Wednesday Morning Hot Links

*The Masked Marvel has your recap of the 13-inning win over the Orioles last night.

*I wrote about how shameful minor-league compensation is.

*Hinch sounded relieved after the win:
We needed something to go our way a little bit, and the way the game went from our bullpen, to our late-inning sort of grind, it was a good team win. We did a lot of things right today.

*The bullpen was fantastic last night. Six relievers threw 7.2IP and struck out a bullpen record 16 Orioles. Hinch:
To a man, those guys came in and closed out innings with zeros when we really, really needed it. There was no room for error. Not that we couldn't come back on them had they scored, but they have a difficult bullpen. 

Michael Feliz this season: .203 opponent batting average, 29 Ks in 18 innings, WHIP of 1.00 (14H/4BB). 17 strikeouts in his last 8.2 IP.

— Steve Grande (@AstrosGrande) May 25, 2016

*We got to see - for a few innings, anyway - a Kemp/Rasmus/Springer outfield. And whaddayaknow, playing the guy not hitting .116 paid off with Tony Kemp's triple in the 13th. Kemp:
I was just trying to put a good swing on the ball and luckily it went over Jones' head and luckily we were able to win the game with Carlos' hit. 

*Rasmus got his money's worth with his ejection. Watch the video and let's see if he gets suspended. And let's also see if MLB is ever going to make Rougned Odor sit out his eight games. Via PatDStat (a must-follow on Twitter), here's the entire exchange:

The entire exchange. Rasmus pissed about two questionable strike calls. #Astros pic.twitter.com/ylhh8mFEGZ

— PDS (@PatDStat) May 25, 2016

*Speaking of Rasmus, he told Brian T. Smith that the team felt the pressure of expectations to start the season well and, when it didn't happen, a lot of guys started pressing. In fairness to BTS, it's a good piece on leadership in the Astros' clubhouse.

*George Springer hit a ball into a deep-fryer.

*Dallas Keuchel will start Saturday instead of Friday, allowing the Astros to open the series against the Angels with Fiers and give Keuchel an extra day of rest. Hinch:
Dallas is searching for answers and he's going to get it. I know it feels like the world is caving in when Dallas gives up a few runs and has a bad stretch of starts but he's going to figure it out and it's going to start with his mechanics and his body positioning, and how consistent he can get back to getting down the hill.

*Carlos Gomez went 0x3 with 2K, a HBP, and a run scored in his first rehab start with Corpus. Alex Bregman and J.D. Davis each homered. Again.

*Updates on the other transactions in the Kemp/Moran moves: Asher Wojciechowski was claimed by the Marlins, Erik Kratz is now a free agent.

*Mark Appel wrote a heartfelt letter to Astros fans.

*If you're looking for something to read, I'm having a hard time putting down American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Last night I had to choose between going to bed and having night terrors, or staying up all night and reading.

Winter Meetings Day 1 running post

We'll be keeping track of events of some importance at the Winter Meetings here...

6:12pm: For whatever reason, the Chronicle decided to ask Ron Washington what he thought about the Astros. He likes Bo Porter, and he likes Scott Feldman. Also, Jeff Luhnow and the Astros promised their new acquisitions that they wouldn't become immediate trade bait.

6:05pm: If you saw What The Heck Bobby's cumulative Winter Ball stats, you would see that Jon Singleton is hitting .283/.405/.565. That doesn't mean that the Astros aren't willing to *try* to upgrade at 1B - even with "Chris Carter" and "Brett Wallace" on the 40-Man.

5:31pm: Jayson Stark says the Astros are looking for a reliever who might be able to close. Among them? Jose Veras.

4:57pm: Apparently Lucas Harrell is drawing some trade interest.

4:14pm: Three execs talked to Buster Olney, all of whom guessed David Price would end up in Seattle.

4:09pm: Jonathan Mayo has a Rule 5 preview

3:00pm: Astros officially announce the release of Eric Thames

2:00pm: Alex White is throwing off the mound in Kissimmee and is on track to begin Spring Training healthy.

1:30pm: One GM says Chris Sale isn't really on the market.

12:51pm: According to McTaggart, the Astros will "take a flier" on a Rule 5 pick

11:58am: The White Sox would want a package better than what David Price will get to trade Chris Sale.

11:56am: The Phillies are shopping Domonic Brown. (Brown hit .272/.324/.494 with 97K in 540 PAs in 2013).

11:10am: Angels outfielder Mark Trumbo is "in play."

10:18am: Lancaster GM Derek Sharp was named the California League Executive of the Year

10:12am: White Sox pitcher Chris Sale is available for a ridiculous package of players in return.

10:03am: Astros announce they have hired Tom Koch-Weser as Coordinator of Advance Information, and will be responsible for advanced scouting, with an emphasis on video. Koch-Weser has written for Yahoo Sports as well as the blog for STATS.

9:56am: Roy Halladay is retiring.

9:10am: Joe Torre, Wife-beatin' Bobby Cox, and Drunk Drivin' Tony LaRussa have been unanimously elected by the Veterans' Committee to the Hall of Fame.

8:10am: Rakuten's president may not post Masahiro Tanaka this season.

7:19am: Matt Kemp's agent will be surprised if he isn't traded this off-season.

6:11am: Jon Heyman says Reid Ryan is a nice guy. (Ed. Note: Today needs to get going.)

Brian McTaggart: Luhnow looking at another reliver and a bat this week.

Evan Drellich: Astros preparing for Thursday's Rule 5 draft.

Comparing Kemp/Ethier to Pence

So I had the pleasure of twitteracting with Maury Brown, of the Biz of Baseball (invaluable resource), regarding the impact of Kemp's deal on Hunter Pence:

He said:
I'll say no higher that $3M for Pence. Super 2. And, Tal Smith is good at this stuff. Legendary.

Peanut agrees (check the comments of that Kemp/Pence post), and says Ethier's 08-offseason deal is more appropriate. Let's check them out:

Player	AB	BA/OBP/SLG	K:BB	XBH-RBI	OPS+	SB-Att
Pence (09)	585	.282/.346/.472	109:58	56-72	115	14-25
Ethier (in '08)	525	.305/.375/.510	88:59	76-106	132	6-9
Kemp (09)	606	.297/.352/.490	139:52	58-101	125	34-42

So it seems as though I should stand corrected. Kemp had a better year, finished 10th in the MVP balloting, won a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger. I'll go ahead and back off the "Hunter gets $5m" thought process, and bring it back down to $3m (you don't argue with the Biz of Baseball).

$5m not out of the question for Pence

Matt Kemp has reportedly agreed to a 2-year, $10.95m deal with the Dodgers. So what? Well, it just so happens that the batter most similar to Matt Kemp is Hunter Pence (thanks to Baseball Reference's similarity scores). And, like Pence, Kemp is (was) arbitration-eligible for the first time.

On November 11 we took us a gander at Pence's potential earnings in arbitration, and figured he would get around Andre Ethier's $3.1m deal. But with Matt Kemp getting an average of almost $5.5m over the next two years, I would think Pence would be up in that range.