the scene of the school shooting in Kentucky to find that the alleged gunman was her son.

Saturday Morning Hot Links

*So there was an actual parade for the Houston Astros because they won the World Series. It still hasn't sunk in for me, yet. Richard Justice writes how the Astros felt Houston's love. Justice:
This was a release for fans who've waited 56 seasons, for fathers and sons and best friends and co-workers, and thousands and thousands of others who've talked about this day, dreamed about it, wondered if it would ever really happen.

*Brian T. Smith: A parade for the ages.

This lady dropped her hat, and Houston came in clutch to get it back up to her #earnedhistory pic.twitter.com/1thxzO7B6i

— enokez (@AlanEnokian) November 3, 2017

*The Astros picked up Jose Altuve's $6m option and Marwin Gonzalez's $5.125m option for 2018. Altuve has already generated enough WAR for 2018 that he is already severely underpaid.

*The inestimable Roger Angell: Long Wait, Great Win.
For the rest of us not in or around Houston, the reward after two thousand four hundred and fifty-eight regular season games and thirty-eight more in the postseason is a bit more sleep and, for the moment, at least, no more innings.

*Tyler Kepner: How the Astros finally hit on a formula that worked for them. Luhnow:
Not every plan makes sense for every team. But where we started, with the worst team in baseball and one of the worst farm systems in baseball, we really had no choice. We had to focus on developing our own and when the time is right, adding to it.

*Jeff Bagwell:
This is a great team. I don't think the world knew it. Well, they do now. Nobody wanted us to win this whole thing. Everybody else wanted the big teams. But we beat the Red Sox. We beat the Yankees. And now we beat the Dodgers. Pretty cool.

*Justin Verlander and Kate Upton missed the parade because, presumably, they're in Italy getting married. Apparently some people are mad that Verlander didn't postpone it. This is a silly take. It's not like they're getting married at a rec center in Refugio. They're two very high-profile people getting married in a foreign country. I don't know anything about them or their wedding plans, but I'm guessing they're not plans that are easily postponed. And it's not as though they started thinking about getting married in October. Verlander has been an Astro for, what, 60-something days? And before that he was on a Tigers team that very clearly wasn't going to the playoffs. Chill out. Let them get married.

*Uh. Brian McCann's mom is marrying Mark Teixeira's dad this winter.

*Here's a great story on Astros fan Charles Rice.

*Get some gear here.

*Four mock-ups of the Astros' WS ring.

*The five Astros who finally won a ring after a career of near-misses.

*Ken Davidoff wrote about how Luhnow's family helped him deal with the media.

*SF Chronicle's Bruce Jenkins: The Astros' title rises far above analytics.
If anything, the Astros were defiant of an analytics-driven trend that saw players adjust their "launch angle," go for home runs at any cost, work the count to frustrate opposing pitchers and not worry about striking out. They were the most efficient offensive machine in the game, did a lot of first-pitch swinging, emphasized contact hitting and struck out less often than any team in the majors.

*FiveThirtyEight predicts a few more seasons of Astros/Dodgers World Series, or at least a few Astros/Indians ALCS.

*MLB.com listed the 2018 World Series contenders.

*The Cubs' front office sent pizzas to the Astros' front office. Hopefully the Astros will carry the tradition of buying pizza for the next World Series champion by just sending an intern to buy pizza for themselves.

*A.J. Hinch discussed his new bench coach, Joe Espada, and we note that assistant hitting coach Alonzo Powell will leave to become the Giants' hitting coach.

*Check this November 2016 post from the County Mountie, in which he described Charlie Morton as such:
He's a groundball pitcher with some strikeout ability. If you're looking for an under-the-radar sign that could bring a nice payoff, this is it.

*Jon Heyman wonders how long the Astros can keep their core together.

*Buy every Astros-related SI cover since 1981.

*Jim Callis says Riley Ferrell has closer material.

*Springer, Altuve, and Bregman are expected to be on Saturday Night Live.

*Evan Grant takes a look at what the Rangers need to do to close the gap on the Astros.

*Alex Bregman is already a Hall of Famer:

Deleted, but 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/2RxX8ATfyV

— Dustin DeBerry (@dkdeberry) November 4, 2017

Friday Morning Hot Links

The Astros will play St. Louis at 12:05pm Central today. Wandy Rodriguez gets the start...

*Jose de Jesus Ortiz has ten questions for Spring Training.

*Doug Fister hit 90mph in yesterday's Spring Training win, and was excited about it. Not overly excited, mind you, appropriately excited. In another link, he talked about conversations with Luhnow and Hinch being among the main reasons he signed with Houston.

*Matt Duffy started off his spring with a home run.

*Jake Marisnick and George Springer stopped at Dinosaur World on their way to the game.

*Yeah, new hitting coach Alonzo Powell knows Ichiro and played for bench coach Trey Hillman.

*Why 2016 just might be George Springer's breakout season.

*The Astros are projected to have the 8th-best backups in baseball.

*Max Stassi and his brother Brock took the field together for the first time.

*A.J. Reed is your Baseball America Top 1st Base prospect and magazine cover boy.

*Buster Olney predicted the Rangers win the division, Astros win a Wild Card spot, and the Cubs beat the Royals in the World Series.

*Who is Hal Steinbrenner?

*Joe DiMaggio's heel and the dying of the light.

Before you go:

J. Gustave velos: 96 97 95 98 96 94 97 96 86 96 95 86 95 97 95 94 95 96 94 85 96 96 97 96 97 97

How lucky Astros are after 2014 Rule 5: ∞

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) March 3, 2016

Winter Meetings Day 1 Recap

Man, yesterday was weird. Let's look back and see what happened...

*It at first looked like the Dodgers had acquired oft-rumored Astros target Aroldis Chapman. Then the Reds cancelled the press conference, leading many (meaning: me) to believe maybe the Astros were back in the running, seeing as how the reports weren't indicating that the Dodgers had to give up their best prospects. Well, it's something far more serious than that as Yahoo's Tim Brown and Jeff Passan have this report that Aroldis Chapman has allegedly been involved in a serious domestic altercation with his girlfriend in which shots were fired and she was choked.

*The Red Sox backed away from a Chapman trade after learning of the news.

*USA Today's Bob Nightengale still thinks the Astros would pounce on Chapman. Even if he does have an injured hand from the dispute.

*Joel Sherman says the Astros have continued interest in Yankees reliever Andrew Miller.

*The Astros and Scott Kazmir's camp met to discuss a possible reunion yesterday. I hope the conversation started out, "So you kind of sucked there for a while, didjanow?"

*But after all that, Jeff Luhnow still isn't sure they'll actually make a move during the Winter Meetings, which end on Thursday.

*The Kazmir and Gomez deals have made the Astros a little more cautious this winter.

*Pat Neshek, who had a fractured foot as early as Spring Training, underwent surgery and Luis Valbuena had a small bunion removed from his left foot yesterday.

Neshek:
Surgery was considered in spring but the thought was it would heal by not running on it. It got a little worse through the year and I'm glad that this should be the end of my pain.

*Scott Feldman and Brad Peacock will also be ready for Spring Training.

*Alonzo Powell, who spent the last four years with San Diego, is your new assistant hitting coach.

*The Marlins would be open to moving Jose Fernandez, but only if they empty your cupboard of prospects.

*Mike Leake would cost you 5yrs/$75-80m.