Saturday Morning Hot Links

Well well well! I'm back from four not-terribly-restful days chaperoning 85 high school kids in the middle of Manhattan. I've been going to NYC for about 13 years (more so when I lived up that way, obviously) and I stand by two facts:

1. NYC is an absolutely amazing place. This isn't always a positive thing.

2. My favorite part of any trip to NYC is getting home. 

Anyway, Big Thanks to Flick for hosting Flick Week in my absence. He'll come back on board once school gets back in. Now he gets to act like a college kid and not have the responsibility of doing Hot Links - unless he wants to. You're stuck with me for a while.

The Astros beat the McKinney Rangers thanks to back-to-back-to-back home runs off of Mike Minor and then by hanging on for a 4-3 win. Houston is 62-37. They have a 5.5-game lead on Oakland and an 11-game lead on Lower Denton. 

*Houston has won three straight games, and five of their last seven. Since the Pittsburgh Fiasco, Houston is 12-5. It's the first time that Astros' starters have recorded Wins in three straight games since May 13-15, 2019. 

*The Astros are 18-11 in 1-run games. 

*Houston is 9-6 against Upper Midlothian in 2019. One more win against West Terrell gives the Astros the Silver Boot, which their fan base gets so jazzed up about, for the third straight year. The remaining four games are at Minute Maid Park.

*Let's start with Verlander, shall we? Verlander threw 6IP, 8H/2ER, 12K:2BB. Yes, both runs came on solo home runs. It's the 18th 12+ K game of his career, his 6th as an Astro. 

Verlander 12+ K games, by season:

2007: 1

2008: 0

2009: 2

2010: 0

2011: 2

2012: 3

2013: 3

2014: 0

2015: 0

2016: 1

2017: 0

2018: 3

2019: 3

*Verlander's ERA is 2.99 with an 0.84 WHIP. He has walked 29 batters and allowed 28 home runs. Verlander:

That was a grind, it was tough, those guys battled me all night. The box score doesn't show how tough they battled me, but every single one of them was difficult. They had a lot of guys on base every inning, it wasn't easy, so I'm pleased to come away with the W.

Fort Worth was 0x11 w/RISP.

*Danny Santana was 3x5 with a double. He is hitting 1.000/1.000/2.000 .375/.419/.675 against Houston this season. In his career, Santana has hit .353/.333/.706 against Verlander and .778/.778/1.222 against Gerrit Cole. That's insane. 

*Jose Altuve was 2x4 with his 13th home run of the season. He committed two errors. 

*It was the first time since June 20, 2018 the Astros have hit three straight home runs, and they did it on four pitches. Hinch:

Before everybody was done high-fiving Bregman, we were doing it again with Alvarez.

Alvarez's 474-foot home run was the longest by an Astro since Statcast has been a thing in 2015. Alvarez:

It would be even better if every guy hit a home run, but very happy with three.

Bregman:

It was great...We did a great job after a long night of traveling. I know everybody was tired. We win ballgames like that, it's special.

*Yuli Gurriel hit his 17th home run of the season. He has a seven-game hitting streak. Since May 27 (41 games), Gurriel is hitting .322/.355/.602 with 12 doubles, 12 home runs, 14K:10BB.

*Yordan Alvarez hit his 10th home run of the season. Since he arrived in Houston on June 9, Alvarez has posted a .692 SLG - the 8th-highest SLG in baseball among hitters with at least 100 PAs. Gurriel has the league lead with a .727 SLG. 

*Alex Bregman, since the All-Star Break (7 games): .348/.515/.652, 5K:9BB.

*Big news of the day was that the Astros DFA'd Tyler White. White was hitting .225/.320/.330 in 218 PAs for a 75 OPS+ and a -0.8 bWAR (-0.3 fWAR). Of 221 hitters with at least 250 PAs, only seven had a worse fWAR than White.

Jose Urquidy was added to the 25-Man Roster so he can start tonight's game against North Cedar Hill. 

White declined an interview after the game, which is understandable.

*Brad Peacock hopes to start throwing soon.

*From Jake Kaplan and The Athletic (paywalled): the Astros opened up their baseball operations department to McKinsey consultants. This Forbes article paints a fairly brutal picture of McKinsey (not paywalled).

Also from Kaplan: What's behind Robinson Chirinos' prolonged slump.

*Round Rock lost 6-5 on a walkoff in the bottom of the 10th. Josh Rojas and Jack Mayfield homered.

*Corpus won 3-2 on a walkoff in the bottom of the 9th. Rehabbing Aledmys Diaz was 0x3 with 3K:1BB. Cristian Javier threw 3.1IP, 4H/2R (1ER), 7K:3BB. Bryan Abreu threw 4IP, 2H/0ER, 7K:0BB.

*Fayetteville lost 6-4. Corey Julks was 4x5 with a home run. Brett Conine threw 4IP, 2H/1ER, 3K:1BB.

*Quad Cities had a forgetful night, losing 7-1. They got two hits. 

*Lowell completed the sweep of Tri-City. 2018 2nd-Round pick Jayson Schroeder: 0.2IP, 1H/4R (2ER), 1K:4BB. Schroeder, 2019 (between Quad Cities and Tri-City): 18.2IP, 26H/31R (21ER), 20K:32BB. 10.13 ERA / 3.11 WHIP.

*Yesterday Forrest Whitley made another start for the GCL Astros. His line: 2.2IP, 1H/2R (1ER), 5K:6BB. Whitley has gone from the #1 pitching prospect in baseball to walking six Gulf Coast League guys in less than three innings. 

*Former Favorite Jonah Keri was arrested Thursday on four charges (three counts of assault causing bodily harm) from his wife.

*Ars Technica: Earlier this month, a Russian spy sub crew prevented a nuclear disaster at the cost of their lives.

*A Musical Selection:

Saturday Morning Hot Links

The Defending World Champion Houston Astros were able to squeak out a 2-1 win over the juggernaut 46-win Baltimore Orioles. I guess. Houston is 101-58 and needs to go 2-1 (doubleheader today) to set the franchise record for wins in a season.

*Houston is 19-5 in September, 33-17 since August 1. One more win sets a season high for most wins in a calendar month. Most wins in a calendar month, Astros, 2015-18:

22: May 2017
20: September 2017
19: September 2018, June 2018
18: April 2018, June 2016

*Josh Reddick hit his 17th home run of the season. Four of his last seven hits have been home runs.

*Carlos Correa was 0x3 with a walk and a GIDP. Since coming off the DL, Correa is "hitting" .172/.257/.219. It has been 99 Plate Appearances since his last home run. I'd have a hard time putting Correa on the playoff roster at this point.

That GIDP tied the 2000 Astros with 154 GIDPs - most in franchise history. Let's see if they can make history today!

*If the Astros don't commit five errors in the next three games, they'll set a franchise record for the lowest number of errors in a season.

*Tyler White was 0x4 with 2Ks. It's his first consecutive hitless-game streak since July 9-10.

*Gerrit Cole ended his regular season with 6IP, 5H/1ER, 4K:1BB. His season ERA is 2.88, with 276 strikeouts in 200.1IP. He has now thrown 200IP in three of his last four seasons. Some stats:

-Cole's 12.4 K/9 leads the league.
-276 strikeouts are the most for an Astros pitcher since Justin Verlander's 280 in 2018 and are 5th in franchise history.
-6.424 Hits/9 are 8th in franchise history, and the lowest for an Astros pitcher since 1986.
-Cole allowed 0-1ER in 12 of his 32 starts
-Cole threw a Quality Start in 20 of his 32 starts

Cole:
I thought it was a great body of work. I thought a lot of the personal numbers reflect how well we've played as a team this year. Certainly the innings mark for sure.

Hinch:
He exceeded really anything we could have hoped for. It's not easy to get to 200 innings, it's not easy to post every time and give the quality he did - the strikeout numbers, the low hit total...It's one thing to have expectations and another thing to step up and do it when everyone expects it.

*Tony Sipp, Collin McHugh, and Roberto Osuna combined for 3IP, 1H/0ER, 3K:0BB.

*Hinch, on the Astros as he and the coaching staff plan the postseason roster:
This is the deepest team most of these guys have played on. They're realists when they understand this is a hard team to crack. I've said that to them in a team meeting. You have to be real with them. They look around and see the numbers and what's possible. 

*Chandler Rome writes about Maldonado's caught stealing rate and the effect it has on the other team.

*Looks like for the 3rd time in four years I won't be attending a playoff game in Houston, as tickets sold out in five minutes.

*Jenny Dial Creech talked to a domestic abuse victim about the Osuna trade, two months later.

*Speaking of domestic abuse, FanGraphs' Sheryl Ring on Addison Russell and what constitutes evidence.

*Less than a week away from the ALDS, Cleveland.com asks how Astros pitchers will attack Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez.

*Jim Callis has a cool article on new Astros strikeout masters in the Instructional League. Notes on 2nd Round pick Jayson Schroeder, 6th Rounder R.J. Freure, 12th Round pick Mark Moclair, 14th Rounder J.P. France, and July signing Manny Ramirez.

*Important Base Ball matches today:
-St. Louis vs. Chicago. For the Cardinals, a loss or a Dodgers win eliminates them.
-Milwaukee vs. Detroit. The Brewers have clinched a playoff spot, but are only a game behind the Cubs.
-LA vs San Francisco. The Dodgers are a game behind the already-clinched Rockies, who could win their first division title.

I want chaos. Give me tie-breaker games on Monday.

*There is absolutely nothing of value under the Astros in Jon Heyman's "Inside Baseball(-Reference)" column.

*SI.com notes that 2018 Marwin was exactly league-average.

*An oral history of Rounders.

*A musical selection:

Thursday Morning Hot Links

I do what I want.

*From the BBC: How the United States, Canada, and Mexico won the 2026 World Cup.

*Spain defender Gerard Pique is using 1989 University of Michigan Basketball as motivation for Spain's World Cup 2018 run.

*The Alternative 2018 World Cup Fan Guide.

*From Deadspin: Italy's favorite cyclist Marco Pantani rode hard, died young, and might have lost his career due to a rigged drug test.

*How to watch, and stream, all of the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans.

True story: Kula Shaker lead singer Crispian Mills is the son of the Pollyanna / The Parent Trap's Hayley Mills.



*The Astros beat the piss out of Oakland. It was interesting if only for literally a couple of bad pitches, but the Astros cruised to a 13-5 win to extend a season-high seven-game win streak, six of those on the road. Houston's record is 44-25. They have a +138 run differential. They remain a half-game back of Seattle, who have a +27 run differential.

*Last night was the Astros' first 10+ run game since an 11-2 win at Cleveland on May 25. I think we can all agree that the low-point of the Astros season, offensively anyway, came after the game of May 2, when the Astros were shutout for the second straight time at home against the Yankees. After that game they were hitting .250/.330/.396. They had hit 32 home runs through 32 games (20-12). From May 3-this morning the Astros are hitting .272/.337/.432 with 53 home runs in 37 games (24-13).

Hinch:
The first two innings were incredible, to get 10 runs and to really control the game from the very beginning of it is awesome. It's what we want to do every night. It's hard to put of those kinds of runs in bulk, but when you have great at-bats the first time through, we can do a lot of damage, obviously. 

*Evan Gattis did it again. He hit a sac fly, a three-run home run, and a solo home run. Evan Gattis is playing in a video game right now. Since May 7, Gattis is hitting .297/.345/.693, a 1.038 OPS and 12 home runs. In this span he's hitting a home run every 8.42 ABs. To find his last 5RBI game, you have to go all the way back to June 12, 2018. Gattis had never had a 5RBI game before Tuesday, now he has back-to-back 5RBI games. Nobody in Astros history has ever had back-to-back 5RBI games. Hinch:
It was fun to watch our guys respond to his continued damage at-bats. They're taking his helmet off and rubbing it all over themselves and they're trying to get as close to him as they can. They want whatever he's eating, whatever he's doing during the games. 

Gattis, on the franchise record:
I found out I was the first Astro, which is incredible, with all the incredible players that have played here - Bagwell, Biggio, Berkman. There's a lot of good players, so it's an honor.

*Yuli Gurriel was 3x5 with 3RBI. On April 28 Gurriel was hitting .220/.276/.360. Since then he's hitting .329/.341/.419. He has 6RBI in his last four games, with four straight multi-hit games.

*Carlos Correa hit his 6th career triple, and his first since June 8, 2017, against Kansas City.

*Holy crap for the 8th time this season Jake Marisnick had more hits (2) than strikeouts (1), getting a double and a 9th inning home run. It's his first multi-XBH game of the season.

*The Astros have outscored Oakland 62-17 in seven straight wins.

*Gerrit Cole threw 6IP, 6H/4ER, 6K:2BB and made two bad pitches and they cost him four runs. It's Cole's first non-Quality Start of the season. His propensity for giving up earned runs via the long ball continues to be a thing. Cole has given up 26 runs this season (in 93.2IP, which is just silly). Sixteen of them (61.5%) have come off a home run. Let's take a look at this:

% of runs allowed via home run (regular season):
2018: 61.5% (16 of 26)
2017: 50.0% (48 of 96)
2016: 14.0% (8 of 57)
2015: 18.3% (13 of 71)
2014: 27.6% (16 of 58)
2013: 20.9% (9 of 43)

Last night the 12th time in his career, and the 4th time this season, he's given up two home runs in a start. Gerrit Cole has now given up 78 career home runs - 39 in his home park, and 39 in the road park.

That said, the Astros are 12-2 in his starts and the two losses came on April 23 when the Astros got shutout and the freaking stupid Tyler Bauer game when the Giles and Harris blew an 8-3 lead in the 9th.

*Shoutout to Will Harris, though, who struck out the side on 13 pitches in a perfect 7th inning.

*Alex Bregman had the night off, and A.J. Hinch is going to start resting everyday players. And on Marisnick? Hinch:
I know he's had a tough time with the bat...He's a Major League player, he's on our team, he can run the bases. We've got to find a way to get his bat going...He's not going to get better by sitting on the bench for a week at a time until people are not mad at him or want him to play.

Why do I get the feeling that A.J. Hinch was looking directly into my soul when he said that?

ABSURD. pic.twitter.com/2ohJ3ICZGp

— Houston Astros (@astros) June 14, 2018

Oh.

*Mike Petriello notes that Statcast says Justin Verlander is MLB's Most Improved Pitcher.

*The Astros agreed to terms with 1-28 Seth Beer, who signed for $2.25m, just under $150,000 under slot. Updated draft financials can be found here.

*Here's Christian Boutwell with a 2-66 Jayson Schroeder update. TL;DR: He's committed to the University of Washington, and Mike Elias acknowledges that "it's going to be difficult to sign him away." Slot for the 2-66 pick is $965,300 and the Astros have about $150,000 to work with.

*Randy Cesar was 1x3 with a double and a walk to extend his hitting streak to 35 games. Forrest Whitley threw 4IP, 2H/0ER, 6K:2BB on 72 pitches in a 4-3 Corpus win.

*Minor League Ball did a write-up on 2014 34th Round pick Josh James, whose sleep apnea Jake Kaplan wrote up a little while back. John Sickels:

I think James has been seen mainly as a relief prospect but he's done so well as a starter, it would be a shame not to give him a chance in that role. Overall I think he's a completely legitimate prospect.

*There are seven Corpus players on the 2018 Texas League All-Star Game roster: Taylor Jones, Randy Cesar, Myles Straw, Josh Rojas, Cionel Perez, Corbin Martin, and Ryan Hartman.

*Cristian Javier made his High-A debut last night for Buies Creek and threw 6IP, 0H/0ER, 5K:3BB

*Ben Lindbergh in The Ringer: The Mariners are first-place flukes - and they deserve it.

*I wrote about a problematic article in The Atlantic.

2-66: Jayson Schroeder

With their 2nd Round pick of the draft, #66 pick overall, the Astros selected 6'2" 205lb RHP Jayson Schroeder out of Juanita High School in Kirkland, Washington. The slot value for the 2-66 pick is $965,300. He has committed to the University of Washington.

In his senior season with Juanita, Schroeder threw 60.1IP, 29H/13ER, 110K:19BB.

*Baseball America listed Schroeder as their #1 prospect in the Northwest. BA:
This spring, Schroeder has picked up right where he left off, regularly sitting 92-93mph with a fastball that includes both power and sink. He has also shown a second breaking ball this spring in a slider, and while both of his secondary offerings are currently fringe-average, many scouts think both could turn into plus pitches down the line thanks to his arm speed and feel for spin. Given his arm slot and strength, a power slider seems to be the pitch most evaluators are banking on as his future go-to offering.

*Juanita HS head coach Brian Shannon:
He's built like he could play Division I college football. A very physical kid, and it shows with his velocity: 92-93 most of the time, was up to 95 this year. Very athletic kid. He runs really well. I think he repeats his delivery very well, and he'll have success.

Chandler Rome notes that Shannon threw a 17-strikeout perfect game earlier this season against a division opponent who made the playoffs.

*Schroeder told the Seattle Times, who named him as their Player of the Year
I love pitching. It's the one sport where you can pretty much dominate the game for your team, and the game doesn't start until you throw the ball. I like having all the control. 

Mercer Island coach Dominic Woody:
His stuff - velocity, movement, breaking ball - those things speak for themselves. But usually when guys throw as hard and physical as Jayson does with his stuff, they really aren't as refined as he is. It's his command that I've been really impressed with. He looks like a Friday-night, Pac-12, front-line starter to me. 

*An unnamed cross-checker:
If he wants to sign and shows that to the club that ultimately takes him, he'll probably go in the 3rd-round range somewhere. The book on him is he's a smart kid, a smart player and he may thrive in the Pac-12 and come back in a few years as a Top 50 player. But I'd prefer to get him (into pro ball) now.

A guy named Joel Latta:
The 6'2" 200lb right-hander makes pitching look effortless with a 3/4 arm slot, fluid arm action, minimal lower half effort, and it results in a sharp, downhill delivery. Working from the third-base side of the rubber, Schroeder does a good job of using his drive leg to launch into his delivery and had no issue repeating it all in this outing.

Schroeder has a smooth delivery, and doesn't put added pressure on the arm. pic.twitter.com/85wtmPKDPi

— Joel Latta (@joel_latta) April 22, 2018