Friday Morning Hot Links

On April 9 the Astros' chances of winning the AL West were 3.5%. This morning, with a 5-game lead after 81 games, their chances of winning the World Series are 7.2%. This season has been weird.

But we still gotta go get Edinson Volquez.

*Despite backtracking on his no-trade list, a Jon Heyman source says that Cole Hamels is unlikely to approve a trade to the Astros. "He's just trying to say the right thing," A Person said.

*The Cardinals fired their Scouting Director, Chris Correa, yesterday in the wake of the hacking/cheating scandal. Within that story we are told that Correa was not the one who leaked the Astros' information to Deadspin, which means that someone else did. The FBI has apparently narrowed the culprits down to "four to five" individuals within the Cardinals' organization.

*The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Bernie Miklasz has an interesting response to the Cardinals. To cherry-pick a quote:
Fairly or unfairly, there's a deep stain on the Cardinals organization. And with the investigations continuing there could be new findings that increase the taint. DeWitt and Mozeliak need to perform a vigorous scrubbing to make sure the baseball side is clean and replenished.

*Be sure you read Not Hank Aaron's - who is a lawyer - response to this tomfoolery/douchebaggery.

*The Houston Press's John Royal - also a lawyer - has a take.

*Carlos Correa is your AL Rookie of the Month.

*The Astros signed 16-year old Dominican outfielder Gilberto Celestino to a $2.5m signing bonus. Celestino is ranked #7 on MLB.com's international prospect list.

*2nd Round pick Thomas Eshelman signed for $1.1m, $225,700 under the slot value for that pick.

Two Fantastic HOF reads

While you are at home, likely celebrating the Texans' victory over the Titans (while I can hear weeping and gnashing of teeth from my Nashville home), there have been a couple of extremely well-written perspectives on the Hall of Fame.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Bernie Miklasz
The New York Daily News's Bill Madden:

Bernie Miklasz tells you how to feel about Berkman

For some reason, we can tell you how you should feel, and we see nothing wrong with it. But when St. Louis media tells us how to feel, we get all in a huff:

I can't comprehend why any Astro fan would show hostility toward the Puma over the next three days at Minute Maid. Unlike, say the Cardinals vs. Cubs or Cardinals vs. Reds, the Cardinals and Astros are not hateful rivals. They're not involved in a heated race for first place. It's not as if Berkman made comments critical of Astros fans or the organization. Berkman got older, the Astros moved in a new direction, and Berkman moved to St. Louis. There's no bad guy here.

Bernie Miklasz: The Astros are the loser from high school

Bernie Miklasz has a pretty great post imagining the NL Central as a high school.

The Astros?
They used to be your rival. You battled each other like hell to become student council president, and to be the No. 1 quarterback, and the cleanup hitter on the baseball team. But he couldn't keep up. After high school, his parents ran low on money, and couldn't afford to send him to college. He knows that he's bottomed out, and doesn't seem to know what to do about it. He hasn't lost hope, and you still respect him in a way. But dang, he's looking for a direction in life. He keeps talking about starting a band, and keeps babbling about opening some Tex-Mex restaurant. It's kind of sad. Some of his best friends, like Berkman, don't hang out with him anymore.