'Rona-Free Hot Links, Vol. 5

IMPORTANT: If you are in a Zoom Meeting with more than two people, and do not mute your mic, you will be brought before a war crimes tribunal.

*I know these are supposed to be COVID-19-free, but here's how the Astros Foundation is helping to coordinate and deliver medical supplies.

*Chandler Rome has a mailbag. He talks about impending free agency, three prospects he thinks will throw 90+ IP in 2020/2021, whichever comes first, Forrest Whitley, and A.J. Hinch.

*Speaking of A.J. Hinch, Buster Olney reported (confirmed by Chandler Rome) that, if the 2020 season is canceled, Hinch and Jeff Luhnow would still be eligible to return to baseball in 2021. This is consistent with MLB's decision on player suspensions not having to spill over to 2021 (Francis Martes, for instance).



*Here are the draft pools and slot bonuses for the 1st 10 Rounds of the 2020 Draft, though how many rounds there actually will be is still up in the air. The Astros' 1st selection of the Draft will be #73, thanks to the Yankees giving Gerrit Cole over $300m. That pick has a slot of $857,400. Their next pick will be 3-102.

*Listen to Part 2 of Evan Gattis' conversation with The Athletic on the Astros' sign-stealing in 2017. Gattis:
I think we got so f***ing caught up that we f***ed up.

*Jon Singleton was the most-hyped Astros' 1B prospect of the last 20 years, says MLB.com. I think I was more hyped for Brett Wallace, but the point stands.

*Lance McCullers is Tags' pick for Future Ace of the Astros.

*Meet "the conscience of baseball."

*Chris Cwik went back and undid all of Jeter's wrongs with the Marlins.

*Tim Kurkjian: Ichiro's love of hamburgers, math, and his bats.

*Sam Miller: The most meme-worthy moments for all 29 teams (yeah, the trash can takes the cake for the Astros. If it's not Coronavirus, it's trash cans. This is what we are now.)

*Outside: The Woman Who Lives 200,000 Years In The Past.

*Explore.org has a ton of webcams for you to pass your time.

*You need Yoga With Adriene in your life.



*Learn Something:

Finding A Sipp Upgrade

The have been very few problems with the Astros this season. One way to know that is true is to look at the record of the Astros, which is good. But if I did have to pick a weakness for the team, which I do not as I am not currently employed by them, it would be the lack of a truly good left-handed reliever.

Finding a good left-handed reliever is not very easy for a variety of reasons, chief among which are the fact that it is very difficult to throw a baseball and most of the world’s population does so with their right arm. There are not many internal options to be found, unless you count Sean Stutzman who is a 23-year-old lefty that was signed as a senior free agent out of DBU. You should probably not count Sean Stutzman. However, there are a few options out there for Luhnow and Co. to choose from.

Tony Watson:

Rumored this week as a possible trade target, Watson has eight saves and a 1.62 ERA for the floundering Pirates. He posted sub-2 ERAs in 2014 and 2015, but had a 3.06 ERA last season. Of greater concern, his FIP climbed to 4.37 in 2016 and is all the way up to 4.84 this year. He is posting the lowest K/9 rate of his career, coupled with the highest BB/9 rate of his career. He would command a “closer” price and I’m not sure he would be worth it.

Sean Doolittle:

When healthy, Doolittle is one of the better LHPs in the game. Unfortunately, Doolittle’s beard is longer than almost any stretch of good health in his career. Doolittle has the sixth-lowest wOBA allowed by any pitcher to LHH in the last three seasons as a reliever, just one point higher than Zach Britton. As an established weapon, he too would command a hefty price tag.

Donnie Hart:

Unless you are Donnie Hart, you are probably asking yourself, “Who is Donnie Hart?” In 2016, Hart jumped from Double-A to the majors for Baltimore to shore up a hole in their bullpen down the stretch. He was fantastic, posting a 0.49 ERA in 22 games. This season, he has been even better. He has doubled his strikeout rate, lowered his FIP by a run and a half, and was just optioned to Triple-A. 

His ERA on the surface is much worse, but it is ballooned by a .442 BABIP that will regress. His groundball rate is well below his career rate and I expect that will improve as well. If Baltimore is low enough on him right now to demote him, maybe Luhnow could slip in and find a diamond in the rough for next to nothing.

Thursday Morning Hot Links

*It's Opening Night for the minor-leagues - we'll have (mostly) daily recaps of how the affiliates did.

*The Astros were 49-5 in 2015 when scoring 6+ runs. So far in 2016 they're 0-1. Read the Masked Marvel's G2 recap.

*It was Collin McHugh's shortest start of his career - he had always gotten at least three outs - since getting bounced after 1.1IP on September 25, 2012. He had never allowed 6ER in one inning like he did last night, and McHugh allowed 6ER while getting one out.

*Carlos Beltran said the Yankees executed their game plan against McHugh perfectly.

*Carlos Correa hit two homers - one of them went 459 feet - the third-longest in this version of Yankee Stadium history.

*Games needed for shortstops to reach 25 career MLB homers:
101: Correa
134: Nomar
141: A-Rod

*A scout who talked to the New York Daily News' Mark Feinsand:
Correa has the physical talent of a young A-Rod, and the makeup and character of Jeter. He will be the face of baseball because his personality is incredible. He's not as good as Trout and Harper yet and doesn't have the track record, but he will be right up there. He has as much talent as they do.

*The Astros helped Starlin Castro become the first Yankees player with 7RBI in his first two games as a Yankee.

*Tyler White became the first Astro to record their first career MLB hit on Opening Day since James Mouton in 1994.

*Lance McCullers threw 30 pitches in a simulated game and could go on a rehab assignment next week.

*Evan Gattis will be in Corpus tonight to open his rehab assignment.

*The Astros have made an offer for Wandy to pitch in Fresno.

*Ken Burns' new documentary on Jackie Robinson is apparently pretty great.

*Oakland's Sean Doolittle: the most interesting man in baseball?

*RIP Merle.

Before You Go:

Correa is only the second shortstop in Astros history with a 4-hit, 2-home run game. Tim Bogar was the other, in 2000.

— Jake Kaplan (@jakemkaplan) April 7, 2016

Wait, one more:

Correa is an A-Rod type shortstop, but in a better version

— Pedro Martinez (@45PedroMartinez) April 7, 2016