Monday Morning Hot Links

More Like Oakland L's!

What a big day for the Houston Astros yesterday afternoon. These bats were alive and the Astros have thankfully regained sole control of first place in the west. Everybody got a hit (except Reddick) and Maldonado was a single shy of the cycle, which would have been the first cycle since Luke Scott in 2006 (because I strongly believe Brandon Barnes was out at 2nd base in 2013 do not @ me). 

Another big moment in yesterday's game is Justin Verlander collecting his career 200th win, and he got dunked in champagne to celebrate. Verlander, Hinch, and other key players to the game post-game interviews and recapped can be found here (you might read something about Verlander being dunked in champagne, and that's because I stole that bit because I wanted to tell you that first. Don't worry though, sources cited).

Anyways, now its time for the rapid fire Hot Links part of the program. 

Rondon has not had the greatest few outings. Will Osuna become the closer anytime soon?

Josh Reddick apologized after Oakland fans took one of his quotes out of context.

Altuve was hit by a pitch in his Fresno rehab assignment. He is expected to be okay.

This is the last week for 9:10 CST first pitches. The Sun People are very excited for this, and the Night People are also kind of happy about it as well because then the Sun People don't judge us to harshly about our tweeting habits at that hour of night. Pretty much a win-win everywhere.

The Astros are now ever so close to being #onpace for 100 wins. FiveThirtyEight also gives the Astros a 97% chance of making the playoffs and a 74% to win the division.

Hinch is basically as fast as Jake at this point, in case you were wondering how that was progressing.

Julia Morales blew the lead in the mascot race. Unacceptable imo. 

Felix Hernandez is back in the rotation just in time for the Houston Astros to roll into town.

Here is a piece on Ex-Astros prospect Ramon Laureano and how he's been since he went on to pursue other opportunities.

Bryce Harper AND Daniel Murphy were placed on revocable trade waivers.

I listened to the new episode of Lima Time Time while making these and it is good. You should listen to it.

Big Al was quite the hit at the Williamsport Sunday Night Baseball game.

16 nurses are pregnant in the same hospital and it is extremely suspicious.

On This Day In Baseball History

In 1921, Ty Cobb got his 3000th hit.

In 1997, Wade Boggs pitched. He threw one inning and did not allow a hit.

In 2010, the Astros traded Pedro Feliz to the Cardinals for David Carpenter. The trade was made so the Cardinals could replace injured third baseman David Freese.

In 2012, the Mets-Nationals game screeched to a halt after a praying mantis was discovered in the outfield.

  

Tranzactionz!

The Astros made some moves over the last couple of weeks, according to Baseball America. Here are the ones that involve new information:

-Signed LHP Xavier Cedeno

Xavier Cedeno will be 25 in August, and has spent his entire career in the Rockies' system (drafted in the 31st Round of the 2004 draft). Cedeno didn't play in 2010, after being moved to the bullpen in 2009. In 47 appearances at Double-A, Cedeno has thrown 149.2IP, 172H/72ER, 77K:59BB, with a 4.56 ERA/1.54 WHIP.

This winter, he's playing in the Puerto Rican Winter League, has made seven starts (12 appearances), and posted 32H/11ER, 31K:13BB (2.32 ERA/1.05 WHIP) for Carolina.

-Released RHP Leandro Cespedes, LHP Chris Blazek, LHP Angel Gonzalez, C Carlos Mojica, 2B German Duran, 2B Pedro Feliz.

Cespedes spent the majority of 2010 in Lancaster. Chris Blazek was suspended for something in 2010 after his return to Tri-City after being drafted in 2005. The other notable name on the list is German Duran, who was picked off waivers by the Astros in July 2009 from the Rangers. Ken Rosenthal at the time thought that Duran could figure into a utility role for the Astros long-term. I guess not.

From the Office of the County Clerk: Pedro Feliz edition

Because I feel bad for barbecuing all yesterday afternoon/evening and not doing a game recap, here's a mulligan:

*Pedro Feliz was traded to St. Louis following an August 18 loss to the Mets.

*Though he hadn't started regularly since the end of June, the Astros were 39-58 in his appearances.

*From Opening Day until he lost his starting job to Chris Johnson on June 30, the Astros were 30-48 (.385 Win%). Since June 30, the Astros are 34-24 (.586).

*From Opening Day until acquiring Pedro Feliz, the Cardinals were 65-53 (.550). Since acquiring Feliz, the Cardinals are 6-10 (.375).

*This means that, with Feliz making an appearance, his team's winning percentage is .383. Without him, his team's winning percentage is .562.

Obviously, he's just one man on a 25-man team, but the numbers - as usual - are hard to ignore.

Houston Press on the Feliz trade

John Royal has a post discussing the Feliz trade. Mainly, it's "Ed Wade is still an idiot."

Wade was widely and correctly mocked during the off-season for the Feliz signing as it appears that he was the only one who didn't know how to read a stat sheet, thus rendering him unable to figure out that Feliz was going to suck this season. But a guy who had trouble hitting with the Phillies and struggled to get RBI's in a lineup featuring Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Shane Victorino, Ryan Howard, and Jayson Werth was clearly not going to be able to hack it with the Astros, especially if he was making $4.5 million.

Maybe this move is an indication that Wade is finally figuring this whole GM thing, and that's he is finally figuring out how to read and understand baseball stats. But I seriously doubt it. The saying is, after all, that a broke clock is right twice the day, and seeing as how Chris Johnson had to play in the minors most of the season because of Feliz, I'm counting this trade as one of those two times where the broken clock is right.

It is worth pointing out that CHONE predicted that Feliz would hit .256/.299/.407. Not great, but not .221/.243/.311. When the Astros signed Feliz, we said that it was entirely too much money, and apologized to Chris Johnson.

So while I don't think too many people were jazzed up about the signing, his OPS from 2001-2009 was .716. It's .555 this year. I don't think anyone foresaw an OPS-dropoff of 161 points.

Call to the Pen not so excited for the Cardinals

Here's a good breakdown of the Feliz trade from Call to the Pen:

On Carpenter:
Carpenter, 25, is a converted catcher who throws 91-94 with his heater. Like many converted players, his offspeed stuff is pretty raw. He still has managed to whiff 8.25 batters per nine this year in High-A. He has good command and keeps the ball down. Sometimes these converted guys wind up exploding onto the scene at some point. I wouldn’t go crazy projecting that for Carpenter, but he’s got some skills that could work out in the higher levels, and he’s still new to pitching, so he could make some real improvements.

On what it means for the Cardinals:
That the Astros got anything for Feliz is a miracle. As for the Cardinals…I see the whole “Tony La Russa can revive veterans” argument, and maybe he can. But when you have Ruben Gotay in AAA, there’s no excuse to acquire an inferior player in Feliz (with the additional cost of having to send a C-grade prospect away for him) to man the hot corner in St. Louis. No excuse, and it speaks to a lack of creativity in the organization that they’d rather go with the worst of retreads than one of the best players in Triple-A. The Cardinals are a great organization, and the Astros are not, but Ed Wade fleeced John Mozeliak on this one.

Feliz traded

The experiment that was Pedro Feliz is now over as the Astros have traded him - not Blum - to St. Louis for RHP David Carpenter.

Carpenter is a 25-year old reliever, drafted in the 12th Round by the Cardinals in 2006. He's 5-3 in High-A Palm Beach of the Florida State League, where has posted a 2.36 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP in 49 games.

You're probably thinking that this isn't much of a return, but if Pedro Feliz is the missing piece as the Cardinals try to catch the Reds, then the Cardinals are playing with the wrong puzzle.

Blum up, Hernandez designated

In today's episode of How To Be Ridiculous, Eddie and The Gang activate Blum from the DL and designate - not Pedro Feliz - but Anderson Hernandez for assignment. Hilarity ensues.

Further proof Feliz needs to go

With a captip to SBN Houston, we get this link to a BTB article on negative WAR (wouldn't that be WBR?)

And speaking of Pedro Feliz, he's currently been the worst player in baseball in terms of wins above replacement. The 35-year-old started the season as Houston's everyday third baseman and has continued to receive regular playing time since losing his job to Chris Johnson, despite the fact that he has yet to look like an MLB-quality player this season. His .218/.241/.310 line is truly ugly, and his once-fantastic glove has graded out as well below-average this season. He doesn't walk, he doesn't hit for average, he doesn't hit for power, and he doesn't play good defense. I suppose that's how you put up a minus-1.6 WAR on the season so far.

In other words: a trained komodo dragon could do as well as Feliz this season.

Who needs to be freed?

So Geoff Blum went 0x4 last night - as the Juvenile Court Judge told you - at short for Corpus. It was to be his final rehab start before returning to the Big Club. Bernardo Fallas writes that there's a tough roster choice to make for when Blum is activated.

Angel Sanchez has done well at short in Manzella's absence (and might have earned the starting role, even when Manzella is activated), and Anderson Hernandez has been alright, as well.

But who should go? It's not even that tough of a decision - Pedro Feliz. He's not even the go-to guy on the bench for a pinch-hit appearance, anymore. It's time to go ahead and pull the plug on his .551 OPS (and an OPS+ of 48). If the Astros were willing to release Kaz Matsui, they shouldn't have a problem eating the ~$1.5m remaining on Feliz' contract.

2nd Half Numbers

So now that the season unfortunately resumes tomorrow, let's take a look at the current Astros who, in their career, have posted better 2nd Halves than 1st Halves, and vice versa.

Late-bloomers:

Name	PAs	Avg/OBP/SLG	K:BB	OPS
Lee - 1st Half	4175	.284/.337/.494	491:308	.831
Lee - 2nd Half	3049	.295/.346/.503	361:215	.848
Bourn - 1st Half	1184	.254/.323/.342	228:108	.665
Bourn - 2nd Half	512	.276/.339/.352	113:41	.691
Pence - 1st Half	1374	.289/.336/.474	222:92	.810
Pence - 2nd Half	685	.276/.335/.486	151:57	.821

Already blew their wad:

Name	PAs	Avg/OBP/SLG	K:BB	OPS
Berkman - 1st Half	3325	.303/.415/.552	529:519	.968
Berkman - 2nd Half	3335	.292/.403/.550	582:508	.953
Keppinger - 1st Half	784	.284/.346/.391	48:65	.737
Keppinger - 2nd Half	875	.276/.323/.386	58:52	.708
Feliz - 1st Half	2628	.258/.294/.420	380:132	.714
Feliz - 2nd Half	1757	.242/.283/.407	267:94	.691

Of course there are limitations to these tables. For one, Bourn and Pence haven't played that long, so they have a much larger sample size in the 1st half than they do in the 2nd half. We'll get to the pitchers later today.

Eddie's Farm: July 3

Round Rock

Just a brutal, brutal loss for the Express at the hands of Memphis. Leading Memphis 6-3, Roy Corcoran got the loss in a 4-run inning, and Memphis wins 7-6. Polin Trinidad threw 5IP, 6H/1ER, 1K:2BB, while Jonah Bayliss allowed 3H/2ER in 1IP. Gary Majewski preserved the lead for 2IP, before turning it over to Corcoran, who promptly gave up 3H/4ER, 1K:1BB in 0.2IP. Matt Kata was 3x4 with 2HR, Brian Bogusevic was 2x4 with a stolen base and a walk, and Tommy Everidge and Drew Locke each added solo homers.

Man of the Match: Matt Kata

Corpus

Mercifully postponed against Frisco.

Lancaster

The JetHawks - despite being outhit 8-5 - earned their first shutout of the season in a 4-0 win over San Jose. Pat Urckfitz threw 5.1IP, 3H/0ER, 7K:2BB, Brian Wabick added 2.2IP of 3H/0ER relief, and David Berner allowed three baserunners (2H/1BB), but didn't allow a run. Big play of the game came in the bottom of the 9th. With the bases loaded and nobody out, the JetHawks turned a game-ending triple play to preserve the win. Mark Ori was 2x4, with Cartwright, Parejo, and Federico Hernandez adding the other two hits (RBIs from Parejo, Hernandez, and Ori). Brandon Barnes was 0x2, but drew 2BB and stole a base. Lee Cruz stole two bases.

Man of the Match: Mark Ori

Lexington

Lexington scored four runs in the first three innings, and then rode it out for a 4-1 win over Hickory. Luis Cruz threw 6IP, 3H/0ER, 4K:1BB for the win, and Wander Alvino allowed two hits and a solo homer in 2IP. Kirk Clark recorded his 16th save (allowing three baserunners) and struck out the side. Kody Hinze was 3x5 (RBI) and Brian Kemp was 3x4. Jake Goebbert was 1x3 with 2BB. Your RBIs came from Hinze, Our Boy Aaron Bray, and two from Jiovanni Mier.

Man of the Match: Jiovanni Mier.

Tri-City

The ValleyCats took their first series of the season after busting out for a 10-2 win over Connecticut. Carlos Quevedo threw 6IP, 5H/2R (1ER), 6K:1BB. Chris Blazek allowed a hit and walk - striking out three - in 2IP, and Mike Ness gave up a hit in 1IP. Enrique Hernandez, Tyler Burnett, and Daniel Adamson had two hits each, while Ben Heath, Burnett, Adamson, and Adam Bailey each knocked in two runs. Mike Kvasnicka - in the DH position - was pinch-hit for in the 6th. Anyone know why?

Man of the Match: Carlos Quevedo

Greeneville

Rough series for the Gastros as they get beat by Bristol again, 6-2. The Gastros were outscored 32-3 in the three-game series. Euris Quezada allowed 8H/3ER in 6IP, with 3K:1BB (2WPs) and Brian Streilein threw the final 2IP, giving up 2H/3R (1ER), 1K:1BB. Pedro Feliz (regrettably, not that one) and Bubby Williams were both 2x4 with Feliz and Jhonny Medrano getting the RBIs.

Man of the Match: Pedro Feliz

GCL Astros

Pitchers duel in the GCL, and the GCL Astros come out on top of the GCL Nationals 2-1. Jose Perdomo allowed just 2H/0ER, 3K:1BB in 5IP, while Andrea Lucati got the win with a scoreless 6th inning. Austin Lucas struck out three in 2IP, Dieudone Paul allowed an unearned run (so his ERA is still 0.00) in 0.2IP and Pedro Gomez got the final out for his first save. Ryan Ditthardt was 2x4 with a game-winning solo homer in the top of the 9th, and Luca Martone got his first RBI of the season. Brian Pellegrini was 1x4.

Man of the Match: Ryan Ditthardt.

Astros' offensive rankings

And boy, are they offensive (yuk. yuk.). Let's take a look at how the Astros fare by position, vs the rest of Major League Baseball.

1B: Lance Berkman. OPS: .739.
This ranks 20th out of 25 qualifying 1Bs in the Majors. While his .244 batting average is also 20th, it's certainly not as bad as Carlos Pena's .201. His .347 OBP is tied for 19th with Mark Teixeira, and only puts him three points away from 15th, with James Loney, Adam LaRoche, and Ryan Howard between. Ah, but that slugging percentage of .392 is 22nd in the Majors among 1Bs, ahead of only Lyle Overbay, Derrek Lee, and Todd Helton. Only Todd Helton and Justin Smoak have fewer extra base hits than Berkman.

2B: Jeff Keppinger - OPS: 711
13th out of 20 qualifying second basemen in the Majors. While Keppinger's .285 average is 6th among 2Bs, his .336 OBP is 11th, and his .375 SLG is 13th. Still, two qualifying 2Bs - Chone Figgins and Gordon Beckham - are both slugging below .300. However, Keppinger is just one of three 2Bs with a 1:1 or an upside-down K:BB ratio. Keppinger has struck out 19 times, and walked 20. Dustin Pedroia has 35K:35BB and David Eckstein has 11K:14BB this season.

3B: Pedro Feliz - OPS: .531
Now this is ugly, and also why Chris Johnson was promoted. Because even a blind manatee could get a .531 OPS. Feliz' OPS is easily last among 24 qualifying 3Bs, 58 points behind Seattle's Jose Lopez. If it wasn't for Mark Reynolds' .215 average, his batting average (.216), OBP (.241), and SLG (.290) would be dead last. There are six 3Bs who have as many homers as Feliz has extra-base hits, and Feliz is the only qualifying 3B who has drawn fewer than ten walks.

LF: Carlos Lee - OPS: .650
Lee's .650 OPS ranks 19th among 20 qualifying left fielders, and thankfully Juan Pierre is there to cushion El Caballo's fall, although Pierre's average is 20 points higher than Lee's last-place .228. Lee's .268 OBP is also last in the Majors among LFs - the only LF to get on base in less than 30% of his ABs. Only Delmon Young has fewer walks than Lee's 15. Luckily for Lee, his SLG is 16th out of 20, because of his 10 homers and 21 extra-base hits.

CF: Michael Bourn - OPS: .670.
Similarly, Michael Bourn's .670 OPS is 21st out of 22 qualifying CFs. Only Nyjer Morgan and his .628 are worse. For comparison, Vernon Wells' .573 SLG is within 100 points of Bourn's OPS. His .259 average is 18th out of 22 (Victorino, Morgan, Stubbs, and Upton are worse), while his .338 OBP is good enough for 11th. It's that darn slugging. His .332 average is only higher than Morgan's .320 (Bourn and Morgan are the only CFs to not have a homer yet). Bourn's stolen bases are third in the Majors among CFs, and best in the NL, though.

RF: Hunter Pence - OPS: .756
Pence's OPS ranks 20th out of 24 qualifying RFs, with Carlos Quentin, Michael Cuddyer, Ryan Sweeney, and Jeff Francoeur behind him. Pence's .268 average is 18th in the Majors, while his .314 OBP ties him with Jeff Francoeur for lowest (though Pence nudges him in the 4th decimal place) in the Majors among RFs. Pence's 18 walks are only ahead of Francoeur's 17. Good news for Pence is that his .442 SLG is 15th out of 24. While it would be interesting to see how this re-calculates from June 1-present, it's still important to see the drawbacks of a miserable start.

On those days off...

With Keppinger and Feliz on the bench for G15, Alyson Footer has a series of tweets with Brad Mills.

Mills, On Keppinger:
"He's been out there quite a few days now. He's done a real good job. That's all it is."

On Feliz:
Mills told Feliz he wanted to give him a day off and asked him to pick the day. Pedro picked today. Hence, Blum at 3rd.

On Lee getting a day off (I hear you thinking, "You mean he hasn't been off all season?" And that's funny.):
"He wants to play every day. Even though he's struggling, he feels he's real close. I feel he's real close, too."

Whose fault is this?

So we all know the agony and despair. And it's now officially time to start pointing fingers. So let's break down whose fault this is:

Not at fault

-Brad Mills
These are the same players who hit well, and won almost half their Spring Training games. Mills has to keep running Lee and Pence out there, because they're .280-.300 hitters who will eventually hit. This is in no way his fault (except for maybe continuing to play Blum at 1B). I will ask this, though (and it's building on a comment from yesterday): Why the hell isn't Chris Johnson playing more? Feliz can handle 1B, and if Johnson isn't getting any ABs in Houston, why isn't he down at Round Rock, learning some plate discipline and seeing game action?

-Brad Arnsberg
The pitching has been solid. The Astros have had four quality starts, and nothing to show for it. Myers threw his best game since 2008 last night, and got a loss. Oswalt is 0-2 with two quality starts. The pitching isn't the problem.

-Michael Bourn
Yes, Bourn has only drawn one walk, but he's hitting .379 (OBP = .400). Bourn has been on base 12 times this season, and has crossed home twice.

We're Looking At You

-Lee/Pence/Towles
It is inexcusable for three players to be at, or under, the .100 mark. It's almost harder to hit .100 than it is to hit .230.

-Sean Berry
I haven't seen a single quote or article about Sean Berry. Yes, I'm glad he's back. Yes, I'm glad he's doing well. I don't know how much impact a hitting coach can have, but it's obviously a team-wide issue. It's not as though everyone's hitting .300, and Pence just can't figure it out.

-Ed Wade
If Johnson isn't going to get any playing time, how's about bringing up Shelton to play 1B while Blum does what he was supposed to do, and plays every now and then for Pedro Feliz. Shelton is hitting .346/.419/.346 at Round Rock.

Feliz to platoon 1B

So word is coming out that Pedro Feliz will face left-handers from 1B while Berkman is on the DL. But hey, baseball is baseball - even if it's in reverse:

"For me, it's all the same between the lines. It's all about the fundamental stuff. I'm going to get ground balls, and I'm going to be ready."

Mills:
"He's played there quite a few times, of course, with San Francisco over the past few years. He was very receptive to going over there and worked out at first base for a few days last week when we were on the road. He worked out over there, did some drills with us two days ago at first base. We'll play him a few innings there today and go from there."

-

And Manzella's back!

Pence as #2 hitter

Bernardo Fallas tweeted this morning that Brad Mills will consider Hunter Pence for the #2 spot in the lineup.

Let's examine. In the #2 spot in 2009, Pence was .238/.238/.238 in 21 plate appearances.

Should this happen, it will push Matsui and Feliz further down in the order. We know a few things for sure about the lineup: Bourn will leadoff, Berkman will hit 3rd (if he's even in the lineup), Lee will hit 4th, Manzella will likely hit 8th.

If we're looking at it from the "Who will hit 5th" perspective, that leaves two candidates: Kaz Matsui and Pedro Feliz, because I don't think Towles/Castro will hit 5th to begin the season.

We'll start with Matsui. In 2009 Matsui got 200 plate appearances with runners on. His line? .288/.348/.442, 28K:17BB. Compare that to .230/.276/.313 with the bases empty.

In 2009, Feliz got 275 PAs with runners on. How did he do? .325/.366/.482, compared to .221/.263/.314 with the bases empty.

Now, Feliz didn't hit 5th in 2009, and only got 7 PAs in the #5 spot in 2008. Likewise, Matsui didn't hit 5th in 2009, and has three career plate appearances as #5.

So if Pence hits second, which would stack up baserunners for the Big Boys, I could see the lineup as follows:

1. Bourn
2. Pence
3. Berkman
4. Lee
5. Feliz
6. Matsui
7. Towles/Castro
8. Manzella

What say you?

Feliz a major upgrade

Bernardo Fallas has an interesting article on new 3B1 Pedro Feliz.

And just by glancing at the stat sheet — Feliz's .970 fielding percentage at the hot corner over the past three seasons ranks third best in the majors over that span — Astros' brass is confident that, when teamed with new shortstop Tommy Manzella, he offers an instant upgrade on the left side of the infield.

Mills:
“We want to be able to give guys like Pedro Feliz and Kaz Matsui a day off here and there. You got guys like Keppinger and Blum who are very professional players and to be able to have those guys fill in and give those guys a breather, that's nice to have...

He's arguably one of the best third basemen in the National League, if not the majors. Any time you can get a guy like that, such a solid defensive player and bring the experience that he has into this mix, it sure helps shore up that left side of the infield.”

Similar to how we all were thinking, Fallas thinks Feliz will bat 6th or 7th. If that's true, here's how your lineup may look:

1. Bourn
2. Matsui
3. Berkman
4. Lee
5. Pence
6. Feliz
7. Towles/Castro
8. Manzella

If it's Towles coming out as C1, could see him batting 6th, with Feliz batting 7th. If it's Castro, I could envision Mills flipping them to take some pressure off Castro in the #6 spot.

What are other teams who lost players to the Astros saying?

It's Spring Training preview day, apparently, because all 30 teams have Spring Training previews up. Catch what I did there? Logic.

Anyhow, what did the teams who lost players to the Astros say about them?

Marlins, on Lindstrom:
The hard-throwing right-hander entered last year as the closer, but he had some shoulder problems, and later on had forearm/elbow issues. Lindstrom had a rough year, and he was traded in December to the Astros.

Phillies, on Feliz:
He will be playing third base for the Astros this season. The Phils will miss his glove.

Tigers, on Lyon:
The Tigers gave some effort toward re-signing Lyon before he landed a three-year, $15 million deal in Houston and Detroit turned its attention towards Valverde. Not many relievers could duplicate Lyon's second-half dominance, but a healthy Zumaya would go a long way toward replacing Lyon in his previous eighth-inning role.

Astros planning for fissures

In McTaggart's new blog post today, we see that Geoff Blum will get the majority of his starts at 2B, with Feliz at 3B and Keppinger backing up Manzella.

Wade:
"Millsie and I have talked, and my opinion to him is we need to put the best lineup on the field we can put out there. Our hope is Kaz is playing the majority of the time, but we've got alternatives. If there's a point in time it looks like giving either Geoff Blum or Keppinger more at-bats over there [will help the offense] or if Edwin Maysonet makes the club and is playing well, we have to be opened-minded about putting our most productive lineup on the field."

Huzzah!

Things We Knew, Volume 421

FanGraphs has a new piece on Houston's management issues. The money quote:

Between these five players (Pedro Feliz, Brandon Lyon, Jason Michaels, Brett Myers, and Cory Sullivan), the Astros brought in only a projected 4.5 wins over the course of this deal, according to CHONE, and that’s assuming that Lyon maintains his projected .7 WAR production over the entire course of his three-year contract. Yes, in a market where the dollar value for wins essentially bottomed out, Ed Wade and Drayton McLane spent approximately 5.5 million dollars per win.

That’s without even accounting for the fact that the Astros are at a very low point on the win curve. With Drayton McLane attempting to sell the team, the Astros low on the win curve and desperately needing some talented draft picks and international talent to infuse in the system, the Astros spent 25 million on a minimal upgrade. These are the kind of management gaffes that lead to extended periods of mediocrity. The Astros need change, and they need it fast.

It's fair to point out the Astros spent $25m on five free agents. But Lyon wrapped up $15m of that, and the Michaels hardly qualifies as a free agent. So blast the Lyon deal if you like (and take a number), but be sure to note that of the five free agents, three of them figure to be major pieces of this "lost season." It's called Holding Down the Fort.