Monday Morning Hot Links

The Astros did the Good Thing again: got a big inning, solid pitching, and a 7-1 win over the White Sox to complete the sweep. Jexas has your series recap.

*Houston is 16-7, matching the best 23-game start in franchise history set by the 1980 and 2015 teams, both of whom would go on to win the World Series in 2017.

*Houston got seven hits and drew seven walks for the 3rd time this season. The last time the Astros drew seven walks in a game came all the way back on Saturday night against the White Sox. The Astros outscored Chicago 27-2, racking up 36 hits (nine doubles, five home runs), 25K:18BB. Houston raised their team OPS from .705 to .740 in these three games.

*It's Houston's sixth straight win, five of which the Astros scored 7+ runs. Hinch:
We put a lot of pressure on them offensively and on the bases, and not giving up hardly any runs helps. Again, when we can play all facets of the game we are a tough team to match up with.

*Evan Gattis hit his first home run of the season, in the 9th inning. Gattis hit his first home run of 2017 on April 22. It's the 115th home run of his career: 58 at home, 57 away.

*As a team the Astros have hit 23 home runs through 23 games. At this point in the 2017 season, Houston had hit 28 home runs.

*Carlos Correa had two hits and two walks and is hitting .351/.409/.584. He has a 7-game hitting streak and has been on base 2+ times in all of them.

*Mercy of mercies! Jake Marisnick got a hit (to go with two strikeouts), pinch-hitting for Derek Fisher, to lead off the 7th inning. Altuve would drive him in as the go-ahead run. Marisnick was 0x22 with 14 strikeouts in between hits.

*Lance McCullers threw 6IP, 8H/1ER, 3K:1BB. It's the second 6IP/3K game of his career, last one was May 23, 2017 at Miami.

*Having turned just ten double plays all season long, the Astros turned four double plays yesterday, the most since they turned five on August 19, 2017.

*Ken Giles threw another scoreless outing. Since allowing his last run on April 6, Giles has thrown 4IP, 1H/0ER, 1K:0BB. He has three strikeouts in 7IP this season.

*McTaggart notes that the Astros' bullpen has thrown the 4th-fewest IP in MLB, now at 65IP. Leading the way in MLB is the Angels (who come to town tonight) at 99.2IP. The Rangers are 7th, with 84IP.

*The Astros offered support for Danny Farquhar, who is still in critical condition after suffering a brain hemorrhage in the dugout on Friday night.

*Brandon Belt had a 21-pitch AB yesterday breaking Ricky Gutierrez's 20-pitch AB record against Bartolo Colon on June 26, 1998. Colon got the win, a 4-2 loss for the Astros, throwing 8IP, 5H/2ER, 7K:1BB. Heading into the 8th inning, Colon had thrown just 84 pitches. Gutierrez led off the 8th with this sequence: Strike swinging, Strike swinging, Foul, Ball, Foul Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Strike swinging.



Kevin Bass had a 19-pitch AB in the 9th inning on July 23, 1988 against Cam Steve Bedrosian.

Historical Scouting Reports - Kevin Bass

The National Baseball Hall of Fame did something really a couple years ago when they made thousands of historical scouting reports available to the public. This post is part of a series in which we'll look at the reports of players that have passed through Houston during their career. A lot of these are, understandably, difficult to read, so I'll do my best to transcribe them while including links to a few of them.

Today we'll look at right fielder Kevin Bass. Bass was drafted in the 2nd round by Milwaukee in 1977. Late in the 1982 season he was traded to Houston, along with Frank DiPino and Mike Madden, for Don Sutton. Bass would go on to spend the bulk of his career with the Astros during two stints in the 80's and 90's and was an All-Star during the team's storied 1986 season. For his career, he hit .270 with 118 HR and 151 SB, including putting together a 20/20 season in 1986. He left Houston as a free agent after the 1989 season, played a few years with the Giants and Mets, then returned to Houston as a free agent for the 1993 and 1994 seasons before spending his final year in Baltimore.

He have quite a few reports on Bass including several from 1977 and running until 1991.

Our first from 1977 is by Royals scout Tom Ferrick. At the time, Bass was a HS center fielder being scouted for the draft. Ferrick generally rated Bass as a potentially average, straight-away hitter with below average power but very good speed. In the field he was rated as above average to very good but with an average arm. Bass was also rated as potentially having above average baseball instincts and aggressiveness, as well as good habits, good agility, and good physical maturity. Ferrick noted that he talked to Bass, who was polite, well mannered, and intelligent. Bass played football but wants baseball. He notes that the switch-hitting Bass had a compact swing from the left side and was a natural right handed hitter. Ferrick summarized Bass "has potential to be lead off type ML OF. LF because of arm, but could play CF defensively. Should be base stealer, bunter and better than average defensive OF. Contact type hitter. Good baseball instincts."

Next is a player evaluation by Dennis Holmberg, Bass' manager for the short-season Brewers minor league team in Newark in 1977. Holmberg said Bass needed work hitting left handed, but that range and running speed would be above average. Bass also was a good worker and had the tools and desire to play; that he was a major league prospect who should play in A ball the next season. Bass was a line drive hitter with excellent bat speed and used his hands well, but at times didn't get his hips into the ball, which limited his power, and would also let front shoulder fly open at times when hitting left handed. He was an above average runner that needed to learn to drag bunt and get better leads and jumps off pitchers. Holmberg said Bass could reach AA the next season and that he would really come on in the Instructional League. Bass was great to work with and it was just a matter of time; he as an outstanding prospect. Holmberg wraps his report up by saying Bass "very possibly will have to be moved to right field in time."

Our next report is from Holmberg in 1977 again, this time from the Instructional League. Bass had improved in the field but still needed to improve his bunting. He was learning to steal bases and his quick bat could show some "fence power" in the future. His weakness in the field was on ground balls and throwing to the proper bases, but Holmberg felt that would improve with experience. Bass could run, throw, and hit, and was a good fielder, one of the finest young players Holmberg had seen. All he had to do is play every day to improve.

Next up is a report by Tony Siegle, then with the Brewers, from 1978 prior to the season. He said Bass was very aggressive in all respects. At Newerk, Siegle had some questions about Bass' bat but after seeing him again in the Instructionals he no longer had doubts. Bass could run and throw, but his fielding, especially with groundballs again, needed "smoothing out."

The next report we have is from 1985 by Bobby Morgan, who looks to have been a Royals scout at the time. I'm not too sure about the ratings he used, some sort of X +/- system, so you can see for yourself, but he summarized Bass as a "Good every day player - Good contact. Having a good year." On a side note, the Constable will not be happy about Morgan's last note on that report.

Now we get to the back half of Bass' career. The next report was from March 1990 by Phillies scout Eddie Bockman. Bass was with San Francisco at this point. This report is brief, but Bockman said Bass was "very good established everyday ML player. All tools above average. Solid in every area. Could help any ball club." As an interesting side, Brett Butler is also listed on this report. Bockman didn't like him, that he was "not our type of player." Butler would average about 5 WAR over the next 3 seasons.

Our final report is also by Bockman, this time from the spring of 1991. It's again very brief but he said Bass "has been used sparingly this spring. Probably due to knee surgery last year. If healthy can be good everyday player in ML. No clue if he changed his tune on Butler, though.

Kevin Bass to appear at Hall of Fame Classic

Hey, if you're not doing anything Father's Day weekend, head up to Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame Classic. Bass will suit up with Gary Carter, Bob Feller, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Harmon Killebrew, Phil Niekro and Ozzie Smith and 20 other former major-leaguers in the seven inning exhibition game on June 20.