Wednesday Morning Hot Links

*Here is an absolutely incredible story from The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal about the race to save 1B Coach Rich Dauer's life.

*Sean Pendergast ranked his five biggest Astros stories of the year.

*

🤷🏻‍♂️ https://t.co/PJ8xzPrCWT

— Justin Verlander (@JustinVerlander) December 26, 2017

*Reid Ryan is awfully busy and thanks you for going broke buying Astros gear:
As far as the merchandise and all of that, we've done really, really well. It's all just added more to the excitement for '18 and '19 than what we ended up netting off it in '17. For us, the World Series has taken us from a middle-of-the-pack club and now put us in one of those top 10 teams, and now the goal is going to be, 'Can we stay there?'

*2017 5th Round pick Nate Perry reflected on his rookie season.

*There are a whole bunch of unsigned free agents out there.

*Former Astros Great Jake Buchanan signed a minor-league deal with Arizona.

*The Fantastical Adventures of Fabulous Flournoy

5-151: Nathan Perry

With their 5th Round pick (151st overall) the Astros selected 6'3" 215lbs lefty-hitting/righty-throwing catcher Nate Perry out of Bassett High School in Virginia.

Baseball America ranked him #9 in the state of Virginia, #314th in their Top 500, and the 28th-best catching prospect.

Back in April his head coach thought he'd go in the 10th-15th Round. Head Coach Grant Wickline:
He's one of the best catchers I've seen. We're averaging five or six (scouts) a night coming to see him. 

Perry said opposing pitchers simply stopped pitching to him:
I'll probably see six or seven pitches. One or two might be fastballs, but they're nowhere near the zone.

This year, he hit .462 with a .606 OBP, with 2K:17BB. In his entire high school career, he struck out 12 times. TWELVE.

Perry is a University of Virginia commit, but the slot for the 151st overall pick is $326,600, so we'll see. Nope, wait, he's already said he'll sign.

Wickline:
The Astros are going to notice that there's no one that's going to outwork him. His work ethic is outstanding. It's something that you can't teach.