Tuesday Morning Hot(-ish) Links

There is nothing. The World's Coldest Stove. Jeff Luhnow and Robert Mueller have a bet to see whose office will leak something first. In June 2019 we're going to say, "There's a move coming any day now."

*Jeff Passan has an interesting piece for Yahoo about the courtship of Bryce Harper. Passan:
The Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres are expected to check in. The Washington Nationals, with whom he has spent his seven major league seasons and who offered him a 10-year deal worth around $300 million toward the end of the season that Harper rejected, almost certainly will circle back. Harper's affection for the Houston Astros is well-known, as is the St. Louis Cardinals' for him. 

Harper loves the Astros? Bandwagon fan.

*Jake Kaplan has a mailbag in The Athletic in which he answers some reader questions, like the potential rotation, Forrest Whitley's timeline, what to do about catcher, and a crazy note that Scott Feldman is the highest-paid free agent pitcher by Jeff Luhnow ($30m).

*Brian McTaggart has three free agent outfielders that could fill a hole for the Astros, though they're not exactly new names: Andrew McCutchen, Michael Brantley, A.J. Pollock.

*NBC Bay Area: The Mariners complete tear-down makes the AL West a two-team race.

*Ken Rosenthal mentions that the Reds would be a good fit for Dallas Keuchel. Jon Heyman notes that Toronto is hot after Keuchel.

*This is crazy:

From when Jerry Dipoto took over as #Mariners GM on Sept. 28, 2015, there are now two players left on the 40-man roster, Felix Hernandez and Kyle Seager. But check back tomorrow.

— Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) December 3, 2018

*Stop me if you've heard this before: The success of what the Mariners have done in the last four weeks will not be determined for a few years.

*The Mariners have saved themselves a ton of money.

*A Musical Selectionm, the story behind one of my favorite moments in music history:

Monday Morning Hot Links

Good morning. There is nothing happening. Why won't something happen? Got dang Boras.

*Via Buster Olney, the Astros are interested in the following players: A.J. Pollock, Andrew McCutchen, Michael Brantley.

Note that they're all outfielders, which - should this report be true (and I have issues with Buster Olney but they're not with his Sources or his Reporting) isn't exactly great news for Kyle Tucker. It's even worse news for Game 5 Hero Derek Fisher. Josh Reddick has 2yrs/$26m left on his deal, so the Astros are probably a year away from deciding whether he's worth the expense (though 2017 would indicate that, yes, he was).

*Related to Pollock and Arizona, the Diamondbacks are apparently legit interested in moving Paul Goldschmidt. According to Olney's sources, the return would be greater than what the Pirates got for McCutchen but less than what Baltimore got for Machado. The Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo says he keeps hearing the Astros are in on Goldschmidt.

*This is the worst time for Baseball.

*Mental Floss: The highly unusual funeral of Lee Harvey Oswald.

*Got an hour? Read the New Yorker's 25-year old profile of the recently-deceased magician Ricky Jay.

*A Musical Selection:

Friday Morning Hot Links

Hello everyone! It's Players Weekend! So for this edition of Hot Links, you are not allowed to refer to be by my real name, Flick Nickem, but my Player's Weekend Name, Pilot Terry Byrd. Why is my name Pilot Terry Byrd? Let's start with my title. If you were familiar with my #online #brand, then you would understand that I stan Pilot G2 pens. The Pilot G-2 07 mm Fine Point Retractable Premium Gel Ink Pen IS the #1 gel pen on the market today, so it only makes sense that my favorite company gets a shoutout in my Players Weekend name.

But Terry Byrd? Well, Terry Byrd is the last three syllables of my favorite flying friend, the secretary bird. My entire Twitter persona revolves around these dudes, and I always go the extra mile to show everyone I meet just how awesome these birds really are, like how they kick snakes in the head until they die. So now you know. Is Pilot Terry Byrd stupid? Yes. But so is Flick Nickem. Let me have fun.

Anyways, A's lost! Astros are now up 1.5 games on them and 5.5 up on Seattle this morning as we inch ever so slowly into September and seeing all our injured fellas and Fresno friends in Houston again. We take on the Angels this weekend, who currently aren't at full strength right now with Trout and Upton on the DL. The A's are also playing a less-than-stellar Twins team with weekend, so it is imperative for the Astros to pick up these wins in order to stay atop the standings by weekends end.

Let's get down to linking!

The Ringer's Zach Kram talks about why there is no good reason to worry about the Astros.

The Major League Baseball Creators of Content made an Astros Infield Highlight Reel.

The plan is for Springer to get back into the lineup tonight.

Do you like the Astros stare home run celebration? Buy a T-shirt of it.

These people waited absolutely too long for an Alex Bregman bobblehead. Who does this? why?

Minor League Ball gives us the midseason review of the top 20 2018 Astros prospects (we have seen a lot of them so far this season).

Andrew McCutchen addresses clearing waivers and not being in the lineup. My favorite part:
“I don’t really understand that process. I don’t get it. I don’t know waivers or clearers or revocables. I don’t know what that stuff means, man. I have a better chance understanding trigonometry.”

Same.

The Astros have hit into a LOT of double plays.

J.D. Davis is on an unreal tear in Fresno right now.

Speaking of Fresno Grizzlies on an unreal tear right now, Kyle Tucker is hitting .700 in Fresno since his demotion.

Ken Giles has gotten his ERA under 10 in Toronto!

Jacob DeGrom has been absolutely unreal this season. He might win the Cy Young this year. He has 8 wins to show for it.

Paris is rolling out sidewalk urinals where you pee in this mailbox-looking thing in very public areas because they have a problem with "wild peeing." This is the most important link of the whole post.

Professional cuddlers are now making over 30 euros an hour (roughly $35 USD an hour)

On This Day In Baseball History

In 1919, Indians pitcher Ray Caldwell was struck by lightning after pitching 8.2 innings. He was knocked unconscious, revived after a 5 minute delay, refused to be taken out, and got the last out for a complete game win.

In 1951, the St. Louis Browns had the Grandstand Managers Night, where the fans democratically coached the team.

In 1983, Orioles pitcher Tippy Martinez picked off three Toronto Blue Jays players in one inning.

In 2007, Greg Maddux became the first pitcher ever to win 10 games in a season for 20 years in a row.

Wednesday Morning Hot Links

The Astros completed the most frustrating sweep of the season as they somehow won again, this time 2-1 yesterday afternoon against San Francisco. Tyler White hit the go-ahead home run and is now batting .267 with 4 home runs and 7 RBIs in 60 at bats this season. We are now 6-2 this road trip, playing without a lot of key players. Here is an excellent recap of yesterday's game here.

Cody Poage talks Andrew McCutchen to Houston on Climbing Tal's Hill.

Jake Kaplan has the pitching matchups for the weekend series with Seattle. Yes, we have to face James Paxton again.

In an unfortunate turn of events, Buddy Boshers was claimed by Pittsburgh. We will not have Buddy in Houston.

AP Sports Writer Noah Trister assesses all of the bullpens that added new pieces post-deadline.

There is a happy ending for the boy with Down Syndrome who lost his Woody doll at the Astros game I wrote about last week.

ESPN announced the Astros will be playing Sunday Night Baseball 2 straight weeks in a row September 2nd and 9th.

Its time to face facts: most sports organizations just aren't "The Great Moral Crucible" we wish they were. Michael Baumann wrote an excellent piece on lying, winning, and morality in sports.

Derek Fisher's confidence has been renewed after being recalled from Fresno.

Carlos Correa went 0-3 with a walk in a Hooks rehab assignment yesterday. He should join the Astros either Thursday or Friday. There is no new news since the @AstrosCounty Meat Wagon Update from yesterday.

Read Katie Strang writes about how the Osuna ruling could change MLB's domestic violence policy. People such as Jay Jaffe and Ken Rosenthal did and loved it. ($)

Episode 19 of Baseball Stories featured Jeff Bagwell. He is so interesting to listen to and I highly suggest you find 22 minutes of your day to sit down and watch/listen to this (I'm listening to it as I write this).

641 men are getting screwed over by the MLB. They aren't receiving a Major League Baseball pension because they played in the league before 1980.

These baby capybaras look JUST LIKE this big capybara.

THERE IS A WORLD DOG SURFING CHAMPIONSHIP!

These goofballs in New York thought that if they wrapped their cocaine package in Minnie Mouse gift wrap that the police wouldn't eventually find out it was a cocaine package.

On This Day in Baseball History:

In 1976, the White Sox decided to wear shorts.

In 1988, Wrigley Field had the first ever night game. It was not an official game however as it was rained out in the 3rd inning.

In 1998, Paul Molitor becomes the fifth player ever to have both 3,000 hits and 500 steals.

In 2014, B.J. and Justin Upton both hit home runs in the same game for the fifth time, setting a sibling major league record.