Saturday Morning Hot Links

This team. It is a frustrating team. It is a frustrating team because they should have won a game like they played last night. Do I expect them to be 162-0? Yes Of course not. Are they going to have off-nights? Why would they? Sure. But, man, kind of in a division race over here. Astros lose 5-2. Oakland beat Seattle. The Astros have a 1.5-game lead with 27 games to play.

*Astros in August: 14-12. The 12 losses tie May for most in a calendar month. Houston was 9-10 vs the AL West in August.

Offense: .253/.324/.444, 32 GIDPs.
Pitching: 232IP, 202H/87ER, 260K:64BB

For reference, August 2017: 11-17, .726 OPS.

*Houston has now been shutout eight times. They have been held to 0-2 runs 37 times, after being held to 0-2 runs 34 times in all of 2017. Houston has been stuck on 666 runs scored for two days. This is not a good omen.

*Astros away, 2018: .267/.336/.457, 1.13 HR/game
Astros at home, 2018: .245/.322/.400, 1.43 HR/game

*In last night's infuriating loss to the Angels, Houston went 0x8 w/RISP. Idiots. They had the leadoff runner on in five different innings. Let's look at some opportunities that the Astros let pass by:

Bottom 3rd: Springer on 1st, Maldonado on 3rd, one out -> Bregman foul out, Altuve line out.
Bottom 4th: Correa on 2nd, one out -> Marwin ground out, Gurriel fly out.
Bottom 8th: Bases loaded, one out -> Altuve strike out, Correa foul out.

*Six days after allowing 5H/4ER in 3IP to the Astros, Jaime Barria allowed 3H/0ER, 4K:1BB in 6IP. Andrelton Simmons stood in front of runners on second base between pitches last night to prevent them from what Jaime Barria believes is Astros runners relaying signs to the hitter, something A's pitcher Brett Anderson wondered about after his start on Monday.

*Jose Altuve was 0x4 with three strikeouts.  In the last four games he's 3x17 with 9K:0BB.

*A.J. Hinch was ejected after the 3rd inning for arguing about Altuve's strike zone. Hinch:
[Eric] Cooper is a good umpire and very easy to like, but as he started walking toward Altuve and escalate the argument, I took exception to that. In between innings like that, the simplest thing to do is walk away. I said something from the dugout and he turned his attention to me and kicked me out of the game...None of it needed to happen. Me getting run out of the game is ridiculous.

Clarity on ejection of A.J. Hinch per @raford3's broadcast. Jose Altuve disliked HP umpire Eric Cooper's calls in two ABs. Hinch came out to break up a conversation between them, getting ejected in the process. Here are those calls: pic.twitter.com/XSd6c3CDXA

— Hunter Atkins (@HunterAtkins35) September 1, 2018

But because umpires get to live in a fantasy world where there are literally no consequences, nothing will change and nothing matters.

*Carlos Correa was 1x3 with a walk. Hunter Atkins writes that Hinch is going to give Correa all the time he needs. Hinch:
With all hitters that go through these ruts, there's always an element of being a little stiff in your actions. He's putting in a lot of work trying to get his timing and rhythm back. He's not going to come out of the lineup. I'm not going to move him. 

*Via Ben DuBose, Alex Bregman has reached base safely in 88 of his last 90 games.

*Framber Valdez impressed in another start: 5IP, 2H/1ER, 3K:3BB. In three appearances for the Astros, Valdez has thrown 14.1IP, 6H/2ER, 10K:7BB. Hinch:
He was really good again. His ball moves both directions. He's got a good breaking ball, he's got great poise. He's shown very well that he's pretty calm in the moment, he's got really good stuff, and he's got something to reach back to when he wants some extra velocity. Pretty impressive.

*Collin McHugh gave up a sac fly to Mike Trout and a 2-run home run to Andrelton Simmons. McHugh has allowed 15 total runs this season. Nine of them have come via the home run. After allowing just four solo home runs through August 19, McHugh has given up five runs on two homers since August 20.

*Andrelton Simmons, vs Houston, 2018 (50 PAs): .354/.380/.604, 3K:2BB, 14RBI.
Simmons at Minute Maid Park, 2018 (15 PAs): .600/.600/1.267, 1K:0BB, 10RBI.

*Ryan Pressly, since allowing a home run to Rougned Odor in his Astros debut: 12.2IP, 5H/1ER, 16K:0BB. Pressly has not allowed a base runner since August 20, a span of five appearances.

*Verlander, on what September means:
I've always believed you kind of chug along for a while, and September is when, if you need to turn it on, you turn it on. Not that you're not playing hard al year, but baseball's just a different game. You can't play in the playoffs as late as we did, into November, and then come in and be gung-ho so early and ride that wave all year long. You'll burn out. 

*Brian McCann, Jake Marisnick, and Cionel Perez will all be with the Astros tonight.

*Josh James will make his MLB debut tonight. Hinch:
He's just performed his way to the big leagues. He's punching out everybody in the Minors. [Ed. Note: This is alarming if true] The next test is going to be at this level. He's conquered everything else. He's the best available, and has outperformed a lot of pitchers along the way to climb his way to the top of the list.

James was the 34th Round pick in the 2014 draft. Between Corpus and Fresno, James has thrown 114.1IP, 79H/41ER, 171K:49BB, 3.23 ERA / 1.12 WHIP, 13.5 K/9.

James will be the seventh player picked by the Astros in the 2014 draft to play in the Majors, joining Derek Fisher, A.J. Reed, J.D. Davis, Daniel Mengden, Jacob Nix, and Ramon Laureano. Three of those made their MLB debut with other teams.

*Jeff Passan: The Astros were interested in Toronto's Josh Donaldson, but he ends up with the Indians.

*Mark Feinsand has an audio oral (aural?) history of the Verlander trade.

*A bunch of Astros showed up to Joe Smith and wife Allie LaForce's charity luncheon.

*Seth Beer went 3x6 with a 2-run homer and 3RBI in a 14-1 Buies Creek win over Carolina last night.

*Texas League president Tim Purpura announced that Corpus' Omar Lopez is the Texas League Manager of the Year. Troy Snitker is the 2018 Mike Coolbaugh Coach of the Year.

*The Astros extended their PDC with Tri-City through 2020.

*Congratulations to all of you College Murderball fans. My alma mater, THE University of Oklahoma, plays some directional team. ESPN: Kyler Murray wants it all.

Friday Morning Hot Links

*I wrote the first in a series on Astros Villains, looking at Kevin Brown and the 1998 NLDS.

*Jerry Crasnick asked current Hall of Famers how much "character" matters in the Hall of Fame.

*Evan Gattis is getting married tomorrow. Here's their registry, though I am trying to talk my wife into buying our resident C/DH this.

*Tony DeFrancesco is back with Fresno for the third straight year.

*Omar Lopez, who was the Quad Cities manager last season, is now the manager at the Buies Creek/Fayetteville team. Troy Snitker - son of Braves manager Brian Snitker - will be the hitting coach.

*Want your Astros season tickets printed out for you? That'll be $125.

*2005 26th Round draft pick Michael Thompson is the new manager of the Medicine Hat Mavericks.

*Check out the lineup for the 3rd Annual Josh Reddick Foundation Concert.

*Jon Bernhardt writes about the Mariners' risky path.

*Bo Jackson: "I would have never played football."

Monday Morning Hot Links

*The Astros prevailed over the hated A's yesterday, sweeping the three-game series at home. Cockroach has the recap. The Astros have gone 11-2 since the last time they played the Rangers.

*The Rangers swept the Mariners in Arlington and the Angels beat the Pirates, meaning the Mariners and A's were the only AL West teams to lose yesterday. The division looks like this:
East Fort Worth: -
Seattle: -3
Houston: -7
Anaheim: -8
Oakland: -9.5

*FanGraphs has the Astros at 43.5% to make the playoffs, raising their playoff odds by 22.8% since getting swept by South Oklahoma.

*Check David Nuno's postgame interviews with Correa, Marisnick, and Hinch regarding their optimism heading into Northwest Duncanville.

*Hinch:
It's not a surprise to me, it's more we're playing our brand of baseball and being rewarded for it with some wins. We've been playing good baseball. There's nothing we can't do on the field. We have a lot of confidence now. We don't feel that nervous energy when you fall behind.

*Richard Justice notes that the Astros are 0-10 in their last ten games in Northeast Mansfield.

*The Astros hope that Carlos Gomez's first homer of the season will spark his confidence. Gomez would like to show you the callouses on his left hand as evidence of how hard he is working:
Sooner or later, it had to pay off. Because it's not like I'm chilling at my locker and doing nothing. Look at my hands. This is a sign that I am working my ass off every time.

Carlos Correa got his 100th RBI in his 156th game, setting the franchise record for quickest to 100 RBIs - two games quicker than Hunter Pence.

*Will Harris got his first save of the season yesterday, and Hinch said they're easing off Gregerson as the only 9th inning guy on the team. Just so you know, and you probably do, but Will Harris this season has thrown 26.2IP, 15H/1ER, 29K:4BB. That's a 0.34 ERA/0.72 WHIP.

*Quad Cities has dropped 14 1-run games and are now 23-33. Manager Omar Lopez was pissed about Sunday's loss and held a team meeting:
It's these guys' careers. If they are tired of playing or are frustrated, I told them to let me know, we can tell the organization that if they are not committed to competing the right way...this is a team game. It's not tennis or ping-pong. They have to be in it together. We spend a lot of time putting information to give them to help them. It's all part of our preparation, but if they do not use it, if they do not go to the plate with a plan and execute it, these are the results. If they do not want it, there are 70 guys in the organization looking for an opportunity to be here. 

*The Astros are expected to sign 16-year old Dominican shortstop Freudis Nova for about $1.5m. Nova had a deal for about $1m more with Miami, but tested positive for a steroid and Miami backed away. They're also expected to sign Venezuelan catcher Yorbin Cueta for over $1m.

*It looks like Minute Maid Park will be the host of some first round games in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

*For the second straight Mock Draft, Keith Law has the Astros taking a college pitcher - this time it's Pitt RHP T.J. Zeuch.

*A man with a mullet tackled a man in a tank top at Minute Maid.

*.187-hitting Prince Fielder wasn't happy about sitting for two straight games against Seattle.

*The Dodgers decided to eat $35m and DFA Carl Crawford and his .185/.230/.235 slash line. Not for nothing, but Carlos Gomez - even after his first home run of the season and a double - is hitting .191/.247/.279. Three active Astros have more strikeouts than they do total bases: Gomez (53K:38TB), Castro (50K:48TB), and Marisnick (25K:23TB).

*A Marlins minor-leaguer stabbed another Marlins minor-leaguer in a prank.

Wednesday Morning Hot Links

The Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2016 election announcement will take place this evening, and you can bet on...some sort of strong reaction either way.

*Things are looking good for Bagwell, writes Ortiz.

*Bagwell doesn't know what to expect with the results.

*The Boston Herald's Steve Buckley thinks any voter who doesn't share their ballot should lose their vote. (Agree).

*Here's FiveThirtyEight with an article on how the BBWAA has ignored the last 50 years of baseball.

*The Astros made some reassignments/hirings yesterday. To break it down (New hirings in italics):

Corpus

Dave Borkowski: Pitching coach

Lancaster

Ramon Vazquez: Manager

Quad Cities

Omar Lopez: Manager
Chris Holt: Pitching coach

Tri-City

Drew French: Pitching coach
Dillon Lawson: Hitting coach

Greeneville

Josh Bonifay: Manager
Bill Murphy: Pitching coach

GCL Astros

Wladimir Sutil: Latin Infield Instructor

Aaron Delguidice (Fresno/Lancaster) and Tommy Kawamura (Corpus/Quad Cities) have been named as development coaches.

*Evan Drellich notes that Omar Lopez was originally supposed to be the Lancaster coach, and was assigned to Quad Cities, while Vazquez was originally the coach for the GCL Astros and got the big jump to Lancaster.

*And here's the rundown on all those changes, from Evan Drellich.

*Uh-oh. Derek Jeter's trainer is linked to the alleged Peyton Manning HGH supplier.

Craziness in the Quad Cities game

The Batguy mentioned this in his Morning Report today, but there was some craziness in the Quad Cities/Clinton game last night - and this on the same night as the crazy Lansing/Great Lakes game that Deadspin highlighted today.

With the score tied at six with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th and Jordan Scott up, Scott lifted a fly ball to the warning track, which would get the winning run home. Except Jabari Henry allowed the ball to drop and Austin Elkins crossed home plate, the ballpark and the RiverBandits erupting. This is precisely what Jabari Henry was going for.

Brett Phillips, who was on 2nd, never reached 3rd plate. Clinton appealed, tagged, and then threw to 2nd, hoping that it was determined that Teoscar Hernandez never reached second base

Here's Steve Batterson in the Quad Cities Times:
But, umpires ruled that Hernandez had touched second base and was retreating toward first as the celebration started, prompting a sometimes-heated discussion of more than 10 minutes between managers of both teams and the umpires that continued even as a postgame fireworks display began.

River Bandits manager Omar Lopez:
The umpire at first (Larry Allen) saw Hernandez on top of second base and because Teoscar had gotten there, there was no double play. Brett Phillips did not touch third and the out was called. Everybody was excited, running around. This is A ball, but hopefully he learns the next time he is in that situation that he has to advance. Baseball is a crazy game. It teaches you something every day.

Minor-League Managers and Staff

Building on some news from yesterday, the Astros have announced minor-league staffing assignments. 

Morgan Ensberg: Roving Instructor. "Will be with Lancaster for home games and scout the Cal League or serve as a roving instructor while Lancaster is on the road."

Adam Everett: Infield Instructor. Will shuttle between the Major-League team and minor-league infielders. 

Vince Coleman: Outfielding/Baserunning Development Specialist, Quad Cities

Managers:

Oklahoma City: Tony DeFrancesco

Corpus: Keith Bodie (2012 Texas League Manager of the Year)

Lancaster: Rodney Linares (Returns for 2nd season with JetHawks)

Quad Cities: Omar Lopez (Greeneville's manager for 2011-12)

Tri-City: Ed Romero (manager of Greeneville in 2010

Greeneville: Josh Bonifay (managerial debut, Lexington's hitting coach in 2012)

GCL Astros: Edgar Alfonzo (previously GCL Astros' hitting coach)

DSL Astros: Johan Maya

Tom Lawless is an infield developmental specialist for OKC, and Mark Bailey will be the catching developmental specialist for Corpus. Former Gold-Glove OF Cesar Cedeno will be Bonifay's hitting coach in Greeneville. 

Quad Cities GM Stefanie Brown:

"It's a somewhat unique set-up, but it shows the emphasis on development that is taking place throughout the Astros organization. We're excited about the staff that Houston has sent us in the first year of our affiliation with them."

Minor League Awards

It wasn't exactly tough to identify, but the Astros have named their top players in Eddie's Farm: Jordan Lyles, and J.D. Martinez.

Wade:
"Jordan and J.D. have both moved through the system at a rapid pace and seem destined to reach the big leagues in the not-too-distant future. Not only are they talented players, but they're solid-makeup, exceptionally-dedicated kids."

GCL Astros manager Omar Lopez was named Player Development Man of the Year.