Saturday Morning Hot Links

The Astros won 3-2 on a walkoff homer by Chas McCormick, despite outhitting the Mets 9-4, and drawing four walks.

-Lance McCullers threw 2IP, 2H/2ER, 2K:0BB.
-The Astros went 1x13 w/RISP.
-Carlos Correa was 2x3 with a double
-Alex Bregman was 1x3 with a walk
-George Springer was 1x3 with a walk and a stolen base

*17 of McCullers' 29 pitches went for strikes as he worked on his four-seam fastball location. LMJ:
The one thing I was working on today wasn't great, but all the other stuff I typically throw was excellent today. I've just got to keep on.

*The Astros made their first round of cuts today, sending seven pitchers to minor-league camp:
Cristian Javier, Kent Emanuel, Cionel Perez, Dean Deetz, Riley Ferrell, Brendan McCurry, and Ryan Hartman.

Dusty, on Cristian Javier:
Javier is a big-time talent. All the years I've been managing, this is probably the worst time of year for me because you're bursting bubbles out of people that are close to achieving their lifetime goal....You can't really tell them, 'You'd be the first call-up.' You don't want to lie to them or give them false hope. You want them to go down and work and don't get the big league-itis when you go down because you don't know how close you are to coming back. 

James Click, on Yordan Alvarez, who has been out since Tuesday:
This is something that he has dealt with before, and we're going to get a plan in place and we have every expectation he's going to be out there and going to be fine.

Also, Brandon Bailey (selected by the Orioles in the Rule 5 draft last December) was returned to the Astros.

*Justin Verlander is the one player the Astros can't live without.

*Myles Straw is planning on being an integral part of the Astros' season. Dusty, on Straw:
He's like three players in one. He can run, he can play different positions, and he's becoming better as a hitter. He's very valuable.

*In FanGraphs' Fantasy Shortstop Rankings, Alex Bregman (9th) outranked Carlos Correa (13th).

*Taylor Jones is making a big impression (get it, because he's 6'7") with the Astros. Jones:
Being on the 40-Man Roster, you know that you're getting close and you know they've got a plan for you and all that, so it's reassuring coming into camp. Once we got here and got rolling here, it's a good environment with Dusty being around. He provides a good players' environment where you feel comfortable.

*Today's game against the Cardinals will be available in Houston on MLB Network beginning at noon.

*SI released their Fantasy SP Rankings. Click the link for the write-ups.
2. Justin Verlander
19. Zack Greinke
47. Lance McCullers
55. Jose Urquidy
64. Josh James
118. Brad Peacock

...And Fantasy Closer Rankings:
6. Roberto Osuna
36. Ryan Pressly

*Former Astros Great Collin McHugh was introduced in Boston yesterday. On the Sign-Stealing Scandal:
You've got to be willing to stick up for what you believe in and what you believe is right and what you believe is wrong. And I think a lot of the guys on that team, including myself, are looking back and wishing we had been as brave in the moment as we thought we were beforehand.

*Jayson Stark: Managers are starting to put together strategy for the three-batter minimum rule.

*MLB's rule changes are only creating confusion for players. Click this link for more info regarding the former Angels' visiting clubhouse attendant who gave his signature pine-tar/rosin mix to pitchers.

*Aaron Judge has a broken rib and is out indefinitely. When was it broken? Apparently September 2019.

*In a wide-ranging Get Off My Lawn interview, Goose Gossage hates baseball and said Robin Yount and Paul Molitor were the best at stealing signs.

*Kris Bryant knows that, even as a rookie, he would have stepped up and stopped one of the elder statesmen of the game and his bench coach from stealing signs like the Astros did. What a hero.

*How to prepare now for the complete end of the world.

*How to tell if you have the flu, Coronavirus, or something else.

*Reddit lets users connect with one another via the Crisis Text Line partnership.

*A Musical Selection:

Sunday Morning Hot Links

In Josh Prager's book (my favorite non-fiction baseball book) The Echoing Green - $4.99 for Kindle currently - he goes back to the Shot Heard 'Round The World in the 1951 NL playoff game, detailing a system the Giants had to deploy a guy in an office in centerfield of the Polo Grounds to use a buzzer to signal to the dugout what signs were coming in. Voila! Bobby Thomson's legendary home run. It's a really good book. You should read it. 

But first, Spring Training updates (these are short):

*Yordan Alvarez talked about his postseason:

I think in general, during the playoffs, I was trying to do exactly what I did during the regular season, but there were times offensively I wasn't where I needed to be. 

Josh James is working on his full wind-up delivery, meaning the Astros are going to give him a chance to make the rotation. James:

Right now, I'm not feeling too comfortable out of the windup because I've been primarily in the stretch, especially being a reliever all year...so just some stuff to work out of the windup to get comfortable.

Dusty Baker is a big fan of rest:

I believe in rest days and I believe in telling guys when they have rest days. There's mental rest days, there's baseball rest days, there's days you say, 'Hey man, go out and have a good meal and a couple of drinks and let your hair down a little bit and you won't be off for another couple of weeks.

Sign-Stealing

*Carlos Correa took the most forceful stand by an Astros player in response to the league's comments in response to the Astros' opening statements at the outset of Spring Training. You can read the full transcript here (not sure if it's paywalled. If it is, click here) Some highlights:

Like I said, I have no problem when people talk about what happened during the regular season in 2017. You know, whatever people have to say, we've got to take that on the chin. Guys, it was wrong. It was wrong and we've got to own that and we've got to take that.

On Cody Bellinger: 

If you don't know the facts then you've got to shut the f*** up.

He's telling me we cheated them out of a championship? Game 7, he throws a ball away in the first inning and we scored two runs.

Cody Bellinger hit .143/.172/.393 with 17K:1BB in 29 PAs in the 2017 World Series while hitting in the clean-up spot (He hit 5th in Game 5). In 28 postseason games since the 2017 NLCS, Bellinger is hitting .141/.206/.263. And the more I think about this rant, I keep coming back to the takedown of Bellinger's reading comprehension skills. That's really funny. 

*Correa said that Altuve would get mad when someone used the trash can when he was at the plate and that Altuve, Reddick, and Tony Kemp did not use the trash can. He admitted that he did. Over at SignStealingScandal, Tony Adams noted the following percentage of bangs:

Reddick: 3.9%

Altuve: 2.8%

Kemp: 0.0%

*On the 2017 Yankees:

The Yankees (in the ALCS). They scored one run in the first game, one run in the second game, they scored one run in Game 6, and they scored no runs in Game 7. If you expect to win with three runs in four games, you're out of your mind.

On Kurt Suzuki: 

Oh, they won the championship. And he's still talking about that? Enjoy your ring. Enjoy your teamates. Enjoy what you guys accomplished. Congratulations to you guys. You guys played better than us. That was it.

Suzuki responded:

Honestly, I'm too old to get in the middle. I really don't associate myself with this kind of stuff. I just kind of go about my business and try to stay out of everything and get ready to play baseball. That's what it's about: playing baseball.

Suzuki walked that back awfully quickly. 

*The Athletic's Jake Kaplan: Why Carlos Correa has come out swinging for the Astros.

*Verlander, on losing respect across baseball

Yeah, it bothers me...Everybody's entitled to their own opinion. I think facts are still coming out. Information is still coming out. I don't think this is something that's done now, even for us...People can speculate all they want. We dug our grave. We're in it. But I think emphatically, everybody made it clear that [wearing buzzers] wasn't true. I think we need to go out and prove that we're going to win. We can win. We have a great ballclub and we can do it the right way.

*Dusty Baker says MLB needs to step in and stop premeditated beanings of the Astros. Why is this coming up? Dodgers (of course it's the Dodgers) pitcher Ross Stripling, who was almost traded to the Angels, was asked about whether he would hit an Astros batter:

I thought about that if I was going to the Angels because they open in Houston, right. And I was like, 'Oh my gosh.' Ah...That's a good question. Would I do it? I would lean towards yes. In the right time and the right place. 

Baker:

I'm depending on the league to try to put a stop to the seemingly-premeditated retaliation that I'm hearing about...I'm just hoping that the league puts a stop to this before somebody gets hurt. It's not good for the game. It's not good for kids to see it. I think both: stop the comments and also stop something before it happens.

I can see both sides here. Obviously the Astros don't want to get hit with the ball. Obviously the rest of the league is frustrated that no player actually got punished for the sign-stealing scheme. It's probably more frustrating for an opposing player to realize that they could get punished more severely in an act that they (rightly or wrongly) believe is an effort to police the games themselves, since MLB's message of punishment did not directly affect anyone actually banging a trash can or receiving a signal about what pitch was coming. It's an impossible situation. On a base, primal level, I get it. 

*Brian T. Smith: The Astros can't move forward until they stop damaging themselves. 

*Jeff Passan: This war of words between the Astros and everyone else isn't going to end soon. Passan:

There's more to come. There's always more with this Astros story that drips out with all the efficiency of a broken faucet. The coming days, weeks, months will teem with more details, explanations, facts. Manfred's report looks more and more like a Polaroid that needs to be shaken. The manifold characters all have their versions of the story to tell. There are reputations to be salvaged, careers to be saved, sides to be taken. This is just the beginning.

*Kenley Jansen says the sign-stealing scandal is worse than steroids and gambling. It's just behind Original Sin and slightly ahead of Murder. Jansen:

At least back then [in the steroid era], everyone had to be on steroids. It was a fair game.

Ooooh history is All The Way Revisioned now. This is fun. 

*Kris Bryant agrees that the Astros' stealing signs was worse than steroids.

Why link to these statements? For when it comes out that perhaps their teams were stealing signs, as well. 

*The New Yorker: Is stealing baseball signs really so bad? Bobby Valentine:

It's the same thought that I have when I'm on a highway, and I'm in the lane where everyone's going 82 mph, and then the guy in front of me gets pulled over. I think, Jeez, is he just unlucky? Everyone else was going 82.

*Rob Manfred defended his punishment of the Astros in an interview with ESPN's Karl Ravech.

Manfred told Ravech that any discipline of the players likely would have resulted in grievances from the MLBPA, citing Luhnow's failure to communicate to the Astros' players the contents of a 2017 memo outlining MLB's policy on the use of technology. Manfred says that although he doesn't absolve the players in Houston, he believes that Luhnow and Hinch were obligated to inform them of the memo and enforce MLB's rules. 

In other words, Manfred didn't want a union fight. 

Other Stuff:

*RIP Tony Fernandez.

*Leeds United 1 Bristol City 0. With Fulham's loss, Leeds are three points clear of automatic promotion to the Premier League. There are 13 games left. FiveThirtyEight gives Leeds an 80% chance of promotion.

*A Musical Selection:

Everyone shut up about Kris Bryant

Note: I borrowed heavily from this piece I wrote back in April 2015 about Appel, Bryant and the 2013 draft. Also, please do note that I got an awful lot of help with some quotes and screencaps from Caleb Traylor.

Well Jon Heyman, you've done it again:
Kris Bryant's continuing deeds keep raising the question why the Astros didn't grab him with the No. 1 pick. "Kris Bryant and Buster Posey were probably two of the easiest picks for No. 1 of anyone in the last (decade)..." one rival exec notes. 

This is a remarkable piece of amnesia and revisionist history. Some background, if you will:

Thanks to their 55-107 record in 2012 - the 2nd of three straight 100-loss seasons, each of them more loss-y than the last - the Astros had the #1 overall pick in the draft. In retrospect the 2012 draft stands out as the best of the Luhnow era, with the Astros getting Carlos Correa, Lance McCullers and future trade pieces Rio Ruiz, Brett Phillips in the first ten rounds, though that perspective can change based on what shakes out in later drafts whose players haven't significantly impacted the team.

2013 was the Astros' 2nd shot at the 1-1 pick. The Pirates had selected Appel with their 8th overall pick in the 2012 draft, but he had elected to go back to Stanford for his senior season, and another chance at that $5m+ signing bonus.

It was pretty clear before the draft that the Astros had "narrowed" their 2013 1-1 pick to Stanford's Mark Appel, University of San Diego's Kris Bryant, Oklahoma's Jonathan Gray, North Carolina's Colin Moran, and high schoolers Austin Meadows and Clint Frazier.

Keith Law said in April 2013 that the 1-2 would be Appel and Gray. Appel was still at the top of his board in June. Baseball America didn't have Bryant at the top of their board, either.

It should be noted that Baseball America's Aaron Fitt said he would take Kris Bryant over both Appel and Gray, simply because of Bryant's "special power bat." So you're the only one who gets to shout at the world about how dumb they are, Aaron Fitt. 

Then-beat writer Bryan Smith tweeted on May 22 that the pick was really between Appel and Gray, but that the Astros wouldn't actually decide on a pick until everybody got together in Houston. 

On May 30, MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo wrote in a mock draft that there were "whispers regarding Bryant and Moran, but Gray is still the pick."

The day before the 2013 draft, Mayo wrote that Appel "had a better season as a senior and it seems likely he will hear his name called in one of the first few picks." However, Mayo wrote, "while there has been more buzz about Moran than Bryant in discussions regarding the top picks, in some ways it is Bryant who better fits the profile of a No. 1 overall pick."

Jim Callis' final mock draft the day before the 2013 draft had the Astros taking Jonathan Gray and the Cubs taking Appel.

Jon Heyman - the same one who allowed a rival exec to revise history - put Appel at the top of his very own rankings the day before the 2013 draft. Bryant was 2nd. 

Of course the Astros selected Appel. With the next pick, the Cubs selected Kris Bryant over Jonathan Gray, who went to the Rockies with the next selection. Noting "conventional wisdom," MLB.com's (former Chicago Tribune's) Phil Rogers said that Appel and Gray were expected to go 1-1 and 1-2, with uncertainty if Bryant would be selected ahead of Moran, Meadows, and Frazier.

Want to see Mark Appel's list of school records and achievements at Stanford?
• Stanford Record Book - career strikeouts - 372 (1st)
• Stanford Record Book - career innings pitched - 377.2 (4th)
 Stanford Record Book - career wins - 28 (6th)
• Stanford Record Book - single-season strikeouts - 130 - 2013 (t-10th)
• Stanford Record Book - single-season strikeouts - 130 - 2012 (t-10th)
• 2013 First Team All-America (Louisville Slugger)
• 2013 Pac-12 Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year
• 2013 Dick Howser Trophy finalist
• 2013 Senior CLASS Award finalist
• 2013 Diamond Sports Pitcher of the Year semifinalist
• 2013 Golden Spikes Award semifinalist
• 2013 First Team All-Pac-12
• 2013 Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week (May 27)
• 2013 Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week (March 5)
• 2013 Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week (March 4)
• 2013 Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week (March 11)
• 2013 NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week (March 5)
• 2013 Baseball America Midseason Top Pitcher (April 4)
• 2013 MLB.com Top Prospect
• 2013 Preseason First Team All-America (Perfect Game)
• 2013 Preseason First Team All-America (Louisville Slugger)
• 2013 Preseason First Team All-America (NCBWA)
• 2013 Preseason First Team All-America (Baseball America)
• 2012 NCBWA Pitcher of the Year
• 2012 First Team All-America (Collegiate Baseball)
• 2012 First Team All-America (NCBWA)
• 2012 Second Team All-America (Baseball America)
• 2012 First Team All-Pac-12
• 2012 NCAA Stanford Regional Most Outstanding Player
• 2012 Golden Spikes Award finalist
• 2012 Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist

Rogers noted in an article about Bryant that Cubs Senior VP of Player Development Jason McLeod that the Cubs had serious questions about Bryant's ability to hit. But in a one-on-one meeting with Bryant, the Cubs were sold. McLeod:

By that point, we'd already met with Jon Gray and Mark Appel. We felt like Kris, of the three, was just someone who was probably the most equipped to step into this type of market and to handle the expectations of being the No. 2 overall pick.I

Still, Rogers at the time echoed "conventional wisdom:"
By skipping Appel last year, they wind up with Carlos Correa (who is a real stud) and Appel, a year older and more polished. Impressive.

Of course we can go back now and see that picking Bryant would have been more beneficial to the Astros than picking Appel was. But you can hardly call the Astros stupid for taking Appel. We're humans, and humans are dumb. Fans are dumber than regular humans, too. We look back and lament picking Nevin over Jeter. Jio Mier over Mike Trout. You can even lament the decision to pick Appel over Bryant. These things happen. They happen to a lot of teams. There will always be a player the (insert team) should have taken. But to say that that Kris Bryant was the easiest 1-1 pick since Buster Posey is laughable, at best. That "rival exec" is a moron. 

Saturday Morning Hot Links

For the time being, Astros County is a link dump site. It's just a really busy time of year and The Hobby is getting pushed back to something I can really only do from 5:30-6:30am. We're working on freeing up some time, or adding more writers that might be able to do a little analysis here or there, but I do hope you find the links helpful and/or interesting. If you have suggestions for improvements, please do be a dear and leave them in the comments or email them along.

Oh and the Astros lost to the Cubs because of Jon Lester and one swing of K**s Br*ant's bat. Joe Musgrove walked Dexter Fowler and then gave up Bryant's 37th home run of the season to provide the difference in the 2-0 final. Musgrove did snap the Astros' string of terrible starts by going 6IP, 3H/2ER, 5K:3BB. The Astros didn't get multiple hits in an inning until the 7th.

The Astros have lost three straight games and are now 3-5 in the 13-game Stretch of Death.

*Who won yesterday: Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, Rangers, Mariners
Who lost yesterday: Blue Jays, Orioles, Royals

*So the Wild Card picture looks like this:
WC1: Toronto +1
WC2: Baltimore/Detroit: 0
Yankees: -1
Astros: -2.5

The Astros playoff odds are down to 11.9%.

*Since August 24 Altuve is 9x61, and his average has dropped to .339.

*Carlos Correa was out for a third straight game, as if the Baseball Gods would not allow Correa and Bryant to play in the same game. Like some 11.22.63 bullcrap. But the Astros do expect him back this weekend.

*Dallas Keuchel isn't expected to begin throwing until next week. There isn't any structural damage in his shoulder, but the inflammation is sticking around.

*Lance McCullers has increased his throwing to 120-130 feet, but has not returned to a mound yet.

*Also on the passenger list on the SS Shoulder Hell is Preston Tucker, who has yet to resume baseball activities since going on the DL on August 12.

*FanGraphs: The Dividends of Alex Bregman's Non-Adjustment. Bregman:
We don't want to get the ball on the ground. Up here, that's an out. So we're trying to hit the ball on the line and in the air. 

*Jake Kaplan: What if the Astros had drafted Kris Bryant? Luhnow:
You can play that game until you drive yourself crazy...Kris Bryant's a great player. We certainly knew he was going to be selected...either 1 or 2, and I think he's had a very good career and the Cubs have benefited a lot from having him. So, I'm not going to reflect on it more than that.

*Vampirically-named Viosergy Rosa hit a two-out walk-off grand slam to give Midland a 2-1 series lead in the Texas League playoffs over Corpus.

*Lancaster is headed to the California League Division Finals thanks to Jason Martin's 2HR/7RBI night. Lancaster beat Rancho Cucamonga 21-6, meaning the JetHawks put up 38 runs in two elimination games.

Friday Morning Hot Links

Yesterday was a whole bunch of dumb. Jim Joyce is dumb. The rest of his umpiring crew: Chad Fairchild, James Hoye, and Marvin Hudson are also dumb. Possibly incompetent. I can understand that Jim Joyce might not have been able to see the ball carom off Chisenhall's bat. But what was 3B umpire Marvin Hudson watching? It was right in front of him. Did that cost the Astros the game? I don't know. Two runs scored, and the Astros lost by three. But did that shift momentum? Heads in the game? Stupid loss in a stupid game in which the rotation is starting to feel the effects of a long season, injuries, and the piecemeal nature of the roster at the moment.

And why couldn't it be reviewed? Because apparently whether the ball actually hit the bat was a judgment call. There was no rule infraction (other than the umpires didn't know how to enforce the rules), so no review was available, even though the umpires consulted replay review to see if it could be reviewed. I made none of this up.

Here's the play:

VIDEO: Indians score two runs on what was definitely a foul ball. https://t.co/Twmgw2AIuq pic.twitter.com/8yD4z2vNGh

— Deadspin (@Deadspin) September 8, 2016

*A.J. Hinch got tossed for trying to figure out what happened, and Mean Mr. Mustard didn't like it. On-field reactions:

Trevor Bauer: That was a big inning for us. I'm glad it turned out that way. I still don't really know what happened there, but I'm glad it worked out for us.

*Hinch:
I think everybody in the ballpark saw the play as it was, except for the four guys that make the call...That type of game, this type of situation, common sense loses again, because it's really a situation we can't do anything about. 

*Francona:
I will say, [Jim Joyce] gives you as good an effort and is as conscientious as any umpire I've ever been around. 

*Joyce:
I went to each crew member and asked them the same thing. If any of them had it hitting the bat, I would have turned around and called a foul ball. My partners couldn't help me on it. Since I called timeout, I scored two runs and put the other guy on second. 

*More Joyce:
I've got Jason (Castro), he jumped in front of me. I don't even see the bat, I don't hear the ball hit the bat. I have not seen the play yet. I will be looking at it tonight, you can bank on that. 

*Here comes the Sporting News saying it's not the umpires' fault, it's MLB's review system.
There is no reason for something that is black-and-white to not be eligible for video confirmation or reversal. A bat hitting a ball (or glove) is a lot cleaner of a call, in fact, than some plays that can be reviewed, such as whether a runner's foot comes a millimeter off a base while being tagged.

*

@astros sorry guys

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) September 8, 2016

Hinch, on the series:
We come in here and get a split. You feel really good about it, except how it happened. We win the first two and lose the back two. Psychologically you're going to be a mess about it, because you feel like there's an opportunity lost. 

*David Paulino continued the Astros' starters streak of not getting to the 6th inning to eight games.

*Bad time for a couple of losses. The Yankees and Mariners won but the Red Sox, Orioles, Blue Jays, Tigers, and Royals were all off. The loss dropped the Astros' Playoff Odds to 16.3%.

*Alex Bregman is MLBPipeline's Hitter of the Year. Since August 6 he's hitting .328/.375/.608.

*Yulieski Gurriel is looking forward to seeing fellow Cuban Aroldis Chapman this weekend.

*Could Derek Fisher find his way into the outfield in 2017?

*The Villar-to-Milwaukee trade is Jon Heyman's 8th-best trade of the last two seasons.

*CSN Chicago: By passing on Kris Bryant, the Astros handed the Cubs a superstar. These are always fun. Bryant, on the draft process:
Honestly, I don't remember having any conversations with the Astros or sitting down with them. I feel like they had their mind up way in advance. 

*Corpus was on the verge of getting eliminated and then rattled off the last five runs of the game - all in the 8th and 9th - and walked it off in Game 2 of the Texas League playoffs:

Antonio Nuñez's walkoff single for @cchooks in Game 2 of playoffs. Video courtesy of dear friend @akpru #Astros pic.twitter.com/eDep4aI7mz

— Greg Rajan (@GregRajan) September 9, 2016

*Lancaster staved off elimination with a...hmmm...17-11 win over Rancho Cucamonga in the most Lancaster game to ever be played.

*You can read about the historic home run surge of MLB's middle infielders here.

*The rebirth of Justin Verlander.

Friday Morning Hot Links

The Wife and I will be at the Astros game tonight to watch Oberholtzer pitch Correa's home debut. If you see me, holla at me.

*On that note, the Astros are hoping Correa's arrival will mean a boost in ticket sales.

*The Astros and Rockets are suing Comcast over how they handled CSN Houston. Here are more details from Houston Press.

*Lots of signings, or reports of signings, and one number trickling in to our 2015 Draft page.

*The Astros and 37th overall pick Daz Cameron are seemingly close to a $4m deal - which would be about $2.3m over the slot value for 1-37, meaning the Astros need to save that money somewhere else in the first ten rounds. In that link you also find that Heyman is reporting Mark Appel may need "a change of scenery."

*Luhnow said "it's too early to tell" if the Astros messed up by taking Appel over Kris Bryant.

*Quad Cities' Jacob Nottingham just might be the Astros' top catching prospect

*Astros picks Riley Ferrell and Thomas Eshelman are projected to be the 2nd- and 3rd-most valuable college pitchers in the draft, respectively.

*Awww, Erik Bedard retired.

On the Cubs and drafting Kris Bryant

If the entirety of your baseball universe is comprised of the Astros and the Astros only, you have likely not heard of Kris Bryant since 2013, when the Astros passed on Kris Bryant with their 2nd of three consecutive #1 overall picks in order to select Mark Appel.

It was pretty clear before the draft that the Astros had "narrowed" their 2013 1-1 pick to Stanford's Mark Appel, University of San Diego's Kris Bryant, Oklahoma's Jonathan Gray, North Carolina's Colin Moran, and high schoolers Austin Meadows and Clint Frazier.

Baseball America's Aaron Fitt said he would take Kris Bryant over both Appel and Gray, simply because of Bryant's "special power bat."

Then-beat writer Bryan Smith tweeted on May 22 that the pick was really between Appel and Gray, but that the Astros wouldn't actually decide on a pick until everybody got together in Houston. 

On May 30, MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo wrote in a mock draft that there were "whispers regarding Bryant and Moran, but Gray is still the pick."

Of course, a week later, the Astros selected Appel. With the next pick, the Cubs selected Kris Bryant over Jonathan Gray, who went to the Rockies with the next selection. Noting "conventional wisdom," MLB.com's (former Chicago Tribune's) Phil Rogers said that Appel and Gray were expected to go 1-1 and 1-2, with uncertainty if Bryant would be selected ahead of Moran, Meadows, and Frazier. 

Rogers noted yesterday in an article about Bryant that Cubs Senior VP of Player Development Jason McLeod that the Cubs had serious questions about Bryant's ability to hit. But in a one-on-one meeting with Bryant, the Cubs were sold. McLeod:

By that point, we'd already met with Jon Gray and Mark Appel. We felt like Kris, of the three, was just someone who was probably the most equipped to step into this type of market and to handle the expectations of being the No. 2 overall pick.

Ultimately, of course, the Cubs chose Bryant over Gray, Moran, Frazier, and Meadows, because of Bryant's bat. "History tells us pitching comes from all different parts of the draft," McLeod said. Having settled on selecting Bryant, the Cubs then had to wait for the Astros to make their pick, and who knew what they would do?

McLeod:

We had no idea what they were doing...Until we heard Mark Appel's name called, we didn't know.

In 2014, Appel was either struggling in Lancaster or The Keepers of Base Ball were blasting him and the Astros for the Phantom Bullpen flap. While that was happening, Kris Bryant was hitting 43 home runs across Double-A and Triple-A. And today, Kris Bryant will take the field as the savior of the Cubs' franchise and the face of their title hopes. 

It's going to be difficult not to be wistful about seeing Kris Bryant. That's how this works - with every breakout star, you get this. We laugh at the 24 teams that passed on Mike Trout (Astros included). Or the 401 players who were drafted before Albert Pujols. Or the 683 players selected before the Astros took Roy Oswalt in the 23rd Round of the 1996 draft. It happens. Nothing you can do about it, but remember that Mark Appel now has a 0.90 ERA for Corpus and just close your eyes and think...

Draft Update

While we wait to see if the Astros can take the series from the Royals, Brian Smith is providing some good details on the Astros' thought process heading into the June Draft. He tweets:

*The Astros are looking at six players: Mark Appel, Jonathan Gray, Kris Bryant, Colin Moran, Clint Frazier, and Austin Meadows.
*Though it's really between Appel and Gray, Frazier and Meadows are darkhorses.
*The Astros won't let themselves get played on salary demands by Mark Appel (and by "Mark Appel," we really mean, "Scott Boras.") If Appel AND Gray get wild with their demands, the Astros will go in a different direction.
*Apparently Jonathan Gray's "side" has ties to Houston and might allow the Astros to sign easily and keep flexibility for later rounds.
*But the Astros won't decide on a 1.1 pick until the front office and scouts meet in Houston.

Kiley McDaniel tweets that Kris Bryant is being advised by Boras, as well. And if Appel and Gray don't give Houston a discount, then UNC's Colin Moran would be the target, should Luhnow try to replicate the 2012 draft strategy.

If the Astros are going to avoid Boras guys completely (which is doubtful), then you can cross these names off the list (captip to Twins Daily): Appel, Bryant, Meadows, and Moran.

Phil Rogers: Postolos resigned because of Crane

Once they were BFFs. Hanging out and negotiating deals in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, the Chicago Tribune's Phil Rogers says that Postolos resigned out of frustration with Jim Crane's hands-on approach. He says Nolan Ryan - because of that - might not be a fit, while Craig Biggio is "campaigning for the job" but isn't qualified.

Rogers also mentions an Aaron Fitt (Baseball America) report that he would take Kris Bryant over both Mark Appel and Jonathan Gray:

Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt is a fan of University of San Diego third baseman Kris Bryant. In fact, he says he would take Bryant over Mark Appel and Jonathan Gray with the first overall pick in the June draft because he’s a “special power bat.’’ He’s hitting .346 with 28 home runs and 43 extra-base hits in 52 games for the Toreros, and has built those numbers without flailing at pitches off the plate (56 walks, 35 strikeouts).