Tuesday Morning Hot Links

 *The Michael Brantley re-signing is officially official. Among the things he said on a Zoom call (of which I was not a part, hmph):

-He signed, in part, out of respect for Jim Crane.

-His teammates thought he was going to Toronto, as well. As did he, but Brantley feels as though he has "unfinished business" in Houston.

*Carlos Correa has personally reached out to James Click to indicate that he wants to stay in Houston beyond 2021. Click is "obviously" very interested. As am I. And damn if it didn't take Correa's response to the worst scandal in franchise history to bring me on board.

*McTaggart has the ten best moments in Minute Maid Park history.

*Apparently I missed that the Astros traded Cionel Perez to the Reds for a minor-league catcher. Watch Cionel Perez carve up the NL Central where only like two teams are trying to win their division.

*SI's Emma Baccellieri: How should we (the rest of baseball) feel about the Astros? It's complicated.

*Arizona has asked MLB to delay the start of Spring Training due to the high positivity rate in Arizona. MLB basically told Arizona to piss off. The Cactus League said "okay."

*The Hall of Fame will announce the Class of 2021 on Tuesday. Among David Schoenfield's look at 40 current MLB players on a HOF trajectory, we see Current Astros Greats Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke as Locks, Gerrit Cole and Jose Altuve as On The Right Path, and Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa as Have Some Work To Do, with Yordan Alvarez as The Next Generation. I swear the thought of the 2019 Astros, with seven Hall of Famers and no World Series, makes me want to throw a kitten in a river.

*My new favorite NFL team, the San Francisco 49ers, have increased their ownership in my beloved Leeds United, to 37%. Leeds play Newcastle at 12pm Central on Tuesday.

*You can watch Hank Aaron's memorial service at 12pm on FoxSportsGo on Tuesday.

*Vice: The furniture salesman who saved Houston. You already know who it is.

*Astros County HQ highly recommends "Night Stalker: The Hunt For A Serial Killer" on Netflix.

*One of my favorite bands is Travis. NME interviewed lead singer Fran Healy on what he remembers from his own career.

*A bunch of Redditors (a site which I previously thought was just for planning murders and whatnot) made GameStop's stock price soar in an effort to screw over hedge fund managers trying to short it.

*Before we go, it's time for another installment of Hello, I'm A Massive Nerd! Let's get to it:

1. The Astros are hosting the Pirates, and Jason Castro is up to bat, hitting .193. The Astros are up 3-2 in the 6th. Some other names we recognize that can narrow down that window: Hunter Pence, Carlos Lee, Jeff Keppinger, Chris Wallace, J.A. Happ. 

2. Jason Castro only played with the Astros in the NL in 2010 and 2012. Hunter Pence only played with Jason Castro in the NL in 2010. JA Happ only pitched for the Astros in the NL with Jason Castro and Hunter Pence in 2010. The only possible explanation is that this game is from 2010. 

3. JA Happ (and Jonathan Villar and Anthony Gose) was acquired from the Phillies for Roy Oswalt on July 29, 2010. Anthony Gose was immediately flipped to Toronto for Brett Wallace, who is hitting 6th in this game. 

4. Brett Wallace made his MLB debut on July 31, 2010. The only games he played against the Pirates at Minute Maid Park in 2010 were from August 13-15. 

5. On August 13 Brett Wallace batted 7th. On August 14 he came into the game in the 8th and didn't record a Plate Appearance. On August 15 Wallace batted 6th. JA Happ started that game and threw 6IP, 3H/2ER, 5K:4BB. 

7. We see from the picture that Jason Castro is hitting .193, he singled in the 2nd and struck out in the 4th. The Astros have put two on the board in the bottom of the 6th. If we go back to the box score for that August 13, 2010 game, we find that Castro singled to CF in the 2nd off of Jeff Karstens, but Karstens struck Castro out to end the 4th inning. 

8. We know that the Astros were up 3-2 when Castro comes to bat. The Astros started the 6th Inning down 2-1. Hunter Pence hit a ground-rule double to lead off the inning. Carlos Lee flied out to deep RF for the 1st out, sending Pence to third. Jeff Keppinger hit a sac fly to score Pence. Brett Wallace got hit by a pitch (the only time the Pirates hit Brett Wallace at home). Chris Johnson singled through the left side to move Wallace to 2nd. Jason Castro singled through the right side to score Brett Wallace and Chris Johnson to give the Astros a 3-2 lead. 

9. This photo was taken immediately after Castro's AB, in the bottom of the 6th Inning on August 15, 2010. Houston would go on to win 8-1 to "improve" to 51-65.

10. Send me a picture of a scoreboard and I will absolutely do this again. 

*A Musical Selection:

Today in "Hello, I Am A Massive Nerd"

It's been a while since I've posted anything on this web site because it has been a while since there has been anything Astros-related to which I could respond. SO, I thought I'd let you take a look at how I blow off some steam. Some people use drugs recreationally. Others hunt humans for sport. Not me! I try to find random pictures of scoreboards to tell exactly when that picture was taken, and I thought I'd walk you through the process of how I do it. You do not have to read this. 

1. Start with the image. It's very important that, if the image on the Google Search comes from a newspaper article, to skip past the date of the article. Just load the image into a new tab. Here's one. Like I said, it's very random.

So how do we begin? Let's start with what we know:

1. This is Milwaukee at Wrigley Field. Look at the ivy, for crying out loud. Even if you didn't know what the outfield wall of Wrigley Field looked like, you can see the phone number for the rooftop seats and see that the area code is 773, which is Chicago. We know it's Milwaukee because Eric Thames is wearing a big ol' Brewers cap. If you didn't know that, then perhaps this is not the exercise - or web site - for you.

2. Due to the lack of greenery on the outfield wall, this is early in the season. Probably April. Also, Eric Thames' .417 batting average at the time of the picture being taken would indicate this is early in the season. You can also see that the Blurry People in the outfield bleachers look like they're bundled up. 

3. So now we start to narrow down the possible dates of when the picture was taken. Eric Thames played with the Brewers from 2017-2019. The Brewers played the Cubs in April in 2017, 2018, and 2019, but the Brewers/Cubs games in 2018 and 2019 were in Milwaukee. They played at Wrigley April 17-19, 2017, so that seems like it's our best bet. 

4. At the time of the pictured at-bat, Thames was hitting .417 with seven home runs. Thames hit his seventh home run of 2017 in the top of the 3rd inning off of the Cubs' John Lackey on April 17, 2017.  He hit his eighth home run of 2017 on April 20 at home against St. Louis, so to find the range of when Thames had exactly seven home runs at Wrigley Field, it rules out 2018 and 2019, so we're back to somewhere between April 17-19, 2017.

5. Now we have to figure out exactly which game this was. There's no score, so we can't look to see if either Milwaukee or Chicago had put up a big half-inning. The biggest clue isn't the 0x1, or the run scored, but the two walks. Thames drew two walks in a game at Wrigley Field twice in 2017: April 19, and May 19. But by May 19, 2017 Thames had 13 home runs, so it can't be that game. It has to be April 19. 

6. To the next, and final point: At what point of the game was Eric Thames up to bat after going 0x1 with two walks and a run scored at Wrigley Field on April 19, 2017? We see that the Cubs pitcher is named "Montgomery." That's Mike Montgomery, who threw 1.2IP in relief of Tommy Milone's 5IP start. If we look really close, Montgomery has already thrown 0.2IP and was sitting on 23 pitches. This is either the 6th or the 7th inning. Just simply by looking at the box score of the game (linked in Item 5), we know that the #2-hitting Thames drew a walk in the top of the 1st inning and scored a batter later on Travis Shaw's 2-run home run. Thames also drew another walk in the top of the 3rd, and grounded out to end the top of the 4th inning. There is our 0x1, and we already have the two walks and the run scored. Montgomery pitched to Thames in the top of the 6th with two outs. Thames would go on to ground out with the bases loaded to end the 6th inning. 

7. This picture was taken in the top of the 6th inning on April 19, 2017. The Cubs won 7-4. 

Please still be friends with me.