Wandy deal could hinge on Crane

Ken Rosenthal tweeted that any deal involving Wandy Rodriguez could hinge on the outcome of the Crane vote. Rosenthal says that Crane is willing to move him (of course - he makes too much money), and McLane leans more towards keeping him.

This may be a referendum on Ed Wade's tenure. It has been long-discussed about how ridiculous it was to extend Wandy in the first place. If Crane's first official act as owner is to approve the trade of a player that his GM extended 11 months earlier, that probably doesn't bode so well for Easy Eddie.

Go ahead and cross Grady Sizemore off your list

Anyone who wanted the Astros to make a run at Grady Sizemore can go ahead and pull up a little bit, as Smilin' Ken Rosenthal says he'll want close to the $9m that the Indians declined to pick up for 2012.

Schafer now up to two charges of drug paraphernalia

Jordan Schafer's "hits" (get it?) keep on coming! He's now up to two drug-related charges:

*Possession of cannabis (3rd degree felony)

*Possession of drug paraphernalia (1st degree misdemeanor)

According to Levine and, you know, the law, his arraignment will take place on November 14. But probably not at the Cheesecake Factory.

Breaking: Wade claims player who looks just like Barmes

Astros County has learned the reason Ed Wade claimed Brian Bixler off waivers from the Nationals. Wade will let Barmes walk, and will try to pass Bixler off as Clint Barmes in order to save $4-5 million on the 2012 payroll. With the media so focused on Jim Crane and the ownership saga, and the focus on Andre Johnson's hamstring, combined with the general "don't-give-a-crap" attitude surrounding the fanbase, Wade felt as though he could make said minor move under the radar, put Bixler in a Barmes jersey purchased from the team store, and save millions.

The evidence:



No one would ever know. You're welcome.

Astros claim Brian Bixler

Courtesy of Alyson Footer, we read that the Astros have claimed Brian Bixler off waivers from the Nationals.

In 79 games - 94 PAs - for the Nationals in 2011, he hit .205/.267/.265, with 19K:7BB, while playing at least one game in LF, CF, RF, 1B, SS, and 3B. So he's defensively versatile, I suppose.

The 29-year old Bixler - the Pirates' 2nd Round pick in 2004 - hit .314/.439/.407 for Washington's Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse in 108 PAs. In five seasons at Triple-A, Bixler has hit .280/.357/.407, with more triples (27) than homers (26).

Interestingly enough, the Pirates gave up on Bixler on January 18, 2010 when they traded him to Cleveland for Jesus Brito. Then decided to take another chance on him on six months later (7/12/10), when they re-acquired him for a Player To Be Named Later. And then Pittsburgh sold him to Washington on August 7, 2010.

Castro, Escalona, Lyon added to 40-Man

According to the Astros' tranzactionz page, Jason Castro, Sergio Escalona, and Brandon Lyon have been activated from the 60-Day Disabled List and added to the 40-Man roster, which now stands at 39-Men.

So all of you who had hoped that Brandon Lyon would be sent to a farm in Connecticut are just going to have to wait.

Jason Castro named to AFL Rising Stars roster

Hey-o! Jason Castro was named to the Arizona Fall League's Rising Stars roster.

This is the second award for Castro, after he was named Delayed Rising Star Since Said Star Had Already Started To Rise Yet Jacked Up His Knee Trying To Avoid A Tag In Mother F-ing Spring Training Team MVP.

Congrats!

Yankees officials explain why Astros dumped Oswalt

Here's an ESPN New York report explaining that the Yankees are not interested in Roy Oswalt:

Those concerns prompted a baseball insider with knowledge of the Yankees' thinking on the free-agent pitcher market to tell ESPNNewYork.com that the club was "very worried about his injury history. The guy's falling apart from that back of his. That's why Houston dumped him."

Good to know.

Justice confirms Astros tried to change Team MVP

OH NOES! The Astros got their feelings hurt by the local BBWAA naming Hunter Pence Team MVP (something first mentioned in the Crawfish Boxes podcast). And Richard Justice took the BBWAA to task for it (still trying to determine if he's actually being serious):

When the Astros learned Pence had been voted MVP, they were anguished. Not angry, but anguished. Wade typically ordered them “to take the high road” even though voters hadn’t.

I suggested they refuse to participate in the banquet. But they wouldn’t do this because it’s a fundraiser for Minute Maid Charities.

More:
And to the little men who voted for Hunter Pence: You had your laugh. You made your statement. Please enjoy it. Your time is just about up.

Now a word about Carlos Lee. Whatever you think of the guy, he goes out there every single day, plays through pain, through losing, never complains. He has gotten a bad reputation around here because the Astros gave him $100 million. But it’s ridiculous to hold him accountable for someone else’s mistake. He is and has always been a two-tool player. That is, he hits and hits with power. If the Astros decided to give him five-tool money, that’s on them.

I have absolutely no problem with Hunter Pence winning Team MVP. Even in departure, he did what Carlos Lee could not do: provide a return (in Singleton, Cosart, and Zeid). And if the local voting chapter wants to make a statement about the team, that's their prerogative. The purpose of the media is to give feedback on the team, and that's what they did. If their "time is up" for giving said feedback, then what the hell is the point? Aside from tossing softball columns and blog posts about how great a guy Carlos Lee is, of course.

Tal and Ed were anguished that something as virtually meaningless as Team MVP went to a former Astro. I just wish they seemed more anguished about a 56-106 team.

Greg Lucas doesn't think you should hate the Cardinals

Here's why.

Qs, As with Jordan Comadena

Catcher Jordan Comadena, signed as an undrafted free agent prior to the 2009 season, took some time to reflect on his 2011 season with us over the weekend. Please do enjoy:

AC: After bouncing back and forth in between Lancaster and Lexington in 2009 and 2010, you spent the whole year at Lancaster in 2011. Did that help you in getting comfortable in 2011?

JC: Yeah, it certainly is nice to be in one spot for the entire season and not have to move around and disrupt the routine that you have set. Obviously this past season being my third in Lancaster I had a pretty solid routine that I would follow to get myself ready to go. It's also nice to be in one spot so you can really gel with your team mates and develop a nice bond.

AC: Despite a strong slash line (.295/.389/.432) for Lancaster, the coaching staff only got you 115 plate appearances in 2011. Did you get any sort of reasoning for why that was the case?

JC: Well actually coming into the season I don't think I was even going to be allotted that many. I started the year inactive and had to wait for an injury of some sort to even be on the active roster. I started playing outfield early in the season due to injuries on the club and that was what got me on the field initially. Despite my very hot start at the plate I was still deactivated a couple more times. I'm never really given any reason, I just know that its out of my control and I need to be ready when my name is called. I have a lot of pride and high expectations for myself, I expect to do well whenever I play, regardless of the time between my at bats. I keep myself ready. It is frustrating because I've shown that I can preform at a high level, I just need to continue to do what I've been doing and eventually I'll get a break.

AC: Were there any differences from Lancaster 2010, compared to the 2011 team?

JC: Every team is a little different from year to year...I've found that the quicker a team can establish an identity and its players know their roles the better and the more success they will have. The 2010 Lancaster squad was alot of fun in the second half as we made a playoff run. The 2011 team was similar in that we finally put it all together more consistently in the second half.

AC: Who do you look at from Lancaster and think, "That guy's going to be a star?"

JC: When I look back at this year, two guys stand out to me (besides Altuve who is already there, what he was doing in Lancaster was unbelievable). The first person is Jonathan Singleton - at 19 years old he is a physical specimen. He's very strong and moves very well. He's got a nice lefty stroke with power to all fields. If he continues to progress with the talent that he has now he will be a force. The other person that stood out to me was Johnny Meyer. He is the best defensive third baseman that I have ever played with or against. I would routinely be amazed at some of the plays he made look so easy. Offensively he's getting better, he drives the ball to all fields and he handles off-speed well. On top of his God-given ability, Johnny is one of the hardest workers that I've played with. He refuses to let himself fail and he will always find a way to get better each day.

AC: What are your plans for this off-season, and has there been any communication from the Astros about you moving up to Corpus?

JC: I'm living in Champaign, Illinois this year...I'm working a little and working out alot getting ready for next season. I have not had any communication with the Astros up to this point. I do hope however that another good spring by me will give me the opportunity to move up and play in Corpus next season. That is my goal to start the year.

-

Big thanks to Jordan for taking the time this off-season to answer our prying questions.

Astros claim Craig Tatum

The Astros have claimed Craig Tatum from Baltimore, according to MLBTR.

In eight seasons in the minors, Tatum has posted a .249/.316/.377 line. He's managed 299 PAs in the Majors, with a .223/.291/.264 line.

I. Don't. Understand. Ultimately, it doesn't change that Castro and Quintero are your C1/C2, but...seriously?

Qs, As with Jason Chowning

Astros minor-leaguer and 2010 28th Round draft pick Jason Chowning took some time to answer a few questions for Astros County. And here we go...

AC: You were initially drafted by the Yankees in 2007, but elected to go to Oklahoma, instead. How were the two drafts and negotiations different for you - first with the Yankees, and then with the Astros in 2010?

JC: Getting drafted by the Yankees was kind of disappointing. Although it is every kid's dream to hear his name being called on that day. Being drafted that low was a little upsetting; we all have dreams of getting drafted by your favorite team and signing that big bonus. But since I was drafted so low I never really considered signing. That and knowing that I still had time left in college, in which I really enjoyed my college life, and the friends that came with it. Financially it wasn't worth it to sign with the Yankees. Being drafted my senior year, it was under their terms and their discretion, by the Astros, I was much more excited and ready to get out there, although I didn't have much of a choice: either play baseball or hang it up. At this point I'm not quite ready to hang it up just yet. Now it's my time to go out there and prove to everyone what I can do.

AC: Last season, you were with Tri-City when they won the NYPL Championship (and you also struck out three batters in 2IP in Game 1). What was the feeling throughout the clubhouse as the season progressed, ending up with the championship?

JC: I had gotten to the team a little later than everyone else (Note: Chowning signed on June 30). I was playing in the College World Series, so I came a few weeks late. As the season progressed and it got closer to the end of the year, none of us had really thought about playoffs, we weren't really in the hunt and were a few games back. During the last week or two of season, our coach had a meeting letting us know that we were only a game and a half back, and to continue working and keep motivated. That we did, it came down to the last game of the season to decide whether we made it or not. The other team we were competing against lost so we knew we were going to playoffs. Once we won that first game of the Championship we felt confident enough to go into Brooklyn and take one game from them. After two long days of rainouts we did just that. Great experience.

AC: Over the course of your two seasons with the organization, you've struck out almost a quarter of the batters faced (a shade over 24% in both seasons). For those of us Astros fans who haven't been able to make it to Tri-City or Lexington, how do you approach your games and opponents?

JC: I approach each game the same, never knowing when I'm coming in or in what situation, preferably bases empty (haha), but whatever situation I am put in, I tend to try and block everything out and focus on throwing strikes and getting outs. Playing the same teams over and over, you really need to learn to mix up the things you did the first time facing them. After facing them so many times, you really need to work on being able to throw strikes with the pitches that you used before to get them out, and be able to bury that one pitch every now and then. I would consider myself a strike out pitcher - over the years I have really focused on throwing my offspeed over for a strike and, that being done, it helps you as a pitcher because when that hitter sees that you can throw an offspeed for a strike, they are more likely to go chasing when it's time to bury it. I'm always working on things to get better, its the small things that make the biggest differences.

AC: In 2011, you made six appearances with Lexington (8.2IP) before allowing your first earned run. What adjustments did you make from 2010 to 2011 in preparation for a full season of baseball?

Practice practice practice. I worked on my fastball command, which is my biggest flaw at times. I work really hard and being able to locate my fastball better and working on a consistent delivery with all my pitches. I feel that I have always had the ability, but haven't always been able to prove myself. I know in college it's one of those things: if you fail one time then it will be a while if you throw again. Especially as a reliever role. I didn't have much of a role at Oklahoma my junior year, thus I worked hard and developed a new pitch, my slider cutter pitch. My Oklahoma coaches liked that pitch and so gave me more opportunities my senior year. A little too late, but it all works out in the end.

AC: What will you be doing this off-season to prepare for 2012?

This offseason, as of now, I am working for a gym, so I am able to workout pretty frequently and stay in shape. I've really been focusing on getting my shoulder strong due to the lack of strength late in the season in Lexington, which caused me to miss the last 3 weeks of the season. That is something that will not happen again and I'll do whatever I can to keep that from happening. I'm really going to work on long tossing as much as I can while the weather is good here. Building arm strength and hopefully put some more velo on my fastball and work on command.

AC: Okay, gotta ask. There was a little story that came out last summer about a gem of a coach (Garnet Keller) in Canada who dressed players that looked like you for the last three games of the season, while you were at OU, so you could pitch in the playoffs for the team. This earned him a nice little three-year coaching suspension. What the heck was Keller doing?

You know, this is a crazy story - and one of which I was never able to tell my side of the story. I was playing in the Cape (Cod League) that year as a temp player and once everyone was there, my time was up. So I figured I would go home and have a relaxing summer with my family. About 3 weeks later I got a call from Coach Garnet Keller asking if I wanted to play for his team (the Melville Millionaires) in Canada. I told him I didn't have a passport and would have to pass. Well, he continued to call and said that he could get my passport to me within the week. So I thought, "Ok, I'll try Canada for the summer."

As the season came to an end, Coach Keller had approached me and told me to give him my passport - not thinking anything about it, I did. He later asked me to come to his house because he had paper work for me. As I got there he said that I was unable to play in the playoffs for his team, due to the fact that I missed the deadline. So he had gone online and made false documentation saying that I was there prior to when I really got there, and then went back to the books and put that I had played in 3 games earlier in the season to make me eligible. He had printed off the airline tickets with my name on it with earlier dates in the summer.

My hands were really tied and I could not tell him that I am not going to go through with this. He had my passport and all my papers. As the playoffs started the commissioner came to one of our games and wanted to talk to me. Keller insisted that it was nothing and to just tell him that I had been there the whole time and to just not worry about it. So needless to say, I was put in a bad situation and had really no way of getting out of it. He was the bad guy and he made it seem that I was in on it the whole time, and had been lying about the whole situation. It was a bad deal, and something like that will not happen again. I'm staying in the US from here on out.
-

Big thanks to Jason Chowning for his time.

Henry Sosa the Two Pitch Pitcher

Henry Sosa had a solid but unspectacular major league debut for the Astros this season. Sosa got by primarily on a fastball and slider combination thrown at the low ¾ arm angle that allowed for a decent amount of movement on his fastball. While there are a few starters out there who get by with a 2-pitch repertoire, most of them profile better as a reliever than a starter. In his 53.1 innings pitched with the Astros this year Sosa threw a fastball or a slider 97.3% of the time. With that in mind I was curious to see what other pitchers who utilize a similar arm angle as Sosa throw, and how often.

Due to the fact that there was no easy way to separate all of the different lower 3/4 arm angle pitchers I decided to pick 10 of them to look at in detail. The chart below shows the results based upon percentage of the different pitches thrown over the course of the pitcher’s career. All pitch-type data was gathered from Fangraphs.com.

Pitcher	Fastball	Slider	Cutter	Curveball	Changeup	Split-Finger
Carlos Zambrano	67.60%	13.40%	6.80%	1.40%	3.20%	7.60%
Roy Halladay	47.50%	0.70%	22.90%	22.60%	4.40%	2%
Chris Sale	54.80%	34.50%	N/A	N/A	10.80%	N/A
Daniel Hudson	62.90%	14.60%	0.30%	N/A	22.10%	N/A
Edinson Volquez	57.30%	3.20%	N/A	12.50%	27.10%	N/A
Kevin Brown	74%	16.10%	0.40%	0.10%	7.20%	2.20%
Derek Lowe	67.60%	15.90%	1.80%	3.50%	11.20%	N/A
Jake Peavy	57.70%	18.10%	9.60%	2.90%	11.70%	N/A
Jeremy Bonderman	61%	30%	N/A	0.50%	8.40%	N/A
Michael Pineda	62.20%	31.50%	N/A	N/A	6.30%	N/A
Total Average	61.26%	17.80%	4.18%	4.35%	11.24%	1.18%
Henry Sosa	61.50%	35.80%	N/A	0.10%	2.50%	N/A

Looking at the averages, the above group threw a fastball or slider about 79.06% of the time, which is about 18.24% less than Sosa. There were 3 other pitchers besides Sosa who threw a slider more than 30% of the time (Chris Sale, Jeremy Bonderman, and Michael Pineda.) Besides the fastball and slider the next most utilized pitch was the changeup which was thrown on average 11.24% of the time. Sosa threw his changeup 2.5% of the time, which was the least out of the pitchers sampled. No other pitcher on the list had a 3^rd pitch that was thrown less than 5% of the time besides Sosa.

 This does not mean that Sosa has to learn a 3^rd pitch to be successful as a starter, but the lack of a 3^rd pitch may limit him to a back of the rotation type starter. Looking at the pitcher’s who throw from a similar arm angle the changeup may be Sosa’s best chance at adding another pitch to his arsenal. However, due to the fact that he throws with kind of a slingshot sort of motion similar to Carlos Zambrano he may have more success picking up a split-finger fastball or a cutter. Whatever the pitch may be, adding another one could go a long way in determining how successful he can be. The cards may be stacked against this happening though, given the fact that he is already 26 years old. What we see could very be what we get out of Henry Sosa. If he is successful in adding another pitch then he could make what seemed to be a weak haul in the Jeff Keppinger trade turn out to be a pleasant surprise for the Houston Astros.

Ratings, and what they mean

Over the course of the playoffs Sports Business Journal and Darren Rovell have provided breathless tweets about ratings and baseball. Ratings are down for the post-season, if you didn't know, where fewer people are watching baseball, and more people are watching football, Desperate Housewives, reruns of The Simpsons, Terra Nova, or Jimmy Fallon commercials. The baseball sky is falling, according to sports media gurus.

So most of you know that I (your Constable) make my home in Nashville, Tennessee. Afternoon sports talk radio host Clay Travis tweeted earlier that:
15 years of Nashville TV ratings demonstrate death of baseball, triumph of NFL, and then provided a link to a column on his Outkick the Coverage website showing just how baseball has fallen off among Nashvillians, and how this is a microcosm of the rest of the country, nay, THE WORLD.

[Baseball is] dying off and shrinking. The more sobering fact for baseball: it lost much of my generation to disinterest. The scariest fact? Most members of the current generation don't care about baseball at all. They aren't even going to be there to be lost.

Good riddance. If you can't be bothered to watch this postseason, you're missing out, because it's been the best postseason since 2001. Do you want more baseball fans, or smarter baseball fans? I'll take watching a baseball game with the buddies I have who care about baseball, than a douchebag bar full of people wearing Yankees/Red Sox hats because "when they play against each other, the World Series is always better."

Baseball is now apparently an indie band. And we, as fans, have our favorite local band. And it's better for us if nobody else likes our favorite band. In fact, we prefer it to be so. If the band we like blows up and becomes huge, we stop liking them, amirite? All you Beta Band fans who stopped listening once they were featured on High Fidelity, because they invited a larger audience? You can all move along.

How someone can look at a sport that is played day after day (matching the ebb and flow of life, if you ask me, and probably George Will and countless other sentimentalists), and compare it to a sport played - at the most - 20 times a year, is completely ridiculous. Baseball is not football. It doesn't feature high-impact collisions, convenient viewing (weekends, or Monday nights), easy gambling (see "The Betting Man" for why you shouldn't bet on baseball), or 19 hours of ESPN coverage every day (they're currently doing pre-game of Terrell Owens' workout. This is not a joke).

Ratings only matter to advertisers, people who have to report on sports ratings, and bloggers who rail against using ratings to determine popularity. I don't believe this is an original thought, but I did make this analogy independently: If you're looking at ratings for the popularity of baseball, then it's akin to looking at record sales to determine which band is best. And I don't think anyone believes the Black Eyed Peas are the best band in the world.

Anyone looking at ratings to determine the popularity of baseball, particularly baseball in Nashville, which has no major league team, is split geographically between the Reds and Braves, and has a Triple-A team belonging to the Brewers - of all teams - is misguided, completely missing the point. If you don't want to watch baseball, good. We don't want you.

Friedman won't leave Tampa for the Angels

It doesn't look as though Andrew Friedman is too amped up to leave the Tampa Bay Rays of Tampa, at least for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

In fact, according to DiGiovanna’s sources “their chances of luring the 34-year-old executive away from the Rays are slim” and “Friedman’s loyalty to Tampa Bay owner Stuart Sternberg … appears to be the biggest obstacle to the Angels luring him to Anaheim.”

Fulchino is a free agent

Via MLBTR, we learn that Jeff Fulchino is now a free agent.

The Astros placed Fulchino on waivers, where he was claimed by the Padres, and didn't play much. Now he's on the market.

Drew Meyer: Coach

Former Astros' farmhand Drew Meyer has accepted an assistant coaching position with the University of South Carolina.

Meyer:
"But I think it's something I'd be good at. I have a lot of knowledge, a lot of things I've learned over the years. I've been paying attention to what works with players and kids and what doesn't work. Sometimes, it's just more about adjusting to different players."

How the Michael Bourn deal went down

There is simply too much to pull from, so stop what you're doing and read this oral history of the Bourn trade.

Interestingly enough, however:
At 7 p.m., Wade’s phone rings as he’s about to head home. It’s the general manager of another team inquiring for the first time about Bourn.

Astros: Wade – Our briefcases are packed up now, all we have to do is just say novenas for the rest of the night hoping Michael doesn’t get hurt. And I’m just about 10 paces from the elevator to push the button to go down to the parking garage. I said, “Out of respect, I don’t want to waste your time. I think we’re pretty far down the road on something.” And the response is, “Even if I’m willing to give you better players?” And I said, “Just take me at my word. We’ve known each other for a long time, stay out of it.”

Andrew Friedman met with the Angels

Those of you in favor of the Astros throwing money at Andrew Friedman to join the Houston Astros of Houston now have a new bidder, The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Smilin' Ken Rosenthal:
Source: #Rays GM Friedman is #Angels' top choice. Met with #Angels execs Moreno and Carpino, as first reported by DRaysbay.

Great. So, should this deal go through, and the Astros get moved to the AL, we've got Ed Wade busting brains with Andrew Friedman, Jon Daniels, Jack Zdfuhfoweuhertrieonck, and Billy Beane. That sounds fair.