Tuesday Morning Hot Links

*The Astros beat the Tigers 1-0 yesterday behind Brad Peacock's ridiculously strong spot start and a Jose Altuve RBI. Peacock threw 4.1IP, 1H/0ER, 8K:2BB. Devenski, Harris, and Giles combined to throw 4.2IP, 0H/0ER, 6K:0BB in relief.

*The Astros are 30-15 (.667), tied for the best start in franchise history, and the first team in MLB to 30 wins. They would need to go 64-53 (.547) the rest of the way to hit 94 wins.

*It's the Astros' first one-hitter since July 20, 2013 against Seattle when Erik Bedard, Jose Cisnero, Travis Blackley, and Jose Veras combined to hold the Mariners to one hit with 15 strikeouts and six walks. The Astros managed to lose that game 4-2. Perhaps you better remember it as the game where Erik Bedard had a no-hitter through 6.1IP, but had thrown 109 pitches and asked to be taken out of the game.

*Peacock:
I felt great out there tonight. I haven't felt that way in a long time. 

*Hinch:
That was an excellent effort in production. Everything you could ask for going into the game, just by being able to get into the fifth is one thing, and get into the fifth with all those punchouts and really keeping the game under control is another. And on top of that, it's a one-run game. That's a pretty special performance. 

*The Astros got nine hits on the night but were held to just one run, going 0x9 w/RISP.

*Brian McCann, who thinks he got his concussion taking a 97mph foul ball off the mask against the Yankees but didn't go on the DL until almost a week later, is feeling much better.

*Vice Sports: The Astros have baseball's new Murderer's Row

*Ol' boy Dave Raymond said that Houston fan reaction to the Astros start was "laughable."

*Yesterday I took a guess as to why Kyle Tucker and his 1.004 OPS are both still in High-A.

*Jordan Jankowski's wife is named Jordan.

*Nolan Fontana, the Astros' 2nd Round pick in 2012, was called up by the Angels yesterday.

*NY Times: Where did the great Hollywood baseball movie go?

*Before you go, the Marlins' Southern League affiliate in Jacksonville has this promotion...

I've witnessed thousands of weird @MiLB promotional events, but this tops them all. pic.twitter.com/RAvgl7XXRc

— Jessica Kleinschmidt (@KleinschmidtJD) May 22, 2017

Wednesday Morning Hot Links

For the most part, things have (publicly) settled down with the Astros after the Ken Giles trade. Still, I think we can rustle up a few things of interest...

*Of the 42 markets with an MLB, NBA, and/or an NFL team, Grammarly ranked Houston 29th in terms of "most grammatical mistakes per 100 words," with 12.70.

I actually think this is because Grammarly doesn't understand what "cHRis carter" meant.

*Alex Speier: Giles, Kimbrel deals show relief doesn't come cheap.

*Phillies GM Matt Klentak said the Astros' offer was too good to pass up.

*This Marc Hulet FanGraphs piece says that the failed physical was (allegedly) Derek Fisher.

*While working out the details of the Giles deal, the Astros were in on Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman, Jake McGee, Brad Boxberger, and Craig Kimbrel.

*The Astros are not on Jonathan Papelbon's no-trade list. Good, it would be fun to have a guy in the clubhouse who might choke you at any point.

*Ted Berg has a good writeup of Mark Appel and the effectiveness of the MLB draft.

*Former Astros announcer Dave Raymond will help out on the Rangers tv and radio broadcasts.

John Royal's interview with Brett Dolan

The Houston Press's John Royal (full disclosure, Royal is also basically Astros County's version of Roger Cossack) interviewed former broadcaster Brett Dolan on just what happened towards the end of his and Dave Raymond's tenure with the team. Just read the whole thing...

Astros let Raymond/Dolan go

In one of your classic "Making changes just to make changes" moves, the Astros announced that Dave Raymond and Brett Dolan will not be retained for the 2013 season. So the only member of the radio team that we know of is the football player from Houston who won a contest. That's great, for him.

But we - like most fans - are pissed. Having come to the Astros in 2006 and worked around Milo's schedule for the last seven years, Dolan and Raymond were pretty damn good radio guys, and that they will not be retained makes me mad.

Dolan:
"I'm really disappointed. Broadcasting baseball is all I've done my adult life, 19 straight years, and the last seven years [in Houston]. It's a difficult change to digest. I guess the disappointing aspect of it is [that] I bypassed pursuing some other opportunity in recent years because I wanted to be here long-term. We'll see what happens next." 

Astros County has reached out to the Astros for further comment. 

Dave Raymond has some observations

Dave Raymond notices a few things about these Astros.

Positives:

Offense
As a team, the Astros have a .305 batting average and a .501 slugging percentage. Both of those are the best in the Grapefruit League.

Defense
I've talked to several coaches from other clubs who have told me that they voted for Feliz to win the Gold Glove last year at third base. He's that good. Meanwhile, Manzella has shown quite a bit more range than Miguel Tejada did the past two seasons.

Felipe Paulino
New pitching coach, Brad Arnsberg, has worked diligently with the enigmatic right-hander to "clean up" his delivery. Keep in mind that Arnsberg has worked with guys like Roy Halladay, Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett and says Paulino has "as good an arm as I've been around in a long time."

Negatives:

Injuries

Oswalt hasn't pitched much
This is only a very small concern. Oswalt has felt great and is throwing even better.

Lefties
Numbers for relievers can be deceiving -- especially given the scarcity of innings in the cases of Byrdak and Wright. Rodriguez, meanwhile, is a veteran of this process and seems confident that all will be fine by April 6th.

I think the less Oswalt throws in the Spring (aside from what he needs to get ready, of course), the better.