Thursday Morning Hot Links

Heads Up: One week from today I will be out of town for a Work Thing and, unless something major happens, I'm not planning on doing the Hot Links on Thursday or Saturday. You have been warned.

*A couple of days ago I checked on Jose Altuve's hits compared to Pete Rose's, and then expanded it. Here's how it breaks down after 1119 career games, sorted by hits:

Tony Gwynn (Age 30 season): 1433 hits. .332/.389/.439
Derek Jeter (Age 29): 1420 hits. .316/.387/.462
Jose Altuve (Age 28): 1419 hits. .316/.365/.453
Pete Rose (Age 29): 1393 hits. .308/.370/.437
Paul Molitor (Age 30): 1357 hits. .297/.357/.432
Cal Ripken (Age 27): 1209 hits. .282/.353/.474
Craig Biggio (Age 30): 1171 hits. .285/.371/.416

*It's extremely possible that the Astros will have to replace 60% of their starting rotation in 2019. Between Dallas Keuchel (gone as gone can be), Lance McCullers (Tommy John), and Charlie Morton (could re-sign), Luhnow is looking to fill 499IP. That's a lot of innings.

Scott Boras says that Keuchel is the Glavine/Pettitte of the 2010s. This is introduced without comment.

McCullers said he knew he needed Tommy John Surgery back in August but Dr. Neal ElAttrache told him (via Professional Penny-Newspaper Publisher Guy Scott Boras) he could throw one inning at a time. When LMJ heard that, he apparently went to Luhnow and said:
I want to be a part of that. I want to do it.

Luhnow:
(McCullers) was very willing and capable to give us innings and it wouldn't change the outcome, that's why we went down that path. We put him on TrackMan, we knew what the stuff was like. It was elite stuff. If he wasn't a weapon, we wouldn't have put him on (the playoff rosters).

So how do they fill those innings? The safe bet is both internally and externally. Collin McHugh probably finds his way back to the rotation. His 1.99 ERA is 6th-best among all qualified relievers, his 2.72 FIP was 23rd among all qualified relievers, while his 3.26 xFIP was 31st - one spot ahead of Kenneth Giles the Basket Case. I'd imagine that McHugh's insertion in to the rotation is dependent on what else they can find on the free agent market, as that type of long relief is kinda hard to replace.

McHugh is preparing for 2019 as a starter. McHugh, always a sweetheart:
We've got talent, we've got arms. It's just a matter of putting the pieces together in the right way and coming up with a championship ballclub.

Maybe Josh Big Flames James who, in 23IP, was worth 0.7 bWAR, fills a spot. In three starts he threw 15.1IP, 11H/4ER, 19K:6BB. Three of those earned runs came via a Kole Got Dang Calhoun two-out home run. I hate Kale Colhoun. The Astros still won that game. I'm still trying to make Big Flames James a Thing.

Maybe Forrest Whitley - who turned 21 less than two months ago - sees some action in 2019. Whitley has somehow only thrown 137.1IP (that's, like, a month of Verlander starts) in his professional career. Some of that is self-inflicted, but he does have 203 strikeouts in those IPs and just finished an Arizona Fall League in which he threw 17IP, 13H/6ER, 23K:5BB - a level-best 4.6 K:BB ratio.

Sports Illustrated wonders is Patrick Corbin might be answer, what with the possible departures of Verlander and Cole (also: addition of Lance McCullers in 2020).

Jake Kaplan looks at the 11 internal options for the Astros' rotation.

Forbes' MK Bower says this will be Luhnow's most-challenging off-season.

*Count 4th-year hitting coach Dave Hudgens as the latest member of A.J. Hinch's staff to head to other teams. He'll be Toronto's bench coach for 2019. A.J. Hinch finna be the Bill Belichick of Baseball. He needs a hitting coach, assistant hitting coach, and a bullpen coach. Alexa, give me Joe Girardi's number for a weird reason.

*Professional Talker Scott Boras says 14 teams have inquired about Marwin, who will never ever ever be referred to as "Swiss G."

It seems as though Yuli Gurriel will be primed to take Marwin's spot as the utility guy, which is a weird announcement considering that Marwin hasn't signed with another team. Luhnow:
With Marwin not in the picture right now, having someone that can spell Altuve at second, can spell Bregman at third and play first, that's pretty big for us. In the post-Marwin world, if he doesn't come back to us, (Yuli) becomes more of the utility guy. With Bregman and Correa, we have the luxury of two shortstops on the left side of the infield, and if one of them gets hurt, the other on can play that position. Yuli can fill that position, as well. It's a little bit of insurance, but not quite as versatile as Marwin.

*Someone with "a source" says the Astros are interested in Doyers catcher Yasmani Grandal?

*J.B. Bukauskas walked five in 4IP but threw 96-98 with a hard slider so maybe whatever?

*This MiLB report breaks down the Astros' organizational All-Stars by position.

*Good job, Mike Fast, who is now a member of Atlanta's front office.

*For some reason the Mariners are about to trade Mike Zunino to the Rays.

*What happens when normal people inherit famous people's old cell numbers?

*Wired: An aging marathoner tries to run fast after 40.

*A musical selection:

Saturday Morning Hot Links

It's Yuli's world, we're just living in it. And in Yuli's world, he's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man traipsing through the Angels' streets and wrecking everything he can find. Gurriel went 3x4 with two home runs and 7RBI as the Astros whooped the Angels 11-3. Oakland is now 13-5 in extra-inning games after beating Minnesota in the 10th inning. The Astros are 96-57 with a 3.5-game lead and nine games to play.

If Houston goes 5-4, Oakland would have to go 8-0 to tie the division. 6-3 is enough to clinch it, which is exactly what FanGraphs projects for the remaining nine games.

The Astros did, however, at least clinch a playoff spot and are headed to the postseason in consecutive years for the first time since 2004-05. It's the 12th postseason berth for the Astros in franchise history, third in the last four years. Gerrit Cole:
You've got to take it step by step so it's nice to acknowledge and celebrate it because you don't take it for granted. But we've got some more work to do.

The Astros celebrated the berth with a toast in the clubhouse from Jim Crane, Reid Ryan, Jeff Luhnow, and A.J. Hinch, and then got back to work. Hinch:
Our work isn't finished. 

*Gurriel hit a grand slam in the 1st inning. The 7RBI are obviously a career-high and the most for an Astro in a game since Once and Future King J.R. Towles had 8RBI in an 18-1 win over St. Louis on September 20, 2007. He had 4RBI in a game five previous times. It's his third career grand slam, first since June 24, 2018. Last night was his first 2HR game. Gurriel's brother Lourdes also hit two home runs for Toronto last night, marking the first time in MLB history that brothers recorded multi-HR games on the same day.

*George Springer was 1x4 with a walk and a three-run homer, his 21st of the season. In five seasons Springer has hit 20+ home runs four times.

*Marwin was 1x2 with 2BB. It was his 8th 2BB game of the year.

*Gerrit Cole threw 7IP, 6H/3ER, 12K:0BB, and has pulled ahead of Justin Verlander for the team lead in strikeouts, 272-269. Cole's 272 strikeouts are now the 4th-highest in a single season in franchise history, two ahead of Nolan Ryan in 1987. Verlander is 6th, one behind Ryan.

*Cole, 10+ strikeouts / 0 walks, career:
2013: 0
2014: 1
2015: 0
2016: 0
2017: 1
2018: 4

Cole recorded his 1000th career strikeout. He's now 48th on the active strikeouts list. Cole:
The guys took a moment tonight to recognize it and that meant a lot. There are a lot of really professional and special arms in this room so that kind of keeps you in perspective. 

Cole reached 1000 strikeouts 12th-fastest in MLB history.

*Tony Sipp, September: 4.1IP, 2H/0ER, 6K:3BB. He has retired 14 of the last 18 batters he has faced. Check this Chronicle story about his turnaround 2018 season.

*The Astros are headed for an ALDS showdown with Cleveland.

*Lance McCullers will rejoin the team today, though he won't pitch until Monday.

*Carlos Correa won't play this weekend. Hinch:
Carlos is still not right. We're going to give him a complete break this weekend to see if we can get him feeling better. We talked to the doctors, the doctors talked to Carlos, he just still is symptomatic. His back is bothering him, he hasn't felt completely himself for a while. 

Don't miss Tyler Stafford's article in The Athletic on how there's no quick fix to Correa's struggles. It may be April 2019 before Correa actually looks right.

*Jake Kaplan has some breaking news that Mike Fast, one of the key members of the front office, will not renew his contract when it expires in October. Fast:
It was time to move on, and I'm looking for other opportunities. I definitely would like to latch on with another team.

It is unknown what prompted Fast to seek employment elsewhere.

*Check out MK Bower in Forbes on the emergence of Josh Big Flames James and the possibility of finding himself on the postseason roster.

*Meet Nunee Oakes, Astros DJ.

*Levi Weaver notes that Jeff Banister's communication style didn't resonate with younger players.

Friday Morning Hot Links

It's Friday everybody and you know what that means. Yep, it means Flick does your Hot Links, so prepare your bones for about 10-12 Astros related articles, a couple offbeat stories, and a few things that happened on this day in baseball!

The Astros did not play last night but depending on what Oakl-- wait. What.

Well, its back to a 3.5 game lead for Houston as we await the Angels. A miniature preview provided by Yahoo can be found here.

There are 10 games left in the season and the Astros need to go at least 5-5 to join the elusive 100-win club. Reminder: it's the Angels, Blue Jays, and Orioles left.

2018 just might be the best year of Astros baseball yet.

Reid Ryan makes it official: A.J. Reed will be playing in Round Rock.

No spoilers but they made a great choice for Best Astros Rookie.

It's time to play the cryptic game that is which pitchers will be playing for the Astros in October. It's quite the problem to have.

Josh James and Kyle Tucker were named Astros Minor League Pitcher and MVP respectively.

Dallas Keuchel isn't thinking about free agency right now, which I didn't think he would be.

Phillies targeting Charlie Morton in free agency this offseason?

Here's your feel-good story of the day.

You're the GM - Astros Edition!

Mike Fast has left the Astros, per McTaggart.

Alex Cora's first test as manager starts now.

Orbit, once again, was causing only the best mischief on Wednesday night.

Here's an article that is a crazy stats-lovers dream. It's about Ryan Pressly.

Bill Brown sits down with The Athletic to talk life after broadcasting. ($)

Amazon is making smart-microwaves and I absolutely do not understand the appeal for this. Don't worry, your smart fridge, blender, toaster, grill, and coffee pot, will be on the way soon.

Delaware has brand new "DMV Selfie Zones." I mean honestly what else can I say about this that will make this situation any better?

On This Day in Baseball History

In 1956, the Yankees left an MLB record 20 men on base in a 13-7 loss to the Red Sox.

In 1964, the Phillies lost to the Reds 1-0 after Chico Ruiz stole home. This was the game that started the Philly Phold.

In 1966, the Cubs beat the Reds 9-3. 530 fans attended the game at Wrigley Field, the smallest crowd in field history.

In 1988, the Astros beat the Braves 1-0 after Bob Knepper threw a complete game one hitter against Pete Smith, who also threw a complete game. 

In 2001, the Mets return to Shea Stadium for the first time since 9/11.

In 2008, Mariano Rivera closed Yankee Stadium.

In 2009, Cecil Cooper was fired as manager of the Houston Astros. He was replaced by Third-base coach Dave Clark.

TCB interviews Mike Fast

The Crawfish Boxes interviewed baseball analyst/sabermagician/Astros employee Mike Fast today. There's a lot of good stuff, and while we're exceptionally jealous, we're not going to pull from any of it, so you have to go over there and read the whole thing for yourselves.

Reaction to the Mike Fast hiring

It's not terribly often that a front office hire (other than the GM) generates comment from around the baseball blogosphere, but that's exactly what Jeff Luhnow's hiring of Mike Fast has done.

Take, for instance, this Lookout Landing post:

The Astros aren't going to join the AL West as some kind of clown car. They're on their way towards legitimacy. And it's not just them. All teams are getting smarter. Some teams are getting smarter slower than other teams, and some teams are still run by Ned Colletti, but baseball's getting sharp. The intelligence gap between organizations is shrinking, increasing the significance of money and luck.

Luhnow hires Mike Fast

So it came out in Jeff Luhnow's Sloan Sports chat that the Astros have hired Mike Fast - otherwise known on Twitter as Fastballs. He's an Austin-based writer for Baseball Prospectus whose archive can be found here.

According to Fast's "acceptance tweet," he'll have a role in baseball operations.

In Zachary Levine's article for the Chronicle, he writes:
Fast, one of the foremost experts on pitch trajectory (PITCHf/x) data, has also written on HITf/x data for BP. Some of his latest writings have been on hit-and-run success, quantifying how much control pitchers have over batted balls and an analysis of hot and cold zones for hitters.

Rany Jazayerli had this to say:
I have a problem with Astros hiring @fastballs. My problem: WHAT TOOK SO LONG? He's one of the best baseball analysts anywhere. About time.

High praise, indeed.