Sunday Morning Hot Links

Word to you, mothers.

Fitting that Charlie F. Morton pitched the night before Mother's Day as his 14 strikeouts got all the female spectators pregnant. Morton: 7IP, 4H/1ER, 14K:0BB - a career-high in strikeouts.

Asked if he was even happy about his performance, Morton:
No. I try not to get too far ahead of myself and I try not to let outings dictate how I feel about myself because I think that's a way to get in trouble. If you let a bad outing get to you too much or you let a good outing get to you too much it's not a good thing. So I'll do what I normally do and prepare for the next start.

CFM is a stone-cold killer. No, I mean it. I was driving down Braeswood about 2:30 in the morning and saw him slitting a pimp's throat. There was joy in his eyes, then.

McCann:
He had everything working. He's pretty much had it all year, we're talking about a month and a half now. He threw the ball extremely well. He's picking up where he's left off. It's been a pleasure to catch and watch.

*Shin-Soo Choo:
I think I saw one hittable pitch, and I fouled it. He kept making good pitches. Their pitching is really good. They all can get strikeouts.

*Delino DeShields wasn't happy with the strike zone:
We can argue strikes and balls but it is what it is. They got a couple of calls on the outer corners and you start chasing a little bit because you don't want to get run up on something close to that spot.

*Astros pitchers recorded 16 strikeouts last night, the 22nd time they've rung up 10+ hitters in a game this season. The 2017 Astros did it 84 times.

*The Astros have three of the eight highest K/9 rates by pitchers:
2. Gerrit Cole (13.66)
7. Justin Verlander (11.61)
8. Charlie Morton (11.47)

*Astros pitchers vs. North Waxahachie this season: 82IP, 56H/24ER, 111K:18BB - a 2.63 ERA/0.90 WHIP.

*Astros hitters vs. North Waxahachie this season: .219/.303/.389, 77K:33BB. Rangers pitchers have hit five Astros in nine games.

*Last night was the 9th consecutive game for the Astros to strike out less than 10 times on offense. In the first 25 games the Astros had 12 10+ K games for a total of 228 strikeouts (9.12 per game). Over the last 16 games they've had two 10+ K games, and struck out 114 times (7.13 per game).

*Evan Gattis might be tired of reading about how terrible he is, as he was the only Astro to get a hit on Friday, and then went 2x3 with 2RBI and a STOLEN BASE last night. Hinch:
There's a lot of things you got to pay attention to in a game. You never know what you'll see on a nightly basis. I don't know when the next one you'll see is, but if you missed tonight, you better try to see it on the highlights.

*Such is the standard to which we are accustomed by Jose Altuve, but joined Marwin and Fisher as the only Astros to not get a hit. Altuve has been held hitless eight times this season, including the last two games. The last time he was 0-fer in consecutive games was September 3/4, 2017. Altuve hasn't had a three-game hitless streak since he went four straight without a hit May 21-25, 2016.

Altuve home, 2018: .247/.307/.346
Altuve road, 2018: .381/.430/.488

*Correa hit his 6th home run of the year, a two-run shot in the 8th. As Chandler Rome notes, it was his 72nd home run in his 400th career game. Only three shortstops had more home runs in their first 400 games: Ernie Banks (87), Nomar Garciaparra (86), and Alex Rodriguez (82).

*Yuli Gurriel was 1x3 and GIDPd twice. He had one GIDP coming into last night's game.

*Astros, w/runners in scoring position, 2018: .258/.336/.422
AL, w/runners in scoring position, 2018: .250/.329/.405
Astros, w/runners in scoring position, 2017: .294/.360/.481

*The Astros are 25-16 through 25.3% of the season, which puts them on a pace to win 98.8 games.

*Houston is looking to win their second consecutive series for the first time since going to Seattle and Chicago from April 16-22. You can make a decent case that the Mariners series was the only one the Astros have won against a decent team so far this season. That can change this week in Anaheim and against Cleveland.

*A.J. Hinch wrote Jose Altuve's name at the top of the lineup before George Springer got to the ballpark, but is hopeful Springer can avoid the DL:
I don't think it's a DL situation, but it's been half a day since he got hit. We're certainly hopeful that it's a contusion he has to deal with.

Cole Hamels leads the AL with seven HBPs so it's time to go grab him from his condo in Ardmore and shave him bald.

*Richard Justice examines what makes the Astros' rotation so great, Hinch pays attention to the chemistry and the competition:
There's a team within a team there, especially with the starting rotation. They want to one-up each other. They want to dominate like the guy before them did. They take a lot of responsibility for setting the tone for a team that expects to win. 

*Jon Heyman lists the Astros at 10:1 odds to sign Craig Kimbrel.

*Fresno (22-15) beat Salt Lake 7-4 last night. Kyle Tucker went 3x4 with his 3rd home run of the season, Tony Kemp set a franchise record with his 21st career triple, and James Hoyt got his first save of the season.

*Corpus (19-16) got a 7-run 1st inning and rode it out to a 9-3 win over Midland. Josh Rojas (2R), Carmen Benedetti (BB, 3RBI), and Nick Tanielu (RBI) had three hits each. Myles Straw was 2x5 with an RBI and his MiLB-leading 21st stolen base of the season.

*Buies Creek (22-14) beat Myrtle Beach 9-3. Ronnie Dawson and Abraham Toro each had two hits and a walk. Kit Scheetz threw the final 3.2IP, allowing 4H/0ER, 5K:0BB. In his last five games Scheetz has thrown 16.1IP, 8H/0ER, 24K:1BB.

*Quad Cities (19-15) allowed Lake County to score the final five runs of the game in a 5-3 loss. Colton Shaver was 2x4 with a home run. Patrick Sandoval threw 5IP, 1H/0ER, 6K:2BB.

*Evan Longoria: "The best decision might be to move" the Rays."

*Craig Edwards: When should you start paying attention to a no-hitter?

Thursday Morning Hot Links

Certain Astros will play baseball today, beginning a journey that ideally ends sometime around the beginning of November.

*The Astros/Phillies Spring Training game will be on MLB Network today at 12:05pm Central. George Springer, Jon Singleton, Tyler White, A.J. Reed, Preston Tucker, and Alex Bregman will all be playing.

*Altuve and Correa will make their Spring debut either Friday or Saturday.

*Luke Gregerson threw off a mound yesterday.

*Evan Gattis - three weeks removed from hernia surgery - is hitting off a tee.

*Jose Altuve and the Astros apparently haven't discussed an extension beyond his current deal that has him signed through 2019, pending team options.

*Altuve is the Astros' "spark plug."

*Joe Musgrove knows we're all talking about his walks.

*Tyler White has been working on hitting the high fastball.

*FanGraphs on the similarities between Domingo Santana and George Springer.

*Aroldis Chapman's 30-game suspension was not random.

*The sheetrock accident that turned Craig Kimbrel into a dominant closer.

*Brett Phillips' laugh - and his five tools - have turned him into baseball's darling prospect. (Side note: trading Brett Phillips has haunted me since July, and I don't think that's going away any time soon)

*MLB has filed a proposal with the Treasury Department to allow Cuban players to sign directly with teams.

*There were only 15 known Ty Cobb T-206s, then a family decided to flip through a paper bag and found seven more.

Perpetual Friday Trade Deadline Post

Due to the length of the running post for today's trade deadline - and it's only 10:10am - I decided to move it over to a separate page, which can be found here.

Friday Morning Hot Links

The Astros swept the Angels last night behind Scott Kazmir and Jason Castro - be sure you check out the Masked Marvel's recap here. So the Angels lost, as did the Mariners and A's. The Rangers won, though. So the updated FanGraphs Playoff Odds calculator shows the Astros - now with Carlos Gomez - show the Astros with a 68.2% chance of winning the division and a 93.2% chance of making the postseason. Interestingly enough, the Astros chances of winning the World Series increased to 10.3% - meaning that in 10,000 simulations of the rest of the season, the Astros won the World Series in 1,030 of them. Only the Yankees, Nationals, and Dodgers have a higher WS%.

Game Links

Hero Jason Castro:
As long as I've been here, I don't really remember a time that it's been quite like this - the kind of electricity in the air with all the fans. Everyone is really excited to watch Astros baseball again.

Kazmir:
That felt great. I felt the love for sure. What more can I say? I'm just excited to be here.

Pujols helped Valbuena with some tips at 1B.

Trade Deadline Links

Drellich: The Astros aren't done
Crane and Luhnow might smell blood in the water

MLB Daily Dish (which has a history of having #Sources) says the Astros and Padres are involved in talks regarding Tyson Ross and Craig Kimbrel in a package that would include Jake Marisnick and Mark Appel.

Jeff Passan: The Astros and Padres are working on "something big."

The Yankees are interested in adding Kimbrel. The Astros are interested, but don't want to assume all the money on Kimbrel's contract. The asking price is high, but the Astros are at least interested in Aroldis Chapman.

Heyman: The Astros may be trying a "stealth move" for Kimbrel.

Gomez/Fiers Trade Links

Self-Plug: We wrote up the trade last night.

Chron: Traded Astros prospects see opportunity in Milwaukee.

Chron: The Astros and Brewers had been talking for a couple of weeks about Gomez

Chron: The Astros players are excited about adding Gomez.

ESPN: Astros may be division favorite after acquiring Carlos Gomez

NYT: Undone deal is Astros' gain. Luhnow:
I think it sends a message, not only to the players but to the fans, that we're going to put our money where our mouth is, take some of the resources we've accumulated and apply it towards winning games right now. We have a shot to get in the playoffs this year. We have a shot to do something in the playoffs - and we want to take advantage of it.

Other Links

Tyler Kepner: Carlos Correa is already a leader
Since 1950, only two players younger than 21 have reached 50 hits in fewer games: Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda. Both are in the Hall of Fame.