Friday "Morning" Hot Links

*Dave Hudgens is the next one out in the Great Astros Departure.

*Jose Altuve won his 5th Silver Slugger award yesterday and is one of two Astros to accomplish this feat.

*I worry that Marwin will not come back................

*The Astros intentionally walked 4 batters all season.

*J.B. Bukauskas moved up 2 levels in the minor league while only pitches 59 innings for the year ($).

*Shooting Stars auditions are next Saturday if anyone's interested.

*Alex Bregman tips well.

*Tags is a...podcast man now?

*JOSE CISNERO IS STILL PITCHING!


Sine 1990, there have been 34 Astros to have their first and last name start with the same letter. Can you name them?

Brian McTaggart goes on vacation, gives us a heart attack

Brian McTaggart went on vacation yesterday. But before he left, he gave us this sweet little Twitter treat.  

Here's the story on the#Astros signing of Carlos Lee, with video of the press conference houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article.j
 
Well, of course the Astros signed Carlos Pena, and not Carlos Lee. And of course it was a typo, brought on by six years of psychological pain of seeing El Caballo in an Astros jersey. And isn't it telling that, for however brief a moment, we thought it was actually possible that the Astros brought back Lee?

McTaggart refutes Ausmus rumor

So you may have noticed yesterday that we quoted a source - who we feel is completely reliable - that Brad Ausmus had interviewed for the Astros managerial job (twice).

Today Brian McTaggart said that's not true.

We'll see how it plays out. Obviously, we're not happy with McTaggart's status, as it makes us look like schmoes, but we'll see. And you likely won't believe us the next time we do something like this.

Update: There's no way I'm telling you who the source is, but we're sticking by the rumor. If you knew who the source was, you'd believe it, too. Ausmus may not get hired, but I whole-heartedly believe he has interviewed.

Trade Chatter: Friday

A few trade-related links, with the deadline still 4.5 days away:

*Jeff Luhnow told Brian McTaggart on Wednesday that the Astros are done "stimulating any dialogues" on further trades, but they are still listening if other teams call.

*On that point, ESPN's Jayson Stark says that he hears everyone on Houston's roster except Jose Altuve is "up for grabs."

*Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports has a not-entirely-flattering look at Luhnow's recent moves, though he concludes "there wasn't much more the Astros could have done."

Castro may return next week

In the latest edition of Brian McTaggart's Notebook, Jason Castro says that his troublesome right knee is feeling better, with the possibility that he'll be back on the field for Houston in about a week.

Also in Tag's notes:

*Wilton Lopez was on call as Houston's closer last night. Whether CoCo gets another shot remains to be seen...

*Wesley Wright (2008) and Bud Norris (2009) are now your Astros' senior statesmen.

*Pittsburgh's starter on Saturday will look awfully familiar, as Magic Wandy ups his street cred with a new fight song.

Tuesday Morning Link Dump

Plenty of stuff from the Astros beat writers for your reading pleasure this morning.

*From the Chronicle's Zachary Levine: Jeff Luhnow says the salary savings from this month's trades mean the Astros "will be active" in this winter's free agent market, though not "bidding on the big-name" guys.


*From MLB.com's Brian McTaggart: Jed Lowrie is still booted, but Jason Castro is feeling better and hoping to return... soonish.


*From FS Houston's MoiseKapenda Bower: "It's nice to have some sizzle, but we're looking for the steak." Great read on the philosophy going into Luhnow's recent (and possible upcoming) moves.


*Lost under the trade avalanche over the weekend, Levine reported that Luhnow said the White Sox PTBNL will be a significant part of the Myers deal.


*Not from an Astros writer, but also from the weekend, Ken Rosenthal was told that it "will be a while" before Wandy gets dealt.

McTaggart's minor league updates

Brian McTaggart of mlb.com just posted his Minor League Notebook, and most of it consists of a decent update on Mike Foltynewicz.

What jumped out at me, though, was the news that Jack Armstrong underwent Tommy John surgery two weeks ago. I'm not sure how I missed news that big, but apparently Armstrong will miss the entire 2012 season.

Brian McTaggart guesses the Opening Day roster

Over here, Brian McTaggart makes some predictions about the Opening Day roster. Click the link for full explanations, but it's as follows:

Catchers: Castro, Snyder
Infielders: Lee, Altuve, Johnson, Lowrie, Downs, Wallace
Outfielders: J.D. Martinez, Schafer, Bogusevic, Shuck, Buck
Rotation: Wandy, Norris, Happ, Livan, Weiland
Bullpen: Myers, Lopez, Carpenter, F-Rod, Lyon, Abad, Duke.

Notice a couple of things about this: Both Rule 5 picks (Marwin Gonzalez, Rhiner Cruz) are projected to go back to their respected teams. Also, Jordan Lyles and Jimmy Paredes are projected to go back to OKC for more seasoning. If true, that's a half-season of service time burned right the hell up.

Fred Nelson Talks About This Year's Farm Crops

Brian McTaggart talked with Astros director of player development Fred Nelson about the progression of several players and the direction of the farm system as a whole. It's worth a read, but here's the gist:

"I would say we’re disappointed from a team standpoint, but I spent some time over the weekend looking at some things and our clubs have been very young,” Nelson said. “And so it makes it difficult at times to compete. That’s no excuse, but certainly our clubs have been young and we’re also just one of seven other clubs that field seven teams here in the United States, so you spread your players a little bit thinner. The individual performances have been very rewarding."

Bedtime Pence update

A couple of quick notes before it's beddy-bye time.

UPDATE: Alright, one more. Jim Bowden sources a scout who says that the Astros' asking price is Cosart, Singleton, and Trevor May.
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Hunter Pence admitted to Brian McTaggart that tonight could have been his final game in an Astros' uniform:

“What can I say? I’m not in control. I love these guys, I love Houston. That’s all I know.”

Where he ends up is of course all speculation. But Jayson Stark has some ideas.

The Phillies are reportedly still building a package around Jarred Cosart and Jonathan Singleton, but the Astros want two more high-end prospects.

The Braves have a package ready built around "highly regarded" pitching prospects, but none of them that go by the name of Julio Teheran.

Stark also mentions the six teams, but not the "three NL/three AL" teams of earlier. Stark's six teams are the Phillies, Braves, Reds, Pirates, Indians, and Red Sox.

Astros acknowledge they're thinking about moving Pence

Brian McTaggart says that the Astros are talking to six teams, though a deal is not imminent.

Mark Berman lists the six teams as three we already knew: Reds, Braves, Phillies, and three unknown AL teams.

Let's speculate on the AL teams (do you understand? PURE SPECULATION):

We can guess the Red Sox are one of the teams, since J.D. Drew is out with Suck. I would imagine the Indians were part of the conversation, but they got Kosuke Fukudome from the Cubs today. Doesn't mean they're out, but it's probably less likely than it was today. Could it be the Angels, who are two games behind the Rangers, and a poor-hitting Torii Hunter in RF (.697 OPS)? Could it be the Rays - who have a ton of pitching (and a possible GM) available, and will likely be trying to replace B.J. Upton? Who knows?

What I do know is that I'm ready for Monday.

All you sonsabitches are uneducated

If you thought that the philosophical difference had to do with Arnsberg developing pitchers, that would be uneducated.

McTaggart:
Brad Arnsberg's dismissal had nothing to do with development of young pitchers. That's an uneducated guess for those thinking that.

I understand. I really do. And it is a private matter, but for a very public organization. So it's going to bring speculation, and not offering up an explanation - any explanation - it's only going to cause more speculation.

I once worked for an organization where an employee was dismissed, completely out of the blue, and leadership offered up nary an explanation. And by lunchtime, you would have thought that said employee had traded high-level government secrets for bags of brown skag. And then had sex in the library. With Vladimir Putin.

To say that anyone who speculates inaccurately on Arnsberg's dismissal, without providing anything other than vagaries, is missing the point. We all care about the Astros, and are trying to wrap our collective minds around why Arnsberg got dismissed. Call us uneducated? Then educate us.

/Steps off soapbox.

2011 Astros = 2005 Brewers

McTaggart has a Q&A with Bill Hall, who was asked what he thought of this team:

"This team is what you would say is in a transition period with Roy [Oswalt] being gone and [Lance] Berkman being gone, and they have some younger guys who are expected to go out and produce and help this team win. In Milwaukee, I was one of the first guys to come - prospects - and I was in the clubhouse first and got to be with all those other guys who are turning into superstars now, with Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Rickie [Weeks] and J.J. [Hardy], when he was there. All of us came up at the same time as a group and had to learn how to win together and know the meaning of going out and competing every day. That's the knowledge I can give to these guys, being that I was through it before and I know what they're feeling."

Bald Barmes is ready to get this going

McTaggart has an article up on Bald Clint Barmes, and his role in 2011.

Barmes:
"I was excited to hear they said the majority of my time was going to be at shortstop. Hearing that and getting an opportunity to get back to the other side [of second base] and play every day, I was very excited about that. Colorado was starting to look at moving me into a utility role, and I feel I have a lot of years left to play and I want to do it as long as I can. I was very excited to get an opportunity to come over here and do that...

..."I like the direction this team is going and I would like to stay here. I'm going to go out and have a solid year and compete, and every team's coming in looking to try to get to the playoffs and win a championship, and this team is going in that direction. I'm not saying this year could be one of those years, but I'm excited to be thrown in the middle of it all. Hopefully I stick."

Click the link for info on what exactly happened with his numbers over the last two seasons...

Q & Wade

Brian McTaggart has a Q&A with Easy Eddie.

On 1B1:
To me, the perfect-world scenario was that Brett Wallace comes in and wins the first base job and is our guy and Carlos is the everyday left fielder and we're not worried about mixing and matching in left with Carlos at first, or trying to push Bogusevic harder to play more.

On Aneury Rodriguez and Lance Pendleton's chances:
"Both guys at this point in time I think we'll look at them initially form a starting standpoint because both of them have very limited bullpen experience, particularly Pendleton."

On Chris Johnson:
"This is a guy that I wouldn't be surprised at the end of the season to C.J. at 30-plus home runs. But it's going to entail, how does he respond to the other teams' Brad Arnsbergs, who are back in the laboratory cooking up the formula to really make you fail? Believe me, when you have a couple of months like Chris Johnson had, there's a lot of pitching coaches in the lab right now. Rich Dubee's doing it right now in Philadelphia right now, getting ready for Opening Day against, trying to figure out how to shut C. J. down."

This is the kind of story that gets you pumped up

Or it's the kind of story that gets you pissed that there's still four inches of snow on the ground. Regardless, Spring Training is just around the corner when you read McTaggart's story on new hitting coach Gary Barnett.

On Brett Wallace:
We had a real good talk, and I'm really pleased with what we talked about from a mechanical approach and his mindset. I love the fact this guy has a track record and knows what he's doing at the plate."

On Jason Castro:
"We want him to try to finish off swings better, because a lot of times he had a tendency to cut some swings off and [the bat] kind of gets in and out of the zone in a hurry."

McTaggart, on #2

McTaggart has a nice little look at who will hit in the 2-hole for the Astros this season. Was the subject line not clear?

Payroll: $80m-ish

Brian McTaggart has your payroll estimate for 2011. Carlos Lee will account for 23.75% of the Astros payroll. /tears up

McTaggart's Projected Opening Day roster

Brian McTaggart takes a shot at predicting the Opening Day roster.

Notable among the selections is Ryan Rowland-Smith as SP5.

McTaggart, on Bill Hall

You've probably seen it, but Brian McTaggart has his own reaction to the Bill Hall signing. A pull:

Back to the Astros. With the moves to acquire Barmes and Hall, the Astros have completed their top offseason task, which was to add some run production to the middle of the infield. The Astros got a combined nine homers last season from the second base and shortstop positions, and Barmes and Hall could wind up hitting 20 apiece if things go right.

Suddenly, the lineup seems more legitimate.