Thursday Morning Hot Links

Yesterday was a weird day. Ken Giles got demoted, Cionel Perez came up to replace him and actually got to pitch this time around. Lance McCullers was all over the place and the Astros lost 8-3. They're 62-33.

*McCullers: 4IP, 4H/6ER, 1K:5BB, 2 HBP, 2WP. Ahem. Some notes:

-Coming into 2018 McCullers had walked 5+ batters once. He's done it twice this season now.

-It's the 2nd time with 2 HBP, the 6th time in his career

-McCullers threw a first-pitch strike to 13 of the 24 batters he faced. 

-His 26 Game Score is the 7th time in his career he has had an outing with under a 30 Game Score, and the third such start this season.

Hinch:

You could just tell he was battling himself. He just didn't have it. So...a little bit of mechanics, a little bit of approach but more of it just he just couldn't throw the ball where he wanted to.

*Tony Sipp struck out three of the four batters he faced in a perfect 4-out appearance. He has made 25 appearances this season and 21 of them have been scoreless. Twelve of them have been clean outings (0H/0BB). 

*Cionel Perez made his MLB debut, throwing 1.2IP, 2H/1ER, 2K:2BB. He got Khris Davis swinging to end the 8th for his first career MLB strikeout. Both the 8th and 9th featured a hit and a walk, though a hit allowed by Will Harris scored a run charged to Perez. Chandler Rome notes that - at 22 years and 81 days old - Perez is the youngest Cuban-born pitcher to make his debut since Jose Fernandez in 2013. 

How cool is this? @cchooks finish win in Midland and now Cionel Perez’s teammates are gathered around a phone to watch his big league debut with the @astros. pic.twitter.com/ipNwLw5tv2

— Sam Levitt (@SammyLev) July 12, 2018

*Yuli Gurriel had a two-run single. 44 of his 48 RBI have come with runners in scoring position, and he's hitting .429/.455/.584 w/RISP this season. 

*Tyler White hit his first home run of 2018. 

*Jose Altuve has a 19-game home hitting streak, the longest streak in Minute Maid's history.

*Evan Gattis is 0x13 with 4K in the series against Oakland so far.

*The Astros were 1x2 w/RISP. They're 4x15 w/RISP in the first three games of this series.

*Alex Bregman was selected to be in the Home Run Derby.

"Were you surprised to be asked for the Home Run Derby?"

Alex Bregman: "Yeah. Wouldn't you be if you were me?"

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) July 12, 2018

Bregman will be the 5th Astro to compete in the Home Run Derby, and will face Kyle Schwarber in the first round.

*Carlos Correa swung a bat yesterday, and a rehab assignment is possible this weekend.

*Luhnow, on Giles:

There's some nights he comes out and looks dominant, faces the middle of a good lineup and gets them out. There's other nights he comes out and gives up three hits. Right now, we can't roll the dice every time he's out there and hope it's the three-out save as opposed to the three hits and out of the game.

Hinch:

I think it's important for him to get himself right to where he's directing all his attention toward the hitter and all the attention toward his job. He pitches with a lot of emotion and when things are going well, we love it, and when things aren't going well we have our concerns just because of the volatility of the end of the game type stuff.

*Jerome Solomon says that Giles' swearing at Hinch isn't the reason for his demotion. Jenny Dial Creech says Giles' outburst made sending him down an easy decision. Brian T. Smith says the Astros are "too good for Giles' antics."

Jake Kaplan says Giles' outburst on his way off the mound made the decision for the Astros, and notes that minor league pitching coordinator Josh Miller has been sent to Fresno specifically to work with Giles. 

*Forrest Whitley was officially placed on the DL with an oblique injury. Hector Perez was called up from Buies Creek to Corpus in the corresponding move.

*Patrick Sandoval (11th Round - 2015) threw 7IP, 1H/0ER, 8K:2BB for Buies Creek last night. The last time he allowed an earned run was May 23. In that span he's thrown - across two levels - 41IP, 24H/0ER, 47K:5BB. Dude's a Boss. In three starts for Buies Creek he has thrown 16IP, 4H/0ER, 20K:2BB.

*Bud Norris has been a complete douchebag to young Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks, writes The Athletic's Mark Saxon. Why? Well of course it has to do with his time in Houston. Norris:
Everyone was looking to me to be the leader and I wasn't ready for that. I didn't need the extra stuff on my plate. I really just should have been learning my craft and it definitely set me back mentally. It wasn't a positive environment. Losing that many games for that many years makes it a pretty negative environment. I didn't enjoy going to the ballpark most days and it messed up my personal life. 

So naturally the response is to make it so that someone else doesn't enjoy going to the ballpark. 

Sunday Morning Hot Links

So let me get this straight: the Astros can catch a few breaks and still win a 1-run game? Get out of here. Charlie Morton was almost literally all over the place and the Astros still won 4-3.

*The Astros are 41-25, 5-12 in one-run games, and are percentage points behind Seattle for 1st place in the AL West. Houston has 44 of 66 games in which they've allowed three runs or fewer.

*No MLB team had ever walked ten batters and hit five more in the same game before last night. 

*Charlie Morton threw 3.2IP, 1H/2R (1ER), 4K:6BB, 4HBP. 47 of his 87 pitches were balls. The walks and the HBPs are a career-high. Morton:

I got away with not knowing where the ball was going. It was a pretty unprofessional outing, I think, bordering on embarrassing...Over the course of the past couple of weeks, my delivery has gotten a little out of whack. My timing has been a little out of whack. Tonight it was just really bad. 

Morton walked five batters on April 24 against Anaheim. Prior to last night he had hit four batters all starts dating back to September 29, 2017.

Hinch:

I don't know if they had an inning where they didn't have runners on. It felt like there were runners all over the place for nine straight. We're happy on this side, because we got out of it.

Also Hinch, on Morton:

He just looked out of whack from the very beginning, delivery, timing, execution. He was doing things that he never does, hitting left-handers with back-foot breaking balls, misfiring on a lot of fastballs. Just the entire game was a fight for him within himself. 

Charlie Morton of the @astros is the first pitcher with 4+ hit batters, 4+ walks and 4+ strikeouts in a game since April 18, 1913, when the Senators' Long Tom Hughes had 4 HBP, 5 BB and 9 K in a complete-game win against the Yankees.#NeverSettle

— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) June 10, 2018

*Astros pitchers stranded 17 batters mainly through ten walks by last night's pitchers. The ten walks are the highest by Houston since they walked 13 batters in an 11-1 loss to Oakland on September 9, 2017. The last time the Astros walked 10+ batters and won was August 24, 2010, a 16-inning 4-2 win over the Phillies. 

*Hector Rondon recorded his 2nd straight save while Ken Giles stayed in the outfield. Hinch:
Rondon's pitching really hot. Kenny's had a hard time having clean innings...I just wanted to get the outs and have the guys that have pitched a touched better in the game.

*The Rangers were 1x17 w/RISP, a statistic in which, were I on the other side, I would go absolutely insane. 

Houston is now 1-5 when they walk 5+ batters. 

*Alex Bregman extended his on-base streak to 22 games. Since May 2 (34 games) Bregman is hitting .282/.386/.534.

*Max Stassi hit his 6th home run - 466 feet - of the year. He and Tony Kemp combined for 3x7 with 0K:1BB. Stassi, who is hitting .378/.429/.644 against lefties this season:

I felt like I always had that kind of power, it just never would show up routinely, because my swing - I didn't make enough contact for it to actually show up. Finally now, I like where my swing's at and I have a chance to do that, show the power that I have. 

*Jake Marisnick was 0x2 with 2Ks. That's 58 strikeouts in 122 PAs. In 2013 Chris Carter racked up the 4th-most strikeouts in a single season with 212. Through his first 122 PAs of the 2013 season, Chris Carter had struck out 50 times. Jake Marisnick is striking out at a faster rate than Chris Carter. Or let's look at single-season strikeout leader Mark Reynolds: He K'd 223 times in 2009. Through his first 122 PAs Reynolds had struck out 40 times. Obviously that K-rate increased as the season went on, but dear God. 

Find yourself an employer who believes in you as much as A.J. Hinch believes in Jake Marisnick.

*Hinch said Correa may be available today and the Astros are "very confident" he'll play after tomorrow's off-day.

*Dallas Keuchel gets the start today in the four-game finale and, after reviewing video, Keuchel walked back his pitch-tipping theory. Hinch:

I don't know if there's anything specifically with Dallas, but if it's a concern of his we'll need to look into and further study, to see if there's a reality behind it.

*MLB.com: Can Altuve hit .400 on the road?

*The Astros and 1-28 Seth Beer agreed to terms, and he'll be in Houston to sign his contract on Tuesday. Beer:

I'm excited to get out to Houston and see what's going on in the town. I've never been to Texas before but I'm really excited to make the journey out there.

*Oklahoma City scored the last three runs of the game to beat Fresno 4-2. Trent Thornton threw 7IP, 8H/3ER, 5K:1BB. A.J. Reed was 3x4 with his 13th home run of the season.

*Randy Cesar Watch: 1x5 night extends his hitting streak to 31 games.

*Buies Creek beat Down East 6-1, holding the Rangers' High-A affiliate to three hits. Jake Adams (6th Round - 2017) hit a pair of two-run home runs for his first two hits at High-A. Brandon Bielak threw 5IP, 2H/0ER, 5K:1BB.

*Quad Cities allowed five Peoria runs in the bottom of the 8th but still won 7-5. Patrick Sandoval threw 5IP, 3H/0ER, 7K:0BB. Cody Bohanek was 2x4 with a home run and 3RBI; Bryan De La Cruz was 3x5 with 2RBI.

*Interesting report in FRS that the Astros and Marlins almost had a deal to trade Mike F. Fiers to Miami at the 2016 deadline, but Giancarlo Stanton nixed it.

Justin Verlander (Slider) winner by KO over Rougned Odor. 🥊 pic.twitter.com/YdPkmnR79o

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 9, 2018

*This online betting site has the Lakers at +200 and Rockets at +220 to land Lebron.

*The USMNT's 1-1 draw against France shows hope for the future. 

Sunday Morning Hot Links

Word to you, mothers.

Fitting that Charlie F. Morton pitched the night before Mother's Day as his 14 strikeouts got all the female spectators pregnant. Morton: 7IP, 4H/1ER, 14K:0BB - a career-high in strikeouts.

Asked if he was even happy about his performance, Morton:
No. I try not to get too far ahead of myself and I try not to let outings dictate how I feel about myself because I think that's a way to get in trouble. If you let a bad outing get to you too much or you let a good outing get to you too much it's not a good thing. So I'll do what I normally do and prepare for the next start.

CFM is a stone-cold killer. No, I mean it. I was driving down Braeswood about 2:30 in the morning and saw him slitting a pimp's throat. There was joy in his eyes, then.

McCann:
He had everything working. He's pretty much had it all year, we're talking about a month and a half now. He threw the ball extremely well. He's picking up where he's left off. It's been a pleasure to catch and watch.

*Shin-Soo Choo:
I think I saw one hittable pitch, and I fouled it. He kept making good pitches. Their pitching is really good. They all can get strikeouts.

*Delino DeShields wasn't happy with the strike zone:
We can argue strikes and balls but it is what it is. They got a couple of calls on the outer corners and you start chasing a little bit because you don't want to get run up on something close to that spot.

*Astros pitchers recorded 16 strikeouts last night, the 22nd time they've rung up 10+ hitters in a game this season. The 2017 Astros did it 84 times.

*The Astros have three of the eight highest K/9 rates by pitchers:
2. Gerrit Cole (13.66)
7. Justin Verlander (11.61)
8. Charlie Morton (11.47)

*Astros pitchers vs. North Waxahachie this season: 82IP, 56H/24ER, 111K:18BB - a 2.63 ERA/0.90 WHIP.

*Astros hitters vs. North Waxahachie this season: .219/.303/.389, 77K:33BB. Rangers pitchers have hit five Astros in nine games.

*Last night was the 9th consecutive game for the Astros to strike out less than 10 times on offense. In the first 25 games the Astros had 12 10+ K games for a total of 228 strikeouts (9.12 per game). Over the last 16 games they've had two 10+ K games, and struck out 114 times (7.13 per game).

*Evan Gattis might be tired of reading about how terrible he is, as he was the only Astro to get a hit on Friday, and then went 2x3 with 2RBI and a STOLEN BASE last night. Hinch:
There's a lot of things you got to pay attention to in a game. You never know what you'll see on a nightly basis. I don't know when the next one you'll see is, but if you missed tonight, you better try to see it on the highlights.

*Such is the standard to which we are accustomed by Jose Altuve, but joined Marwin and Fisher as the only Astros to not get a hit. Altuve has been held hitless eight times this season, including the last two games. The last time he was 0-fer in consecutive games was September 3/4, 2017. Altuve hasn't had a three-game hitless streak since he went four straight without a hit May 21-25, 2016.

Altuve home, 2018: .247/.307/.346
Altuve road, 2018: .381/.430/.488

*Correa hit his 6th home run of the year, a two-run shot in the 8th. As Chandler Rome notes, it was his 72nd home run in his 400th career game. Only three shortstops had more home runs in their first 400 games: Ernie Banks (87), Nomar Garciaparra (86), and Alex Rodriguez (82).

*Yuli Gurriel was 1x3 and GIDPd twice. He had one GIDP coming into last night's game.

*Astros, w/runners in scoring position, 2018: .258/.336/.422
AL, w/runners in scoring position, 2018: .250/.329/.405
Astros, w/runners in scoring position, 2017: .294/.360/.481

*The Astros are 25-16 through 25.3% of the season, which puts them on a pace to win 98.8 games.

*Houston is looking to win their second consecutive series for the first time since going to Seattle and Chicago from April 16-22. You can make a decent case that the Mariners series was the only one the Astros have won against a decent team so far this season. That can change this week in Anaheim and against Cleveland.

*A.J. Hinch wrote Jose Altuve's name at the top of the lineup before George Springer got to the ballpark, but is hopeful Springer can avoid the DL:
I don't think it's a DL situation, but it's been half a day since he got hit. We're certainly hopeful that it's a contusion he has to deal with.

Cole Hamels leads the AL with seven HBPs so it's time to go grab him from his condo in Ardmore and shave him bald.

*Richard Justice examines what makes the Astros' rotation so great, Hinch pays attention to the chemistry and the competition:
There's a team within a team there, especially with the starting rotation. They want to one-up each other. They want to dominate like the guy before them did. They take a lot of responsibility for setting the tone for a team that expects to win. 

*Jon Heyman lists the Astros at 10:1 odds to sign Craig Kimbrel.

*Fresno (22-15) beat Salt Lake 7-4 last night. Kyle Tucker went 3x4 with his 3rd home run of the season, Tony Kemp set a franchise record with his 21st career triple, and James Hoyt got his first save of the season.

*Corpus (19-16) got a 7-run 1st inning and rode it out to a 9-3 win over Midland. Josh Rojas (2R), Carmen Benedetti (BB, 3RBI), and Nick Tanielu (RBI) had three hits each. Myles Straw was 2x5 with an RBI and his MiLB-leading 21st stolen base of the season.

*Buies Creek (22-14) beat Myrtle Beach 9-3. Ronnie Dawson and Abraham Toro each had two hits and a walk. Kit Scheetz threw the final 3.2IP, allowing 4H/0ER, 5K:0BB. In his last five games Scheetz has thrown 16.1IP, 8H/0ER, 24K:1BB.

*Quad Cities (19-15) allowed Lake County to score the final five runs of the game in a 5-3 loss. Colton Shaver was 2x4 with a home run. Patrick Sandoval threw 5IP, 1H/0ER, 6K:2BB.

*Evan Longoria: "The best decision might be to move" the Rays."

*Craig Edwards: When should you start paying attention to a no-hitter?

Wednesday Morning Hot Links

Well Corey Kluber went all Kluber Lang on the Astros last night and made the Astros look really bad, and that's the thing about the Astros: they either look really good or they look really bad. Last night was a really bad night. And since the Angels have forgotten that they're supposed to be a train wreck of a team and a front office, the Astros' lead is down to 2.5 games. Still, FanGraphs gives the Astros a 52.8% chance of winning the division and a 75.9% chance of making the postseason.

*One way to look at the Astros' recent skid: last night's loss aside, the Astros have played a tougher schedule more recently than the Angels, playing at Fenway, against Kansas City, New York, and the Angels. The Angels have played at Arlington, and against New York, Seattle, and the Astros. The Astros lost the finale of that three-game series in Anaheim in 13 innings. They win that, and the lead is 3.5 games.

*Shoutout to the 10,000+ fans who made it to Progressive Field last night to watch the reigning AL Cy Young award winner face the team with the best record in the American League.

*Hinch, on Corey Kluber:
We had a hard time getting anything started against Kluber early. A couple opportunities late, but it was a well-pitched game on both sides. They got a couple runs, solo homer, couple back-to-back, two-out hits...I thought we had good at-bats most of the night against a really good pitcher in our league, and nothing to show for it.

*In an effort to keep Velasquez's innings down in preparation for a potential post-season push (alliteration FTW!), the Astros sent Vince Velasquez to Corpus until after the All-Star Break, where he will simply not pitch. Velasquez:
I guess it's that time I need rest. It's not pleasant news, but they're looking out for me and we'll go from there.

*Scott Boras likes how the Astros are handling Velasquez and McCullers' workload, but he would like Velasquez to stay in the Majors:
In between starts, we think it's in the player's best interest to remain in the major leagues to continue to study opposing hitters and learn from veteran pitchers.

And this has nothing to do with Boras wanting to keep Velasquez on the major-league service clock for an extra year of arbitration *eyes roll out of head.*

*Hinch is keeping an eye on the rotation for the second-half of the season.

*The Astros signed 11th Round pick Patrick Sandoval, dipping into their overage money by $800,000. ESPN/FanGraphs' Eric Longenhagen tweeted that Sandoval has 4th-6th Round talent, but wanted 2nd Round money, and that the Astros just had enough money to go get him.

*Chad Qualls is eligible to come off the DL today, and may rejoin the Astros on Thursday. Luis Valbuena may be held out of the lineup until after the Break to let his toe fully recover.

*Fresno's Tyler White isn't trying to hit home runs. But that's what he's doing.

Two Bits of Great News

Two bits of great news for Astros fans:

1. The Astros signed P. Sandoval to a player contract
2. The aforementioned P. Sandoval is 11th round draft pick Patrick Sandoval, and not Instagrammer extraordinaire Pablo Sandoval

If you have not enough pitching in your system, Patrick Sandoval is the guy you want.  If you have not enough internet access in the dugout and 80-odd million sitting unused on your payroll, then Pablo Sandoval is your guy.  I would rather have Patrick, if I were the Astros, but Pablo has the advantage of being an established major-league player.

Kidding aside, the Astros signed Patrick Sandoval to a contract worth 900K to him, and costing more like 1.3MM to the Astros because of the tax on the overage.  One of the benefits of having a massive draft pool is that there is a little more room to move before exceeding 105% of your draft pool, too, although BatGuy (the Accountant and architect of measuring units) is probably the guy who will explain that a little better.

Anyhow, the maths are roughly as follows (as per the always awesome MLBTR).  All teams have an 10th+ round slot of $100k.  Sandoval signed for 900K, leaving 800K that needs to be accounted for out of the Astros' draft pool.  The Astros are thought to be around 249K short of exceeding their bonus, leaving them needing to pay an overage tax on the remaining 550-odd thousand.  The overage tax is 75% on the 550K, so that amounts to around 550K plus approx. 410K tax.  So the whole contract will cost the Astros 900K plus 410K, so around 1.3MM.  Numbers rounded for convenience, but the above link explains it using another couple of decimal places.

So, along with the signings of Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, and Daz Cameron, the Astros also get it done with one of their after-round-10 singings.  It is tempting at this point to declare that the Astros totally gamed the whole draft, which has an element of truth to it.  But my counterpoint is that the Astros had the most advantageous draft in history - no team has ever had two top-five picks, and certainly not in the capped-bonus-pool era - and, as a result, a massive draft pool.  So a good amount less than what they pulled off this time around could have easily been considered a failure.  I think they probably drafted Kyle Tucker a pick-or-four early, and I think that Dansby Swanson was probably first on their board, but they have certainly had a really solid overall draft.  Bregman's and Tucker's signing, of course, was the main reason they were able to sign Cameron, so no criticism there.

But they needed a good draft, partly to erase the nightmares of 2014, and partly to compensate for what could be a lean 2016.  I would not be surprised to see them blow up next years' drafts.  If they make the postseason, they won't get a protected pick.  They will look to sign a free-agent starting pitcher or two - someone like a Jordan Zimmermann perhaps - who will nearly certainly get a qualifying offer, and which will subsequently result in a lost draft pick.  The tradeable sandwich-round draft picks are not out yet, but they may try to trade from their AA / AAA depth to obtain one of those.  But I would not be surprised to watch them lose their first and perhaps second round picks for next year, which I think makes this draft even more important.  The scouts will really be tested, scrambling around for signable and useful third- and fourth-round picks.

Anyhow, for now, feel free to celebrate the arrival of Patrick Sandoval, and/or the non-arrival of Pablo Sandoval.  And admire the Astros' draft.  It may be the last loaded one for a while.