Sunday Morning Hot Links

The Astros' top of the lineup showed up while the bottom of the lineup took the night off (a reverse from Friday night), and the Astros beat the Angels 11-3. Houston is 68-50. Obviously the Rangers won, so Houston remains 2.5 back.

*Houston is 8-3 at Minute Maid Park since the All-Star Break.

*The Astros got 13 hits last night, giving them 10+ hits in five straight games - the longest streak this season, and the longest since a five-game streak from June 6-11, 2021. As a franchise, the Astros have only enjoyed 10+ hits in at least six straight games 16 times, the last being April 19-24, 2019. The longest streak of 10+ hits in franchise history is eight games, most recently set June 10-18, 2018. 

*Houston is 6-5 in games after scoring 10+ runs. 

*The Astros were 7x10 with runners in scoring position last night. That's, like, a lot, and stuff. 

*Jose Altuve was 3x4 with a walk and an RBI. He's at 1993 hits, which [counts fingers] leaves him seven short of 2,000. Since the beginning of the 2021 season, Altuve has a .293 batting average (383 hits in 1309 ABs). At that clip, he would get 1007 hits in his 3445th AB, around seven seasons from now, when Altuve would be in his Age 40 season. It's doable, but it'll require being healthy.

*Kyle Tucker was 3x4 with a walk, homer, and 4RBI. It's his first 3-hit game since July 21 and his 10th of the season. The walk was his 58th of 2023, one shy of his career high of 59, set in 2022. 

Tucker:

We put a lot of good at-bats and we were able to capitalize on a lot of our opportunities and put up some runs the last couple of days. Even in Baltimore, when we were down, we were able to come back and put together good at-bats and just kind of grind through it. So I think that's just the kind of team that we have and offense that we have, we just kind of grind through and always have an opportunity to win.

Altuve, on Tucker:

I know Shohei is having a crazy season, an MVP type of season. But Tucker is having a great, great year. He should be in there with the MVP list. So, I think that says it all. He's that kind of player.

*Alex Bregman was 2x4 with 2BB. He has multiple hits in three of his past five games.

*J.P. France: 7IP, 4H/2ER, 5K:1BB. He has gotten 21 outs in each of his last four starts.

*Baseball-Reference not updating by 9:45am has made this needlessly difficult.

*Michael Brantley...might?...be coming back...at some point?

*Jose Abreu is on the IL with inflammation in his lower back. Abreu:

I felt it at the beginning of the season, but it was something I just thought was normal. It went away. Right before the All-Star Break, felt it again, but the same thing - it went away. But the last time I felt it, it just kept getting worse and worse.

Phil Maton joined him on the IL. Parker Mushinski and David Hensley joined the Big League club.

*Max Scherzer remains A Bitch as he (and apparently some other) Mets did not care for Justin Verlander's "diva" attitude.

*Sugar Land's Pedro Leon hit three homers last night.

*Bill Brown and Bill Doran were inducted into the Astros Hall of Fame last night.

*Absolute disaster of a week coming up for Leeds United, as more rats jump off a sinking ship.

The Starting XI and their current status in Leeds' final game of the 2022-23 season, a must-win game that saw them down 1-0 within 2':

Robles: Gone

Ayling: Still here

Forshaw: Gone

Koch: Gone

Cooper: Still here

Harrison: About to move to Everton

Rodrigo: Gone

Struijk: Still here

Kristensen: Gone

McKinnie: Gone

Wober: Gone

Twats. All of them.

*A Musical Selection:

Saturday Morning Hot Links

Been a while, yeah? Because nothing - Astros-wise, anyway - is happening. Well that changed a little bit yesterday. A shame, really, I had gotten used to not having to think about the Astros.

*The deadline to settle arbitration cases was yesterday and the Astros could not come to an agreement with Carlos Correa, and so they will head to a hearing. Correa wanted $12.5m, the Astros offered $9.75m. That's quite a gap. 

I do not understand this decision. Let's recap what has happened since October 2019:

1. Brandon Taubman popped off at some reporters about domestic violence, getting himself fired in the process.

2. The Astros lost every home game of the World Series.

3. The Mike Fiers story dropped, which resulted in Luhnow and Hinch getting fired and the Astros becoming the most hated single team in Baseball since 1919. 

4. COVID-19. 

And through all of that, Correa became the face of the franchise, standing up for his teammates and bearing that burden to the public, allowing guys like Altuve and Bregman to sit back in the shadows (as much as that is possible, anyway). And you can't come up with the extra $2.75m to pay him? He is going to be a free agent at the end of the 2021 season, you think maybe, if you want a little goodwill in the negotiations with the best shortstop in franchise history?

*FanGraphs' WAR, Astros shortstops:

1. Correa: 19.4

2. Dickie MF Thon: 14.3

3. Adam Everett: 9.2

In 45 fewer games than the man largely considered to be the best defensive shortstop in franchise history, Correa has put up 10.2 more fWAR. Since he came into the league in 2015 - even given the injury-shortened seasons - Correa has the 5th most fWAR among shortstops, in more than 150 fewer games than three of the four players ahead of him. I know baseball economics are allegedly what they are in a pandemic/post-pandemic scenario, but it's also important to never believe a billionaire when they cry poor. I could have stopped that sentence after "billionaire." And so, now, approximately ten months before he's set to become a free agent in his Age 26 season, the Astros will go before a panel and tell Correa that he's not worth as much as he thinks he is. Seems real smart. Click:

We have nothing but the utmost respect for Carlos and his group. Again, I can't emphasize this enough: I think they came very well prepared and I think we were very well prepared, but we just see different things in the market and that's why the system is there to help us resolve those.

*In the last couple of weeks, the Astros have added veterans Ryne Sandberg Stanek and Pedro Baez to the bullpen. The back four of the bullpen will be Stanek, Baez, Joe Smith, and Ryan Pressly. Click that link and McTaggart will tell you the Astros are engaged on Brad Hand, Alex Colome, and Trevor Rosenthal. So obviously, the Astros are trying to shore up their bullpen and will just get to the 2/3 of the outfield that is apparently missing, exiled to Weiland Island. Click, on Springer/Brantley:

Those two guys are very special to this franchise and we will continue to have conversations, but we're, like I've said, gonna go where the market dictates sometimes, and something we are gonna push the market and make it come to us.

This is an excellent example of saying something and it's full of nothing at all.

To be fair, Click did say that they have discussed an extension with Correa. The Astros did avoid an arbitration hearing with Aledmys Diaz ($3m) and Lance McCullers ($6.5m). 

*ESPN is predicting Springer to the Blue Jays.

*I totally missed the rumor that the Astros are interested in Joakim Soria, who at this point just must be 52 years old.

*Houston signed 22-year old Cuban OF Pedro Leon to a $4m signing bonus, in a long-rumored move. Click:

He's a special talent. He has all five tools, and a sixth one if you count just how good he is at the game of baseball from an instincts perspective - tremendous off-field guy. There's just not enough good things that we can say about him.

Click said how quickly he rises through the system depends on Leon, but they're not planning on him immediately replacing Brantley or Springer. 

*The Tri-City ValleyCats, formerly of the historic New York-Penn League, have sued the Astros for lost revenue over the minor-league contraction/restructuring that got rammed through by Soulless Ghoul Rob Manfred (for a non-paywalled link, click here). The complaint:

MLB's intimidation tactics, which it used to pit MiLB teams against each other for the 'privilege' of not having their businesses destroyed, has gone on for years but was most vividly demonstrated by a May 2020 email in which Commissioner Rob Manfred emailed the ValleyCats' owner condolences on the passing of his father, and then in the very same email, issued a veiled threat that any public statement made about MLB's contraction efforts would be 'unwise.'

MLB is arguing that it wasn't really a threat, and there's nuance that is missing. Actively trying to remember why I even care about this sport. 

*Former Astros Great Jeff Luhnow is working with the group that brought you "Club de Cuervos" on Netflix to buy a Liga MX team.

*Leeds vs. Brighton: 9am. NBCSN.

*Minute Maid Park will host a vaccination drive today.

*Mental Floss: The Harvard Chemistry Professor Who Was Also A Murderer.

*Food & Wine: Ted Cruz's love for soup knows no bounds.

*Outside: Journey to the Center of the Earth.

*I've been a little busy over at Michael Bourn Identity, featuring interviews with musician Joe Firstman, Centro-Matic's Will Johnson and Fenway Park's Josh Kantor, and Hall of Fame play-by-play man Eric Nadel.

*A Musical Selection:

Friday Morning Hot Links

The Astros


*MLB Network released some excerpts from the first interview with A.J. Hinch since his, ahem, headline-grabbing offseason.

For the first time, A.J. Hinch talks about the Astros investigation.

See Tom Verducci’s full sitdown with the former manager, Friday at 6pm ET on MLB Tonight. pic.twitter.com/EBIRDmHGFJ

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) February 6, 2020

The full interview will air Friday at 5pm on MLB Network.

On whether or not the 2017 World Series title is tainted, Hinch:
I hope over time it's proven that it wasn't. But I understand the question. It's a fair question and people are going to have to draw their own conclusions (Ed. Note: Oh, they have). Unfortunately, we opened that door as a group. That question may never be answered....I can't pinpoint any advantages or what happened or what exactly would have happened otherwise. But we did it to ourselves. 

There are a couple of ways you can interpret this sit-down with Tom Verducci:
a) He's just biding his time until the next managerial opening and is doing the PR round.
b) Hinch is legitimately sorry that he didn't try harder to stop The Coward Alex Cora and any other Astro player (Beltran, maybe, McCann, maybe) and he's getting in front of the camera to confess.

Both can be true at the same time.

*Brian McTaggart writes that all eyes, and ears, will be on the Astros' Spring Training. Stoner hero Mike Clevinger has already said this:
I'm all about policing the game in its own right, keeping everyone safe. But I don't know, I think players will deal with it the way it should be across the league. I don't think it's going to be a comfortable few ABs for a lot of those boys, and it shouldn't be. They shouldn't be comfortable.

If anyone knows anything about being uncomfortable after cheating (on his wife, a month after she gave birth to their daughter), it's Sunshine.

*Chandler Rome has five questions for the Astros as Spring Training starts next week. Those five questions detail SP5, Kyle Tucker vs Josh Reddick, which reliever will get lefty-hitters out, Lance McCullers' innings, and the possibility of a sophomore slump from Yordan.

*Richard Justice writes that the Astros-Dusty partnership can be mutually beneficial. Justice:
Baker cannot make the sign-stealing scandal go away, but his presence - and essential decency - will be a big step in the right direction. He understands that all the Astros can do this spring is own up to the past, apologize for it and then attempt to win a fourth straight American League West title.

*Jake Kaplan says the relationship between Dusty Baker and James Click is more "a marriage." Baker:
You start with trust and you start with honesty. You be as straightforward as you can on all situations. You don't sugarcoat anything. If he asks you a question you answer to the best of your knowledge and ability. There are some things that I can learn from him. There are some things that possibly he can learn from me.

*Missed this from the other day, but the Astros have apparently for some reason made an offer to Former Astros Great Hunter Pence. Makes sense, what with the thinned outfield depth of Springer, Brantley, Tucker, Reddick, Straw...

*Jordan Brewer (3rd Round - 2019) is the organization's fastest prospect. Brewer was limited to 16 games in 2019 for Tri-City after injuring his toe.

*The Astros have apparently come to a $4m agreement for July 2 with 21-year old Cuban outfielder Pedro Leon (Pedro The Lion!). Hey, there's the Astros' 1st Round draft pick in 2020!

*Nice hat that Verlander wore to the Pebble Beach Pro-Am (in which Jim Crane is also playing):

Good luck to Jim Crane and @JustinVerlander in the @attproam this week! pic.twitter.com/t4W9NSQvHo

— Houston Open (@HouOpenGolf) February 6, 2020

*Check out Joe Posnanski's profile in his essential Top 100 on his #50 - Nolan Ryan.

*Hank Aaron thinks everyone involved in the Astros' sign-stealing scandal should be banned from baseball for life.

*Sam Miller: They secretly replaced Yankee Stadium...and other lies that can be proven using real stats.

*Rob Manfred said he wants to complete the Red Sox investigation before Spring Training camps open, with the same offer of immunity for players who talk that the Astros got.

*BBC: How Kirk Douglas helped end the Hollywood blacklist.

*Bloomberg: The time I sabotaged my editor with Ransomware from the dark web.

*A Musical Selection: