USA Today is completely full of crap

Somehow, the Red Sox' Xander Bogaerts won USA Today's Minor League Player of the Year award.

The fast climb to the majors, his standout season and obvious tools made Bogaerts' the logical choice as USA TODAY Sports' Minor League Player of the Year, following 2012 winner Wil Myers and 2011 honoree Paul Goldschmidt.

This is odd. Because when they held the online voting (of which fans were apparently 2/3 of the vote), Archie Bradley won handily over Springer. So, because it's USA Today, we created a little infographic to help them realize the error of their ways.

easel.ly

Now, please keep in mind that this is not intended as a slam against Bogaerts - he had a very good season at Age 20 and earned a call-up to the Red Sox because that franchise is in a different place (1st) than Houston.

This is, however, intended as a slam against USA Today, since they are silly. Bogaerts did well, and is young. That's the only possible reason in which Bogaerts would win MiLB player of the year over George Springer, who is having a historic minor-league season.

Vote for George Springer

USA Today is holding their annual Minor League Player of the Year contest, in which you can vote for exactly what it sounds like.Your options are:

Xander Bogaerts (SS - Boston)
Archie Bradley (RHP - Arizona)
Byron Buxton (OF - Minnesota)
Miguel Sano (3B - Minnesota)
George Springer (OF - Houston)

We'll help you decide:

*Bogaerts is hitting .304/.392/.490 (.882 OPS) between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket with 90K:60BB in 499 PAs. He collects teammates' toenails in a jar.
*Bradley is 11-5 with a 1.84 ERA/1.19 WHIP, having allowed 103H/28ER, 150K:59BB in 136.2IP between High-A Visalia and Double-A Mobile. He enjoys kicking children.
*Buxton is hitting .328/.410/.522 (.932 OPS) between Low-A Cedar Rapids and High-A Fort Myers with 95K:62BB in 503 PAs. He is known for urinating on your grill.
*Sano is hitting .293/.391/.622 (1.013 OPS) between High-A Fort Myers and Double-A New Britain with 116K:56BB. He likes to punch your grandmother in the keister.
*George Springer is hitting .301/.407/.597 (1.005 OPS) between Corpus and OKC with 147K:71BB in 515 PAs. He's the first 30/30 player in the minors since 2009. He loves puppies, eating his vegetables, living a good, clean life and being a sweetheart in general. He reads for pleasure and has been known to let your grandfather win at cards.

The choice is yours.

National sportswriter takes a fair look at the Astros rebuild!

Paul White over at USA Today talked with Jeff Luhnow and Larry Dierker about the state of the Astros and the rebuilding process. It's a very well-composed article that accurately describes how the organization reached this point and how Luhnow is trying to dig the club out of the pit they inherited from McLane and Wade.

There's too much good stuff to break out a "money quote" so just go read it.

USA Today's Power Rankings

USA Today released their Power Rankings today, and we find the Astros at #25.

Need strong pitching to avoid tumbling to bottom on NL.

And in other news, grass is green.

And in other actual news, Astros County's Top 25 will return next Monday morning!

Apparently it took Mills' Panama trip for Carlos to feel wanted

USA Today's Seth Livingstone talked to Carlos Lee, who was downright flattered by Mills going to Panama this off-season.

Lee:
"I didn't know he liked me that much. It means a lot. It makes you feel like you're part of the main guys. We talked about the team and expectations. We talked about everything. "We had a great time. He was there for 50 hours. We talked baseball for 52."

I don't get it.

The Astros 2011 Bandwagon is getting a little more crowded

For instance, Paul White's article in USA Today, which manages to make it through an entire article without giving us a round-headed kid looking at a graph.

Hunter Pence:
"It's the culmination of a lot of things. They changed our defensive setups. We became more of a pitching and defense team. Chris Johnson's come up and played real well. Young and energetic baseball...

..."We have our core and foundation. We've been drawing comparisons to the (San Diego) Padres last year. But we aren't anybody but us. It is what it is. You can't be looking very far forward or into the past."

Ohhhh....the OFFENSE.

USA Today's Chris Duncan looks into his mystical crystal ball and discovers that the reason the Astros are bad right now is because of the offense. You don't say...

Duncan:
Houston ranks last in the majors in runs (28), batting average (.215), on-base percentage (.240) and home runs (3). The Astros have been shut out three times and scored two runs or fewer in seven of their first 12 games.

From the start, the Astros knew they had unproven bats at the back of the lineup. Rookie shortstop Tommy Manzella had only five career major-league at-bats and catcher J.R. Towles was hitting .149 over the previous two seasons.

But the dependable hitters are the ones slumping the worst so far.

Pence:
"That's just the way it goes sometimes and you've just got to keep battling. Once you get hot, hitting gets contagious and it starts to feel easy, and when it's going bad it feels very difficult. You've just got to keep your mind right, keep preparing and keep believing it's going to happen."

Mills:
"There's a lot of talent there, and the talent right now isn't able to do the things they've been able to do in the past. It's only a matter of time before they do. We'll try to shorten that as much as we can. But the guys are getting their work in and doing the things they need to get done...

...We purposely didn't look back at those losses because that frustration begins to build. So that's not what we wanted. That's not an advantage to us. So we tried not to look back and kept correcting those mistakes, but looking forward at what we were trying to accomplish. So in saying that, it builds."

Power Rankings!

Entering Week Three, let's see how the "experts" see the Astros:

Sporting News:
Astros: 30th
The Astros have hit just three home runs as a team entering the week. Fifty players have at least three home runs this season.

FanHouse:
Astros: 29th
After their 0-8 start, the Astros are now 3-1 and are officially on a two-game winning streak after taking their weekend series in Wrigley Field. Lance Berkman is due back in the near future, as well, so it's not nearly as doom and gloom as it was for the 'Stros at this time last week. It's not all good news, either; Jeff Keppinger and Michael Bourn are the only two players hitting remotely well right now and Bud Norris' 3.52 ERA certainly won't stand if he keeps walking nearly a batter an inning.

ESPN:
Astros: 29th
Houston took two of three from the Cubs for its first series win of the season and gets Lance Berkman back from the DL on Tuesday

Hardball Talk:
Astros: 29th
The Astros have hit three home runs this year. Three. That's only three more than you've hit.

USA Today:
Astros: 29th

Scott Miller's Five Things to Know About the Astros

And some of these are new to me:

1. The Astros look different, but aren't rebuilding. Berkman:
We are not in a rebuilding mode. We've got guys here who can really do things. I think our pitching staff is a lot better than it was a year ago. Our defense is good. Health is a big factor. We've got some older guys who are going to be called on. We've got to stay healthy. Roy (Oswalt) has to stay on the mound."

Question: What's different about the pitching staff from last year to this year? Moehler doesn't have a guaranteed spot? Valverde and Hawkins are gone?

2. 2009's offense sucked. More Berkman:
"Offensively, I really could care less. We went to the World Series with probably the worst offense in history. So you can throw that out right there. If we have pitching and defense, we have enough offense to support that."

Read: All we need to keep the other team to is one run. We got that.

3-5: I have no idea what Miller is saying...

Manzella on the Need to Know list

USA Today's (somewhat flawed) 100 Names You Need To Know list was released, and Tommy Manzella heads up the Astros' reps at #42:

Manzella, 26, a third-round pick by the Astros in 2005, is the favorite to win the starting shortstop job this spring after being named the MVP at Class AAA Round Rock (Texas) last season. He ranked second in the Pacific Coast League in at-bats (530) and third in hits (153). He has good range and a strong arm. He's considered the best all-around defensive player in the Astros' system.

And that's it. Nobody else that the world needs to know about...

USA Today puts Valverde in Detroit

USA Today's Paul White breaks down where he thinks ten big-name free agents will end up.

Jose Valverde?
More closers are on the market than teams willing to commit significant money for one. That gives the Houston Astros a shot at keeping him. In the end, a contender takes the plunge. USA TODAY says: Detroit Tigers

Boone to retire?

USA Today's Bob Nightengale is tweeting that Aaron Boone is likely to retire this off-season. And that, should he retire, he would like to go into a front office or broadcasting. Boone, not Nightengale.

Bourn "one to watch"

Fine journalism from USA Today in which they break down the players to watch in 2010. Michael Bourn made this list:

Michael Bourn has benefited from a .372 average on balls in play, but that alone can't explain an improvement of more than 60 points in batting average from last season. And, of course, he leads the league in stolen bases.