Houston Astros 2014 Season Thread [Archive]

eagle eye

04-01-2014, 08:42 PM

Houston steps up and beats the Yankees 6-2 in a game that wasn't really that close. Scott Feldman pitched a heckuva game going 6-2/3 giving up zero runs on 2 hits with 2 walks and 3 K's. Relievers Kevin Chapman and Chad Qualls struggled a little bit and the two runs New York scored was off them. Matt Albers came in to close the game and he retired the Yankees on 2 fly outs and a ground out around a double hit by 3B Kelly Johnson. The Astros pounded out 9 hits, 8 of which were against starter CC Sabathia. The Astros got home runs from Jesus Guzman in the first with one on and a solo shot to lead off the 2nd inning by LJ Hoes. The top half of the Astros batting order did most of the damage with CF Dexter Fowler going 2-4 with a run scored, 2B Jose Altuve going 2-4 with two RBI's and run scored, Jason Castro 1-4 with an RBI and run scored and Jesus Guzman went 1-4 but the one was that 2 run bomb I mentioned earlier. (I admit he did well despite my feeling of having Carlos Corporan DH but what the heck, all's well that ends well, right?)
It was a great night beginning with Nolan Ryan tossing out the first pitch to Craig Biggio and it was fun to Nolan chuck the ball out of Biggio's reach into the crowd gathered behind home plate. The night was enhanced by the ovation the crowd gave to Derek Jeter when he was introduced in the pregame player introductions. There could have been a bummer situation that was dodged when Scott Feldman hit Jeter in the hand area in Jeter's first at bat. It did no damage and Jeter stayed in and finished the game. I'm glad Jeter wasn't seriously injured and I'll bet Feldman is too. The Astros strategy was to pitch to Jeter's weak spot--the inside half of the plate and Feldman's pitch sort of tailed inside and caught Jeter in the fleshy part of the pinky side of his hand. Jeter finished the night 1-3 with a run scored so you have to happy for the guy.

Here's the video of Ryan's first pitch to Biggio. There are also links on the video/article to highlights of the Astros opening day.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/nolan-ryan-craig-biggio-first-pitch-a-proud-opening-day-moment-for-houston?ymd=20140401&content_id=70647968&vkey=news _hou

Big T

04-01-2014, 09:43 PM

Fun way to start the season. Just pointing out that Guzman missed a second HR in his second AB by about six feet. He played well tonight.

Big T

04-02-2014, 09:56 PM

How about them 2-0 first place Stros! Ok, ok it had to be said ;) but Cosart had a very good outing tonight. I still think his wildness will catch up to him at some point and his numbers could get very ugly, but for now he deserves his props. Dexter Fowler with another big night 2-4 with a Hr and a triple. And Matt Dominguez caped it off late with a solo opo field blast for his first hit of the year. Great start to the beginning of the season, but lets remember to not get to excited. I don't know about y'all, but I am enjoying the Astros beating up on the Yanks!

KABrother88

04-03-2014, 06:10 AM

Interesting thing I noticed in the box score...we had 4 hits last night...2 Triples and 2 HRs...that's it. It's only been 2 games but I've been impressed with Dexter Fowler thus far...honestly didn't expect him to come in and hit at sea level like he has...maybe he's got a little extra motivation after the Rockies GM questioned his passion and toughness...whatever it is I hope he keeps it up

eagle eye

04-03-2014, 09:22 AM

Houston has been tenacious so far. In interviews the veteran guys have come in and added some stability to the roster. The Astros are loose and having fun and that's a good thing. An interesting fact is that with the Astros at 2-0 it's the first time since 2003 they began the season this way. Four free agent signings have already paid dividends. Starting pitcher Scott Feldman has a win and is being credited as being a good influence in the clubhouse. Relief pitcher Matt Albers has contributed to both victories with more than solid work. CF Dexter Fowler you know about. Oh yeah, there's also Jesus Guzman who homered in the opening game. The offense has been okay but the opposing pitchers they faced are pretty good too. Now, everyone is saying CC Sabathia is on the decline and his fastball velocity is down. Okay, I'll give you that but, Hiroki Karoda looked pretty good except for Dexter Fowler who homered and tripled in his first two at-bats.

We've known for a while who the 1,2 and 3 starters were in the Astros rotation but the 4th and 5th guys are still a mystery. Look on the Astros web site and the previews for the next two games after tonight the starter is listed for the Angels but the Astros starters are TBD. In all likelihood the other two guys will be Lucas Harrell and Dallas Kuechel. You would have thought Jerome Williams would be an option but he pitched an inning last night so it seems like, to begin the season, Williams will come in out of the bullpen. It's my thinking that Houston won't want to start lefties back-to-back so I look for Harrell to pitch Friday and Kuechel Saturday.

The JD Martinez era in Houston is over. Late in spring training Martinez was released and on the final roster Houston kept a guy named Alex Presley. I never heard of the guy until this spring so I looked him up and it turns out he's a veteran player who Houston signed this spring. He was drafted in 2008 in the 8th round by Pittsburgh. Presley was traded to Minnesota last August for Justin Morneau and Houston claimed him off waivers on March 27. Presley started and played the whole game going 0-3 at the plate. I sort of think he's a place holder for George Springer because if Springer does well at OKC he'll make the trip to Houston sometime this summer.

Check out the Astros minor league rosters. Base on potential we have a lot to look forward to in the near future.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140402&content_id=70720756&noteb ook_id=70731066&vkey=notebook_hou&c_id=hou

Chris Carter had a mission this spring---cut down on the extremely high strike out rate he posted in 2013. This spring he did do a much better job of showing he was learning his lessons on plate discipline. He needed to because last season he struck out 212 times which led the majors and he was the 4th player all time to top 200 K's in a season. He also set a record for right handed hitters in the American League. Nowhere to go but up right? Well, compared to last spring he cut his K mark by 5 striking out 16 times vs 21 last year and he had better AB's. So far, DH'ing in the first two games Carter is 1-7 with 3 K's and no walks. I know it's early but to have 7 AB's and 3 K's is a 43% K rate and maybe Carter CAN go down farther. You know he's trying but you see his face after another K you know he's frustrated and he's pressing. With some added pop in the Astros lineup the pressure on Carter to produce should be lower but the self pressure is almost worse than the external kind. Hopefully, he can string together some good AB's and hits to boost his confidence a little bit. Right now I think he has a confidence problem but it's not terminal. He can overcome this and the Astros will need his pop as the season progresses. He just needs to make consistant contact. If he's putting the ball in play those hits will find holes. I'd rather see him hit the .143 that he's hitting now making contact because a ground out or a fly out is much better for Carter that stacking up strikeouts again.

eagle eye

04-04-2014, 11:35 AM

Houston won their opening series against the Yankees. They beat a diminished CC Sabathia, they beat Hiroki Karoke breaking a 4-0 record he had built against Houston and by doing so Houston doubled their run production of the first four games by scoring 2 runs in the win Wednesday night (that's how dominatant Karoda has been against Houston). Last night the Astros had NY starter Ivan Nova on the ropes the whole time, 5-2/3 innings, he pitched. Nova gave up 6 hits, 5 walks and hit two batters (Jason Castro twice) but the Yankees delivered a pitchers best friend, the double play, 4 times in the first 5 innings that killed the early threats by Houston. Three of those DP's ended an inning. The Astros had a total of 13 base runners and managed just 2 runs. Starter Brett Oberholtzer deserved better than what he ended up with even though in his 5-2/3 he gave up 3 runs. The offense did him no favors. The most damaging hit in the game was not on any batted ball. Jason Castro came up in the 1st inning and Nova hit him in the lead foot and he did it again in the 3rd. The second time appeared to have really hurt Castro who limped down to first base. He managed to gut it out and play on but when Houston came out for the sixth inning Castro was replaced by Carlos Corporan. After the game Castro was seen in a walking boot. Not good news at all. The dumbest play came in the seventh with Brad Peacock on the mound. Ichiro doubled to lead off but Peacock retired the next two hitters and he probably thought he had the final out of the inning when 3B Yangervis Solarte popped up in front of the pitcher's mound. Easy-peasy right? NOT. It looked as if Peacock was going to take it himself when he backed off in favor of Corporan. It looked like for all the world Corporan had called off Peacock but afterward he just sort of gave up and the ball dropped harmlessly to the field. Seeing as there were two outs Ichiro took off on contact and he hustled all the way and scored an insurance run making the score 4-2 at the time. The biggest injustice of the night was giving Solarte a hit instead of ruling an error on Corporan. Solarte had a big night going 3-3 with 2 RBI's and a run. The first hit of Solarte's night in the first inning was his first big league hit. Good times. The run charged to Peacock should have been unearned but it wasn't but he did do a nice job on the mound. Pitching was the problem last night. It was all on the offense. I'm not giving Nova any credit considering his line score so blame for what should have been about a 7 or 8 to 3 victory and a series sweep became a 4-2 loss. Dexter Fowler continued his hot beginning to 2014 by going 2-4 with a run, an RBI and a K.
Today it's being reported Castro had x-rays taken of his foot and no breaks were seen. He is listed as day-to-day but he plans on being in the lineup tonight against the Angels. He's got a sore foot but he says he's not concerned about and he's determined to play. Good new for him, the Astros and the fans.

eagle eye

04-05-2014, 05:26 AM

Just goes to show you, if a player says he's playing after an injury you'd do well to take that with a grain of salt. Jason Castro, despite his assertion that he would play last night, didn't due to swelling in his right foot from being hit in that foot in the series finale against the Yankees Thursday night.
The only way to contain red hot Dexter Fowler is to make him sick. That's what happened to Fowler before yesterday's game. He was taken to the hospital with a stomach ailment of some kind. Bo Porter said he didn't know what caused the situation, it could have been something he ate. Regardless of the reason Fowler was not in the lineup Friday and Alex Presley took his place.
Oh yeah, the Astros got bombed by the Angels 11-1. Lucas Harrell was terrible and Jerome Williams was worse as the Angels scored at will off both pitchers. This was the second night in a row that the offense didn't do anything to help their cause. They left the bases loaded at least twice without scoring a run and Marc Krauss was thrown out at home on a nice play by CF Mike Trout after a Jesus Guzman single. Krauss was on second base after a walk and an advance to 2nd on a wild pitch. So, after a nice start to the season Houston and with two of their best offensive weapons force to sit out the game Houston's offense was nowhere to be seen and with Harrell and Williams spoon feeding the Angels the sweetest pitches a hitter could ask for that was all she wrote for the Astros.

Big T

04-05-2014, 08:55 AM

eagle eye

04-06-2014, 07:43 AM

I was there at the Juice Box last night. It started out great with the retirement ceremonies of Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt but it went downhill soon afterward. The Astros did take the early lead with a run in the first but there weren't many highlights for Houston to follow. The Astros shut down the Angels in the top of the first and after two quick outs to begin the bottom of the inning Jose Altuve singled and while Jesus Guzman was at bat he stole second. Then Guzman scalded a line drive that caromed off 3B John McDonald's glove into left field. The play was ruled an error by McDonald but I thought Guzman should have gotten a hit because it was just hit so hard it made it a bang-bang play. Either way Altuve scored to give the Astros an early lead. But that was it. Yes, they had a runner or two in scoring position but they just couldn't get a hit when it mattered most. It's at this point that I start griping about the lack of run production by the Astros offense. In the last 3 games they have scored a total of 4 runs. That ain't gonna cut it Houston. It hasn't helped that their All-Star catcher Jason Castro and best hitter so far in 2014 Dexter Fowler both missed the last two games to an injury and an illness respectively but, I make no excuses. The Astros have been anemic offensively the last 3 games and honestly that's being kind.
The Angels started 23 year old Tyler Skaggs last night and he has split time the past two seasons between the Angels AAA club and the big club but last night he looked like a Cy Young candidate. He went 8 innings giving up one unearned run with 5 K's and a walk. He could have finished the game because he only threw 95 pitches but it's early in the season and I'm sure the Angels figured bringing in closer Joe Smith was the best move. You can't argue with it because Smith retired the Astros in order in the ninth ending the game on yet another strike out of Chris Carter. To say Carter is struggling right now is a huge understatement. He's played all 5 games so far and he's 2-16 with 3 walks and whopping 8 strike outs. Big T, you talk about a player who needs a fork stuck in him! Carter had 3 K's and a groundout to go 0-4 last night.
Houston's starter Dallas Kuechel battled all 5 innings he pitched. He had trouble throwing strikes and he went deep into counts because of that. It didn't help that the official scorer must have been working for the Angels last night. Besides the rob-job he gave on what should have been an RBI single for Jesus Guzman in the first to score Jose Altuve he gave Albert Pujols a hit on a line drive that was laughably misplayed by RF LJ Hoes in the third inning. It was clearly an error on Hoes who rumbled and stumbled in front of Pujols line drive and he was in position to make the catch but he seemed to duck out of the way at the last minute like he lost the ball in the lights. Hoes fell to the ground and CF Robbie Grossman fielded the ball. Pujols was given a double on the play which is total BS. If Hoes makes the catch Pujols is out and the inning is over. This seemed to rattle Kuechel who then walked David Freese and Josh Hamilton got an infield single on a ground ball in the hole between short and third. Keuchel settled down and retired Howie Kendrick to get out of the jam. The end came when Kuechel gave up 3 runs in the 5th with the main damage done by a 2-run homer by Hamilton.
The Astros finish the series with the Angels this afternoon and hopefully Dexter Fowler and Jason Castro will be back in the lineup because Houston has sure missed them.

eagle eye

04-07-2014, 10:50 AM

I'm taking complete credit for the turnaround. What turnaround? Why, the one run rut the Astros have been in for the past two games before Sunday's 7-4 win over the Los Angeles Angels. I gripe about lack of runs scored and what happens? Five of the Astros' seven hits were home runs -- two-run shots by Jason Castro in the first inning and Jonathan Villar in the seventh, and solo blasts by Matt Dominguez in the second, Jesus Guzman in the fourth and Alex Presley in the fifth. It was their first five-homer game since Aug. 26, 2013 against the White Sox in Chicago. And it's all because of me. Okay, maybe we can give the Astros some credit. After all we certainly don't pull any punches when they don't perform so I suppose the pendulum has to swing the other way when it's deserved. What needs to be noted here is that Scott Feldman, in his second start of the season pitched his ass off. He went 7 complete innings giving up just one run on 3 hits, 2 walks and a strike out. Anthony Bass came in for Feldman in the 8th and he got through that inning in easy enough fashion but he got punked in the 9th. He gave up two runs on 5 hits recording his only out on a line shot to SS Jonathan Villar by David Freese. Chad Qualls came in and finished off the Angels but not before he gave up a hit to Angels SS Eric Aybar which scored one of the base runners left by Bass. Aybar has been a pain in the rear for the Astros this weekend and I'm sure that Houston was worried about him facing Feldman because he had a .429 career BA against Feldman. This is a new year and Aybar only managed a walk and a groundout in two at bats against Feldman.

It was good to see Jason Castro back in the lineup. He had missed the previous 2 games nursing a sore and swollen foot suffered in the Yankees finale on Thursday.
Dexter Fowler is out of the hospital and resting at home as of yesterday. Bo Porter wasn't sure if Fowler would be available for the Astros first road trip beginning Tuesday in Toronto.
Jared Cosart will try to even the series against the Angels this afternoon with a 1:10 pm start. The Angels took games 1 and 2 of the series while Houston came back and won yesterday.
The Astros finished up the first week of the new season playing .500 ball. They took 2 against the Yankees and lost two to the Angels. The starting rotation sort of breaks down according to where they are. #1 and #2 (Feldman and Cosart) looked strong and won. #3 (Bret Oberholtzer) did okay but needed some run support. #4 (Lucas Harrell) looked bad and #5 (Dallas Kuechel) struggled and could've used some defensive and offensive support. Beginning the 2nd trip through the rotation #1 looked good again. This should give us hope that the starting pitching staff, while too early to fully judge, is decent with some help in the minors on the way. The one worry I have is Lucas Harrell. He lost his mojo last season and while he struggled some this spring you didn't see the dumpster fire that was his start against the Angels coming. If Harrell can't turn things around he could be the first tweek made in the rotation sooner rather than later.

KABrother88

04-07-2014, 01:35 PM

So there has been some chatter recently that Carlos Rodon may not be the sure fire 1.1 pick that has been the case since last year. Scouts are saying he isn't missing enough bats and his fastball velocity isn't in the mid to upper 90s as some had expected...instead he's still sitting in the 92-94 range...his Ks/9 has went from 12.5 in 2013 to 9.8 in 2014 One thing is for sure is that his defense has been plain awful...he has given up 30 runs so far yet only 15 have been earned...that's how you get a 2-5 record with a 2.44 ERA...one start in fact he didn't make it out of the 5th inning due to giving up 8 runs...and everyone of them was unearned. This draft class is loaded with arms so Luhnow might have a tough decision to make in June unless things change (still 1/2 season to go) as no one has really stepped up to force Rodon outta that spot. One pitcher that I've heard as a dark horse is Aaron Nola from LSU...went and looked to see how he has fared so far this season and like the numbers I saw...6-1 with a 0.47 ERA in 57 IP and a 71K/11BB ratio...scouting reports say he doesn't have overpowering stuff but he has great command and throws strikes which the Astros have shown they like

KABrother88

04-08-2014, 06:56 AM

A few guys not on MLB's top prospects list that I'll be keeping an eye on this year

AAA
DH - Japhet Amador (can he hit enough to make it to the bigs?)
OF - Austin Wates (injury ended his season last year but the guy can hit. Not much power but decent speed. Has hit above .300 at every level of the minor leagues)

AA
RHP - Jordan Jankowski (has pitched great for a 34th round pick)
RHP - Brady Rodgers (not sure what it is about this guy but I've always felt like he could develop into a solid big league arm)
C - MP Cokinos (can he continue to hit?)
C - Tyler Heineman (high avg with little power in 2012 in Tri-City, power went up but average went down in 2013 at hitters heaven Lancaster)
SS - Jiovanni Mier (dang I was mad when they drafted him...and it looks for good reason...if he doesn't do something soon he'll be playing for another team)
OF - Andrew Aplin (good speed and a good eye at the plate (83BB vs 63 Ks in 2013))
OF - Preston Tucker (plain and simple, the guy just knows how to hit)

A+
Kyle Westwood (will be overshadowed by Appel, McCullers, Velasquez, Smith, and Hader but might be as good as the latter 2...a name to remember)
2B - Anthony Kemp (can he get on base enough for Correa and Ruiz to drive him in?)

A
RHP - Andrew Walter (2011 UDFA who is getting his first shot a full season ball...has been solid so far with a 2.04 ERA over the past 3 seasons with almost 10Ks per 9)

eagle eye

04-11-2014, 10:24 AM

The Astros snapped a 3 game losing streak last night with a win over the Blue Jays. They did it behind a strong performance by starter Dallas Kuechel who went 7 innings giving up one run on five hits, 2 walks and 6 K's. Going into the 9th Houston was enjoying a 6-1 lead that was cut by 3 runs scored by Toronto off Josh Fields who pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up the 3 runs with only 2 earned. Anthony Bass came in to finish off the Jays but the final run that was scored was charged to Fields because he left with a runner on base but Bass allowed the run to score because of a wild throw attempting to get Melky Cabrera on a play at first that allowed Adam Lind to score from second base. Lind reached second on a 2-RBI double that sent Fields to the showers. All 6 Astros runs came off home runs. Robbie Grossman opened the Astros scoring with a 2-run bomb to straight away center. In the 7th Jonathan Villar, batting right handed, smacked a 3-run shot to right center not far from where Grossman's homer went out. Jason Castro ended the scoring with a solo shot to right center. The Astros may not be playing small ball too well but they have flashed some power. Including last night's 3 homers it gives Houston 14 HR's in their 10 games played. Their 14 dingers rank Houston second in the AL.
The most interesting thing about last night's game and the inspiration for this post is what happened before the game even started. Astros radio broadcaster Steve Sparks, who is a former knuckleball throwing pitcher for several teams in his 10-year MLB career, threw batting practice for the Astros to help them prepare for Toronto pitcher R A Dickey who, as you might have guessed, is a knuckleballer. I guess Sparks deserves some credit for the Astros success last night as Dickey went 7 innings giving up 5 of the 6 Astros runs on 6 hits which included two HR's, 3 walks and 4 K's.

Houston begins a 3 game set with the Rangers up in Arlington. The Astros send Scott Feldman (2-0 w/ .066 ERA) up against Yu Darvish (1-0 w/ 0.00 ERA). This will be a real strong test for Feldman who has been rather dominant in his first two starts. This game may actually be on TV since we are able to get Rangers games on FoxSports unless the infernal MLB blackout rules apply.

Big T

04-11-2014, 03:22 PM

Why the hell do we always have to face Yu Darvish?! I swear, every time we face the Rangers he is pitching against us.

eagle eye

04-12-2014, 02:53 AM

The Astros lost a heartbreaker in Arlington but if you like pitchers duels you have a gem. The Rangers Yu Darvish maintained his dominance over the Astros going 8 innings giving up just one hit and one walk to go along with 9 K's. Darvish actually had a perfect game through 5 innings. Astros starter Scott Feldman was equally impressive though not as dominant as Darvish. Still, Feldman's line would have you believe he was. Feldman went seven complete innings giving up 0 runs on only 2 hits, 4 walks and 3 K's. Feldman got out of a jam in the 2nd with runners on 2nd and 3rd and only one out and he got out of a bases loaded jam with two outs after 2 hit batsmen and an intentional walk with a strike out of Josh Wilson in the seventh. What is even more remarkable about Feldman's performance is it came just two days after his father passed away. Feldman admitted that it was tough keeping his emotions in check but he was sure his father would have wanted him to pitch. He said that he was sure his father was watching him and he hoped he made him proud. Feldman has tied a record on one other pitcher has accomplished in Astros history. Feldman's 3 straight starts to begin the season going at least 6 2/3 innings giving up one run or less is matched only by Roger Clemens in 2004 with 3 starts and Clemens again in 2005 with 4 starts. If you look at who has pitched for Houston over the years it's a pretty impressive beginning to the season. Feldman's ERA going into last night's game was 0.66 and when he walked off the field after his seven innings of work his ERA had dropped to 0.44. I'm really glad Feldman got a no-decision, he deserved at least that much.
I agree with Big T, I've had enough of Yu Darvish against the Astros. This is Darvish's second start of the year and he's 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA so far. He's been almost that good in his career starts against the Astros. This from MLB.com Darvish came within one out of a perfect game against the Astros last April 2, a bid that was broken up by light-hitting Marwyn Gonzalez. Coming into Friday night had faced them a total of six times, allowing just 22 hits in 43 innings while striking out 63 (13.2 per nine), and holding their hitters to a a meager .149/.221/.284 line. In addition to striking out 14 in that near-miss, he set a career high with a 15-strikeout game against them on August 12; a sixth-inning walk to Jonathan Villar and an eighth-inning solo homer by Carlos Corporan were the only blemishes in that eight-inning outing.

eagle eye

04-13-2014, 07:37 AM

Houston beat the Rangers last night! If they win today they will win a series from the Rangers for the first time since 2008. Go Astros!

eagle eye

04-14-2014, 11:04 AM

Week 2 of the MLB season is in the books as Houston concludes its current road trip with another one run affair in Arlington against the Rangers. As in the first game of the series Houston came up on the short end of the stick again. And, like Friday night's game when Scott Feldman pitched a whale of a game only to get no run support Brett Oberholtzer found himself in the exact same situation. The only difference was it was Obie who gave up the one run. To be totally fair to the Houston offense, Texas flashed some leather robbing the good guys of at least 3 hits I can rememeber including a stop on a shot up the first base line by Jesus Guzman that Prince Fielder layed out for, stopped and he completed the out. It was rather amazing to see a guy his size make that play. Truth is Houston's offense is beyond stagnant. No less than 5 hitters in yesterday's lineup is hitting BELOW the Mendoza line. For those who don't know .200 is the Mendoza line. Dexter Fowler is mired in a 2-22 since coming back from a stomach virus that sent him to the hospital for a couple of days. Before that he was 6-12. These guys are terrible at the plate right now except for Jose Altuve who's hitting .286 to lead the club but he's left runners in scoring position too. Except for the 4 hit, 1 walk including a home run by Robbie Grossman that led to 5 runs in the 4th inning of Saturday's game the Astros bats have been limp as dishrags. Bo Porter even said as much yesterday after a 1-0 loss in which Houston only got 5 hits the whole game. Porter noted that the hitting coach is giving them good scouting reports. The hitters are not seeing anthing unexpected, the hitters just need to put better swings on the ball.
The starting pitching has been good with Scott Feldman leading the way. Jared Cosart has been solid as has Brett Oberholzer and Dallas Kuechel. It's been Lucas Harrell that has struggled. His line so far is 0-2 w/l, 7.1 innings pitched, 11.05 ERA, 14 hits, 6 walks, 5 K's and 10 runs allowed 9 earned. Pretty shabby. The only pitcher on the staff worse stat wise is reliever Kevin Chapman. He has struggled every time out with his 12.27 ERA in 5 appearances telling the story.
The Astros return home tomorrow night against the Kansas City Royals. The aforementioned Lucas Harrell (0-2) takes the mound with KC sending Yordano Ventura (0-0) up against him. Here's hoping Harrell can right the ship and we start seeing the 2012 Lucas.
One last thing. Wasn't it nice to be able to see the Stros play? All three games were on FoxSportsSouthwest. You had to listen to the Ranger broadcast but all in all it was nice to be able to see the boys play for a change.

KABrother88

04-14-2014, 11:42 AM

I wouldn't be surprised (or opposed) to see Lucas Harrell being out of the rotation or even the organization if this start goes bad. Would like to see Peacock in there

Big T

04-14-2014, 04:47 PM

I wouldn't be surprised (or opposed) to see Lucas Harrell being out of the rotation or even the organization if this start goes bad. Would like to see Peacock in there

I agree. IMO Harrell is done. They caught lightning in a bottle with him for one season, it is time to move on now.

eagle eye

04-15-2014, 06:36 AM

David Delatte (sp?) of ESPN 97.5 who reads the sports center updates pointed something out yesterday during The Blitz during a rare sports discussion and that was something I hadn't really paid attention to. According to Delatte the Astros are not fundamentally sound. He singled out Jonathan Villar in particular but there are certainly others. Guys who make bonehead base running errors, guys who can't seem to hit a cutoff man and an array of mental errors. Is this a function of low baseball IQ by the players or is this a manager's issue? I have not heard any criticism of Bo Porter here or anywhere else but there are times Houston doesn't play smart baseball. I'd really be interested to hear opinions pro or con about Bo Porter. Is he the long term answer in Houston? Granted, managers come and go more in baseball than any other pro sport. There are also more mid season firings in baseball than any other sport. It's just the nature of the game I guess. That said, franchises who are successful find a guy and stick with him as long as the team is good and winning. Does Houston need a different guy filling out the lineup cards every day?

In the Astros High A Advanced Lancaster JetHawks lost a wild game yesterday to the High Desert (Adelanto, Cal) Mavericks by a score of 11-10. The game featured Astros #11 prospect Rio Ruiz who went 4-5 with a home run, 2 doubles and 5 RBI's. Ruiz is a 3rd base prospect who had a very nice night. Carlos Correa also had a good night going 2-6 he scored twice. Last but not least Mark Appel started the game and went 3 innings in the game although his outing was less successful. He gave up 3 runs on 5 hits with no walks and 4 K's.
In other JetHawks news starting pitcher Vince Velasquez was named Cal League Player of the Week for the week of April 3-13. He went 1-0 in 3 appearances with 2 starts logging a 0.69 ERA. He pitched a total of 13 innings giving up only 3 hits and 3 walks to go with a whopping 16 K's. He is currently enjoying a 10 inning scoreless streak.

Big T, you're ready to give up on Harrell? I agree, I'm frustrated with the guy but knowing what he was able to do in 2012 shows the guy can get it done. This team's offense is so bad, and has been so bad, it accentuates the failures of the pitchers. There is no leeway at all. Harrell's sinkerball is taylor made for Minute Maid's short fences. It took Darryl Kile several years to harness his curve ball to a point where he was consistently effective. Harrell needs some confidence and he, like any pitcher, could use some run support once in a while. It makes a lot of difference to know your offense can pick you up or give a lead. The Astros have the luxury of being patient with Harrell right now. Maybe that patience will pay dividends.

eagle eye

04-16-2014, 07:31 AM

The Lucas Harrell discussion is over for now because after surrendering 4 runs in 5 innings of work last night against Kansas City the Astros have designated him for assignment which means the Astros have 10 days to trade him, release him or send him to the minors. It's sort of a shame for Harrell because he didn't pitch bad he just missed his location on a few pitches and the Royals made him pay for it. He surrendered 7 hits and allowed 3 walks and Kansas City made the most of this by scoring 4 runs. All in all it could have been worse as he did pitch out of a couple of jams that left 4 base runners in scoring position with 6 left on base total. The Astros on the other hand only managed four hits on the night including a solo home run by Carlos Corporan in the 5th inning. The Astros offense is just awful but reports out of Houston are that Houston will call up their #3 ranked prospect George Springer today. Springer has torn up the minors to begin this season in OKC to the tune of a .353 BA with 3 home runs and 9 RBIs. He was removed early from last night's win over Colorado Springs after going 3-4 with a grand slam with a walk and 4 RBIs that helped OKC to a 11-9 win. Considering how bad the Astros are struggling they will need more than Springer but it's a start. It was almost a given that Houston would wait until June before any calling up would be done but the pitiful start to the Astros season has forced them to change their strategy. Robbie Grossman who has just stunk it up at the plate since the first day of the regular season is hitting a paltry .125, 6 hits in 48 ABs, and last night he was 0-4. Grossman was told after last night's game he was being sent down. Grossman was bright spot during the spring but as soon as April 1st hit he didn't. The Astros do need to turn it up because a team batting average just isn't going to cut it. The move of Harrell was inevitable considering last night's game was his longest out of his 3 starts but he still wasn't hitting his locations and a pitcher just can't be success if he can't hit his spots. Although, last night's game saw improvement and I like Harrell when he's on. He was the Astros best pitcher in 2012. He works fast and he's hell on batters if his sinker is working. He had lost his mojo in 2013 but there were signs he was getting it back but he will have to find that mojo in the minors or on another team.

Big T

04-16-2014, 09:29 AM

It's official! It's Springer time! Now we get to see all of this rebuilding finaly start to pay off. First Cosart now Springer, pretty soon it will be Singlton and probably pretty soon Appel.

eagle eye

04-17-2014, 09:19 AM

George Springer made his debut last night getting his first MLB hit and scoring his first MLB run when he came in to score off of Jason Castro's two run shot in the 3rd inning. However, the same things are plaguing the Astros that plagued them last season. Poor relief pitching and lack of offense highlighted by a way-too-high strike out pace. Houston scored it's 4 runs on 2 two-run homers, the one by Castro and one by Mark Krauss in the 6th that gave Houston a 4-2 lead going into the seventh. Astros starter Dallas Kuechel battled all six of his innings that he pitched which you might expect with him throwing 97 pitches. But, he managed to hold the Royals to two runs in six. That's a quality start in anybody's book but when Houston strands 9 runners on base and you get a total of 10 hits you'd expect more runs scored. Houston is among the leaders in the AL in home runs but their OBP is terrible and RBI's are near the bottom. I seems like if the Astros can't hit it out they can't score. I'm so sick of Chris Carter. I didn't like the signing last year and despite the fact that he's consentrated on cutting down on his K's he's still striking out on a pace to reset his own K record from last season. He's hitting .136 and it's just a freaking joke they keep running him out on the field. Now, I read on the Astros web site that despite the fact that Jon Singleton is tearing up AAA pitching GM Jeff Luhnow says that he doesn't have the minor league history Springer has and he feels Singleton needs to build on his AAA equity before the bring him up. Considering how bad the offense is it shows tremendous discipline by Luhnow and the front office not to rush a guy up if they don't feel he's ready. In the short term that sucks but in the long run it should pay huge dividends.
In the past off season Houston signed some veteran guys who, in theory, should make the bullpen better but they have really struggled. Kevin Chapman is the worst. He's struggled every outing he's had so far. Last night it was Chapman, Brad Peacock, Jerome Williams and Matt Albers who combined to lose the lead and the game in terms of the runs they surrendered. Kuechel deserved to get the win but to go through 5 relievers in 3 innings is telling. If you think about it all they needed was 9 outs and only Josh Fields did his job successfully. The bottom line is Houston is struggling across the board and George Springer was a piece but not whole answer. The guys on the roster need to start playing better and playing smarter.

eagle eye

04-18-2014, 03:56 AM

Here's some notes about the Astros as they travel to Oakland for a west coast road swing after being swept by the Kansas City Royals the past three days. The notes explain why Scott Feldman was off his game in last night's finale and just how gutsy Dallas Kuechel's performance really was on Wednesday. Also included is news that struggling reliever Kevin Chapman has been optioned to OKC and LHP Raul Valdes has been called up to replace him.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140417&content_id=72453560&noteb ook_id=72456622&vkey=notebook_hou&c_id=hou

eagle eye

04-20-2014, 05:33 AM

It's sad to see Houston falling right back into the same old rut. They started out nice but then "It" happened. This time the "It" seems to have been the flu-like bug that has screamed through the Astros dugout like a hurricane sweeping up the coastline. It began with Dexter Fowler and the current player listed as down with this thing is Alex Pressley. It seems everyone in the clubhouse has had it. Yesterday's starter Brett Oberholtzer had been battling it and he battled in his start going 5-2/3 giving up just 1 run. The Astros still only managed 3 runs but they had a 3-1 lead going into the 9th with veteran Chad Qualls on the mound to close the game. NOT. Only one out and three runs later Houston was looking at the A's celebrating a comeback win and seeing their current losing streak extend to six games. This sickness isn't the flu--it's the black plague--and it's tearing the guts out of this team. You just hope things will turn around for the team soon before this season is lost. I'm serious, losing begets losing and the Astros are falling into the rut they have been in the past two seasons where they seem to be able to find a way to snatch defeat right out of the jaws of victory.

Here's some notes from the Astros including an update on DeLino Deshields Jr. DDJ was hit in the face by a pitch the other night and there's a rather gruesome picture of him in the article. Jon Singleton and Carlos Correa are both tearing it up at the plate in the minors. You have wonder how long it will be before the Astros front office loses its patience and starts to bring theses players up.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140419&content_id=72642636&noteb ook_id=72641986&vkey=notebook_hou&c_id=hou

KABrother88

04-22-2014, 11:06 AM

Jon Singleton is killing the ball right now (when he makes contact)...he just hit his 8th home run of the year to go along with 6 doubles, a triple and now 24 RBI...batting .324 coming into today but has struck out 25 times in 19 games...but at least the power has shown up again after last season

coachacola

04-22-2014, 03:13 PM

I don't follow MLB or the Astros anymore. Has Houston replaced KC as the perennial doormat now?

Big T

04-22-2014, 08:06 PM

For three years nor yes they have. The big difference however is that the Stros have the number one ranked farm system in baseball and it is only getting stronger. In two years you will see a competitive Astros team and in four you will see them competing for a playoff spot. The future is beyond bright.

eagle eye

04-23-2014, 11:31 AM

I agree with Big T on the state of the Astros although I'm hoping it will be less than 4 years before we compete for a playoff spot. As for Kansas City being a doormat their future is brighter than that although I don't think they are a playoff caliber team they do have some good players. Pittsburgh has actually had just as bad a rep as the Royals as they haven't been relevant since the early 90's before Barry Bonds blew up on steroids. They are a better club now with a wild card berth in the 2013 playoffs and losing in the divisional round to St Louis and they are currently in 4th place 6 games behind division leading Milwaukee. The Royals, btw, are in 2nd place in the AL Central one game behind the Detroit Tigers.

The Astros have won two in a row over Seattle scoring 12 runs in the last two games. Astros No 1 starter Scott Feldman will miss two starts due to tendonitis in his right triceps. Last night Colin McHugh who was brought up from OKC to fill in for Feldman pitched 6-2/3 notching 12 K's and allowing only 3 hits in the most dominant performance by a starting pitcher so far this year. The Astros are too dependent on the home run ball to score runs but after a 7 game losing streak a few homers feels pretty good. Matt Dominguez homered one in each of the last two nights with Chris Carter actually getting his first homer of the season last night along with a base hit. The Astros finish up this afternoon in Seattle then they return to the Juice Box for a rematch against the A's for 4 games beginning Thursday.

eagle eye

04-24-2014, 06:42 AM

Damn the luck. Houston was two outs away from a series sweep of the Mariners when the bullpen, the group that was supposed to be a strength of the team when the season began, let us down again. Leading 3-2 in the 9th Josh Fields came in the game in relief of Chad Qualls who pitched a perfect 8th inning with 2 K's and he promptly allowed singles to Robinson Cano and Corey Hart. It seemed that maybe Fields may be getting himself together with a strike out of Justin Smoak but the next batter, Kyle Seager jacked a walkoff home run to rob the Astros of the win and the sweep. Ironically, it was Qualls who blew the last save opportunity last Saturday to the A's. In that outing he couldn't stop the A's comeback and yesterday the Mariners had no answer for Qualls. Houston blew a league tying 29 saves last season but with the addition of veteran arms to the bullpen it was hoped the worries about the bullpen were over. So far this season Houston already has 4 blown saves with 3 in the last 8 days. It just seems like Houston just can't get out of their own doggone way. As in last Saturday's loss yesterday's 3 runs scored just wasn't enough even though it should have been. Houston comes back home to begin a series with the A's. Maybe they can get some payback for the sweep they suffered last weekend.

KABrother88

04-25-2014, 10:25 PM

After posting an ERA north of 6.00 in A+ Lancaster this year, last years 1st overall pick Mark Appel has been sent to extended spring training

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/2014/04/25/73348562/appel-leaves-lancaster-health-not-a-factor

eagle eye

04-26-2014, 09:23 AM

I have to admit it, I'm totally frustrated with this team. One month in they can't hit, their starting pitchers are doing well but the bullpen is taking turns stinking up the joint. They already have two pitchers, starter Scott Feldman and reliever Matt Albers, on the 15 day DL and last night after spotting Oakland a 4 run lead the Astros have a big 5th inning and tie the game only to see it all go for naught in the ninth as Josh Fields and Anthony Bass give up 7 runs, SEVEN, in the top of the inning to ice the game for the A's---a team I have a growing dislike for.

eagle eye

04-28-2014, 03:29 AM

Houston won the series against the A's yesterday beating them 5-1 in a game that saw Jose Altuve hit his first homer of the season. The game Saturday should have been as easily won but Jerome Williams, who came in the game in relief of Dallas Keuchel and pitched well until he had a major meltdown in the 9th. Leading 7-3 Williams allowed a leadoff single, a walk and home run to Brandon Moss to allow the A's to close to 7-6 before an out was recorded in the inning. A single by Nick Punto followed by a groundout by Coco Crisp was all manager Bo Porter wanted to see of Williams. Raul Valdez came in and promptly struck out John Jaso and former Astro Jed Lowrie to end the game. The game was actually tied at 3 until the Astros erupted for 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th. 4 straight singles, a wild pitch and the Astros put 4 runs on the board and they needed every one of them considering what happened in the 9th.
Yesterday, making his second start of the year since being called up from OKC to replace Scott Feldman who was placed on the 15 day DL, was young Collin McHugh. In his last start vs the Mariners McHugh went 6-2/3 innings with 12 K's and no walks. In the finale against the A's McHugh went 8-2/3 allowing 2 hits and one earned run while striking out 7 with 3 walks. He came within one out of pitching a 1 hit shutout but he couldn't close the door on his complete game. Raul Valdes got the final out for who McHugh seems to be making it really hard for Bo Porter to send him back to OKC. In his 2 starts he is 2-0 with a 0.59 ERA with 19 K's, 3 walks in 15.1 innings. Not bad for a 26 year old guy who made his big league debut in August of 2012 with Mets and was claimed off waivers from the Rockies this past December. Another young arm acquired by GM Jeff Luhnow that is paying dividends.
Speaking of dividends, the closer the past two games has been Raul Valdes. He's 1-0 in save opportunities which is a good sign. Valdes didn't qualify for the save yesterday. Valdes is an older guy who came to the USA when he defected from Cuba while with the Cuban national team. He began his career in the Cubs organization in 2004 and he made his MLB debut in 2010 with the Mets. The Astros claimed him off waivers from the Phillies last October. At 36 Valdes isn't going to be in Houston's long term plans but if he continues to close games for the Astros I'll bet they'll take it especially since nobody else seems to want it.
Long post, sorry about that but it's nice to see the bats start to come around. Nobody is setting the world on fire but guys like Dexter Fowler and Matt Dominguez and Jonathan Villar seem to be coming out of the tailspin they've been in since opening day. Even Chris Carter is making contributions. He's still hitting .169 but it's better than he was 10 days ago. Carter has surpassed LJ Hoes who is really struggling with a .146 average. Even Hoes isn't on the bottom of the barrel, that belongs to Marc Krauss who is hitting .132. At least one of these guys needs to right the ship and start hitting the darn ball. My money is not on Chris Carter. Despite having put up better numbers than Hoes or Krauss his 33 strike outs is disturbing. Hoes and Krauss together have struck out only 30 times. Bo Porter seems to want to go with Carter because he's got more playing time that either Hoes or Krauss but at some point he can't keep tolerating Carter's strike outs.

eagle eye

04-28-2014, 08:21 PM

The Astros had a day off today but it doesn't mean the front office boys were sitting on their hands. As a matter of fact they struck a deal by trading RHP Lucas Harrell to the Arizona Diamondbacks for either cash considerations or a player to be named later. Harrell enjoyed a really nice year in the Astros rotation in 2012 but it all fell apart in 2013 and Harrell just seemed to lose his mojo on the mound. As the year progressed and frustration mounted he was sent to the bullpen and when he still struggled he was sent down to AAA OKC. 2014 was a new year for Harrell who worked really hard to regain his '12 form and he showed signs of doing just that. Unfortunately, spring training gave way to the regular season and Harrell fell back into his pitching funk. After going 0-3 to start the season--and not looking good doing it--Harrell was optioned and after clearing waivers he was assigned to OKC but both Harrell and the Astros felt it was time for Lucas to try a fresh start in a new place. That place is in Arizona where he is excited for the new beginning. He said he was grateful to the Astros for giving him a chance but he feels like was time to move on.

KABrother88

04-29-2014, 10:50 AM

MLB.com has released their latest top 100 draft prospects and there is a new number 1...California HS LHP Brady Aiken jumps to #1 with Carlos Rodon sliding to #2. Shepherd HS flame thrower Tyler Kolek moved up a spot to #3 and most scouts think those will be the 3 guys in play to go 1.1. Aiken was viewed as a mid 1st round selection before the season but a spike in velocity (touches 97 now) combined with Rodon not impressing as many thought he would has led to Aiken getting alot more run as the possible 1.1 pick. One thing we do know is that Luhnow and Co. won't tip their hand and whoever they decide to go with wont be known until June 5th. Another name on the list that might look familiar is #93 Jake Cosart...younger brother of Astros pitcher Jared Cosart

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/prospects/watch/y2014/#list=draft

Who are you wanting EE and Big T?

eagle eye

04-29-2014, 04:39 PM

I am scared of Rodon only because he began the college baseball season out in less than dominant fashion. He's gotten better of late so I'm sure he's still being monitored very closely. East Carolina's Jeff Hoffman is on the radar but after a 16K game vs Middle Tennessee he's been shut down with arm soreness. The two high school kids are intriguing but for Houston to consider using that all important No 1 pick on a high school prospect I would think they would have some assurance that the kid will sign and not balk and go to college instead. Aiken, the kid from California is good with a ++ fastball and he's a lefty. Tyler Kolek is from Shepard, Tx which is located north of Cleveland. He is a true man-child at 6'5" and 230 lbs. He's a righty who has increased his velocity on his fast ball to the upper 90's and he's even been clocked at 102 mph out of the stretch. He seems cut from the same cloth as big Texas born pitchers Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood. Kolek has committed to TCU so signing him is definitely in question. To answer your question I tend to lean toward the lefties Rodon or Aiken. I worry about Rodon's lackluster senior year and I worry about signing a high school prospect. In the end I think it's got to go to Rodon. He will sign because his college is over this year and his track record speaks for itself and he hasn't had any arm issues I'm aware of.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/jonathan-mayo-brady-aiken-tyler-kolek-vying-to-be-no-1-mlb-draft-pick?ymd=20140429&content_id=73423150&vkey=news_ho u

KABrother88

04-29-2014, 09:48 PM

Actually Rodon is only a junior so he wouldn't have to sign...that being said I couldn't imagine anyone turning down the 1.1 money...especially one of the HS kids cause then they wouldn't be draft eligible again until 2017 (unless they went JUCO) and a lot can happen in 3 years...can't improve your stock much more. If I had to pick one today I'm going Rodon. I think he fits the timeline for Houston being a contender more than the HS kids and I'm not just sold on Hoffman. Also Rodon having a bit of an uninspiring season may work in Houston's favor come negotiating time. If the Astros fail to sign their first round pick (but like I said I can't see happening) they get another pick the next draft in the spot after their unsigned spot. So Houston would get the #2 pick in 2015 (and it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for them to have the worst record and in 2014 and the #1 pick again in 2015). Reports shay Aiken has more polish than Kolek who has an elite FB but lacking secondary offerings so Aiken would be my #2 option. Also being a LHP creates a little more separation between the 2 as only 1 of our top 10 pitching prospects is a lefty (Josh Hader)

eagle eye

04-30-2014, 07:44 AM

Good points but next year's #2 is nice but at the expense of your #1 seems a little anti climatic. It's not like the NFL in terms flat losing the draft pick but it's still an opportunity lost. I agree that Houston could get a break on salary since Rodon is not dominating but they don't want to low ball him and make him mad enough to go back for his senior season. Frankly, considering Houston's not really breaking the bank with salaries I can't see trying to get the #1 pick in the draft for cheap. He will likely get about the same deal Mark Appel got.
Speaking of Appel, your post about Appel being sent to extended spring training is cause for a little worry isn't it? Big T isn't the only guy who was projecting Appel in the bigs this year or next not taking a step backwards.

KABrother88

04-30-2014, 08:26 AM

Im not talking about low balling him...I too think Rodon will sign for around Appel money but remember we got a bit of a discount with him (about 1.5 million below slot value). I mentioned the scenario of us getting 2015 #2 since you mentioned something about being able to sign whoever we draft and not have them go to school in case someone reading thought we wouldn't get compensation for it. Houston has 3 selections in the top 40 so they may need to get a little creative if they go after a guy who may slip.

And I understand what Luhnow has said about Appel not being able to get into a professional routine vs the college routine and missing valuable spring training time but it worries me a little bit cause he pitched every 5 days last year at Tri-City and Quad Cities (succession of those names never hit me until now lol). Lancaster can be a pitchers nightmare but scouts were saying Appel's FB was sitting 89-92...even class A hitters will make you pay for that. I never give up hope of the future (I'd make a hell of a Cubs fan) but after the last few weeks a 1-2 of Rodon-Appel isn't what it looked to be last summer

eagle eye

04-30-2014, 08:58 AM

How true. There are a lot of pitchers who are considered top 10 picks this year and that's what makes this year's draft so tough without a truly dominant one out there. I can't help feeling Houston knows they are left hand pitching poor and there are a couple of options but for the #1 pick you don't want to have a doubt that your pick is a no-brainer. The NFL draft is the same--they have some really good players at all positions but no your-a-fool-if-you-pass-on-this-guy player. When you have the #1 pick you really don't want to miss but one thing I do have confidence in is the Astros braintrust. IMO they have done a great job so far and as much as they can they have made the right choices almost across the board. They will do their due diligence and I think they'll get it right.

eagle eye

05-01-2014, 11:50 AM

Is there a guy more snake bit on the Astros roster more than Brett Oberholtzer? As of today Obie is 0-5 in six starts with a 5.63 ERA but if you look at his stat line it really isn't bad and he deserves at least two wins blown by the bullpen. With a little run support he could be 4-2. That being said you have to look at his last two games when he got bombed by Oakland 10-1 lasting only 3-2/3 innings on April 24th and last nights loss to Washington when he gave up 6 earned runs in 4-2/3 innings. Prior to the A's game his ERA was 3.04 and has gone up to that 5.63 in the last two games when he's allowed 12 earned runs on 19 hits w/ 2 homers, 4 walks and 9 K's. I know that a guy can go through slumps but considering how well Collin McHugh has pitched and with Scott Feldman due to return for his next start, Obie needs to turn it around--pronto-- or he's may need his old apartment in OKC back.

This past week Houston has had a game they stranded 11 base runners and last nights 7-0 loss saw Houston strand 10. Houston finished April 9-19 and 9 games back of division leader Oakland. The one thing you have to say is the starting pitching with a few exceptions has been pretty good. Certainly good enough to have won more than 9 games. Except their have been some lousy hitting, lack of ability to score runs despite having opportunities to do so, and bullpen who can't hold a lead for squat. It's disappointing that the bullpen has been such a liability because with a bevy of off-season moves to add quality veterans to the pen they really have sucked. How bad have they sucked? They are dead last in baseball with a 5.86 ERA and a batting average against a whopping .289. I think Astros fans expected better than this from this team. It's encouraging to see some of the hitting slumps going the other way. Dexter Fowler, Jason Castro, Matt Dominguez, Alex Pressley, Jesus Guzman and Jonathan Villar have all rebounded to respectable levels after each and every one of them were batting under .200 at one time. The only guy who hasn't sucked is Jose Altuve but even he's left runners in scoring position. It's nice to see the team hitting better but they need to start stringing hit together and scoring runs. A great big hunk of the runs scored was via the home run, 29 so far in 2014. The telling thing is Houston is 29th of 30 teams in runs scored and their best OBP is Jason Castro's .330. That ain't good. Hopefully, the recent resurgence by the hitters is a sign of better things to come.

eagle eye

05-02-2014, 08:20 AM

The Astros will play a 3 game series beginning tonight against the Mariners. The Astros will be sending Brad Peacock, Dallas Kuechel and the recently awesome Collin McHugh to face Seattle at the Juice Box this weekend. Here's a link to an Astros.com article that answers the question, "Who is Collin McHugh?"

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/pitcher-collin-mchugh-bursts-onto-the-scene-with-astros?ymd=20140501&content_id=73879236&vkey=news_ hou

The Astros were off yesterday but the front office folks didn't. They worked on signing LHP Tony Sipp. Sipp was stuck in the Padres organization at their AAA affiliate in El Paso with little hope of being called up to the Padres so he asked for his release. He will come to the Astros with a career 3.84 ERA in 304 appearances with the Indians (2009-12) and the D-backs last season. He's held lefties to a .224 average in his career and righties to a .209 mark. Sipp, 30 years old, will give the Astros bullpen another left hand option with only Raul Valdes currently the only lefty in the pen.

KABrother88

05-02-2014, 09:11 AM

Nolan Ryan, Bo Porter, and bench coach Dave Trembley were up the road in Jasper last night as well getting another look (in what would be the last chance) at Shepherd fireball we Tyler Kolek. He gave up 4 runs (1 ER) on 3 hits and 10 Ks in 7 innings as Silsbee beat Shepherd 4-1 but part of Silsbee's gameplan was to bunt to make the defense make plays, and steal and make the catcher throw you out (which I've seen them this year and that is a very good gameplan)...Porter said he was impressed with with the gameplan used. Of the 4 runs he gave up 2 came in because Shepherd couldn't execute run downs, one run on a wild pitch, and one on a bunt where the 3rd baseman had the runner coming home but didn't tag him. Reports say Kolek hit 102 last night and the bunting strategy kept his strikeout number down

Also seeing Kerry Woods was in attendance and has been to quite a few Shepherd games this year...I guess he is working for the Cubs

Here is an article from the Houston Chronicle about it

http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2014/05/02/shepherd-high-pitcher-tyler-kolek-draws-praise-from-ryan-porter/#22822-7

eagle eye

05-03-2014, 06:20 AM

Houston finally won one in their last at-bat with a walk off single by George Springer in the bottom of the 11th scoring Jose Altuve. Springer's hit, a high chopper to 3B, broke a 2-16 stretch of hitting with runners in scoring position and gave the Astros their first walk off win of the season. Brad Peacock had a nice outing going 6 innings with 3 walks, 6 K's allowing 4 runs but only 2 earned. Rip off of the night was in the third with men on first and second Jason Castro hit a deep shot to center field that center fielder Abraham Almonte was unable to field in the air. Almonte had to run a long way and he could have caught the ball but it was also a very tough play. Long story short the official scorer saw it as an error on Almonte robbing Castro of a hit and an RBI. I really think this stinks because it was far from a routine play and when you're the home team you generally get the benefit of the doubt on plays like this. The game winning hit by Springer could have easily been ruled an error and it was misplayed by M's 3B Kyle Seager. I'm just saying. It didn't take long for Bo Porter to use his newest reliever Tony Sipp, who actually signed his contract earlier in the day. Sipp came in with 2 out in the 7th and retired the next 5 batters he face for a perfect outing. Jose Cisnero, Chad Qualls and Anthony Bass, who got the win, combined with Sipp to shut out the Mariners in relief of Peacock. The Astros begin May the same way they began April--with a win.

eagle eye

05-07-2014, 11:33 AM

After stinking up the juice box with a 3-6 record on their last home stand the Astros have gone the road to Detroit and continued their losing ways. It didn't help that Houston faced Cy Young pitcher Max Scherzer in game 1 as the Tigers won 2-0 despite a really nice performance by Jared Cosart who went 7 innings allowing only 4 hits and only one UNearned run. Blame Scherzer for that one because he was dominant. Last night starter Brett Oberholtzer was better than recent outings but he still allowed 4 runs on 9 hits, a walk and 4 K's and he was tagged with his sixth loss vs zero wins so far this season. The bats weren't silenced like they were against Scherzer but Robbie Ray, who was making his MLB debut last night with Detroit, had enough to set down the Astros who only managed one run in the sixth off him. Houston scored three in the 9th but by then the game was lost due to a simply horrendous outing by Josh Fields. Fields came on in the 8th with Houston down 6-1 and in only 2/3 of an inning he gave up 5 runs on 6 hits and 2 K's ballooning his ERA to 12.00 and it's hard to believe it's not worse than that. Kevin Chapman and Lucas Harrell have already been demoted and in the case of Harrell traded due to poor performance. Josh Fields looks like he's on a pace to go back to OKC. For the most part Fields has just been awful.

Rather than being all gloom and doom here's some encouraging facts. Every Astros starter in the field except Chris Carter (.170) and LJ Hoes (.128) is hitting ABOVE the Mendoza Line (.200). This is a vast improvement when just a couple of weeks ago 5 of the 9 batters in Houston's lineup were under .200. As posted before Dexter Fowler (.248), Jason Castro (.214) and Jonathan Villar (.250) have rebounded from poor starts to the season. Castro has fallen off the last couple of games and I'm sure he'll be glad to get his ass out of Detroit. George Springer has seemed to be getting on track too bringing his average up to a respectable .222 considering how he started the season. Jesus Guzman has even clawed his way above the Mendoza Line although at .203 it ain't nothing to write home about. Matt Dominguez has been doing much better rounding up a decent .227 BA. Jose Altuve and Marwin Gonzalez have been the most steady and at .279 and .281 have been the most consistant hitters in the Astros lineup. So, there is cause for some cautioned optimism. The Astros offense is showing signs of life. Unfortunately, the starting pitching is apparently been dragged down by the bullpen as quality starts seem to be hard to come by. This is made even more frustrating by the continued struggles of the bullpen. I'm sure Bo Porter is hoping the pitching can right the ship but it would help if Houston would escape playing division leaders and play some division also-rans for a while. Oh well, you don't pick and choose your opponents, you play whoever is next on the schedule. Houston just needs to put together a few wins and get some confidence. We knew they weren't going to the playoffs but it'd be nice if they won more than once a week.

KABrother88

05-07-2014, 12:38 PM

Cross Jeff Hoffman off your list of potential 1-1 draftees if you had him in the mix (not me)...per Keith Law he will have TJ surgery next week...he's only a junior so it will be interesting to see what he does if he gets drafted in the lower end of the first round...wouldn't gripe at all if he fell to us at 37...just don't want him at 1. Signability may be the kicker though if he slides and thinks he still deserves top end money

eagle eye

05-08-2014, 07:39 AM

It's quite possible Hoffman could slip way down in the draft for no other reason than when you get Tommy John surgery it's two years before you're back to normal. The rehab is a year at least and it will take another year to get where he was before the surgery. With that in mind teams won't waste high draft picks that won't even be able to contribrute for a long time. Round four or five, maybe? There value right there.

KABrother88

05-08-2014, 08:27 AM

A case similar to this is one of Washington Nationals top pitching prospect Lucas Giolito. He was considered the top HS arm in the 2012 class with a serious shot to go 1.1 until a strained ligament in his elbow forced him to shut it down for the year...the Nationals took a chance on him at 16 overall with the expectation that he would probably need TJ surgery...it took $800,000 more than slot value to sign him ($2.925 MM vs 2.125 MM). He made one appearance pitching 2 innings before the team decided TJ would be needed. The difference in this case is they knew in 2 years they would have a 20 year pitcher just really starting his professional career vs Hoffman would be a 23 year old. I have seen some reports saying teams are still going to consider him the middle of the first round however. At this time the only candidate I could see even possibly giving us a Correa size discount to be aggressive in the comp round if Hoffman falls would be Kolek, just for the fact he's a hometown kid. Speaking of Kolek, I've mentioned before that scouts say he's is more of a thrower vs a pitcher at this point and struggles with command...then I saw his stats for his senior year...in ~45 innings he had 100 Ks to 6 BB...so about 1.2 BB/9 IP...I don't know if that is more HS batters starting a swing before he releases the ball to catch up with it or HS umps not seeing a 100MPH fastball...or combo of both...but on paper he looks to have command of it

eagle eye

05-08-2014, 09:04 AM

KABrother88

05-08-2014, 01:14 PM

Hello George Springer! Finally got his 1st HR of his career today on an opposite field line drive in Detroit...now has his batting average up to .228 (at this point of today's game) after being around .180 - .190 for a while...and he's hit .333 the last 6 games...also making some highlight reel catches in RF

eagle eye

05-08-2014, 04:31 PM

Kudos to Springer who also grounded into a double play today to dampen his milestone day. The real hero of the game was Dallas Kuechel who went 7-2/3 allowing only 2 runs on 6 hits with 9 K's and walk. Victor Martinez hit a solo homer in the 4th and a double by Nick Castellanos that plated Andrew Jackson for the only 2 runs Detroit scored.

One item of note is that former Astro JD Martinez is now a Detroit Tiger. Talk about going from the outhouse to the penthouse! JD batted in the six hole and went 1-4 today. He's batting .269 so far in 2014.

So far, in 2014, with challenges allowed in close plays Bo Porter is showing he has a knack for this new system. As of today he's 6-8 in challenges. The sixth successful challenge happened in the 4th inning on a play on a ground ball to Jose Altuve and his throw to 1B Jesus Guzman. The 1B umpire called Austin Jackson safe and Porter immediately came out and challenged the call which was subsequently overturned.

The Astros broke a 5 game losing streak with the win and the Tigers ended an 8 game winning streak with their loss.

The Astros announced that Collin McHugh, who has gone 2-1 filling in for Scott Feldman, will remain in the starting rotation for at least one more game. Feldman returns tomorrow to start the series opener against Baltimore followed by McHugh on Saturday. Jared Cosart will close the series on Sunday.

What is it about the nine hole lately? Jonathan Villar has been batting in the 9th spot for the most of the season but lately he's been on fire raising his BA more than 100 points highlighted by a 3-4 night on Tuesday night against Detroit. Today, with Dexter Fowler hitting 3rd as Jason Castro got the day off Villar was moved up to the 2. How'd he do? 0-4. What's even more amazing is LJ Hoes hit 9th and went 3-3. Today's game still wasn't enough to get Hoes above .200 but it got him close at .180.

eagle eye

05-13-2014, 12:00 PM

Well, Houston got their one win of the week Sunday against the O's. They almost got 2 but the bullpen gave up a ninth inning lead and losing to the O's on Saturday in extra innings. Actually, Houston could've, and should've, won all three as Scott Feldman came back with six strong innings on Friday's opener heading to the dugout with a tidy 2-2 no decision but Jerome Williams gave up 2 more to seal the deal for Baltimore. Paul Clemens and Anthony Bass combined to blow the game on Saturday as Houston's bullpen woes didn't end in 2013. These aren't minor league arms pressed into service like last year, these are veteran guys who are blowing leads and games left and right. Everyone from the owner down to Bo Porter has to be scratching their heads wondering WTF. Houston is tied for 2nd in most blown saves with Colorado, the Mets and Philly with 8. One behind league leading Pittsburgh with 9. Houston had to think they would be better than this when they signed so may veteran pitchers to strengthen the bullpen after they tied for the MLB lead with Arizona in 2013 with 29. Guess what? Houston is right on pace to equal that shameful 2013 total this season. Think about what that means for just a second. If Houston only blows 3 saves which is the league average Houston has 5 more wins. I'll tell you 17-22 looks a lot better than 12-27 which is where Houston sits now. Houston needs to tighten it up. They just can't have this or there will be some pitchers on the trading block in July. Unfortunately, if the bullpen doesn't get better they will hard to trade.

BTW, the bullpen had nothing to do with Houston's series opening loss to the Rangers last night by a score of 4-0 and even the bullpen can't do anything about their offense getting shut out. Houston had their opportunities. After all they had 10 hits but not one that was clutch enough to score a run. You just knew it was going to be bad when in the first inning Jose Altuve leads off with a single but he was caught stealing second base right before Dexter Fowler hit what would have been an RBI triple. It never really got better than that for Houston. Brad Peacock tried his best but he gave up 4 runs in his six inning of work and Texas only needed one. Colby Lewis coming back this season after an injury plagued 2013 stymied the Astros for 5.2 innings and 4 relievers combined to shut out the home team. What kind of voodoo has Texas got over their in-state rivals? Who knows but it a strong magic.
Dallas Kuechel goes to the hill for Houston with Matt Harrison going for Texas. Hopefully Kuechel has some magic of his own.

eagle eye

05-13-2014, 07:09 PM

Including last night's loss Houston is 0-11 at home vs the Rangers. Hopefully they can break the streak. BTW, Texas starting pitcher Matt Harrison is trying to make the Astros the last American League team he hasn't beaten so far in his career. So far the Astros are spoiling his night as they lead the Rangers 3-0 in the top of the 3rd.

eagle eye

05-14-2014, 11:28 AM

Holy crap on a cracker! When Houston breaks a streak they break a streak! Houston was 0-11 at home vs the Rangers until last night. Dallas Kuechel was awesome getting his first career shutout and giving Houston their first complete game by a starter this season winning 8-0 and paying the Rangers back in spades for a 4-0 shutout the night before. He didn't allow a run while scattering 7 hits through 9 innings with 7 K's and no walks. In the 4th Prince Fielder led off the inning with a shot down the left field line and a close play was ruled safe at second base. Left fielder LJ Hoes threw a strike to Matt Dominguez at second who made a good tag on the play. Bo Porter challenged the play saying Fielder was out. After a replay review it was decided Porter was right and they reversed the call declaring Fielder out at second. Porter is now 7 of 10 in challenges this season.
Back to Kuechel, he threw 108 pitches on the night and the shutout was the first since Bret Oberholtzer did it last Sept 1st against Seattle. Last night give Kuechel 6 quality starts out of the 8 games he's pitched this season and it ups his season record to 4-2.
The Astros offense finally gelled a little bit too as they were able to get a clutch hit with men on base. Bo Porter said after the game it was probably the best game the team has played this season. Homers by LJ Hoes with 1 on and no outs in the 2nd inning and Carlos Corporan in the 5th with 2 on and no outs highlighted another 11 hit attack. It was the second game in a row the Astros had eleven hits but the difference in last nights game was Houston hit in the clutch and hit with some power. It's actually the fourth game in a row Houston has recorded 11 or more hits. They are 2-2 in those games. George Springer had a nice night working a MLB career high 3 walks as he hit in the 2 hole last night. His one hit came in the fourth on a 3-2 pitch which scored Jose Altuve who tripled in front of Springer.
Houston now has a chance to win their first series off the Rangers for the first time since 2008 with Scott Feldman (2-1 1.93 ERA) vs Nick Tepesch (0-0 11.25 ERA).

Jose Cisnero is done for 2014 as he will have to undergo Tommy John surgery on his pitching arm. This means two of the 3 veteran pitchers earmarked to upgrade the bullpen are on the DL. Matt Albers has had shoulder problems and hasn't pitched since being put on the DL April 22nd. He received a cortisone shot Tuesday and he will not throw for at least the next 10 days.

Houston's 15th ranked prospect Josh Hader combined with relievers JD Osborne and Daniel Minor threw a no-hitter for the A-Advanced Lancaster JetHawks last night. Last nights no-no was the third in JetHawks history with the second happening just last season. Hader came to the Astros organization in the Bud Norris deal with the Orioles last summer and he's pitcher very well since. In 60 innings between Class A Quad Cities and Lancaster, he has a 2.80 ERA and has struck out 61 batters and walked 27. This season, he leads the JetHawks in ERA (2.56) and strikeouts (45).
(Info from Astros.com)

KABrother88

05-14-2014, 01:06 PM

Finally figured out how to keep the bullpen from blowing the game...by keeping them in the BULLPEN!!!

eagle eye

05-15-2014, 02:00 PM

They actually did it. The Astros broke the streak of 15 straight series wins by the Rangers last night even though for more than half the game it didn't look good. Starter Scott Feldman gave up 10 hits and 4 earned runs in his five innings of work and when he left the game the Astros were trailing 4-0. The Astros offense decided it was time to go to work beginning with the 6th inning. They closed the lead to 4-2 on the strength of a couple of walks and a couple of RBI singles by Jesus Guzman and Chris Carter. The damage could have been a lot worse considering the Astros had the bases loaded with only one out. Marwin Gonzalez struck out on an inside breaking ball that he shouldn't have swung at because it was inside from the time it left Rangers pitcher Jason Frasor's hand. Then Jonathan Villar was retired on 4 pitches on a simply horrendous at-bat. Villar took ball one on the first pitch but he also took 3 straight strikes, two of which he could've, and should've, swung at. It didn't matter as it turned out because Jose Altuve led off the seventh inning with a hit and George Springer followed up with his first Juice Box home run to tie the game. A scoreless 8th led to the dramatic end of the game in the 9th. The Rangers went down 1-2-3 in the top of the inning and it was time for Houston to go to work. George Springer led off with a K but Dexter Fowler, who had a huge night going 3-3 with 2 walks, got his final hit of the game. Jason Castro followed with a walk which brought up 3B Matt Dominguez. Dominguez had a really nice at-bat. After falling behind 0-2 Dominguez worked the count to full. Rangers pitcher Nick Martinez probably didn't want to chance walking Dominguez to load the bases so came in with a fastball that Dominguez crushed off the wall in right center for a walk off hit to end the game and the Astros misery vs the Rangers--for now--with a final score of 5-4.

> The Astros recorded 11 hits in the game giving them eight games this season of having 11 hits and it made it 5 games in a row the Astros recorded 11 hits which is a franchise record.
> Four relievers shut out the Rangers over the last four innings. Darin Downs (.2 innings), Paul Clemens (1.0 innings), Tony Sipp (1.2) who has been a nice pick up for Houston and Chad Qualls (.2) who got the win.
> It was reported earlier this week on Astros.com that Matt Dominguez has been putting in extra time in the batting cage and it certainly has been paying off. Dominguez has driven his BA up to a respectable .255 which includes last night's 2-5 effort including the walk off hit to end the game.
> Last night Houston had twelve players in the batting order including starters and substitutes and only two players had a BA below .200. The ten other players all had BA's above .200 ranging from Jesus Guzman's .211 to Jose Altuve's .298. I won't list all the BA's but needless to say this is a huge improvement from two weeks ago when more than half of any given lineup was under the Mendoza line. The one guy you hope gets going is C Jason Castro who once had his BA in the .230 range has slid back down to .216. You just know he's better than that.
> Earlier this week Bo Porter moved George Springer up in the line up to the 2 hole and it seems to have been a good move. I believe putting Springer rotating between the 3 and 4 holes just put too much pressure on the rookie to produce. Hitting behind Jose Altuve and before Dexter Fowler has helped all three see better pitches and given the rookie a little comfort zone he probably needed. I'd like to see Bo Porter stick with this lineup for a while.
> Relief pitcher Anthony Bass was put on the 15 day DL after pulling his intercostal muscle stretching for a ball during pregame throwing on Tuesday. The Astros will recall Josh Fields from OKC to fill in. Fields was sent down to OKC recently because he had been terrible in his last few outings. At OKC in his last 3 appearances Bo Porter said that Fields has been dominant. Fields has a upper 90's/100 fastball and a good change up but Porter believes he just lost confidence. Hopefully, that confidence has returned and he figured out what he was doing wrong in his previous stay in Houston.
> Jeff Luhnow said this week that slugger Jon Singleton is "on deck" meaning he will be moving up to the big club soon. Here's an explanation from Astros.com about why Houston may be waiting to bring Singleton up. The Astros say it's about their plan for him but from the article it looks like they are trying to save some money by delaying his call up.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140514&content_id=75451498&noteb ook_id=75511904&vkey=notebook_hou&c_id=hou

Big T

05-15-2014, 03:20 PM

The sixteenth time is the charm! BTW, Matt Dominguez is turning into a hell of a player. He will never hit for a high average, but he can hit for power and he can hit in the clutch.

eagle eye

05-17-2014, 10:02 PM

The Astros added another veteran arm to their bullpen when they signed RHP Kyle Farnsworth today before the game against the White Sox. To make room for Farnsworth the Astros optioned Paul Clemens was optioned to OKC Friday night. Farnsworth was released by the Mets this past Wednesday despite the fact he had recorded 3 saves and had a 3.18 ERA in 19 appearances. His first appearance for Houston came later on when he was brought on in the 8th with a 6-3 lead. He gave up 2 runs on 2 hits and 2 walk in 2/3 of an inning of work before Bo Porter pulled him for Darin Downs who recorded the last out of the inning maintaining a 6-5 lead which held up for the Astros win. The Astros have had crap luck with the veteran guys they hoped would solidify the bullpen. Hopefully, this was just a hiccup by a guy who just came into Houston today. It is thought that Farnsworth will act as setup man for Chad Qualls who has been pitching better of late recording saves in two of the past 3 games.

Big T

05-18-2014, 12:56 AM

I am actually liking some of what I am seeing from this team. A little power, timely hitting, and good pitching from the starters. Keep it up and we may see a little run out of these guys. I do believe, however, that it is time to bring up Singleton. We are getting no production at all from first base and yes his K rates are very elevated. But it is time to either let him sink or swim at the MLB level.

eagle eye

05-18-2014, 06:12 AM

I'm not so sure about the timely hitting thing. Yesterday Houston stranded 21 runners on base. 21! They've been hitting well enough to win 3 of the last 4 but Houston has been guilty of stranding a lot of runners all season. What is encouraging is they are getting on base.

eagle eye

05-18-2014, 04:12 PM

The Astros won their second series in a row by beating the White Sox in a bit of a rout today 8-2. Brad Peacock got his first win of the year and the Astros displayed some power with home runs by Chris Carter and 2 by Matt Dominguez. Peacock has run into some real bad luck up until today as he came into the game with an 0-4 record. All the pieces fell right into place for Peacock from timely double plays to some long overdue run support.
This makes the first time this season the Astros have won back to back series and they have won 4 of their last 6 games in the process.
Overall this season coming into the weekend the Astros had won only 4 series and split two until beating the White Sox for the series win this weekend. Beginning last Tuesday Houston was 12-26 and as the week ends they have improved to 16-28. Hopefully, Houston can keep their recent hot streak going as they hit the road for 10 games with the Angels, Mariners and Royals.

Some observations concerning the Astros going into that road trip.
> The starting pitching continues to be solid. Even when they struggle they battle and keep the team in games.
> The bullpen is still inconsistent but it looks like they are improving as they made solid contributions to the team's success this past week. It looks like Chad Qualls is taking a firm grasp on the closer's role.
> The Astros are hitting better and they are a lot more consistent. The move of George Springer to the 2 hole and Dexter Fowler to the 3 hole have paid big dividends and Matt Dominguez has been on fire the last week. As batters get on base more and more the team will start to learn to get that clutch hit to score runs.
> Houston is quite dependent on the home run but as long as they can hit 'em I'll take it. I would still like to see the Astros play small ball more efficiently. They actually stranded 21 base runners in Saturday's game. That is not good. Instead of winning 6-5 they should have won by 10 runs at least. I think they will evolve and become better at the plate. They are still prone to the strike out and they need to cut down on that mark but, all in all, they are getting better.

eagle eye

05-20-2014, 11:12 AM

I didn't intend to post after every game the Astros play. I know so far that's just what I've been doing with an exception or two. It just seems Houston is doing something worth noting just about every day. It may be good or bad but something happens almost daily with these guys. With Houston beginning a west coast swing last night I open up the ESPN site to check on scores and what do you know? Houston won again! This is worth noting because it is the first time Houston has won 3 games in a row in 2014. No kidding, it's true! Not only that but starting pitcher Dallas Kuechel came within one stinking out of getting his second complete game shutout in the last 3 starts. He had two out in the 9th but back to back singles by Mike Trout and Albert Puhols and the fact that he had thrown a career high 128 pitches caused Bo Porter to come out and pat his pitcher on the back and send him to the showers. Porter brought in reliever Josh Zeid who promptly gave up a two run triple to Howie Kendricks to spoil the shutout. Zeid retired the next batter, CJ Cron, on a groundout to 3rd. It wouldn't be the Astros if the bullpen didn't have some sort of hiccup. Fortunately, Houston had built a 5 run lead so there was at least a little cushion for the 'pen to play with. The Astros got to the Angels starter Garrett Richards, who was 4-0 going into last night's game, for 10 hits and 5 runs. The Astros got 3 runs in the first and one each in the 2nd and 3rd. Jose Altuve, Jason Castro and Matt Dominguez all went 2-4 on the night and one item of note the Astros didn't score one single run off the long ball. This is unusual not to mention only stranding 3 base runners for the game. Kuechel has been spectacular and the two runs he got charged to his ERA is inherently unfair considering his performance. Zeid, on the other hand should get kicked in the cods for letting the shutout get away from him. Fact is, the bullpen as a whole needs a good swift kick about once a week until they start taking better care of their business. Kuechel logged 8 K's vs only 1 walk with 5 hits and I applaud Bo Porter for giving the guy a chance for the complete game despite the high pitch count. He also induced 16 ground ball outs which is just phenominal. Even the hits by Trout and Puhols in the 9th were ground balls. Give credit to a solid performance by the defense with so many opportunities.

eagle eye

05-20-2014, 07:30 PM

Want to get chills about the future of the Astros? Check this article out about Carlos Correa. If it doesn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand up and give you goose bumps then you must not be an Astros fan after all.

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article/hou/top-astros-prospect-carlos-correa-eager-to-achieve-big-league-dream?ymd=20140520&content_id=76119232

eagle eye

05-23-2014, 02:01 PM

The Astros giveth and the Astros taketh away. After recording their first 3 game winning streak of the season they go and give the 3 games away by losing the last 3 in a row. The middle game of the recent Angels series was lost by a poor outing by Scott Feldman who gave up 8 runs in 4 innings but only 3 earned as errors by 1B Chris Carter and SS Jonathan Villar killed the Astros chances of keeping the game close. The bullpen didn't help much with Darin Downs and Jerome Williams less than stellar. It was the 10th game in a row with the Astros logging in 9 or more hits but they just could string anything together.
The Angels finale featured a nice pitcher's duel between Houston's Collin McHugh and Angels ace Jered Weaver with Weaver tossing a complete game in the Angels 2-1 win. Can't fault Houston's offense here because Weaver was just shy of unhittable--as in Houston got only 2 on the night. A solo homer by George Springer in the 4th and double by Jason Castro in the 7th was the only damage the Astros could do. Weaver threw only 94 pitches allowing only 2 hits, 1 walk and 5 K's. Cosart threw 112 in his seven innings and he allowed only 4 hits with 2 BB's and 7 K's. It was the 2 runs he allowed that did him in. No shame there especially when you consider one of the hits was the solo shot by Albert Puhols in the 6th which was his 500th career homer. Weaver also ended the 12 game hitting streak by Jose Altuve.
In the opener against the Mariners last night the Astros got a good performance by Jarred Cosart who went 6.1 innings giving up 5 hits, 4 walks and notching 6 K's. Cosart wasn't dominant but he battled and the 3 runs he was charged with should only have been 1 but reliever Tony Sipp, who had logged 21 innings of scoreless ball since coming to Houston, went to sleep on a 2-out ground ball to 1B Jesus Guzman and he was slow to cover the bag allowing Mariners OF Michael Saunders to out hustle Sipp to the bag which also allowed runners on 2nd and 3rd to score. The Astros only managed 4 hits in the game including Jose Altuve doing his best Craig Biggio by hitting the first pitch of the game over the left field wall. Unfortunately that was the whole of the Astros threats on the night.

KABrother88

05-25-2014, 10:13 AM

Big T

05-25-2014, 09:07 PM

George Springer is on a tear! Three 2 run HR's in the last two games. Altuve is going off the chain right now. Finally this offense may be getting some consistency from a couple of players.

Big T

05-25-2014, 11:23 PM

Hoping to have a good breakdown later this week about some of of top prospects and a few under the radar guys I mentioned a while back on this thread but a couple things I wanted to mention today.

The Astros now have 9 players in MLB.com's list of top 100 prospects (Correa #7, Appel #14, Springer #19, Singleton #43, McCullers #45, Foltynewicz #47, DeShields #57, Santana #98, Velasquez #99). Of course that drop very soon when Springer surpasses 130 ABs but that it's still impressive to have that many in the top 100.

The other thing was an interesting story from last night's class A Quad Cities game. 1st baseman, and 2013 4th round pick, Conrad Gregor hit a go ahead 3-run HR in the 6th inning of QC's eventual 5-2 win. It was the first HR of the season for Gregor but what was interesting about it was the catch in the stands...happened to be by a man names Marty Gregor...Conrad's father.

http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=33139953&sid=t565

Velasquez is the best pitcher in the Astros system.

eagle eye

05-26-2014, 06:44 AM

Talk about sour grapes. Seattle Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said after Dallas Kuechel's 4 hit complete game win that, "I saw average stuff," he said. "We didn't swing the bats very good. At some point, you've got to stop giving credit to average pitchers. That becomes a broken record. At some point, we've got to start swinging the bats.". I know he was probably just trying to give his team a little kick in the butt I don't think he really believes Kuechel has been "average" for the past month. Two out of the last 3 starts have been complete game wins and the third game he came within on out of a third against the Angels a week ago today. In Houston's 4-1 win yesterday even the one run Seattle scored was unearned due a bad throw by Kuechel to 1st after Cole Gillespie his what amounted to a swinging bunt down the 3rd base line. Kuechel fielded the ball and in his own words, "I made a bonehead throw. I felt I had enough time to make a good throw but kind of yanked it a little bit and was able to get [Brad] Miller out and go from there. Defense played a heck of a game, and obviously Springer and Krauss were huge today."
Speaking of George Springer, has that guy been on fire or what? Even after missing several games due to a strained hip flexor he comes back into the lineup and just tears the cover off the ball. Springer seemed to have found his stroke at the end of April because since the beginning of May he's hit .287 with all seven of his homers and 20 RBIs. After yesterday's two run blast he is now tied with Matt Dominguez for the club lead in homers.
Another guy on a serious tear is Jose Altuve who is logging multi-hit games like crazy and he's upped his BA to a salty .326. With Jason Castro's recent struggles at the plate especially his tendency to strike out a lot he may need to take a look at some film of Altuve and apply it to his approach at the plate. Anyway, with Springer out of the lineup the first two games of the Mariners series the Astros O lacked some spark but since he came back in Saturday's game he's hit 3 home runs and given Houston that spark in back to back wins. Don't believe me? In the last two games Springer has gone 3-9 with 3 home runs, 7 RBIs and scored 3 runs. The 5 RBIs Springer had in Saturday's 9-4 win was enough to insure Houston's win by himself. It's looking like the move Bo Porter made earlier this month to put Springer in the 2 hole has paid the dividends he hoped and then some. It's also had to have helped Altuve to have Springer hitting behind him because opposing pitchers can't dink and dunk around Altuve because they don't want Springer coming up with a man on base and Altuve has been making the most out of the good pitches he's been seeing. Let's hope that the Astros can keep it going in Kansas City.

> Brett Oberholtzer was brought back to help give the starting rotation some rest and he did a good job. He notched his first win of the season going 6 innings giving up 3 runs, 2 earned, scattering 6 hits with a walk and 8 Ks. The demotion to AAA has allowed him to work on some things that have apparently helped him. The Astros starting pitching has been pretty darn good all season and some of these pitchers are reaping the benefits of some run support including Obie.
> L J Hoes has struggled at the plate all season long and it's not like he hasn't been given his chances to come out of his slump but the Astros finally had to send Hoes down to OKC to try to work out his problems. Jeff Luhnow seemed to think Hoes needs more starts which means he will get more at-bats than he will get as a platoon player in Houston. To fill Hoes spot the Astros are recalling Robbie Grossman who was sent down two weeks into the season giving him another shot in the bigs. In OKC Grossman was hitting right at .300 and the Astros are hoping that having the switch-hitting Grossman will add another dimension to the offense. Last season Grossman was brought up and he struggled at the plate hitting .198 before being sent back to OKC. After his recall he hit .322 with an OPS of .816 in the last 3 months of the season. If Grossman returns to that form the Astros will have seriously upped their ante in the batting order.

KABrother88

05-26-2014, 03:19 PM

eagle eye

05-26-2014, 06:08 PM

With a recent spate of posts concerning the minors how about this item: This article from Astros.com about the Advanced A Lancaster Jethawks featuring Carlos Correa. If the guys on this roster keep up the great work they will all move up to AA Corpus Christi by mid summer.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/houston-astros-prospect-carlos-correa-hits-home-run-for-lancaster?ymd=20140525&content_id=76850610&vkey=ne ws_hou

Or this item from MLBpipeline.com about Domingo Santana and Mike Foltynewicz and their play at OKC which has been pretty good of late. Both seem to be vying for a summer call up along with Jon Singleton.

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article/hou/houston-astros-prospect-domingo-santana-has-two-home-run-game?ymd=20140525&content_id=76722898&vkey=news_ho u

There is another pitcher that is getting notice in the Astros farm system at AAA OKC. On Sunday Nick Tropeano tossed a big game against Marlins top prospect Andrew Heaney and the New Orleans Zephyrs. It was supposed to be the AAA debut of the Marlins top ranked prospect and while he showed up for the Zephyrs by limiting OKC to one run on 7 hits in 5 innings of work the Astros No 17 prospect outpitched Heaney by tossing 6-2/3 scoreless innings allowing only 3 hits with 8 Ks helping OKC to a 3-2 win in extra innings. People probably don't realize Tropeano led all Astros pitchers in strikeouts in 2012. He took a step back in 2013 but the Astros are encouraged by his 2014 start. So far he has a 2.53 ERA in 46.1 innings pitched. He has started 7 games and appeared in 10 with a 2-3 record with a WHIP of 0.971 and 41/15 K/BB ratio.

Here's an update on Astros #2 prospect Mark Appel. Appel was forced to undergo an appendectomy in late January that set him back in spring training. He is spending time in extended spring workouts to get back into a pitching routine before returning to Lancaster. Talk about a stacked team in Lancaster California. Holy Crap!

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140522&content_id=76458882&noteb ook_id=76466780&vkey=notebook_hou&c_id=hou

KABrother88

05-27-2014, 10:35 AM

eagle eye

05-27-2014, 12:18 PM

Big T

05-27-2014, 03:20 PM

eagle eye

05-28-2014, 10:52 AM

4 for 4 with a HR, 2 Doubles, a walk and 5 runs scored...that's the type of ability that gave me a man-crush on George Springer. He's starting to cut down on the Ks as well...still striking out at a high rate but not nearly the 44% he was at a couple weeks ago. Also playing a very solid RF. I think he's gonna have his name right in the ROY conversation before the season is over...long shot to win it with Abreu and Tanaka in the AL but I feel he'll get noticed

I agree completely although let's see if he can be consistant and not a one month wonder. Also, if Jose Altuve doesn't get back to the All Star game this year there is no God. Castro, on the other hand, isn't near what he was last season. Just think if he was. Houston would be 5-7 games better than they are. Let's hope he can turn it around.

Actually EE, Castro was terrible at the beginning of the year last year. It was around this time that he was able to turn it on.

I agree to some extent but he was good enough early enough to make the All Star team. I think that's the Castro we expected going into the season. I'm sure he's not happy with the way he's begun 2014. That's all I meant.

Last night Houston won it's 4th game in a row. For most teams that isn't all that big of a deal but for the Astros it marked the season high in consecutive wins. On Tuesday the set a single season high of hits in a game by pounding out 16 in the win in the series opener with Kansas City. Last night they set the second highest hit total this season with 12. Collin McHugh continued the trend of Astros starting pitching with better than quality starts by tossing 7 scoreless innings scattering 5 hits with 9 Ks and zero walks. Tony Sipp continued his quality relief work since he came to Houston and Chad Qualls shut the door in the 9th. Although I think Bo Porter made a real bonehead move that screwed Qualls out of a save opportunity. Sipp pitched a perfect 8th after the Astros had added a couple of insurance runs in the top of the inning giving him a 3-0 lead to work with. Chad Qualls had been warming up in the bullpen during the top half of the 9th and was surely ready to come in but instead Sipp came out and retired the first batter on a ground out. Then Bo Porter came out and brought in Qualls. If Qualls had started the inning he would have been in line for the save but with one out in the inning and a 3 run lead the save was off the table. Qualls did his job retiring the next two batters on a comebacker and strike out and despite nailing down the win for McHugh I would think Qualls wondered WTF Porter was thinking. You know what, I sure was wondering that very thing.

eagle eye

05-28-2014, 11:22 AM

One of the Astros got some really good news yesterday. LHP Dallas Kuechel won Player of the Week for the week of May 19th. Kuechel went 2-0 with a 1.02 ERA last week and was one out shy of having two complete games. He went 8-2/3 against the Angels throwing 128 pitches and he ended the week tossing a complete game against the Mariners last Sunday. Kuechel's complete game made three consecutive starts where he went at least 8-2/3 innings and it is the first time since Darryl Kile did it in 1993. Kuechel's POTW award is the first for an Astros pitcher since Roy Oswalt did it in September of 2008. Kuechel leads the Astros starters with a 6-2 record and he has been one of the best pitchers in baseball since the beginning of May. So good, in fact, he should be in consideration for Player of the Month. He could solidify that with another good outing this weekend against the Orioles who come to the Juice Box beginning tomorrow.

The Astros have a good chance for the series sweep tonight with Jared Cosart taking the hill for Houston against the Royals. Cosart hasn't been overpowering opponents but he's battled and made pitches when he needs to. The other encouraging thing is that Houston's offense has really found another gear this past week and they are on a nice roll right now.

Robbie Grossman who was called up and made his first start with Houston since he was demoted to AAA 14 games into the season on Monday didn't start off so well going 0-5 but he bounced back last night going 2-4 with no Ks and no walks. He and Alex Pressley, who went 3-3 with an RBI were a big part of the Astros offense last night. Top to bottom the Astros have shown no weakness during the past 4 game win streak. If Grossman continues to do well this will be another inspired move by Jeff Luhnow which includes the addition of Tony Sipp to the bullpen, the emergence of Collin McHugh in the starting rotation and the call up of George Springer. You can see these Astros growing up right in front of our eyes--or we could if Houston could get a decent TV deal. I can see a day coming soon when getting a ticket to the Juice Box won't be as easy as it is now.

Big T

05-28-2014, 12:34 PM

Springer with another two run HR today in the first inning. That makes nine so far. I don't know about y'all, but I think that I could get used to this. Anyways, 2-0 Astros bottom of the first. Sweep'em Stros!

eagle eye

05-28-2014, 03:50 PM

Houston is going home owning a season high 5 game winning streak, their first series sweep of 2014 and a very successful 6-4 10-game road trip. Jarred Cosart got the win evening his record to 4-4 while lowering his ERA to 4.18. George Springer got his ninth homer on a two run shot in the first inning and Chris Carter hit 2 no-brainer home runs to give Houston 4 RBIs to work with. Robbie Grossman played well at the plate and in the field and it was just a nice win for our home team. Watch out Baltimore, you may not want any of this but you're going to get it for 4 games anyway beginning tomorrow.

eagle eye

05-29-2014, 12:31 PM

The Astros are giving their fans hope. You can go to a web page to check out the box score without wondering how bad Houston got their butts kicked these days. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. Here's a pretty good article from Astros.com about how analytics is being used to turn the team around. The one thing I'm not sure about is whether the writer is a buyer or just accepts this is how the Astros and most of baseball operate now. In the end the author writes that the proof will be in the standings on whether or not Jeff Luhnow and his staff are succeeding using analytics. I think it's already showing with the success the whole Astros minor league system has shown and is continuing to show.

BTW - This article reminded me---the draft is next fricking week! I think they'll go with Rodon but the article and accompanying video say the Astros don't care if the guy they pick is a pitcher or a position player or how old he is or what level of ball he's been in they only care if he fits their criteria as the best player available. Interesting stuff.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/richard-justice-with-help-from-analytics-astros-stocking-talent?ymd=20140529&content_id=77341324&vkey=news_ hou

KABrother88

05-29-2014, 12:53 PM

eagle eye

05-29-2014, 02:08 PM

Many expects are projecting Houston to take California HS LHP Brady Aiken over Rodon...I'm completely on the fence with this one...last year I was leaning Jon Gray until it came out that he had tested positive for Adderall then I leaned Appel...Gray has pitched very well and is in AA this year while Appel is still in extended spring training...but there is a long time to decide if we made the right choice or not. I've been on the Rodon bandwagon since before last years draft...it's hard for me to say this but I may be jumping ship. Some scouts are now projecting Rodon as a #2 in the future and possibly even a closer...not what you want out of a 1.1 (personally I don't think he'd end up in the bullpen). Work load has been a big factor in my thinking...he averaged way over 100 pitches per outing and that may not average out to much more than a big leaguer pitching every 5 days vs a college player pitching every 7 days, but he's had a lot of games when he threw 110+ pitched in 7 or fewer innings. Aiken has 3 plus potential pitches (FB, CB, & CH) and alot of polish for a HS pitcher...competition level is always scary when evaluating HS players. Either way I feel like Luhnow and Co. Be happy with either one...and hey, last time we passed on a college pitcher projected 1.1 as a junior for a prep, that pitcher went back to school and went 1.1 to us lol...not that I want 4 straight 1.1 picks but I'd take Appel, Aiken & Rodon lol

I wouldn't be so quick to judge Appel. He is where he is because of his apendectomy surgery at the end of January. The fact is he may already have joined Carlos Correa and company in Lancaster by now. I would expect a chunk of those Lancaster guys moving up to Corpus before the season is over.

KABrother88

05-29-2014, 02:52 PM

KABrother88

05-29-2014, 08:45 PM

Another #SpringerDinger to put the Stros up 3-1 in the 7th over Baltimore...kid is unreal

Big T

05-29-2014, 08:52 PM

I haven't heard noise like this in the Juice Box for about four years now. George Springer has brought new life to this team and to this fan base.

KABrother88

05-29-2014, 09:22 PM

And we haven't even seen his base running on display yet...could possibly have 2 All-Stars this year with Springer and Altuve...really makes me wish he would have signed that 7 year deal over the winter

eagle eye

05-29-2014, 10:09 PM

KABrother88

05-29-2014, 10:50 PM

Six wins in a row. Springer has homered in 7 strait. I KABro says we could have two all stars -- what about 3? Dallas Kuechel keeps on who knows? It's not too far fetched think Chad Qualls could get in. He hasn't allowed a run in his last 10 appearances and he's 4 of 5 in save attempts. It would be 5 of 6 if Bo Porter hadn't screw him over in KC. I guess I'm getting caught up in the excitement a little but so what! How long has it been since Astros fans had a reason to get excited? Brad Peacock pitched a helluva game and he Josh Fields and Chad Qualls dido not walk a batter. Not too shabby!

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Hell I even forgot about Kuechel...he's #6 in the AL in ERA and is actually #1 in WAR. Pitched 6 or more innings in every start except his first (and many pitchers don't pitch deep into their first start of a season) and has only given up more than 3 runs twice in 10 starts...and of course 1 out away from what could have been 3 straight CGs...not bad for average stuff...hopefully we can get multiple guys representing Houston at the ASG

eagle eye

06-01-2014, 11:36 AM

The streaks are over at 7 wins and 7 home runs for the Astros and George Springer. Okay that was bound to happen but the latest surge by Houston gives us a look at the future doesn't it? It makes you think they could actually end up with 65-70 wins. Don't think so? The Astros record is now 24-33. That's only 57 games into the season leaving 24 games to get to the half way mark. Their current winning % is .421 and if you apply this W/P to 81 games you get 34 games. Double that and you get 64 games and that allows Houston to escape their fourth straight 100 loss season. Not by much but 98 losses means they have improved by 13 games from the 111 they lost last season. Add to the fact that the starting pitching has been pretty darn good and the bullpen is improving and the offense is leaps and bounds better than it was in April. In fact everything pretty much sucked the first 5 weeks of the season. It coincided with a flu-like bug that raced through the Astros clubhouse like a plague that adversely affected the whole team. May has been another story. Oh, the first week of May wasn't anything to write home about but a reshuffle of the batting order has paid big dividends with Jose Altuve moving up the leadoff spot, George Springer falling in at the two hole and Dexter Fowler moving down to the 3 spot dramatically improved all three players production. The middle of the order needs to get more consistant and the tail end has been better this past week. I have some rather high expectations for the team going forward. Let's look at the difference between April and May.

April record - 9-19 May record - 15-14 (It's been a while since we had a .500+ month)
April BA - .210 (skewed by .300+ BA by Altuve and M Gonzalez 28th in MLB) May BA - .261 (8th in the MLB)
April Team ERA - 4.87 (27th in MLB) May ERA - 3.42 (Thanks in large part to Dallas Kuechel and Chad Qualls MLB rank #6)

These are pretty telling stats and with some other call ups like Jon Singleton the potential is there to get even better. The starting pitching has been more than solid with quality start after quality start piling up. Look at Dallas Kuechel's outing yesterday. He was thought to have had a bad day and he gave up only 3 runs! Two on bases loaded walks in the sixth inning. Part of that was Bo Porter's fault letting him stay in the game when he was obviously struggling in the inning. The addition of Tony Sipp and Kyle Farnsworth that helped and Josh Fields has gotten markedly better since his trip back to AAA. Right now the Astros front office has been pushing all the right buttons and the players are picking each other up with Springer as the catalyst. 65-70 wins in 2014? No sweat, dude.

KABrother88

06-02-2014, 11:07 AM

Looks like the Houston has decided it's time...

@EvanDrellich: Source: The Astros have informed Jon Singleton he will be promoted from Class AAA Oklahoma City for tomorrow's game.

KABrother88

06-02-2014, 11:43 AM

Looks like the Houston has decided it's time...

@EvanDrellich: Source: The Astros have informed Jon Singleton he will be promoted from Class AAA Oklahoma City for tomorrow's game.

And even bigger news he signed a 5 year deal with 10 million guaranteed and 3 club options after the 5 years...many agents are shocked Singleton's agent agrees to such at team friendly deal

eagle eye

06-02-2014, 12:10 PM

According to Astros.com a lot of people are surprised the Astros are giving a contract like this to a player with no MLB level experience.

Quote from Astros.com

Yahoo! Sports reported that Singleton's deal will cover five guaranteed seasons and include three club options for the Astros. According to the report, Singleton is the first player without any Major League service time to sign such a deal. He gives up one year of free agency with the agreement.

It's a good deal for a minor league player especially one that has a history of marijuana abuse. His stat line at OKC is .267 BA with 37 runs, 10 doubles, 14 homers and 43 RBIs in 54 games this season. I'm sorry but .267 doesn't excite me too much it comes against AAA pitching. To me the Astros made a great deal. In the grand scheme of things he's getting a good deal for what he is the money isn't all that much. The option years that are built into the contract will allow Singleton to capitalize if he develops into something special. He the Astros #3 rated player in the minors so you hope that he can make the transition. I'm sure the Astros know he may be just a younger Chris Carter. As for playing tonight and the call up in general I think sends a message to Carter and Mark Krauss that their production is totally unsatisfactory and, like L J Hoes, could become expendable in hurry.

KABrother88

06-02-2014, 12:26 PM

Don't be surprised to see Austin Wates in Houston before too long as well...Outfielder who has battled injuries in his career, including missing about half of this season so far, but has hit over .300 at every level of the minors and is currently at .327 in OKC...even after going 0-10 in his last 3 games...walks more than he strikes out (13:16 K:BB) and is 14-14 in steals so far

eagle eye

06-02-2014, 08:55 PM

It's official. Jon Singleton signed his deal today and to make room for him on the 25 man roster Mark Krauss was optioned to OKC. I think the reason George Springer struggled the first month of the season is because the Astros, Bo Porter, alternated him between the 3rd and 4th spot in the batting order. That's a lot of pressure on a young player with no MLB experience. Once he was protected by two veterans Jose Altuve and Dexter Fowler Springer was able to begin to blossom. If they make the same mistake with Singleton he will struggle IMO. They put him in the five or six hole and that would alleviate the pressure he's naturally going to feel as he steps into the big club lineup.

I believe that Houston, frustrated with the lack of consistent production from the platoon of Chris Carter, Jesus Guzman and Krauss, felt like they had to make this move now rather than wait until later. The reason Singleton got the deal he got was to avoid financial issues for not waiting until later this month to call him up.

Check out this page of the top 20 Astros prospects. KABro's observation about Austin Wates is notes but he is not a top 20 guy. A look at his stat page and you understand where KABro is coming from. Here's the page so you can see for yourself. The stat that stands out for me is his BA against righties (.328) and lefties (.325) is self explanatory. It's rare to see such consistency between the pitchers.

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/mlb/prospects/watch/y2014/index.jsp?c_id=hou#list=hou

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=OF&sid=t238&t=p_pbp&pid=534909

KABrother88

06-03-2014, 11:49 AM

@BudNorris25: Sorry but this Singleton deal is terrible. Wish the Jon listened to the union and not his agent.

Apparently Bud Norris still isn't a Jeff Luhnow fan...he is getting ripped apart by Joe Shmoe and friends on Twitter for this. Of course I have no internal knowledge on the negotiations but it makes me wonder if Singleton isn't playing for the money and truly wants to win. He surely knows that this team is gonna be a force to be reckoned with in a few years and maybe he just wants to be a part of it and save Houston some money to fill other holes. Of course his peers only see that this in turn hurts the market for themselves but for a guy with as many MLB at-bats as me and a past drug issue, 2 million a year for 5 years guaranteed isn't flat out terrible for both parties...then the 3 option years average out at 8 million per year...still like it from a FO perspective and really all I care about at this point

eagle eye

06-03-2014, 05:34 PM

Bud Norris is a veteran who has made his money. He's a good union man but he just wants Singleton to go through arbitration where I'll be a lot of money would have meant he wouldn't be coming up now. The Astros would wait until later this summer when they avoid having to fork out the dough they just did for Springer. I think Norris feels like Singleton gave up on a year of arbitration for a small paycheck. That is until you realize Singleton is making more than a player with no MLB experience had made before. I still think Houston made a good deal IF Singleton is what he is projected to be. If not then they overpaid. The same goes from Singleton's POV. It's a good deal NOW but it may cost him some in the future. Only time will tell but to me, right now, it's win-win for both sides.

KABrother88

06-03-2014, 09:25 PM

Well so far Singleton has done what he's been able to do best in the minors...1st AB he struck out, 2nd time up he draws a bases loaded wall for his first career RBI, next AB he K's again and follows that up with an 8th inning HR to give Houston a 6-2 lead over LAA

Big T

06-03-2014, 09:46 PM

I think what we have seen tonight is what we are going to see a lot of in the up coming years and it is both exhilarating and frightening. A bunch of runs and a bunch of strikeouts.

eagle eye

06-04-2014, 10:32 AM

I'll take 1-3 w/ 2 RBIs and home run and a walk every day. What you'd have is a .333 hitter with a slew of RBI's and home runs. I'm not saying he homers every game but 1-3 is something I'll take as long as that hit comes at a time that really matters like a close game with runner/s in scoring position. If he strikes out a lot and produces like that I won't squawk. In a perfect world he would be putting the ball in play and making the defense work but as I've come to realize, this is not a perfect world.

I am glad Bo Porter started Singleton out in the six hole. Good decision there but there are a few decisions that have me scatching my head over. The top of the list is the moves Porter made at the top of the lineup last night. He moved Dexter Fowler back to the leadoff spot, dropped Altuve to 2nd and put Springer back to the 3rd spot. I don't understand that move at all. With the batting order Altuve, Springer, Fowler all three benefitted greatly by the move. Springer, who had been alternating between the 3 and 4 hole when he first came up, moved to the 2 and flourished. Now, in the middle of a slump Porter shuffled the deck again. It worked out but Springer didn't do squat. Oh, he walked a couple of times and scored a run but in the last 8 games he's gone 6-27 (.222) with 10 Ks and only 5 BBs. His batting average has dropped from .268 to .255 and Porter thinks this is the right time to move Springer to the 3. A position where you're best hitting is suppose to be. I don't get that move at all. In Dallas Kuechel's last start he struggled with his control from the git-go and he battled his was through 5 innings. His sixth he struggled again and he ended up walking in two runs. Why didn't he put him when he loaded the bases? IMO he left Kuechel in too long on an off night. That was this past Saturday. On Sunday Porter stuck too long with Scott Feldman who battled all game long and he fell apart in the 6th. The flood gates opened and he gave up 6 runs in the inning. Why did Porter leave Feldman in the game so long? Last Tuesday against KC Tony Sipp pitches a perfect eighth with a 3-0 lead. Porter brought Sipp out for the ninth despite Chad Qualls being ready to go. Sipp faced and retired the first batter in the frame when Porter brought in Qualls thereby screwing Qualls out of a save opportunity. Either let Sipp finish the game or bring in Qualls to start the ninth. That was a big kick in the nether-yea-ahh to both players. I am losing faith in Porter as a manager. Am I wrong?

eagle eye

06-05-2014, 08:45 AM

You knew it was bound to happen but if you haven't been following Houston day to day you may not realize that despite winning 7 in a row last week or so the last two were won on a home run by Springer and good pitching. The offensive explosion we enjoyed there for a while has cooled off --- a lot. On Tuesday Houston won due to timely hitting and a couple of long balls late for insurance runs and good pitching. Tuesday's game made you think the team-wide slump was over but it was just an anomoly. The Astros faced a pitcher coming off his worst game of the season in his last start but he turned it around and had his best start of the season including a historic 2nd inning where he struck out the side in 9 pitches. Who was he? Garrett Richards who lowered his ERA down to 3.25 after tossing 8 shutout innings allowing only 4 hits with no walks and 9 Ks. Richards is a pretty good pitcher and we need to give him credit but Houston is also not hitting very well and they haven't been for a week now. Richards became the first pitcher since Nolan Ryan in 1972 -- that's 42 years if you are counting -- to strike out all three batters he faced in an inning on just nine pitches. You have to consider who he struck out before you lose perspective on this accomplishment. Jon Singleton in his second game in the bigs, Matt Dominguez who has lost 20 points on his BA in the last week and Chris Carter the reigning strike out king in the AL but the fact is nine pitches, 3 outs -- history. It usually happens in sports, especially the pros, when a player has a bad game he often follows it up with a good one and the Astros were the victims of the truth of this adage. Jarred Cosart pitched pretty well going 6-2/3 innings allowing only 3 runs on 8 hits, a walk and 8 Ks. This isn't a bad outing and definitely qualifies as a quality start. Kyle Farnsworth finished off the 7th for Cosart and a scoreless 8th. Jerome Williams finished the game for Houston allowing one run. A disturbing thing is Williams propensity to allow at least a run every outing. With so many pitchers doing well at OKC Williams could find himself expendable.

Bo Porter made me wonder again about WTF he's thinking. Jon Singleton went 1-3 with a home run and a walk in his MLB debut Tuesday night so naturally Porter assumes the kid has arrived and he moved him up to 5th in the batting order. Impatient or something I can't explain why you do crap like that to a rookie. Give him a chance to settle in. Bat him 6th or 7th where the pressure to produce is lessened. I used to give Porter a pass because the team has been so bad but I'm noticing a peculiar trend of bad decisions by Porter. Team consistancy is sometimes due to a manager or head coach. Coaching plays a lot in sports and this roller coaster ride the Astros are on this season seems to point to a lacking by Porter.

Two bits of good news;
1. George Springer (hitting in the 2 hole) was named AL Player of the Month of May. Nice job.

2. The MLB Draft is tonight with Houston owning the #1 pick. Will Carlos Rodon be the guy or one of the high school fireballers or maybe they go position player. These questions will be answered tonight about 6:15 pm on MLB.com and MLB Network.

The Astros postgame show on Tuesday night began with the tag line, "The Summer of Springleton has begun!" I like this. the combining of the Springer's and Singleton's names and it is a lot catchier than something like the "Killer S'es". Not quite the same pop as "Killer B's" was.

KABrother88

06-05-2014, 09:26 AM

Not discrediting what Richards did in his "immaculate inning" but his was the 75th in baseball history and on the 125th anniversary of John Clarkson of the Boston Beaneaters becoming the first to do it...that 42 years between Ryan and Richard's perfect innings is actually in Angels history...not baseball...there have been 4 such innings this season alone and Justin Masterson of the Indians had one on Monday. In case anyone was wondering there have been 6 Astros/.45 pitchers to accomplish it (Bob Bruce - 1964, Pete Harnish - 1991, Mike Magnante - 1997, Randy Johnson - 1998, Shane Reynolds - 1999, and Brandon Backe - 2004). This is the 5th time Houston has been on the wrong end (Sandy Koufax - 1963, Trevor Wilson - 1992, Jason Isringhausen - 2002, Ben Sheets - 2004, and Richards last night). 4 people have done it multiple times. Lefty Grove who did it twice in a 35 day span, Nolan Ryan had one in each league, Randy Johnson had 2, and Sandy Koufax did it 3 times in a 3 season span.

eagle eye

06-05-2014, 11:01 AM

eagle eye

06-05-2014, 11:17 AM

In this week's MLB First Year Player Draft Houston will get the first pick in the draft but they also have more picks in the top 100. Here is a list of the draft picks the Astros have in first 100 picks.

#1 - First pick 1st round
#37 - 3rd pick in Competative Round A
#42 - first pick in 2nd round
#75 - first pick in the 3rd round

The Astros also have the first pick in rounds 4 through 40. The draft begins tonight and will continue tomorrow and conclude on Saturday. 4 picks in the top 75 isn't a bad thing.

KABrother88

06-05-2014, 12:11 PM

I am getting a little excited for the draft...ready to see what Luhnow has up his sleeve this year...still seeing that most "experts" are pegging Aiken but some have conceded and say they really have no clue what Houston will do but have a feeling that Houston knows the $ amount each of the top 2-3 players would ask for and they will take cheapest one.

Looking at MLB.com's scouting reports all three of the top pitcher received an overall grade of 65 (on a 20-80 scale) which is the same as Correa and Appel currently and ahead of Singleton who is at 55. Spots 37, 42, and 75 are all occupied by players receiving a grade of 50. Our current top 20 has numbers 13-20 getting 45s so theoretically we should land 4 guys in our top 12...and this is on a prospect list many consider the best in baseball...that just shows you how deep this draft is. Fun begins in about 5 hours

KABrother88

06-05-2014, 01:33 PM

So Mark Appel made his return to Lancaster on Saturday and got absolutely shellacked to the tune of 10 earned runs including 3 HRs while just recording 4 outs. He was supposed to be back on the mound today but the team discovered he has tendinitis in his thumb and he'll be shut down for 2 weeks...has to be very frustrating for him. Good news is that ESPN scout Keith Law said his velocity and stuff were fine. I guess he was just not hitting his spots and leaving pitches over too much of the plate

Big T

06-05-2014, 04:45 PM

Watch the Draft live tonight. The coverage started at 5:00 but the draft starts at 6:00.

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2014/watch-live/

Big T

06-05-2014, 05:16 PM

1-1 LHP Brady Aiken

KABrother88

06-05-2014, 05:54 PM

Glad he was the pick...can't remember who said it but one of the MLB.com guys said he will be placed as the #2 prospect in Houston's system once the rankings are redone (assuming he signs). Idk if that has anything to do with Appel's struggles this season or if Aiken is just that high on his board

eagle eye

06-05-2014, 06:50 PM

I thought they might go with Rodon because he would be the most likely to sign. But that notion was shot down last week when Jeff Luhnow said they would draft the best player on their board regardless of anything including signability. A 17 year old with a 98 mph fastball and good curve. He could fast track like Dwight Gooden did. I guess we'll know next week whether or not he signs. He is already committed to a college if that means anything at this point.

Big T

06-05-2014, 07:23 PM

There is no doubt he will sign. The only question is whether or not the Astros can get him for under the max and save some money for the following rounds. I do have to admit, I am wary of taking a HS pitcher at 1-1 but he was the unanimous pick there soooo.... We shall see.

Big T

06-05-2014, 08:40 PM

1A-37 Derek Fisher OF from UVA. I am slightly confused about this pick. Hasn't exactly lit it up in College.

Big T

06-05-2014, 08:56 PM

2-1 AJ Reed 1B from U Kentucky. Here is the power bat that we desperately needed. Defense makes me more than a little wary, but his bat is legit!

eagle eye

06-05-2014, 08:57 PM

According to MLB.com draft tracker. Fisher plays in a pitchers park at Virginia and many hitters from Virginia often do well in the bigs. MLB.com likes his approach from the left side and he is capable of hitting for average. He's more of a line drive hitter able to use the whole field but with a potential to develop power.

With pick #42 Houston takes 1B A J Reed who MLB.com is calling the college baseball Babe Ruth. They (mlb.com) is saying that they are surprised Reed fell to this point in the draft. Looks like Houston got a steal here.

Big T

06-05-2014, 08:58 PM

Oh, and the Astros are winners 8-5 tonight.

eagle eye

06-05-2014, 09:01 PM

No thanks to Paul Clemens. The guy stunk it up in the ninth. Astros had an 8-3 lead going into the ninth and the first 5 batters reached base with 2 hits and 3 walks. Just aweful. Chad Qualls came in and saved the day.

I won't see the Astros 3rd round pick tonight. Cautiously pleased with things so far.

KABrother88

06-05-2014, 10:32 PM

Think they did pretty well on day one of the draft...Aiken was the consensus #1 player so you can't complain about going chalk there. Derek Fisher is a guy with multiple NBA championships and will bring a winning attitude to Houston...wait it's not that guy?...in all seriousness I've heard good things about Fisher and he missed 6 weeks in the middle of the season this year with a hamate bone injury so that why his numbers were less than desirable. A.J. Reed is an absolute smasher...he's should be a guy who puts up 25-30 HRs regularly and I think he'll be good enough with the glove to play 1st in Singleton can't...if not the he can DH. He led the nation in HRs (23), slugging (.735), an OPS (1.211) and was named SEC player of the year...oh yea and he won 12 games with a 2.09 ERA on the side. I kinda hoped we would scoop up Sean Ried-Foley at 37 but figured we would start going with position players since we went pitcher heavy to start last years draft...of the position players available at 37 I was a fan of Jacob Gatewood but he's kid of a poor mans Carlos Correa with a little more pop so not too too surprised they didn't double up on that position.

A couple of players I wouldn't mind us taking to start round 3 tomorrow include J.B. Bukauskas and Michael Cederoth...Bukauskas is a small framed HS RHP who can pump it up into the upper 90s and flirt triple digits and Cederoth is a 6'6" RHP from San Diego State who can bring it as well...he was moved to the bullpen this season and that may be his future home...but wouldn't be surprised if he was converted back to a started after he's drafted

KABrother88

06-06-2014, 09:31 AM

Well now I see that Bukauskas was one of the handful of HS pitchers that sent every team a letter asking them not to draft him as he wanted to play collegiately at North Carolina...so cross him off the list...still the Cederoth is a good value pick at 75...not Stephen Strausburg coming out of the same school but have seen some people say he Cederoth reminded them of the former #1 overall selection in 2009.

Big T

06-06-2014, 11:10 AM

3-1 JD Davis 1B from Cal State Fullerton.

KABrother88

06-06-2014, 11:29 AM

Good pick I think...thought they may grab another pitcher but with so many in this draft no complaining getting bats while you can...another 2-way guy who played 3rd and served as the closer for Fullerton...MLB.com gave him a 50 grade as a position player and pitcher...which would be a top 12 at either position in the current rankings. Very good power

KABrother88

06-06-2014, 11:52 AM

I'd like Cobi Johnson or Chris Oliver here at 106

Big T

06-06-2014, 11:53 AM

4-1 RHP from A&M Daniel Mengden

KABrother88

06-06-2014, 11:59 AM

Eh...not a lot for me to get excited about with that one...expect to start seeing some college seniors start to go for team to under slot them since they don't have leverage...I'd take a guy like Sam Bumpers lol

Big T

06-06-2014, 12:07 PM

I will be surprised if they take a SS this early Lol. Not with Correa taking up that spot for the foreseeable future.

KABrother88

06-06-2014, 12:14 PM

Not saying next round...rounds 5-10 have been college senior heavy recently...looking for him to go 7th-8th round...you never know with Luhnow...he did draft Fontana in the 2nd round in 2012 after taking Correa 1st overall...I'm a believer that you can never have enough shortstops on a team

KABrother88

06-06-2014, 12:18 PM

And just saw Mengden was another two-way player before concentrating on pitching this season...is Luhnow trying to field an Iron-9 team?...everybody can pitch and hit lol

Big T

06-06-2014, 12:36 PM

5-1 Jacob Nix RHP from Cali. Another HS arm. I really, really like this pick.

KABrother88

06-06-2014, 12:43 PM

Just read he was projected as a 2nd to 3rd round guy before this season and he's slipped because of a poor performance. Think he's a project but we are deep enough pitching wise that he has plenty of time to develop

KABrother88

06-06-2014, 02:04 PM

With current pitchers in the minor leagues with last names like Oberholtzer, Foltynewicz, Wojochiechowski, and Tropeano, Jeff Luhnow has out done him self landing that rare letter "X"...with the first pick in the 6th round Houston takes RHP Brock Dykxhoorn from Central Arizona College

eagle eye

06-06-2014, 06:59 PM

There's no such thing as too much pitching. At 6'8" and 240 lbs if this guy can throw a baseball will look like a BB in a hurricane blowing off a mountain. He's the sixth round pick.

Here's an up-to-date list of picks.

7th RD - Derick Velazquez - RHP Fresno State Junior - 6'4" 200 lbs
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/67565098/v33211011/draft-report-derick-velazquez-college-pitcher

8th RD - Bobby Boyd - CF West Virginia Junior - 5'8" 180 lbs R/R

9th RD - Brian Radziewski - LHP Miami Hurricanes Senior - 5'10" 190 lbs

10th RD - Jay Gause - LHP Faulkner U (Ala) Junior - 6'4" 250 lbs

11th RD - Begins tomorrow when rounds 11-40 will take place.

Big T

06-06-2014, 11:38 PM

Astros win again tonight no thanks to the bullpen 5-4. Dallas went another six scoreless innings. Just amazing.

eagle eye

06-07-2014, 04:21 PM

Scott Feldman is struggling. No doubt about it in the last couple of starts he just hasn't had it. He struggled from the git-go. He got out of the 1st inning unscathed but he just couldn't stop Minnesota's offense at all. He even helped them out by hitting the lead off batter with a 1-2 count in the 2nd. Again, Bo Porter left his pitcher in the game too long as Feldman gave up 3 runs and loaded the bases before he got him out of the game. Paul Clemens came in and stopped the bleeding but it was only a temporary reprieve. After getting the Twins 1-2-3 in the 3rd his day turned south in the 4th. In 2/3 of an inning Clemens walked 5, allowed a sac but, 2 hits and 4 runs. Since he's come back from AAA Clemens has been less than good to say the least. Jerome Williams came in after Clemens' 5th walk Porter ended the inning facing one batter. Williams got through the fifth and sixth giving up a hit but he just can't seem to make an appearance lately without giving up one run and the seventh was his inning. Williams gave up 2 hits and two walks on his way to allowing the Twins 8th run of the game. So, after seven innings the Astros were done for the day it seems being shutout 8-0 with the Twins Kyle Gibson going 7 strong and his bullpen wasn't as leaky as Houston's. Jared Burton and Caleb Thielbar shut the door on the Astros day. The Astros managed only 5 hits on the day and maybe it was because it was cool day with the temp in Minneapolis at game time a brisk 56 degrees. Who knows what got into the Astros but it's not a big deal. As Scarlett O'Hara said, "Fiddle-dee-dee, I'll worry about it tomorrow." It's a long season and sometimes it's just not your day.

KABrother88

06-07-2014, 06:04 PM

There are some reports out but nothing confirmed from the team that 1st overall pick Brady Aiken has already agreed to terms on a $6.5 million signing bonus...slot value was $7.922 million...that extra $1.422 million would go along way to locking up guys like 5th rounder Jacob Nix who will most likey need more than slot value to turn down UCLA.

Big T

06-07-2014, 07:43 PM

That is very good news.

Big T

06-07-2014, 07:46 PM

They have already come to terms with the eighth round and tenth rounds picks. The sixth round pick is also very close to signing.

KABrother88

06-07-2014, 10:07 PM

Don't think well have many issues with signing our picks from the top ten rounds...in the 21st round we took HS LHP Mac Marshall and he's viewed as a very difficult sign...hence why MLB.com's #66 draft prospect slid all the way #616...but not signing your 21st round pick won't hurt too bad...just keep in mind that anything over $100,000 to a player after round 10 is included in the pool you get for the slot value of each of those picks...going over the pool cap results in the team being taxed and potential loss of draft picks

Big T

06-08-2014, 06:59 PM

Astros crushed the twins today with slams from Singleton and Carter. Springer also contributed with a solo shot.

eagle eye

06-09-2014, 04:01 PM

With the draft over with we, as fans, need to get off our keesters and show some of the Astros players some support by voting for them to make the All Star team. Jose Altuve has just cracked the top 5 second basemen in voting. He's got 380,000 + votes to No 1 vote getter Robinson Cano who has 1,100,000 +. You can vote for whoever you want (Astros) and you can do it 25 times. Guys that really deserve a vote are Altuve and Springer. I don't think the people who bitched about Yasiel Puig last season have the same gripe this year with Springer. He played all season except for about 2 weeks and he was named AL Player of the Week and AL Player of the Month in May. The guy deserves a little love from us fans. If you are really feeling homer-ish I'd say Jason Castro is the next best choice with 27 RBI's he's tied for 2nd among AL catchers.

Here's the link to go vote. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

2014 All-Star Game MLB.com Ballot Sponsored by Experian

If you are still on the fence then you may want to know that Houston has agreed to terms with their 9th round pick Bryan Radziewski the LHP from Miami (Fla). His friend and teammate a Miami and Houston's 40th round pick 2B Alex Hernandez may soon be headed to short season Tri-Cities later this week because Houston has also agree to a deal with him. Actually, Hernandez is still waiting to be told where he will be sent.
Sixth round pick Brock Dykxhoorn, a right-handed pitcher from Central Arizona College, said on Saturday that he had agreed to a signing bonus and was sorting out the final details of the contract.

Okay, now go vote. The Astros play Arizona tonight. The home page on their web site says 8:40. I'm confused because Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings time so CDT is the same as MST which is the zone Phoenix is in. Weird. Talk about weird, Houston plays the D-Backs twice in Phoenix and then plays them at home for a split 4 game series. I'm not sure if I've ever seen that before.

Big T

06-10-2014, 12:36 PM

You can get up to four free tickets for the Stros and D-Backs game on November the 12! I already got mine!

http://www.heavenlysteals.com/2014/06/4-free-mlb-baseball-tickets-to-arizona.html

eagle eye

06-10-2014, 12:41 PM

I know you're excited Big T but the tickets are for JUNE 12th which is this Thursday not November 12th. LOL!!

eagle eye

06-10-2014, 01:10 PM

George Springer was a late scratch from the lineup last night due to knee soreness. He will be listed as day to day for a little while. Hope it isn't serious. Jon Singleton took his spot in the lineup.

The Astros have agree to terms on a deal with their 2nd round pick AJ Reed the slugging 1st baseman MLB.com analysts dubbed college baseball's Babe Ruth when Houston selected him last Thursday. The Astros have not confirmed this but Reed said in an interview with MLB.com that he would be in Houston on Wednesday to sign a contract.

Reed led the nation in homers (23), slugging (.735) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.211), while ranking as the Southeastern Conference leader, and fourth in the NCAA, in pitching victories (12). Reed hit .336 with 18 doubles, one triple, 73 RBIs, 49 walks and a .476 on-base percentage while posting a 2.09 ERA as the Wildcats' Friday night starter. - Quote from Astros.com -

The Astros have also agreed to terms with their 3rd round pick JD Davis from Cal State Fullerton. Davis was a hitter and pitcher in college but he will start off playing 3rd base for the Astros. He is scheduled to report to short season Tri-Cities at the end of this week.

With the signing of these two picks Houston's George Springer and Matt Dominguez will now have someone breathing down their throats to take their jobs. It should make them better and gives the Astros organization some really nice options. So, now 5 of the top ten draft picks are signed, sealed and delivered. Not half bad Jeff Luhnow.

Big T

06-10-2014, 01:25 PM

I know you're excited Big T but the tickets are for JUNE 12th which is this Thursday not November 12th. LOL!!

Why the hell did my phone put November?!?! Lol

KABrother88

06-10-2014, 03:13 PM

Reports are saying 2nd rounder A.J. Reed's signing bonus is for 1.35 million...all of the slot value. I still haven't seen anything official on Aiken but assuming his 6.5 million number is accurate then we might need a bit of a discount from Derek Fisher to be able to sign 5th rounder Jacob Nix...this is also assuming other picks have signed at slot value as I haven't seen any official numbers for them. So far MLB.com says we have reached an agreement with our 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 8th, 9th, and 10th round picks with Aiken very close. Virginia advanced to the College World Series so Fisher can no be signed until they are through playing and Nix will probably be the last to sign so the FO has an idea how much money they will have. The only other picks left is 4th rounder Mengden and 7th rounder Velazquez who are both college pitchers and I'd assume they'd sign. Teams are allowed to go over their allotted bonus pool but it results in penalties. 0-5% over calls for a 75% tax on the overage amount, 5-10% overage calls for the same 75% tax plus a loss of the next years 1st rounder, and 10-15% overage leads to a 100% tax and loss of the next years 1st and 2nd round picks. Houston's pool totaled $13,362,200. 5% of that would be $668,110. I'm sure Houston doesn't want to go over any but if they have a shot to somehow sign 21st rounder Mac Marshall (even though I've read he told the team he was going to school) they would explore into the 0-5% range...but as much value as they put on the draft they will not exceed that and lose a pick.

eagle eye

06-11-2014, 07:39 PM

The Astros and 7th round pick Derick Velazquez, the RHP from Fresno State. It's being reported that Velazquez will report to Kissimmee before heading to Tri-City.

So far the Astros have agreed to terms with all the following. It doesn't mean all have signed their contract yet.

1. Brady Aiken - agreed to terms; possibly sign his contract this week
1A. Derek Fisher - still in college world series
2. A J Reed - agreed to terms and signed his contractJ D Evans - agreed to terms and signed his contract
3. J D Evans - agreed to terms and signed his contract
4. Daniel Mengden - has yet to agree to terms
5. Jacob Nix - has yet to agree to terms if he will; committed to UCLA
6. Brock Dykxhoorn - agreed to terms; still ironing out details of his contract
7. Derek Velazquez - agreed to terms and signed his contract
8. Bobby Boyd - agree to terms and signed his contract
9. Bryan Radziewski - agreed to terms and signed his contract
10. Jay Gause - agreed to terms and signed his contract

Add to the lower round players who have agreed to terms I'd say one week after the draft Houston is doing pretty darn good.

5.
6.

eagle eye

06-11-2014, 09:17 PM

George Springer came back into the lineup tonight and it was as if he hadn't missed a beat. He went 2-3 with an RBI and a run scored and no walks or K's. Who knows what's up with Chris Carter lately but I hope it continues. He went 2-4 with 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored with no walks or Ks. What? No Ks? Bless my soul there is some strange voodoo in Houston right now. Houston is now 30-37 and it's been a while since they have been 7 games under .500. They are only 2 games back of 4th place Texas and only one in the win column. The Rangers are 31-34 after smacking the Marlins around tonight and they have played 2 less games than Houston. Another good week by Houston and a bad week by the Ranger then we will climb out of the AL West cellar. How 'bout them apples? Tonight marked the first game this season Jose Altuve wasn't in the starting lineup. He strained his oblique muscle swinging at a pitch on Tuesday's final game in Arizona. I guess Cal Ripkin's consecutive game record is safe -- for now. Dallas Kuechel was bad to the bone again tonight. In the Astros 5-1 win Kuechel pitched 8 complete innings allowing just the one run on 4 hits, a walk and 5 Ks and lowered his ERA to .238. If this guy doesn't make the All Star squad there will be more than cheese that smells funny in Wisconsin. Chad Qualls pitched a scoreless 9th but it was not a save situation but if I'm Bo Porter I have to wonder if there's anyone I can trust lately from my bullpen except Qualls. He's lowered his ERA to 1.99 so there's that. Jon Singleton didn't get a hit tonight but he got an RBI on a ground out to 1st allowing Jonathan Villar to score. Villar had a nice game and he's been waaaaaaaay overdue for one. 2-3 with a run scored with no walks and no strikeouts.
What tonight's win means is Houston is guaranteed a split of this set of two games at home and split of the four game series with Arizona. THAT means Houston has not lost a series since they lost 2 of 3 to Anaheim way back on May 19-21. That's 8 series ago! EIGHT! They have won 3 series and are guaranteed to split 5 depending upon what happens tomorrow. If they win tomorrow they will have gone 4-0-4 in their last 8 series. If you count the current 4 games with Arizona as one series then if they beat the D-Backs in the finale tomorrow then Houston will have a record of 4-0-3. Houston has got to have the rest of the MLB quoting Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, "Who are those guys?"! It's freakin awesome!

Big T

06-11-2014, 11:15 PM

19-11 in the past 30 games. Don't know about y'all, but I will take it!

KABrother88

06-12-2014, 06:37 AM

eagle eye

06-12-2014, 06:02 PM

According to a tweet I saw yesterday 4th rounder Mengden has agreed to terms but won't sign until June 24th for some reason...no dollar amount given.

Dallas Keuchel has been pitching out of his mind despite having "average stuff" according to Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon...looked up his numbers vs ground ball machine Brandon Webb who won the Cy Young in 2006 for...right now Keuchel has a Ground Out/Air Out ratio of 3.45...Webb's career best was 3.36 in that Cy Young season. Across the board Kuechel's numbers are eerily similar to Webb's 2006 number...except Webb's ERA was 3.10 vs Keuchel's 2.38 and Webb went 16-8 and Keuchel is currently on pace to go 19-6...again 19-6...from an Astros pitcher

...from an Astros pitcher on a sub .500 ball team. Kuechel is having a hoot of a season. If he gets to 10 wins by the All Star break he could conceivably win 20 games. If the summer call ups infuse this team the way George Springer and Jon Singleton have, look out folks, we could be looking at a .500 ball club!

This Astros front office is nothing if not busy. It was announced today that there has been movement in the minor leagues. First, the Astros have promoted Preston Tucker up from the Corpus Christi Hooks to the OKC Redhawks. To make room for Tucker the Astros traded 27 year old OF Adron Chambers to Toronto for two minor league players. They are LHP Alejandro Solarte and IF Will Dupont. Both are 19 years old and will report to Kissimmee. For a detailed account check out this link to Astros.com. Check out Tucker's numbers in CC. Holy crap has this organization become really good or what?!

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/houston-trades-minor-leaguer-chambers-to-blue-jays?ymd=20140612&content_id=79429256&vkey=news_ho u

KABrother88

06-12-2014, 06:54 PM

I've always been a fan of Tucker an his bat...MLB.com has him at #20 right now but I personally think he should be in the 11-13 range ...all the guy does is hit and doesn't have the bad strike out numbers that many of out top hitting prospects have...the front office may have a tough decision to make now...depending on how Tucker performs at OKC they could possibly have 3 OF worthy of a summer call up with only 1 OF (LF) position seemingly available...good problem to have

eagle eye

06-12-2014, 06:55 PM

If you want to see some of the Astros future the CBS Sports Network (Channel 221 on Directv) is showing the Corpus Christi Hooks (Astros AA franchise) vs the Frisco RoughRiders in a game in Corpus. Right now it's the bottom of the 3rd with CC winning 1-0 on a lead off home run.

KABrother88

06-12-2014, 09:30 PM

I guess I'm spoiled now and not used to failure...but leading 4-3 in the 7th Houston loaded the bases with no out looking for insurance only to get a infield fly from Singleton the have Dominguez ground into a double play...then in the top of the 9th Chad Qualls gives up a HR on the first pitch to tie the game at 4...bottom of the 9th went ground out by Fowler, BB to Marwin Gonzales, Single by Springer, IBB to Singleton to load the bases with 1 out for Doninguez again...and what does he do?!?!...grounds into another friggin double play...AGH!

KABrother88

06-12-2014, 09:43 PM

cHRis carter saves the day...walk off HR to the Crawford Boxes!

Big T

06-12-2014, 11:39 PM

I had a blast, no pun intended, at the game tonight. My only complaint was loading the bases three time with one or less outs and only scoring one run in those three situations.

eagle eye

06-13-2014, 09:44 AM

I had a blast, no pun intended, at the game tonight. My only complaint was loading the bases three time with one or less outs and only scoring one run in those three situations.

It was a good game to go to with a happy ending. I was listening to the game and I just couldn't go past the 8th inning. I was surprised Qualls blew the save but sh*t happens which is a shame because Feldman deserved the win. He's been too good the past month. That's what's special about this team, try as they might to lose they just wouldn't let it happen. Seems like they have pretty good chemistry. Six games under .500 now which is pretty awesome and only one behind Texas who won too. Seems to me that Texas let too many players get away and they don't have the team to be a force any more. I could be wrong, it's only June after all.

The Hooks lost last night and you can't help but wonder how much the loss of Preston Tucker hurt them. Watching the Hooks last night made me even more mad about the problems with the Astros TV deal. I'd love to see this team play more often. Some of you probably do because you know the bootleg sites to go to but I don't know any I trust as secure.

eagle eye

06-13-2014, 08:14 PM

Six draftees sign their deals with Houston and are now headed for Tri-City. This makes a total of 14 players out of 41 draft picks that are signed.

7th Rd pick RHP Derek Velazquez
9th Rd pick LHP Bryan Radziewski
10th Rd pick RHP Jay Gause
13th Rd pick Catcher Jamie Ritchie
14th Rd pick IF Nick Tanielu
40th Rd pick IF Alex Hernandez

Last season Tri-City won the Penn League Championship after winning their second consecutive Division Title.

Jose Altuve left last night's game vs Arizona after he was hit in his right hand when a pitch he was squaring around to bunt came in high and tight. Altuve's hand was down on the barrel of his bat in bunting position. It did not appear that the pitch smashed his hand between the ball and the bat, it was just a straight hit. Astros fans will remember how much time Jeff Bagwell missed after being hit in the hand. Today the Altuve said he is feeling 100% better especially after his x-rays came back negative. Before tonight's game Altuve took some light infield work and he says he hopes to be back in the lineup tomorrow. Officially, he is listed as day to day.

The Astros have called up P Josh Zeid for the third time this season. This up and down thing isn't the ideal situation but Zeid has said he'd rather bounce between the bigs and AAA than be stuck in AAA all season or be sent to AA. He said he loves Houston, loves the fans and he loves the teammates he knows so well because he has come up through the ranks with a lot of them. Zeid said all he can do is try his best to stick this time. To make room for Zeid Houston optioned Rudy Owens back to OKC. Owens made only one appearance for Houston back on a start against Seattle on May 23rd in which he allowed 5 runs on 9 hits in 5-2/3 innings. The middle and set up relief pitchers have struggled all season and Houston is still looking for the right mix that they can count on. Despite the fact that Houston has won 14 of their past 19 games Houston hasn't been able to hide the fact that their relievers are vulnerable.

eagle eye

06-15-2014, 08:38 PM

I would bet a dollar to a donut that Jerome Williams may be the next casualty of the Astros roster. I have said this before that Williams has been good for at least one run every single outing in recent memory. I would even bet this is without exception and I would venture a guess this goes back to the first part of May. The Astros have been covering this up by winning but I guarantee you that he hasn't been able to hold anyone scoreless in a long time. Why am I going on about this now? Because today Williams gave up two runs in a game Houston lost to Tampa Bay 4-3. Brad Peacock pitched but 4 innings giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 4 BBs and 3Ks. Needless to say it wasn't his best outing of the year. Peacock threw 91 pitches in only four innings which should tell you something about his day. But he battled and one of the runs he allowed was a bases loaded walk. Darin Downs relieved Peacock for 1-1/3 scoreless innings then came Williams. In 2 innings of work he gave up 5 hits and two 2 runs with no walks and 1 K. He gave up a run in the 6th to allow TB to tie the game and he gave up the game winner in the 8th. Folty could come up and be a set up man for goodness sake. I've just about had my fill of Williams. I cringe every time he enters a game. He needs to go.

As much as you would have hoped Robbie Grossman would be the guy to play left field and lock down a spot in the Astros batting order he just hasn't. He's struggled for the most part since he was brought up a few weeks ago to replace an ineffective L J Hoes but he just hasn't got it. He did bring up his batting average from the anemic .125 that caused him to be sent to OKC the first time to just over .200 but now he's back in his funk sliding back to .178. I'm sorry but that's just not going to get it. There are guys in AAA who deserve their shot. Grossman has had two this season and didn't capitalize on either, it's time to let someone else try.

Another guy who maybe needs a trip back to OKC is Jonathan Villar. He's been inconsistent on defense but his batting has been bad. He's currently sporting a .200 BA but I venture to say he really hasn't been even that good. He may need to go back to AAA just to regain some confidence. He's a better player and a better hitter than what he's shown. I just think he's been pressing for so long now his confidence needs a little boost. Marwin Gonzalez has been playing well lately and his .273 BA is a lot more like it. Could Villar be looking at how Carlos Correa has been tearing up the pitching in High A Lancaster? Doesn't matter, the bottom half of the batting order needs a shot in the arm offensively and Villar is like having a pitcher batting. The reason the AL went to the DH was to infuse some offense into the game. Houston can't tolerate a position player hitting .200.

Jose Altuve was in the Astros lineup today. He didn't play his position but he did pinch hit in the ninth with a runner on base and it was a simply horrendous pitch hit. Altuve has missed the last three games with an injured hand and what does he do in his first plate appearance since he hurt his hand? He swings on an inside pitch on the first pitch he faced. He grounded out weakly to second base on a fielders choice for the 2nd out of the inning. First pitch. As Charlie Brown would say, "Good grief.". Jon Singleton struck out swinging to end the game. Singleton went 0-4 with 4 Ks today. I reckon it's feast or famine with that young man. Patience, EE, patience.

Former Astros closer, Jose Veras, has signed a minor league deal and will report to Kissimmee, Fla before eventually going to AAA OKC. Veras said that he never wanted to leave Houston in the first place when he was traded to Detroit last summer and he's happy to be coming back to H town. Veras signed a deal with the Cubs earlier this year but he struggled and lost his closer job and was eventually assigned to AAA and released. Veras is 33 and he may not be a closer any more but he could at least do what Jerome Williams has done.

KABrother88

06-16-2014, 10:51 AM

I like the signing of Veras and hope he can recapture what he showed her last season...and with him being on a minor league deal he should be making league minimum when he is called up so if it doesn't work no harm no foul...glad I'm not the only one who had that same feeling when I saw Williams was coming in...reminded me of how I used to feel when Jay Powell would come in for Houston in the late 90s early 2000s...Villar has been struggling for a good while but ironically when he began to struggle is when Houston began to play well...that being said somethin needs to be done...Marwin has been very serviceable there but he has alot of value as a utility man to me and I'd hate for him to lose alot of that capability...our AAA options have actually preformed pretty well in OKC...the 2 guys listed at SS are 29 year old Gregorio Petit and 21 year old Ronald Torreyes...Petit is hitting .294 with 7 HR and 16BB:39K in 63 games (235 ABs)...Torreyes is hitting .295 with 2 HR with a 14BB:12K in 59 games (207 ABs)...again 12 Ks for a 21 year old in 207 AAA AB...that's crazy. Seen some idiots on Twitter calling for Correa to he called up to replace Villar...was a little in shock cause I think they were serious...he's a 19 year old kid not even to AA ball yet...let him develop or he'll flame out like every other prospect rushed to the big leagues.

eagle eye

06-16-2014, 12:56 PM

I wholeheartedly agree. I think that Houston has shown a good amount of restraint in bringing their minor leaguers up through the system. Correa needs to take one step at a time coming up. So far, he torn up every level of the minor league system and they way he's playing a Lancaster he's going to be in Corpus Christi before the year is out. I do think they may have had a little premature promotion in terms of Jon Singleton. IMO the guy needed some more time to refine his approach at the plate. The awesome thing about it is if Singleton turns out to be another Chris Carter we have the depth in the minor league system to replace Singleton if he doesn't work out. Heck, we have the depth at AAA. Over the last few years the Astros have built and strong minor league system. This is not my opinion, it's fact, if you believe MLB.com's rankings. I'm certainly not saying give up on Villar but it looks like he needs to go back to AAA to refine his game and get some confidence back.

BTW, in case you haven't noticed Houston lost their first series in about a full month.and to the D-Rays of all people. If you check out the MLB standings Houston is not the worst team in baseball. They may have lost to the worst team this past weekend but David Price ain't no scrub. Houston is like the 5th worst team in baseball but going into the game yesterday they had the best winning % in ALL OF BASEBALL since May 11th. Not too shabby. Lets hope they get back on track against the Nats tonight. (I still can't get over that HORRIBLE pinch hit by Jose Altuve yesterday.....Yeeesh.)

eagle eye

06-17-2014, 02:14 PM

The last few posts we discussed the need to give some of Houston's prospects a chance in the bigs mainly due to the struggles of players like Jonathan Villar, Jesus Guzman, Jerome Williams to name a few. Well, the Astros.com folks must have been checking out the web site because up pops an article on the Astros web site about who may to next to test the big league waters.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/astros-prospects-in-queue-for-next-call?ymd=20140616&content_id=80047304&vkey=news_ho u

Astros No 16 prospect P Nick Tropeano had this third outing in a row of at least 7 innings of shutout ball. In his last 3 starts Tropeano is 3-0 with a 0.82 ERA and a 0.68 WHIP. Overall he's got a 5-4 record with a 2.09 ERA which ranks him 3rd in the Pacific Coast League. He is vastly better than last season's disappointment. He wasn't terrible but he wasn't dominating either. It's okay as long as he's getting better.

Tonight the Astros play the first of a two game series against the Washington Nationals in Washington. Dallas Kuechel and his 8-3 record and 2.32 ERA goes against the Nats Tanner Roark and his 5-4 record with 2.92 ERA. Tomorrow it's Scott Feldman and Gio Gonzalez.

KABrother88

06-17-2014, 09:04 PM

@jimcallisMLB: 5th-rder Jacob Nix agrees w/@Astros on $1.5 mil (pick 136 value = $370,500). Calif HS RHP inconsistent as senior but also up to 96 @MLBDraft

Looks like we've used the 1.5 million dollar discount from Aiken to sign Nix...important signing for Houston

eagle eye

06-18-2014, 02:05 PM

Dallas Keuchel didn't look like Cy Young last night. He did battle through his 5 innings of work. When you throw 105 pitches in only 5 innings you have battled. Keuchel only gave up six hits but three of the hits were doubles. Keuchel just wasn't getting the ground ball outs he has been. Add to that an uncharacteristic 4 walks all that just spells trouble. The problem with the Astros offense last night was not due to a lack of hits. Hell, they pounded out 14 of the damn things. Trouble was they were 5-14 with runners in scoring position. The top three hitters Fowler, Altuve and Springer when 2-5, 4-5 and 2-4 respectively but it didn't do anything but up their batting averages. Down 6-1 at one point Houston staged a rally in the 8th scoring 4 runs to close to 6-5 but that was all she wrote. If you play the "if" game then IF Kyle Farnsworth hadn't allowed two inherited runners to score in the 6th, and nothing else changed, Houston would have won the doggone game! But, as Dandy Don once said, "If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts we'd all have a merry Christmas.". Keuchel took the loss, his first in over a month, the 5 innings were the fewest since his first start of the season way back in April. If you say a pitcher struggles and he only gives up four runs on 6 hits and 4 walks that really isn't that bad, is it? For all his shutout innings this year Keuchel was due some run support and he didn't get it. Consider all the Astros hitters duely kicked in the nether yeah-yah for letting their pitcher down.

Here's some news, notes and video from Astros.com including a Tony Gwynn tribute, the signing of fifth round pick Nix, and a couple of odds and ends.

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140617&content_id=80256894&noteb ook_id=80257126&vkey=notebook_hou&c_id=hou

eagle eye

06-18-2014, 08:52 PM

I know that Jeff Luhnow and his player personnel people have tried hard to bolster the bullpen. The bullpen was one of the many weaknesses Houston had to tolerate in 2013. However, despite all their best efforts they haven't been completely successful. Yes they have Chad Qualls and Tony Sipp but they also have had to watch Jerome Williams, Josh Zeid and now Kyle Farnsworth fail on a consistent basis. Tonight's game is no exception. Scott Feldman pitched five innings. Like Dallas Keuchel last night he battled for five innings and 103 pitches. When he left the game the Astros had a 4-2 lead. Good job Scott, hit the showers and relax--you earned it. In the ensuing innings, it's currently the seventh the combination of Zeid, Darin Downs and Farnsworth has squandered what had been a 5-3 lead and by the time the bottom of the 7th was complete Houston was looking at a 6-5 deficit. If this game had been on TV I may have thrown something clear through the TV screen. Needless to say--I AM PISSED AT THIS BULLPEN. I'm not relieving the offense because for the second night in a row they are dismal with runners in scoring position. So far tonight they are 3-9. They have 5 runs on only 6 hits. They are scoring on sac flies, wild pitches and fielder's choices. pathetic. I know Houston can't win every game and I knew their hot streak was bound to come to an end but unless Houston hits home runs they just don't score. You live by the HR and you die by the HR, or lack thereof.

Okay, I may as well stick around for the top of the ninth. The eighth was scoreless for both teams so now Washington will bring in Raphael Soriano to shut the door on the Astros.
Tony Sipp is scheduled to hit but of course Houston pinch hits for him.

Chris Carter - Carter got ahead 2-0 then Soriano fired strikes in on the next six pitches. Carter struck out swinging on the last pitch. 1 out.
Dexter Fowler - Fowler started ahead in the count 2-0 just like Carter. Soriano went to work and got the count to 3-2 and on the 8th pitch Fowler grounded out to second. 2 outs.
Jose Altuve - On the second pitch Altuve singles into left-center.
George Springer - Soriano went after Springer and on the 5th pitch and a 1-2 count Springer struck out swinging.
3 outs--game over. ((^*&&^$^%$&(*(&)*)_()(_**&(**&^%*$^&%&## -- that's me cussing.

eagle eye

06-19-2014, 11:00 PM

I'm not mad----yes I am. I can live with Houston losing to the Nationals even though both games were winnable. The Nats have a good ball club. What I can't stand is Houston losing 3 straight to a team that was 6 games BEHIND them in the win column. Houston hasn't really even been competitive vs the D-Rays. That is very disconcerting considering how well they had been playing. Hopefully, Houston can rebound and there is 3 more games against the Rays to get some redemption. Colin McHugh was the third pitcher in the last 3 games that had to battle himself as much as the opposing hitters. 6 innings giving up 2 runs on four hits and 3 walks throwing 104 pitches isn't a bad outing. It's actually considered a quality start. The bullpen is another matter. Tonight it was Paul Clemens who screwed the pooch. One inning he gave up the same 4 hits McHugh did but he one-upped McHugh by allowing 3 runs. Oh, by the way, 2 of the 4 hits were homers. Chad Qualls pitched a perfect 8th. I guess Bo Porter didn't want too much rust growing on Qualls before the Astros have another save opportunity. The offense sucked. They got a base runner is just about every inning but couldn't do any more than that. I really thought that Houston's extreme hot streak would end but I didn't think they would go completely the other way. The starting pitching is still good we just need some help from the bullpen and clutch hit or three. Houston may not have been as good as they appeared to be between May 11th and June 11th but I really didn't think they would go back to being as bad as they were in April. Shoot, it's a long season, I refuse to fall into despair with so much season left. Bo Porter sat Robbie Grossman and his .168 BA and for the first time in a long, long time Houston's starting batting order did not have one single player with a batting average below .200. That, my friends is positive I can hang my hat on.

eagle eye

06-21-2014, 07:56 AM

The Astros snapped the 4 game losing streak last night beating the D-Rays 3-1. The whole story can be summed up in three sentences. Cosart dominant in 8. Altuve has become a hitting machine. Springer homers off David Price. That's it. Jarred Cosart threw 109 pitches in his 8 innings of work tossing a shutout of the Rays. He allowed only 6 hits with a walk and 2 Ks so that lets you know he had good defense behind him.
Altuve went 3-5 last night continuing the red hot streak he began after missing several games after being hit in the hand. He's gone 11-19 (.579) since his return. He got his MLB leading 100th hit in the 3rd inning setting the table for the George Springer show. Springer came to the plate following Altuve's single and he launched a monster shot that hit the catwalk by the roof of the stadium in left field well above the stands. It was an epic shot. It was the only mistake that Rays pitcher David Price made and it cost the Rays the ballgame. The homer was Springer's 13th on the season tying him for the team lead with Chris Carter. Each team got an oh-by-the-way run in the ninth but the game was decided in the 3rd because David Price was very good for 8 innings but Jarred Cosart was even better.
That brings me back to Jose Altuve. Over the past week Bo Porter has been touting Altuve as a shoe-in for the All Star game and it's not hard to agree with him. He's among, or leading, the bigs in hits, batting average, stolen bases and you add his rock solid defense and he's got All Star written all over him. Altuve is on pace to record 200+ hits and 50 stolen bases which would be only the 2nd player in Astros history to do so. Craig Biggio set a team record of 210 hits and 50 stolen bases in 1998 and the way he's playing so far this season there's no reason Altuve can't equal or better Biggio's marks. So far Altuve has 26 stolen bases. He has been so good at base stealing that just the threat of it rattles opposing pitchers.
Is there any reason you can think of why Altuve and Springer shouldn't be All Stars? I can't think of any reason why not.

KABrother88

06-21-2014, 11:02 PM

Talk about a tough day...earlier today it was reported AA SS Nolan Fontana would need surgery to repair a broken pinky and would be out 8 weeks...leading to the assumption that top prosper Carlos Correa would be called up...the Correa has to be carried off the field after sliding into 3rd after legging out a triple...early report are possibly a fractured fibula...not good

eagle eye

06-22-2014, 02:53 PM

Sucks about Fontana and Correa. Hope Correa's leg isn't as bad as they think.

Houston loses 3 of 4 to the FREAKING D-Rays! Keuchel didn't pitch badly but I think Bo Porter left him in too long. Looks like he threw Keuchel to the wolves to save the bullpen. Either way, Houston just lost the last two series with Tampa Bay who, coming into the series had a bullpen among the worst in baseball. They were leakier than a homemade boat. Houston made their bullpen and their starting pitching look like a group of Cy Young candidates. The offense has been awful since the first series with TB. Just awful. I am seriously tired of Robbie Grossman and his pathetic .164 BA. I really think Jon Singleton needs to go back to OKC for a while. He can't hit his ass with both hands right now and if they leave him in Houston I'm afraid he'll lose all confidence. He needs a shot of confidence now and he needs to get out of Houston and the white hot spotlight to get his head together. I don't know what the hell happened to Jason Castro. He's not nearly the player he was last year and between him, Jesus Guzman and Chris Carter none of them can get the job done consistently. I was fooled by their play in May. It was obviously an anomaly. Houston is more the dismal team they were in April than the world beaters they were in May. The month of June is up in the air meaning I think it can be salvaged somewhat over the next 8 days. I think Bo Porter needs to chew some ass in that locker room. They have not pitched well, their offense is atrocious somebody needs to stand up and say so. If nothing else shame the team into some self reflection. Am I pissed, you bet.

KABrother88

06-24-2014, 08:14 PM

I'm not sure how this works since a player signing a contract like Singleton did when they are still under team control is rare but is Houston even able to send him down without placing him on waivers first? But Grossman is done IMO

eagle eye

06-25-2014, 10:19 AM

If they can send LJ Hoes or Grossman or any of the pitchers down to AAA then I don't see why they can't send Singleton down. MLB has film on this guy now and the damage he was able to do early isn't happening any more. Springer is still learning but he looks like he belongs. His defense is good and he's learned to take his walks. Singleton not so much. I think we all agree Grossman is gone. That young man is worse than a pitcher at the plate. They've given him enough chances and he probably needs a change in scenery like Lucas Harrell did. Alex Pressley is a definite upgrade over Grossman.
It's just a team wide slump except the for Altuve. Fowler's BA has dropped 13 points in the last two weeks which hasn't helped. Villar looked like he was sort of righting the ship but last night he blew RBI opportunities twice with runners in scoring position.
I feel like such a sucker for thinking this team had turned a corner and was actually a .500 ball club. The bottom half of their lineup is so bad and that's another reason Jon Singleton could be struggling is because he's not seeing good pitches because nobody behind him scares anyone (except for Bo Porter when he fills out the lineup card). Singleton is a free swinger anyway so why come in with anything he can jack if you don't have to. I said last year and this spring that Singleton's plate discipline was lacking and it would be to his detriment. Sometimes I hate being right. When you've got starting pitchers who are only giving up 2 or 3 runs a game you can't ask more than that. Every once in a while the offense needs to score more than 1 or 2 runs. That's what the team did in May. They had good pitching and the offense was scoring runs consistantly, enough so that deficiencies in the bullpen could be excused. All I know is Houston was a mere 6 games under .500 before their current slide and now they are back to 12 games under .500. They are 2-8 in their last 10 games and they totally blew and opportunity to get out of the AL West cellar because the Rangers have lost 6 games in a row. Geez, this team is frustrating.

Another bit of great news, the Astros are reporting that Carlos Correa will miss significant time after injuring his ankle sliding into a base last week. Correa has been seeing a specialist in Houston and details of the injury are supposed to be known today. According to GM Jeff Luhnow they don't know what "significant time missed" means just yet. Depending on the final evaluation of the doctor it's not clear if it will be a few days, a few weeks or the rest of the minor league season. Luhnow did say that they are confident that the injury will only be impactful in the short term and they don't expect any long term ill effects. Now, I don't know how confident they can be when they don't have a diagnosis from the doctor but they are there and I am here so I'll drink the Kool-Aid for now.

One good bit of news is the Astros have a minor league team with the top rotation. That would be the A Lancaster JetHawks. It's a pretty good article that comes from MLB.com's Pipeline Perspectives about the JetHawks rotation which includes last year's number one pick, Mark Appel. If the big club has you in a funk (like me) a little good news doesn't hurt.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/pipeline-perspectives-astros-lancaster-team-boasts-best-rotation-in-minor-leagues?ymd=20140625&content_id=81533930&vkey=news _hou

KABrother88

06-25-2014, 11:46 AM

If they can send LJ Hoes or Grossman or any of the pitchers down to AAA then I don't see why they can't send Singleton down.

But by signing that extension I'm not sure if it voided his options...that is my question really. Grossman, Hoes, and the pitchers you mentioned don't have a contract like Singleton. But at this point you might just have to keep running him out there...sending him down might destroy what confidence he has left.

Also of note 2B Tony Kemp has been promoted from A+ to AA. He was hitting .336 and stole 28 bases in 35 attempts with a 45BB:35K ratio

KABrother88

06-25-2014, 12:12 PM

Well I got my answer and he is still eligible to be reassigned to the minors...only way to lose options without using then is to have 5 years of MLB service

KABrother88

06-25-2014, 03:12 PM

Apparently all we have to do is complain a little bit and get out way...Robbie Grossman ha been sent down and L.J. Hoes called up...while I would have rather seen Wates or Santana, the .209 average Hoes put up early this year in Houston is still an improvement over Grossman's .158.

eagle eye

06-25-2014, 08:35 PM

Hoes---Grossman---I don't feel like we came out any better than even. I agree players like Wates and Santana would, at least, not be recycling trash. I hate to be so hateful but the past week has really upset me. I shouldn't be this way. I generally have better perspective than this but I would much rather see some young guys get a shot over players who have proven they basically suck.

The news came out today, Carlos Correa will miss the rest of the 2014 season after he had arthroscopic surgery on a broken fibula right above his ankle. This sucks for everyone but especially Correa who was tearing up High A ball and was on pace to move up to AA Corpus Christi sometime this summer. Fortunately, the reports are that he should recover completely with no lingering effects. That is a great big "WHEW" when you consider this kid's potential.

KABrother88

06-26-2014, 08:46 AM

Jose Veras has been added to the 25 man roster and Kyle Farnsworth has been released...hopefully Veras can pitch like he did for Houston last season and not how he started off this year with an 8+ ERA for Detroit

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

eagle eye

06-27-2014, 04:20 AM

The Astros at least took the series finale against the Braves. You can't bitch about Houston losing a series to Atlanta since they do have a pretty good team. Jarred Cosart was exceptional going 7 innings scattering 6 hits and allowing only one run. Cosart now has the second best W/L record on the team, 8-5, to Dallas Keuchel's 8-4 record. You likely can't consider this a slump buster game since Detroit is coming to town and the Astros will face Justin Verlander in the series opener. Houston counters with Brad Peacock. What???? This is a matchup made in the twilight zone for Houston but if Peacock has a good game and the Astros can get to Verlander----oh excuse me, I just woke up from a nap. I must have been sleeping right? It was nice to see Jon Singleton get a hit last night. It was even nicer to see Matt Dominguez get a 3 run jack. Even Jason Castro got a hit! I don't mean to be sarcastic but this team, from the 4 spot down, has been pretty lousy lately but with 3 of the 8 hits Houston has were hit by the middle three in the lineup. Not only that but 4 of the 6 RBIs came from the 4 and 5 hitters, Singleton and Dominguez. It about freaking time the middle three did something at the plate! Oh well, Detroit's in for the weekend. We can only hope last night was something the team can hang their hats on going forward and the end of June approaches.

KABrother88

06-27-2014, 11:31 AM

Cosart has quietly gotten much better through the first half of the season. Since that nightmare start against Oakland where he gave up 7 ER while only recording one out, he has recorded a quality start in 10 of his 12 starts with with the other 2 starts being 5 IP 3 ER & 5 IP 1 ER. Currently his ERA on the season is a respectable 3.60...take out that one start in Oakland (I'm sure he wishes he could) and he would be sitting at 2.94. He has also lowered his walks as of late. The month of April he walked 15 batters (6 GS/31 IP). In May he walked 15 batters as well (5 GS/29.1 IP). However in June he only issued 7 free passes (5 GS/34.2 IP).

By the way I'm going to blow a gasket if Altuve gets snubbed from the All-Star game...I think it is ridiculous as it is to let the fans decide who starts the game that decides home field advantage for the World Series and it's just a friggin popularity contest. I'm fine if they let the fans vote in one player at each position but don't make that person be the starter. Looking at the numbers you would think Altuve is a lock to make it (leads MLB in hits and multi-hit games and leads the AL in average and steals) but he's not going to catch Cano to start (June 22nd update had Cano at 2,007,055 to Atluve's 932,978) then between Cano and Altuve is Ian Kinsler and Dustin Pedroia with Brian Dozier following Altuve. Why I feel like he might be snubbed is this...AL manager is Boston manager John Ferrell...guess who he would pick between Pedroia and Altuve...then Dozier is one of the few Twins players who has played well enough to be considered as an All-Star (15 HR & 15 SB)...game being in Minnesota I wouldn't be surprised to see multiple Twins players in the game and us only get Keuchel in just to watch him sit in the bullpen or come in for one batter

eagle eye

06-27-2014, 01:58 PM

I agree with you KABro, Altuve should be a shoe-in All Star. Don't get me started about the All Star game starting with the BS about the ASG winner gaining home field advantage in the World Series. The TV ratings were a dumpster fire so MLB made this crap up to generate interest in what is an exhibition game. The pro sports all star games are boring but they do bring the best players in the sport together at one time which was great when there were only 3 networks and radio coverage. Now with all the cable outlets and MLB TV and pay-per-view sports networks you can see the top players on a regular basis. The same goes for fan voting. The fans get to vote and it's such bullsh*t because you can vote up to 30 times. I don't think it would hurt one thing to allow one vote per email address and it wouldn't allow strong fan bases to slam votes for their guys. They NBA gets it. They know it's a party and they accept it. MLB and NFL don't get it. All Star games are not the events they used to be no matter how you try to trick it up. The NFL is the most disgusting. Players don't want to get hurt, coaches and GMs and owners don't want their players to be hurt and the game turns into a 3 hour slap fight. Not only that, but the 9th guy in line might make the pro bowl and he gets to brag about being a pro bowl player for the rest of his career. Being a pro bowler doesn't mean squat anymore. To me, the guys who don't go to the pro bowl don't get credit for being pro bowlers. That would stop a lot of that crap. Bonus money on contracts a lot of time depend on being named to the pro bowl. So, the players get the best of both worlds. Make the pro bowl, decline to go and count their money because they made an incentive in their contract. Being All Pro means something. It's exclusive and the proper players get recognition. MLB and the NBA can play hard because their likelihood of being hurt is not that high. The respective leagues recognize it's an exhibition and at least to the NBAs credit market it as such.
I think Bud Selig was one of the most gutless commissioners ever in any sport. That's a whole different rant but his treatment of the All Star game is a joke. The game doesn't mean anything. I don't understand why everyone got so up in arms when the game ended in a tie after nine innings. People, it was an exhibition game. We got to see the best players in the sport (for the most part) play at the same time. Every summer we all got a "Field of Dreams" game and between the commissioner and the misguided fans and TV broadcasters who wanted change well, they F**ked It Up as a result.

KABrother88

06-27-2014, 10:37 PM

Holy Jason Castro...walk-off winner in the 11th to beat Detroit 4-3...hopefully that HR will get him kick started for the 2nd half. That Aluve fella...just another day at the office...4 hits and 2 steals including home in the 5th inning

eagle eye

06-28-2014, 06:09 AM

How good was Jose Altuve last night? As KABro posted 4-5, 2 runs scored, one RBI with no walks or K's. That just doesn't tell the whole story. In the first inning Altuve, leading off because Dexter Fowler got the night off, singled off Tigers ace Justin Verlander. With George Springer batter next Altuve stole second and later after Springer struck out and Jon Singleton at bat Altuve stole 3rd on what was ruled a wild pitch by Verlander and a bad throw by Tigers catcher Alex Avila to third trying to get Altuve which allowed him to score the game's first run. In the 5th Altuve hits an RBI double off Verlander and advances to third on a base hit by Springer. After a K by Jon Singleton and with Matt Dominguez batting, Altuve stole home when Avila tried to pick off George Springer on first. When Avila threw to first an alert Altuve took off and stole home and besides that the Tigers went to sleep on the play at the plate and allowed Springer to advance to second without even a throw! So, by now in the bottom of the 5th Altuve has accounted for all three Astros runs and 3-2 lead that lasted into the 8th inning. How good was Altuve's night? After the game Bo Porter wasn't talking about Altuve being an All Star he was saying Altuve had to be considered AL MVP! The Astros have reached the half way point in the season and if the season ended today it would be hard to find a better player.
Brad Peacock actually outduelled Justin Verlander last night. Verlander gave up 3 runs on 6 hits with a walk and 8 K's while Peacock went 6 2/3 allowing 2 runs on one of which was earned with 7 hits, 2 walks and 3 K's. It was Peacocks first start in about 2 weeks after he suffered food poisoning after a game in Houston. The bullpen actually came through last night. Darin Downs, Chad Qualls, Tony Sipp and Jake Buchannan all pitched scoreless innings with Buchannan getting the win in the 11th after Jason Castro's walk off HR. Jose Veras should have had a scoreless inning in the 8th except for an unearned run scored because of two Astros errors. First, lead off man for the Tigers, Eugenio Suarez, should have been out on a pop foul by first base but inexplicably Jon Singleton failed to catch the ball. Suarez ended up walking and he advanced to second on a Torii Hunter groundout to Dominguez. Then, Miguel Cabrera hit what should have been the inning ending out to Jonathan Villar but his throw to first short hopped to Singleton who couldn't handle the throw. Since there were 2 outs Suarez was off at the crack of the bat and with the bad throw by Villar Suarez scored the tying run.
It was a great game and the type of game the Astros have not won very much at all. As I said before, the Astros have reached the half way point of the season with a record of 35-46 and if you project that to the end of the season the Astros would be 70-92. That doesn't sound all that great until you realize that's a 19 game improvement over last year. Despite their recent struggles Houston has gotten better and I, for one, who has been upset over their recent slump can take a different perspective of the Astros season. They aren't as bad a team as they were in April and they aren't as good as they were in May. They are just somewhere in the middle and as long as they are getting better, well, that's okay.

Dallas Keuchel will miss today's start due to inflammation in his left wrist. He has been having an issue with the wrist since a bullpen session a few days ago and Bo Porter says the team wants to be careful with him. Brett Olberholzer will be brought up from OKC to make the start in Keuchel's place. The Astros will have to make a roster move today to allow for Obie's return.

Anthony Bass is close to returning to the Astros. He has made two appearances at Class A Lancaster on Tuesday and Thursday with no issues related to the intercostal strain that sent him to the DL on May 11th. He will make one more appearance and if no problems arise then the Astros will consider bringing Bass up to the big club.

Jose Altuve wasn't the only Astros organization player to have a big night on Friday. AAA Outfielder Domingo Santana went 4-5 with 3 runs scored and 3 RBI's highlighted by a walk off 3 run jack in the ninth to power the RedHawks to a 8-5 win over Omaha. Santana is the Astros 7th ranked prospect and at 21 years old he is the second youngest regular player in the PCL. So far after 81 games Santana has posted a line of .303/.382/.505 with 13 HRs.

eagle eye

06-29-2014, 05:59 AM

Is there anything more demoralizing than giving up the and lead and eventually the game when a pitcher has only one stupid out to close a game? I am really sick of Jerome Williams. The three run shot he allowed to Astros killer Ian Kinsler with two outs in the 9th really sucked. The Astros had done a good job getting the 2-1 lead against Max Scherzer. After all, the guy recorded 13 Ks in his 7 innings of work and only allowed 2 runs. Scherzer is one of the best pitchers in the game.
Brett Olberholzer went 6.1 innings allowing just one run on 5 hits, 2 walks and 4 K's. Josh Zeid and Chad Qualls did their job holding the Tigers scoreless for 1-2/3 innings. Then came Williams. I don't know why Bo Porter brought in Williams to close, the guy sucks. There has been very few of his appearances where he didn't give up at least one run. I dread seeing this guy come into a game. Hell, Qualls had been the guy in the closers role during the Astros run in May and he only threw 12 pitches in a perfect eighth inning. Why, oh why, did Porter run Williams out with a one run lead in the ninth?
Here's Williams inning--lead off single to Nick Castellanos, Alex Aliva called out on strikes, Eugenio Suarez singles - men on first and second one out, Rajai Davis out at first on a sac bunt - men on 2nd and 3rd two out, after falling behind 2-0 Williams grooves a pitch trying to throw a strike to Ian Kinsler who homers to left center field - Astros now trailing 4-2, Miguel Cabrera lines out to left for out #3. Thank you so much Jerome Williams.
We should be talking about Brett Olberholzer's afternoon actually out dueling Max Scherzer. We should be talking about how Alex Presley accounted for both, and eventually all three Houston runs. Presley knocked in two runs on a single in the bottom of the 1st and in the ninth after Williams had blown the save Presley led off the inning with a home run making the final score 4-3 as the Houston attempt to come back failed after Presley's solo shot.
The Astros did what you have to do against a top pitcher, get to him early and hang on but the Astros had to watch their hopes of a back-to-back wins against Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer fly out of the park. Thank you Jerome Williams. Williams is done as far as I'm concerned. You get your chances to hold a lead or to keep a game close and if you consistently fail at the job you lose your value to the team. Williams, to me, has reached that point. The Kyle Farnsworth experiment failed and he's gone and I can't understand why the Astros are sticking with this guy. In actuality, Farnsworth was better than Williams. Bring up a guy from OKC, he certainly can't be any worse than Williams. I turn off the radio when Williams comes into a game, I just can't bear listening while he screws the pooch. Some might say trade him and that's an option I suppose but, GMs around the league look at stats too and I wonder if you'd get any value in a trade. Although, anything could be better than what Williams has done in Houston so far.

KABrother88

06-29-2014, 10:40 AM

eagle eye

06-29-2014, 11:00 PM

After Billy Beane literally gave up a dollar earlier this year for a pitcher I think it's safe to say we couldn't even get a bucket of balls for Williams...I don't see anyone trading anything for that guy...I've always given Bo Porter the benefit of the doubt but I honestly don't know what the hell he did that for...unless he is trying to show the front office this guy is garbage and let's move on but I get the feeling he actually likes Williams

I agree but you can't let someone hang on and hurt the team no matter how much you like them. That's the hard core fact of pro sports and the fact is Williams is just not getting it done. I have questioned Bo Porter's decision making in earlier posts but one thing I just don't understand is why he refuses to name Chad Qualls the closer. Except for early in the season when he, and everyone else, was sick he has been money. I don't get that at all.
The other thing I wonder about is why he's forcing George Springer into the 3 spot when he was doing much better in the two. I think Altuve needs to hit lead off with Fowler hitting third. I think he's putting Jon Singleton in a bad spot as cleanup hitter. He should be hitting no higher than 6th. The fact is except for occasional streaks by Matt Dominguez nobody is hitting very well. I guess I need to remember that Houston is still a couple of years away from being really good and lower my expectations accordingly.
Speaking of expectations, has anyone seen the latest Sports Illustrated with George Springer on the cover with the caption, "Astros Win the World Series in 2017!"? I would love to read that article.

KABrother88

06-30-2014, 11:06 AM

I'm with you EE on the line-up...seems like when we had our really good run in May Altuve led off with Springer in the 2 hole and Fowler 3rd...think Springer is more comfortable there and teams aren't scared of Singleton at the moment...I mean Springer got intentionally walked twice yesterday...Singleton did make them pay once but his .202 average isn't striking fear into many pitchers.

Altuve can add another achievement to his already record breaking season he has going...he stole 2 bases again yesterday becoming the 1st player in 97 years to steal 2+ bases in 4 straight games...has a grand total of 36 steals this season (career high was 35 set last season) and has only been caught 3 times (92.3%)...compare that to MLB steals leader Dee Gordon who is 40-8 (83.3%) and the guy everyone gawked at Billy Hamilton who is 34-11 (75.5%)

KABrother88

06-30-2014, 10:09 PM

Moving and shaking after tonight's 10-4 loss to Seattle...2 moves we had discussed here...Villar was optioned to OKC and Jerome Williams was Designated For Assignment...bout time. No corresponding moved announced yet...hopefully Nick Torpeano gets the call...would like to see Folty but he could still use some seasoning...NiTro is ready...sporting a 2.38 ERA in 87 innings at AAA with an 81K:22BB ratio and a .197 BAA...Folty has a 4.40 ERA in 77 innings with a 77K:36BB ratio and .245 BAA. We'll probably get the ol Paul Clemens call up but hopefully the FO rewards NiTro

KABrother88

07-01-2014, 06:30 AM

Reports are it won't be Tropeano or Folty to take the RP role but it will be lefty Kevin Chapman who has been up with the big club a few times this past year. The corresponding INF move will reportedly be Enrique "KeKe" Hernandez who is sporting as .337 average with 8 HRs at OKC. He was on fire in June hitting .383 (.442 in his last 10) with 5 HRs...listed as a 2B but I guess he has some versatility but I expect to see Marwin Gonzalez get his fair share of ABs. Big news is it appears more of the future is on the way...the report says 21 year old RF Domingo Santana is on his way to Houston...currently the Astros #7 prospect and the #93 in all of baseball according to MLB.com. Free swinger so if that drives you crazy look away...has racked up 99 Ks so far at AAA in 84 games and has punched out 615 times in 568 games in his minor league career...still hitting over .300 (.304) with 13 HRs and 22 2B so he is still tapping into his power which will be his calling card...has legit light tower power. Traditional RFer with a cannon arm so I expect Springer to shift over to LF or play so CF if Fowler misses anymore time. If he is indeed called up he will be the final piece of the Hunter Pence deal to make it to the Majors...other pieces were Jarred Cosart, Jon Singleton and Josh Zeid...and depending on what corresponding move is made they may all be on the same roster at one time. Interesting note I saw earlier this year about the trade is that Santana, who was the "player to be named later" in the deal, should have never been part of the trade...an executive from Philly accidentally included him in the list of players for Houston to choose from...and I'm glad they did

eagle eye

07-01-2014, 10:17 AM

Colin McHugh was terrible last night. 5 runs on 5 hits, including 3 HRs and 4 walks negated the 8 Ks he logged in 6 innings of work. McHugh did what, for the most part Houston starters have avoided in 2014 which is not allowing HRs or walks. McHugh wasn't the only one to stink last night. Josh Zeid pitched just one inning but back to back singles and a 3 run HR by Robinson Cano occurred before Zeid even recorded an out. The 3 runs iced the game for the Mariners who got a nice MLB debut by Taijuan Walker who went 6 innings and allowed only 3 runs and 3 innings of relief by Tom Whilhelmsen who allowed one run and got his first save of the season. Just for icing on the cake Jerome Williams sealed his fate in Houston by allowing two runs in the ninth inning. As KABro said he was designated for assignment after the game. Aloha, Mr Williams. I'm glad you didn't blow another game before you left.
The worst news of the night was that Jose Altuve was hit in the elbow by a pitch in the 5th and according to Astros.com it was described as a "nasty swollen elbow following Monday night's game". This leaves his availability in question for a few days any way. That may be the only way to slow him down, just knock him out of the game even though he never came out last night. He did go 0-3 in the game. June however, was another matter. Altuve hit .411 for the month and was 17-17 in stolen bases. His availability may be in question but last night after the game Altuve said he expected to play today. Houston, so far in 2014, has been conservative in handling injured players so I still think Altuve could miss a few games.

As for June, Houston ended the month with a total record of 36-48 twelve games under .500 after getting up to 6 games under .500 with a little over a week left in the month. Their final record in June was 12-15 which was just slightly worse than the 15-14 record in May. The difference was the beginning of the month of May was bad vs the end of June being the bad part of the month. It was time in between that was so glorious for Houston. Jose Altuve caught on fire and hasn't cooled off yet with talk escallating from deserving All Star consideration to AL MVP talk. It wasn't all good for Houston as the Astros sent Robbie Grossman, Kevin Chapman, Brett Oberholzer, LJ Hoes (who has since come back) among others to the minor leagues for poor play. The last to feel the sting of being sent down were Jonathan Villar and Jerome Williams. You could live with Villar's weak bat because he played some good defense but the move will probably help him in the long run. Williams, on the other hand, and as KABro has said was long overdue going (and I fully agree). Williams has been awful and enough said about that. July begins against the Mariners as we ended June with a blowout loss to them last night. Hopefully we can get on another roll and beginning with division opponent Seattle would be sweet. Jarred Cosart is starting the month off for Houston and he has emerged as a top pitcher for the Astros tying Dallas Keuchel for the team lead in wins. Projected over a whole season having two 16 game winners would be pretty sweet. BTW if you project the Astros current 36-48 record to the end of the season it would be 70-92. It is a 19 game improvement over the 51-111 record in 2013 which is a significant improvement for a team to make in one season.

One last item. Reliever Anthony Bass is scheduled to be activated today and would take the roster spot formerly held by Jerome Williams. Bass is in Houston and has been seen in the Astros club house. The Astros sending Jonathan Villar to AAA made room for SS Enrique Hernandez. Houston will have to make roster moves to make room for OF Domingo Santana and P Kevin Chapman. It will be interesting to see who goes. I checked the current roster and I didn't see Chris Carter's name. Carter has struggled even more than last year and his current BA of .184 won't win him many votes from management to stay on the roster. I also didn't see Josh Fields name so if I was betting man I would guess Carter and Fields will have a new address before the day is out.

KABrother88

07-01-2014, 10:40 AM

Astros.com is still currently showing Carter on the roster and Fields is on the 15 day DL at the moment...I wouldn't be surprised to see Carter sent down/out though...really don't think you can afford his Ks if your bringing up Santana...he's a strictly DH guy right now and without him the team has a lot more flexibility to be able to give guys a day off from the field and keep their bats in the game late in the year

KABrother88

07-01-2014, 11:04 AM

Just announced that Dexter Fowler will be placed on the 15 day DL creating the spot for Santana on the active roster.

Speaking of the DL...I wonder if Jesse Crain's 3.5 million dollar contract is fully guaranteed or prorated for when he's actually active...I didn't expect him to be out this long and I'm not even sure how close he is to pitching again

eagle eye

07-01-2014, 12:09 PM

Crane was hoping he could return by now but rehabbing after shoulder surgery is dicey at best. As for his salary, I don't think Houston is sweating it too much. They knew what they were getting so they also had to know his rehab could take a while.

Matt Albers was scheduled to throw a light bullpen session last Wednesday but no other word can I find on his status.

It looks like, barring setbacks, that both will be back sometime later this month. Then Houston will have a problem with who to remove to make room for these guys. Heck if their rehabs last long enough to run into September call ups then what you have could really be a non issue roster-wise.

BTW, KABro, you're absolutely right about Chris Carter being on the roster. I was looking at the outfielders which only lists four Presley, Hoes, Fowler and Springer-----ooops now it shows Presley, Hoes, Springer and Domingo Santana! Since Fowler is on the DL he won't be listed. I should have been looking at infielders. Enrique Hernandez and Kevin Chapman are listed on the active roster. I just can't figure out who is missing. Also an interesting note, in an earlier post KABro said Enrique Hernandez would likely get the call up but he called him 'KeKe' (phonetically key-key) but on Astros.com he's listed as Kike Hernandez which looks like it's got to be a typo because of the racially insensitive nature of the word Kike.

KABrother88

07-01-2014, 12:30 PM

You are right I guess I had read wrong but he does go by Kike instead of KeKe...his twitter handle is even @kikehndez...

KABrother88

07-01-2014, 01:03 PM

Houston has reportedly signed 2nd pick (37 overall) Derek Fisher. He was the last remaining draft choice left to sign but had to wait until he finished his college career at Virginia to do so. Also means Houston has signed their top 10 round picks from the last 4 drafts.

Fisher's bonus was for the full value of $1,534,100...so Houston came in at $471,700 under their allotment.

eagle eye

07-01-2014, 01:24 PM

You are right I guess I had read wrong but he does go by Kike instead of KeKe...his twitter handle is even @kikehndez...

That's weird. Since Kike is short for Enrique (I'm assuming) I wonder if you pronounce it Kee-Kay? If my Spanish memory is correct i is pronounced ee and e is pronounced eh. I suppose he'll be in the lineup tonight so it won't take long to find out.

Big T

07-01-2014, 07:38 PM

Santana has his first start tonight. The Astros have a lot of swing and miss guys on the roster that also have light tower power. Should be interesting to see how some of these guys like Santana will pan out. I just don't think you can have more than two of those type of hitters in your lineup and with Springer and Singleton already there.... I don't know if Santana will ever be able to find a true home with the Astros.

eagle eye

07-02-2014, 05:35 PM

There's a growing feeling that I hate Seattle. I thought it was mainly because of the Seahawks but I'm really starting to grow ill feeling for the Mariners. Houston just completed being swept by the M's today but at least it wasn't a blowout like the first two games were. It was actually a game until the M's exploded on Brad Peacock for 4 runs in the 6th. Up until then Houston had a 2-zip lead but Peacock just couldn't hold the Mariners down any longer.
Today marked the first time in a while reliever Anthony Bass made an appearance. He came in to start the 7th and he lasted 1.2 innings giving up 3 hits and one run. Not a bad outing for his first MLB action in like forever. Tony Sipp and Chad Qualls followed Bass and they both pitched scoreless innings.
As for the offense, there wasn't any. From the 1st hitter (Jose Altuve) through the seventh hitter (Domingo Santana) there wasn't a hit to be found on only one walk to Carlos Corporan. The only damage was done by Kike Hernandez (DH) and Marwin Gonzalez (SS). They recorded the only 3 hits for the Astros, the only two runs and and the only 2 RBIs. Needless to say Mariners pitcher Chris Young dominated the Astros for 7 full innings. So long to Seattle and good riddance. Kike Hernandez hit his first MLB home run in the 5th inning, a solo shot to the Crawford Boxes in left field. In his debut the night before in his first at bat he hit a ground rule double. Pretty nice start for the kid.

Houston signed some international prospects today just a couple days after GM Jeff Luhnow said the Astros would be aggressive in signing foreign players. Here's the details.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/astros-ink-three-top-international-prospects?ymd=20140702&content_id=82700052&vkey=ne ws_hou

The answer to the question of who gets sent down to AAA when Anthony Bass is activated is Kevin Chapman. After having some success in OKC since being sent down earlier this year he didn't have such a great outing against the Mariners on Tuesday night. It wasn't terrible but since he wouldn't be available to pitch today the Astros sent him back to OKC.

Anthony Bass just came back to the Astros lineup today after missing time since May 11th with an intercostal strain. CF Dexter Fowler was put on the 15 DL with the same injury on Tuesday.

eagle eye

07-03-2014, 08:27 AM

I was right about Enrique Hernandez nickname pronounciation. Spelled Kike it is pronounced, at least by the Houston announcers, Kee-Kay.

eagle eye

07-05-2014, 09:58 AM

I continue to have issues with Bo Porter's handling of the batting order. In Thursday's game, a 5-2 loss to the LA Angels, Porter had Jason Castro hitting in the #2 spot between Jose Altuve and George Springer. It was good move for Castro who had a good night at the plate going 2-4 with an RBI. But, it didn't help either George Springer or Jon Singleton who continue to struggle. For rookies, even very talented ones, hitting in the 3 and 4 spots is a very demanding and pressure packed situation. As I've said before Springer should never have been moved out of the 2 hole where he was flourishing. Let the kid get some confidence, settle into big league baseball for at least a year before throwing him to the wolves. Same with Singleton. After an initial splash Singleton has turned into LJ Hoes. Some power, some hitting, mostly and easy out. When you're a rookie and hitting cleanup with all that means I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut that he was feeling like he was in "quicksand". If you saw the movie 'The Replacements' starring Keanu Reeves you know what I'm talking about. Case in point, last night with Castro out of the lineup completely Kike Hernandez went 3-4 with a run scored hitting between Altuve and Springer. It looks like Kike is going to be good if Porter doesn't screw him over moving him all over the lineup. Another case in point; Friday night Jon Singleton hit sixth with Matt Dominguez hitting fourth and Chris Carter hitting fifth. With veteran guys protecting Springer in the lineup he hit better and, for one game at least so did Carter and Singleton. With the threat of Singleton's power behind Carter made it possible for Carter to see better pitches. This whole scenario is complicated because there is no real veteran force to build around the young players coming up. There are vets but they aren't anything but what they would be on any other team, backups and role players. Bo Porter has to be aware of what he's dealing with and stop putting the young players in situations than won't allow them to grow.

eagle eye

07-06-2014, 06:23 PM

Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Well, mighty may be a bit strong but you know what I mean. In the not-too-distant past the home team was a mere 6 games under .500 but now after going 2-8 in their last 10 games and losing the first six games in July it don't look good. How bad is it? Right now on Sunday night they are 36-54 18 games under .500. Ouch! So, by now you know that Houston was swept by another division foe over the weekend as the Angels pulled out the brooms on the Stros. The next three games are against another division rival, the Texas Rangers. In the aforementioned past Houston was nipping at the Rangers heels for the prime spot in the division cellar the boys from Arlington have almost been equally underwhelming as the Astros as they have gone 3-7 in their last 10 and are 3 games ahead of Houston in the standings. If a team ever needed the All Star break it's the Astros.

I thought this was classified in the sad-funny category. The Yankees signed the Cubs Alfonso Soriano last year and he did pretty good for the Yanks---last year. Today the Yankees optioned Soriano to their Indianapolis club. The kicker is Soriano was batting .221 and was having an "off" year. If he was doing that in Houston he'd be an every day starter and he would still be hitting better than almost the half the starters on the team. Apparently, hitting .221 holds a lot different meaning in the Bronx than in Houston.

I hate to beat a dead horse but Bo Porter's constant jacking with the lineup can't be good for the young players on the team. The only guy who hit about where he needed to hit was Domingo Santana and he began his career in Houston going 0 for 13 in the 4 games he played in with 11 K's. I say "played in" because he was optioned back to OKC before today's game and his place on the roster was taken by the call up of relief pitcher David Martinez. Porter has moved Kike Hernandez all over the place in the batting order and today he played left field while Marwin Gonzalez played short. Porter moved Singleton back into the cleanup spot and went Oh-fer with 3 Ks. Without veteran Matt Dominguez behind him in the lineup Springer went Oh-fer too but he had 4 Ks. I am really more than a little fed up with Bo Porter and I hope the next move Jeff Luhnow makes is a change at manager.

Colin McHugh left the game today after the 4th inning and 70 pitches because the finger nail on his right middle finger pulled loose. (Isn't there some irony here?) David Martinez, who was called up to take the roster spot held for a whopping 4 games and 13 at-bats with 11 Ks by Domingo Santana. Martinez actually pitched in relief of McHugh going 3 innings giving up 1 run on 2 hits with a walk and 4 Ks. McHugh's day wasn't quite as good. He gave up 3 runs on 4 hits with 2 walks and 4 Ks. BTW, Chad Qualls got credit for giving up 2 runs but he really didn't. Recently activated Anthony Bass allowed both runners Qualls left to score. Unfair I say. Especially since both base runners got on base in sort of a fluky manner. Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter since the offense took the day off anyway.

Domingo Santana is back in AAA after 4 games, 13 at-bats with 11 Ks. I already said that I know but for a guy hitting .304 in OKC with 13 HRs and 52 RBIs in 84 games at OKC. Bo Porter said he hoped that this peek at the bigs would be a learning experience that he can build on in OKC. At 21 I'm sure Santana is disappointed but I'll bet a bunch of banana's he'll be back in September.

One last item, Jose Altuve made the All Star team as a reserve. No other Astro made the team. Considering how lousy the last 3 weeks have been I'm not surprised one bit. Altuve will play behind Seattle's Robinson Cano. Blah, blah, blah.

eagle eye

07-07-2014, 01:01 PM

As of yesterday evening Jose Altuve made the All Star Game as a reserve but today on Astros.com the headline was Altuve makes AS squad as a result of being voted in by the players. Altuve actually was only 4th in fan voting. Good for Altuve he deserves the nod.

Altuve may not be the only player from the Astros to make the All Star Game. Dallas Keuchel who has had a nice first half of the season going 8-5 in 16 starts with a 3.06 ERA with 3 complete games has a chance to get into the Summer Classic via the Final Vote where 5 players are selected to be the final candidate for the ASG. Besides Keuchel there are Cleveland starting pitcher Corey Kluber, Detroit starting pitcher Rick Porcello, Chicago White Sox pitcher Chris Sale and the Angels pitcher Garrett Richards who just stifled the Astros on Sunday with a 6-1 win. The explanation of the Final Vote criteria is that five AL and NL players compete for fan votes for the last spot on the AS roster. The fact the 5 are all starting pitchers is amazing. A recent swoon by Keuchel who was 8-2 at one time has not helped his cause especially since he just hasn't pitched all that well. He has, like the other guys in the Houston rotation, suffered from a lack of run support the others on this list haven't had to endure. Get out there and vote for Keuchel people! Details on how to vote are in the link to the article below.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/astros-pitcher-dallas-keuchel-earns-spot-as-all-star-final-vote-candidate?ymd=20140706&content_id=83359766&vkey=ne ws_hou

eagle eye

07-07-2014, 01:10 PM

One big thing. With the Astros beginning a series with the Rangers then the games should be televised on FoxSportsSouthwest. You'll actually get to see Jarred Cosart try to rebound from his last outing to beat the Rangers. Actually, you'll probably either see Cosart NOT get any run support from his offense or Cosart pitch well except for one lousy inning that costs him the game. Needless to say I'm not happy with my Astros after they just lost 7 games in a row. But, it is a rare opportunity to see the team play. Here's a challenge to you all---watch the game and list every time, including the batting order, that Bo Porter f**ks up. My over/under for this game is 5 (including the batting order).

KABrother88

07-07-2014, 01:14 PM

Not the news I was hoping to hear but it appears this years top draft pick Brady Aiken may possibly have an elbow issue according to MLBTradeRumors. There has been a lengthy delay in the official signing of Aiken since he reportedly agreed to a $6.5 million dollar signing bonus shortly after the draft in early June. The report days that Houston is trying to renegotiate and offering a $5 million dollar signing bonus (slot value was 7.9). If Aiken instead turns down the offer and heads to college Houston would get the #2 overall pick in the 2015 draft...but it will come at the expense of our regular 1st round pick. Why? Because by my calculations, the bonus money given for all signees in the top 10 rounds was $471,700 under total slot value...that was with the original $1.4 million dollar discount we had gotten from Aiken...if he goes to UCLA we lose the $7.9 million allotment for 1.1 meaning we would be $950,400 over budget costing us our 1st rounder for being over the 5% penalty. Let's just hope these rumors are not true and for Aiken to begin his pro career shortly

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/07/brady-aiken-has-elbow-issue-astros-seeking-discounted-deal.html

eagle eye

07-07-2014, 01:29 PM

Thanks KABro, that's what we needed was some more bad news. (LOL)

KABrother88

07-07-2014, 02:27 PM

Terrible things happen in 3s right?...Correa broke his leg, Appel has struggled all season after his appendectomy, and now Aiken with elbow issues...hopefully that's the end of it. On a side not I just thought of this...we drafted Mac Marshall with our 21st round pick (he was ranked the #66 overall prospect according to MLB.com) and he's stated he will honor his commitment to LSU instead...if we can get Aiken to sign for $5 million we could throw out a $2.5 million dollar offer to Marshall and not hit our 5% overage loss of pick penalty. $2.5 million would be the equivalent to mid 1st round money (slot value would be 15th) and very hard to turn down I would think

eagle eye

07-08-2014, 09:53 AM

Here's a depressing/hopeful thought. What if we continue to suck the rest of the season and end up with the worst record (again)? What if we just say thanks but no thanks to Aiken and let him go to college. Heck, do we need an 18 year old with arm problems? What if he needs Tommy John surgery? Anyway, we would have an upresidented 4th 1st pick in the draft in 2015 for having a bad record and the second pick in the draft for losing this year's first. That, my friends, is a 1-2 punch. The issue about salary allotment KABro brought up earlier could be the only fly in the ointment in this situation.

I heard a valid question that was brought up and it's this, "If Aiken has elbow issues shouldn't Houston have known it? If the scouts did their job wouldn't that be something that should have come out? IF they did know, why use their #1 pick on damaged goods? And, if they didn't know, why not?

Our luck on our #1 picks is running true to Astros form. 2012 #1 Carlos Correa broken leg in June of second year. 2013 #1 Mark Appel appendectomy prior to 2nd season which he really has yet to catch up to where he should be. 2014 #1 pick has a bum elbow and has yet to sign with the team. If it weren't for bad luck...................

The good news: Houston ended 7 game slide last night beating out 17 hits and scoring 12 runs to beat the Rangers 12-5. It's a battle for the AL West cellar! Houston is 2 games back.

The bad news: Alex Presley strained his oblique during an at-bat last night and will miss an undertermined time.

The good news: Jose Altuve set a new team record for hits by the All Star game last night. He went 2-5 on the night. His first his came after a challenge on an out call at first that was overturned allowing Altuve to tie record holder Bob Watson by legging out an infield hit and his hit in the eighth gave Jose the record. That record was going down anyway with 5 games left before the All Star break but now Altuve can pad it a little. He also stole his 39th base on the season, 26 in a row without being caught, which is just 8 steals behind current record holder in games before the ASG, Gerald Young. With 5 games left Altuve probably won't take this record but I wouldn't count him out either.

The bad news: C Jason Castro was scratched from the lineup on Monday due to a mystery pain under his left arm pit. Castro was going to see the Rangers doctors about the matter but no word on any details of the pain.

The good news: Dexter Fowler is back in Houston doing light hitting and drills. If he has no problems or setbacks he could be activated off the DL on Saturday in the series before the ASG against the Red Sox. Fowler has been on the DL since June 27th because of an intercostal strain. Personally, I would activate him but I wouldn't put in the lineup until after the AS break. The Astros have missed his offense since he went out hitting .270, 6 HRs, 24 RBIs and an OBP of .377. Houston has been very conservative with injured players so I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't play at all until after the AS break.

The bad news: The Astros bullpen has an MLB high 5.22 ERA. There still could be moves to upgrade the 'pen but so far the moves they have made have had very iffy results. That, and the no-show of prospective bullpen help Matt Albers and Jesse Crane. Neither has pitched an inning of a game yet.

KABrother88

07-08-2014, 11:48 AM

The issue with Houston not knowing about Aiken's elbow can not be placed on anyone inside the Astros organization...the fact is that players in the MLB draft can not be evaluated pre-draft as players entering the NFL draft are...with high school seasons typically ending well before the draft there is a chance that if he did injure his elbow it could have been after scouts watched him for the final time as well so the would have never seen it. From other things I've read regarding where we stand financially with our draft pool it seems that 5th rounder Jacob Nix has not officially signed his overslot deal. Our only hope if Aiken decides not to sign is to rework Nix's deal to get us out of the hole...if he doesn't then ideally it would be better off to not sign him an get your 2 first rounders (potentially 1.1 & 1.2 as EE mentioned) in 2015 and lose your 1.1 and 5.1 in 2014...although that is not going to be good PR for organization.

eagle eye

07-10-2014, 06:24 PM

Houston just completed going 0-7 in their last two series vs division foes Seattle at home for 3 games and -4 against the Angels. I looked for all the world they would be 0-10 after a 3 game series against the Rangers. After all, Texas owns the Astros. The silver boot award seems to have taken up permanent residence in Arlington. But wait just a cotton pickin' minute! In game one the Astros banged out 17 hits and scored 12 runs to win the opener of the series giving Jarred Cosart the win with some long overdue run support. Cool, 7 game skid over. Game two Houston slugs 12 hits scoring 8 runs to win game 2 8-3 giving Brad Peacock the win. Then, in game 3 Houston's Dallas Keuchel coming off a two game losing streak and actually not winning a game since June 11 (that's almost a month if you didn't notice) squaring off against Astros killer Yu Darvish. No freaking way Houston can sweep. Yeah, right. Keuchel didn't have his best stuff but he battled 6-2/3 innings allowing 8 hits and 4 runs giving Houston a pretty gutty performance. All Houston did was give Dallas some run support in Arlington. The Astros kept up the smack attack in game 3 getting 13 more hits giving the Astros 42 hits in 3 games. Where has this offense been? They also scored a total of 28 runs in the 3 games after scoring 8 more runs last night. Jose Altuve added a couple more stolen bases in the series and Chris Carter found some offense. Even Jon Singleton did a good job in the series.
The coolest thing about the sweep is the fact that Houston is no longer in the cellar in AL West for the first time since 2010! That's four years in the cellar without a break. Now, the lead over the Rangers is tenuous at best. The Astros have a 39-54 record which translates to a .419 winning percentage. The Rangers are 38-53 sporting a .418 winning percentage. That the margin of difference by which Houston climbed into 4th place in the division. They are both 19.5 games behind division leader Oakland.

Speaking of Oakland did you see what Billy Beane did? The architect of the 'money ball' strategy for building a baseball team must've gotten the A's owner to let loose some cash because the A's were able to sign former Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija in a trade with the Cubbies. It seems another proof that the rich seem destined to get richer. I like Samardzija but I would have liked him better if he had stuck to football and Dallas could have drafted him as WR. I'm just saying.

eagle eye

07-12-2014, 10:25 AM

I first thought that Houston had lost their grip on 4th place in the AL West when they lost to Boston last night after a dee-sasterous 6th inning killed Scott Feldman's bid to even his record at 5-5 but he let Boston tag him for 2 runs after he loaded the bases with one out and Boston's Christian Vasquez hit a 2-run double to chase Feldman from the game but Darin Downs came in and walked the first batter he faced to re-load the bases and after Dustin Pedroia flew out to left he allowed David Ortiz to bash a bases clearing double that scored the two runners Feldman left and the man Downs walked. The 5 run 6th blew open a 3-1 Red Sox lead and when the final out was recorded Houston was staring at an 8-1 deficit. So the 3 runs Feldman had allowed earlier in the game would almost have been enough for the Bosox to win the series opener. Chris Carter came through with two solo HRs, one in the bottom of the sixth and one in the 8th which made the final score somewhat respectable at 8-3 which is how the game ended up. I sort of laughed this morning thinking that Houston's time outside the division cellar was pretty short but when I looked at the standings I was shocked to see Texas had actually lost their last two since Houston left Arlington. Despite losing last night Houston is still in 4th place only now it's not by percentage points they actually own a 1/2 game lead over Texas. Pretty cool.

The Baseball Gods giveth and they also taketh away.

> Jason Castro returned to the lineup after missing three games due to an unknown ailment in his left arm pit.

> George Springer was a scratch from last night's game due to soreness in his knee. He will listed as day to day for the foreseeable future which probably means he's out until after the All Star Break next week.

> Colin McHugh will miss his start today due the torn fingernail he suffered in his last start.

> Brett Olberholzer will make the start for McHugh. He has been called up from AAA to make today's game.

> Matt Albers is throwing just not to batters just yet. He has been on the DL since April 22nd with shoulder tendonitis. Albers is hoping to be able to get back in the lineup sometime in August.

eagle eye

07-15-2014, 07:39 PM

A couple of thoughts;

I didn't watch the Home Run Derby and from what I heard I didn't miss much. MLB needs to get off their hands and stop making a federal issue of each batter and condense the derby down to a couple of hours. Dragging it out for TV is a mistake because in recent years when I did watch I often got bored by the end and it was sort of anti climatic anyway. MLB wants to give their fans their money's worth stop making the deal so long. On Mike and Mike they talked about how even the crowd at the stadium lost interest, or at least, momentum.

The Astros finish the first half of the season NOT in the cellar for the first time in God knows when. Pretty cool and the fact that the Rangers are IN the cellar makes it even sweeter for Astros fans does it not? The Astros go into the ASB with a 1.5 game lead over the Rangers and at 40 and 56 they are 16 games under .500 and 19.5 games behind first place Oakland, who I predict will represent the AL in the World Series.

The ALG is in the top of the 4th with the AL owning a slim 3-2 lead over the NL. Houston's Jose Altuve hasn't gotten into the game yet but look for him in the 5th or 6th. I'm sorry I missed how Derek Jeter was honored. Oh well, I'll catch up on SportsCenter. Go AL!

KABrother88

07-16-2014, 08:32 AM

The HR derby to me seemed to love at a much faster pace this year...a rain delay early slowed it down but they went from giving the players 10 outs to 7 this year...they also turned it into a bracket where the bottom 2 from each league are eliminated after the 1st round then the top hitter from each league gets a bye to its respective league finals...#2s square off against #3s to claim the other spots in the league finals then the winner of each league finals matched up in the final round. Also being at Target Field helped the pace of the derby since it kept someone going on a Bobby Abreu or Josh Hamilton run and pounding out 25 HRs in a round.

So the deadline to sign draft picks is 4 PM Friday and it's not looking good for us to sign Aiken or Nix...reports are flying everywhere with Aiken's reps saying Houston is trying to manipulate the system and save enough money to sign 21st rounder Mac Marshall as well...Houston has stayed pretty tight lipped about it and have only said they have done nothing wrong. Nix has agreed to terms and passed a physical but was told that his deal hinged on the ability to save money on Aiken's deal...what's more concerning is the same guy represents both players...if Aiken doesn't then Houston will not sign Nix...and probably for good reason...I had mentioned before that if we signed Nix to his agreed terms and didn't sign Aiken we would lose our 1st rounder next year due to going over the 5% penalty...well I was wrong...we would actually go over our 15% penalty and lose our 1st rounder in 2015 AND 2016. In the end I hope we can get Aiken to agree to terms as well as Nix but Nix isn't the type of talent I sacrifice that much for with out getting Aiken

eagle eye

07-16-2014, 01:18 PM

Jose made some positive contributions to the American League's win in the All Star Game last night. He replaced Robinson Cano in the 5th and in his first at-bat he connected a fly ball that allowed Alexei Ramiriez to score from 3rd to cap a two run inning for the AL on the way to a 5-3 win. Altuve flashed a little leather as well as he was inserted into the game in the 3 hole which is pretty awesome but not inappropriate for the AL leader in hits and multi-hit games. So, Jose is on the way to Chicago to join the team for a series against the White Sox beginning Friday beginning the stretch run of the final 66 games of the season.

Big T

07-24-2014, 02:27 PM

Springer has just been placed on the DL....

eagle eye

07-26-2014, 02:03 AM

The Astros are literally limping toward the end of July. The offense is paying dearly for it too. First, Dexter Fowler has been on the DL with an intercostal strain. I wasn't exactly clear what that meant but Houston lost the services of pitcher Anthony Bass for 3 1/2 months and when he came back he wasn't effective at all. In fact, he was optioned to OKC yesterday. According to Wiki the intercostal muscles are the ones between your ribs so I would imagine that even breathing is painful. The outlook for Fowler is MAYBE he can return sometime in August.
George Springer has put on the 15 day DL retroactive to July 20th with a quad strain.
Alex Presley is on the DL for an oblique strain.
P Matt Albers has been moved from the 15 day DL to the 60 day DL with shoulder tendonitis. He has pitched an inning for Houston yet worth talking about and his return is in deep question after Houston had high hopes he would be ready to go by now.

So, to bolster the lineup the Astros have recalled Marc Krauss (Wednesday) and they have called up 29 year old Gregorio Petit to fill in for Marwin Gonzalez who is dealing with a sore hamstring. This is the third time in Petit's career that he's been called up to the bigs but it's the first time since 2009. He was hitting .297 with 10 HRs and 43 RBIs for OKC when he got the call. Petit missed the 2011 season after tearing his ACL so this third opportunity means more to him than the previous call ups.

The Astros have sent Colin McHugh to OKC for a rehab stint. He has been out of the pitching rotation since he tore off his fingernail on his right middle finger on July 7th. It sounds painful and if you think you can pitch without a fingernail guess again. Knuckle ballers need to dig into the seems to prevent the ball for any rotation. Several off speed pitches rely on the nails not to mention just tearing off a finger nail just plain sucks.

To make matters worse, the team is battling through all these injuries with a group of guys who are less than dynamic at the plate. On Thursday Houston got bombed by Oakland 13-1. Nothing good happened in that game. Then, last night Houston returns home and gets shut out by the stupid Miami Marlins losing 2-0 on a pretty nice outing by Dallas Keuchel scattered 9 hits over his 7 innings of work allowing only 2 runs. And both runs were unearned. Geez, it seems like the wheels are totally falling off the cart right now and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. Damn, 1st pick in the draft FOUR years in a row. Kowabunga.

eagle eye

07-27-2014, 04:32 AM

The biggest thing the Astros need to do is NOT get discouraged. Despite the fact that they have lost 5 of their last 6 games they have tried hard. Altuve is still cranking out multi-hit games and, for the most part, they are still getting decent starting pitching. They can't seem to avoid the injury bug that is running rampant through the club house. The guys that are filling in for the injured are not getting the job done. Nobody's fault really, they just aren't that good. I still feel Bo Porter is part of the problem but when you're playing short handed I don't care if Joe Torre or Tony LaRussa are managing you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Sometimes it's hard to keep the big picture in mind so when I get dejected over the Astros fortunes I pull out my Sports Illustrated with George Springer on the cover with the caption, "2017 World Series Champs the Houston Astros". I figure if SI sees bright days ahead I can be patient for a while. I admit I drank the Kool-Aid when Houston was on it's torrid streak in May and the fact they were only 6 game under .500 in early June was an encouraging sign.
But as we settled into summer things got a little nauseating. They were unable to sign their first round pick and by proxy another pick which KABro can detail much better than I can. We started suffering injuries in droves some requiring a trip to Wiki to find out what the heck they were. I can honestly say I have never heard of an intercostal strain before but two Astros have suffered strains to the muscles between their ribs and it has caused one to miss 3+ months and when he returned he was ineffective and the other has been out a month at least and currently is doing nothing to try to rest the muscles.
There are pleasant surprises too like George Springer, while not perfect, has been a ray of light for the Astros offense. The recent call up of Kike Hernandez has been a pleasant addition and Marwin Gonzalez has been solid all season. Heck, even Chris Carter has found some semblance of offense the past month. It's just hard staying patient.

Mark Appel is on his way to AA Corpus Christi. The 2013 1st pick in the draft has struggled this season especially early on mainly due to a setback in January of having an emergency appendectomy. Appel missed a huge chunk of spring training as he recovered from the surgery and his spring began during the regular season. His ERA so far is an ugly 9.74 but chalk that up to his rough beginning and also to the assertion of GM Jeff Luhnow that Lancaster is rough place to pitch. Luhnow said that even with your best stuff a pitcher can still get knocked around. The last game he pitched at Lancaster Appel gave up just 2 runs with 7 Ks and no walks. The K/BB ratio was the indicator that Appel was ready to make the move up to AA. That's a good sign that Appel is making progress.

Josh Zeid was put on the DL with a foot injury. Colin McHugh will be back with the club and start in the series finale against Miami today. Brad Peacock has lost his spot in the rotation and gained a spot in AAA. Peacock has struggled the past month and with how well Brett Oberholzer has pitched in several appearances the past month bouncing back and forth from Houston and OKC the Astros felt like Obie deserved a roster spot on the big club. The Astros are expected to make a corresponding move today to fill the open roster spot left by Peacock.

eagle eye

07-29-2014, 08:36 PM

Talk about head scratchers. Houston is swept pretty easily by the Marlins over the weekend and they begin a series with the best team in the AL, division rival Oakland A's, and win the opener jacking 4 home runs in the game. Go freaking figure. All you can say is baseball is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll git. Gotta love Forest Gump. Still, Houston won the opener in Oakland last week and they suffered a beat down in the remaining two games so there is no real reason to get too excited except...................it's the end of the top of the 7th inning of game 2 and Houston is leading 3-1. Cue Gump. Scott Feldman has successfully negotiated 7 full innings giving up only one solitary run. Not freaking bad, Scott. Now, if you've been following the Astros this season you know good and well that the bullpen is fully capable of blowing the lead if not the game. But, as the man who fell out of a 10th story building was heard saying as he passed each floor, so far so good, so far so good. Just think, if Houston does hang on they will win this 3 game series and end the month of July on positive note. That's not a bad thing at all. The cherry on top will be defeating A's ace Jeff Samardzija who, last Thursday, was on the hill for a 13-1 beat down of the Astros in Oakland. As I've been writing this post Samardzija has given up an insurance run to the Astros on a walk to begin the inning and with two outs Kike Hernandez doubled in the run. That was the end of Samardzija's night as Dan Otero comes on to face Jose Altuve with Hernandez in scoring position. Otero gave Altuve an intentional pass and now faces Marwin Gonzalez. Gonzo grounds out to former Astro Jed Lowrie to end the inning. However, Houston now leads Oakland 4-1 with six outs to go. Heading to bed hoping for the best.

eagle eye

07-29-2014, 08:46 PM

Okay, I lied. I had to check out the 8th especially since Josh Fields took over for Feldman. Fields hasn't exactly been the paradigm of consistency. In fact he's been down right bad at times. But, tonight he gets the A's 1-2-3 to end their second to last at-bat. I should've gone to bed but now I'm past the point of no return, gotta see this all the way unless, of course, it goes to extra innings.

eagle eye

07-29-2014, 08:51 PM

All right, the Astros must know I've got to hit the sack because Chris Carter pops out and Jason Castro and Marc Krauss both strike out swinging. It's all up to what I believe will be Chad Qualls to shut the door on the night for the A's.

eagle eye

07-29-2014, 08:54 PM

Yep, it's Qualls and he's facing 1B Stephen Vogt to begin the ninth. Vogt strikes out swinging on a 2-2 count on the sixth pitch of the at-bat.

eagle eye

07-29-2014, 08:59 PM

Next up is C Derek Norris and Qualls singles on an infield hit to Matt Dominguez. Next up was Josh Reddick who doubled to center field. Men on 2nd and 3rd.

eagle eye

07-29-2014, 09:08 PM

Next up is pinch hitter Alberto Calaspo who singles scoring both Norris and Reddick. Score is now 4-3 with one out. Top of the order comes up and John Jaso grounds into a fielder's choice. Jon Singleton to Marwin Gonzalez for out #2.

Jed Lowrie batting and a wild pitch by Qualls sends Jaso to second base. Qualls goes to 3-2 to Lowrie. Lowrie walks and Yoenis Cespedes singles to right scoring Jaso. And just like that the three run lead is friggin gone. &*)_)(((*^^%. Qualls had only 2 blown saves before tonight. Make it 3 and with his job done Chad Qualls hits the showers and Tony Sipp comes in to see if he can blow the tie.

eagle eye

07-29-2014, 09:16 PM

Cleanup hitter Brandon Moss comes to the plate with men on first and second. Sipp falls behind 3-1 but comes back to run the count full. Sonofabitch, Sipp allows a single to left to Moss allowing Jed Lowrie to score and Yoenis Cespedes to go from first to third. There is major cussing taking place right now.

Sipp, having blown the tie is headed to the showers with Qualls. Jose Veras is coming on to try to stop the bleeding.

eagle eye

07-29-2014, 09:24 PM

Next man up is Josh Donaldson who is the ninth man to come to the plate this inning. On Veras' second pitch Donaldson doubles to center scoring Cespedes and Moss. Score is now Oakland 7 Houston 4. For some frigging reason Bo Porter has Veras intentionally walk Vogt who led off the damn inning giving the A's men on first and second.
Thank God, Derek Norris grounds into a fielder's choice as SS Marwin Gonzalez goes to 2B Jose Altuve for the final out. Ten f**cking batters go to the plate in the 9th and 6 of them score. A 3 run lead is flipped to a 3 run deficit. Now it may be I can't sleep now. I should have gone to bed after the top of the 7th. Holy crap I'm upset. Qualls and Sipp are the best relievers Houston has and they both stink up the Juice Box. This is just unbelievable. Then again, I sort of predicted this earlier didn't I. Damn, I wish I had gone to bed.

eagle eye

07-29-2014, 09:29 PM

Sean Doolittle comes on for the A's to see if he has any better luck than Qualls did for Houston.

1st batter is Jon Singleton and he does what he does best......he strikes out on 5 pitches. 1 out.

2nd batter is Matt Dominguez who pops out weakly to 2nd baseman Nick Punto - 2 out.

3rd batter is Robbie Grossman who pops out weakly to 2nd baseman Nick Punto - 3 out, game over.

If it wasn't so incredibly sad it would be funny. SOAB!!!!!!!!!!!!!

eagle eye

07-30-2014, 08:48 PM

Can you believe it? Houston totally blows a 3 run lead in the ninth to lose by three. Wasting a chance to take the series and totally taking a dump on the wonderful night Scotty Feldman had on the hill. Do the Astros blow the series last night with a devastating collapse? NO! They send Dallas Keuchel to the mound and he responds by tossing a complete game allowing only one run on a solo HR by clean up hitter Josh Donaldson on 4 hits giving up 3 walks and striking out 5 leading Houston to an 8-1 win. Most of the damage was from two 2-run HR's. One by Robbie Grossman (I know, right?!) in the first inning and the other by Jon Singleton in the 5th with one out and Jason Castro on first with a lead off walk (I KNOW, RIGHT?) that chased Hammel from the game. The only thing that didn't happen was Jose Altuve getting another multi-hit game. No worries, he was 1-4 with a walk so his OBP was .400 for the game. (I know, right? The guy is a machine!). Back to Keuchel, I can't prove it but if he's not the AL, if not the MLB, leader in complete games this season I'll eat my hat. I hope he stays as hot as he was back in May at least through August. I'd love to see him win 16 or 17 games. (BTW, he's 10-7 right now.) I went from pure D pissed last night to just dumbstruck today. (Cue Gump) The Astros end up winning the three game set anyway. The Astros will close out July tomorrow at home against the Blue Jays beginning a 4 game set that also begins the month of August. With the recent outburst of runs by Houston maybe we get another May-like hot streak. Don't worry, I'm not getting my hopes up. If it happens I'll enjoy the ride and if it doesn't---no big deal. It's just Houston after all.

I couldn't stand it I had to look it up. Keuchel is tied for most complete games this season with 4 with the Dodgers Clayton Kershaw. BTW, Keuchel's ten wins account for 23% of Houston's 44 wins.

Chris Carter missed today's game with an illness. It may be after effects of watching Chad Qualls and Tony Sipp blow a sure win last night. I read that there was a lot vomiting involved.

Josh Zeid will undergo season ending surgery on both his feet. Zeid has actually been playing through pain in both feet for about a year and a half but he and the Astros have decided to fix the problem now. Zeid will have surgery, called sesamoidectomy, on his left foot Wednesday and the same procedure on his right foot six weeks later. The recovery time is roughly 3 months before Zeid can resume pitching related activities.

Alex Pressley is starting to swing a bat finally after having a strained oblique keep him sidelined. He started hitting off a tee today beginning his march to get back on the field. Pressley is one of several key players on the DL right now. It would be nice to start getting some of them back beginning with Press and hopefully George Springer right behind him.

Tomorrow is the non-waiver trade deadline and there are several Astros players sweating out the next 24 hours. Here's a look at possible trades that could happen from Astros.com

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140729&content_id=86900654&notebook_id=86900960&vkey=notebook_hou&c_id=hou

KABrother88

07-30-2014, 09:29 PM

Also had some good news down in Corpus tonight...Mark Appel pitched 5 scoreless innings and only allowed 2 hits while striking out 4...he did walk 4 guys but this was by far his best outing of the year...unfortunately three opposing pitchers combined for a no hitter...CC only had one baserunner (reached on an error) and struck out 10 times.

KABrother88

07-31-2014, 04:42 PM

Well Houston made a deal at today's non waiver trade deadline...and it was a very surprising one to me...a 6 player deal with the Miami Marlins...here's a breakdown

Miami gets:
SP - Jared Cosart
UTL - Kiké Hernandez
OF - Austin Wates (AAA)

Houston gets:
3B - Colin Moran (A+)
OF - Jake Marisnick (AAA)
RHP - Francis Martes (ROK)
2015 Competitive Balance Pick

Cosart had been a serviceable starter and was still young so I was surprised he wasn't considered to be a big part of the future

Hernandez played very well in his 1 month he spent in Houston...batted a respectable .284 and played well defensively at multiple positions...guess the FO wanted to sell high on him

Wates is a guy who I have posted about on here as hoping to see in Houston this season...he was hitting .299 with 31 steals at OKC and even missed about a month of action with various injuries

Moran is a guy Houston strongly considered drafting at 1-1 last year before going with Appel...he's currently injured but has hit .294 with 5 HRs and 21 doubles in 89 games at A+ ball. He slides into the #5 spot in Houston's top 20 prospects according to MLB.com and #72 overall.

Marisnick ended 2013 as Miami's #1 prospect but has since lost prospect status due to time in the majors...he has struggled so far at the big league level but has hit .277 at AAA this season.

Martes is an 18 year old who currently has a 5.18 ERA in the Gulf Coast League

Big T

07-31-2014, 08:10 PM

eagle eye

07-31-2014, 09:20 PM

As with any trade time will tell if this was a good deal or not. I like Cosart and I thought he'd be a good four or five down the road. As Big T pointed out Cosart threw a lot of pitches in most of his starts and rarely made it past the 5th. In MLB jargon Cosart made a lot of quality starts but he probably never would have been much more than he is. So, we'll have to wait and see.

Mark Appel made his first start at Corpus and he did very well. Seems the change of scenery did him some good! Appel pitched 5 scoreless innings and when he left the Hooks were in a scoreless tie with San Antonio. Appel ended up with a no-decision because the Hooks were no-hit by SA and ended up losing 6-0. The Change was a good omen for Appel who struggled at Lancaster.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/astros-prospect-mark-appel-tosses-five-scoreless-frames-in-double-a-debut?ymd=20140730&content_id=87063006&vkey=news_hou

BTW, Houston lost 6-5 to Toronto when Josh Fields and Chad Qualls blew another game together giving up 2 runs in the final two frames. I'm glad to say goodbye to July. Hopefully, August will be a better month.

KABrother88

07-31-2014, 09:56 PM

Cosart was never going to be a top tier starter. He has the physical stuff to be but when you throw 100 pitches in the fifth inning every game... He just never had the control and I don't think he ever will. I think the reaction by Jon Mayo and Duke was perfect when they heard what the Astros were receiving. Here it is.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/astros-send-jarred-cosart-to-marlins-for-prospects?ymd=20140731&content_id=87320460&vkey=news_hou

Don't get me wrong I wasn't suggesting Cosart would be a front of the line starter...expected more of a 4-5 possibly a 3. He's battled command issues his whole professional career which has always driven his pitch count up but he seemed to be decent at being able to get ground balls when he needed them to force a double play. Another thing that may or may not have play a part in the deal is the issue Sunday with Mark Appel...if you're not familiar with what happened basically Appel stopped in Houston on his way to AA Corpus Christi from A+ Lancaster (he has a home in Houston). While there he threw a bullpen session with Astros Pitching Coach Brent Strom while Astro players were warming up for an afternoon game...apparently one or more players weren't too happy with it and voiced displeasure...multiple rumors I saw linked Cosart back to the comments. So long story short he could have just fallen out of favor with the FO and they decided to part ways with him.

I guess it's clear Houston doesn't expect Correa to out grow SS now that they have Moran and Ruiz in the Minors while still having a young Dominguez in the Majors...although I could see Moran possibly moving to LF at some point if his glove lags

KABrother88

08-01-2014, 10:06 AM

Looks like Mike Foltynewicz is going to be called up today...righthander with an EXPLOSIVE FB...he does have command issues like Cosart but Folty has long been viewed as key piece ro the future. So far this year at AAA he has an ERA of 5.08 (yikes) with 102 Ks in 102 innings...but 52 walks...that being said he has moments where he dominates and shows how much talent he has...like his May 30th outing where he went 7.2 IP with 10 Ks and 0 BB allowing 1 run...then has outings like on July 7th where he gives up 7 runs in 3 innings while walking 6. He's still just 22 years old so hes still developing but hopefully he has some success initially and builds some confidence

Big T

08-01-2014, 10:23 AM

I can't wait to see him on the mound! He has long been one of my favorite prospects in the Astros system.

eagle eye

08-05-2014, 02:25 AM

Folty's 1st appearance was on Saturday night and he pitched 2/3 of an inning and did very well. I'm sure he'll see more work in the future but the bullpen got a rest on Sunday because of a complete game by Scott Feldman in a 6-1 Astros win over Toronto that also gave the Astros a 3-1 series win. It was a good win and Feldman pitched the best he has since May when the Astros were on a torrid streak in which they dominated their opponents.

So, how did the Astros fare in July. My first impression was that the team had trouble overcoming a rash of injuries to key players. Dexter Fowler hasn't played in like forever, or so it seems and George Springer has been in and out of the lineup with a pesky knee and Alex Pressley and............you get the idea. The last couple of weeks has seen the emergence of Chris Carter. The strikeouts are down and he's actually hitting in the clutch. Carter may have finished the last 10 days of the month as the best hitter on the team this side of Jose Altuve. Speaking of Altuve, the dog days of summer haven't cooled off Jose at the plate. Still hitting .340-ish with at least one or two multi-hit games a week. I've seen where opposing pitchers are actually giving him intentional walks to avoid taking a chance he'll sting them with his bat. Altuve is 2nd in the whole MLB in batting average at .339 just behind leader Troy Tulowitzki's .340. He's the MLB leader in hits (155), he's #1 in the AL in stolen bases and tied for #2 overall. The Dodgers Devaris Gordon leads the bigs with 51 steals and Altuve is tied with Cincy's Billy Hamilton at 43. Altuve has been solid in the field as well. To end his July in style Dallas Keuchel tossed his fourth complete game of the year vs the A's. With a little perspective, Scott Feldman's complete game on Sunday was his third---in his career. Houston did struggle and part of that struggle was with the bullpen. They ended July by blowing leads and losing two games the Astros should have won. Houston ended July with an 8-17 record and an overall record of 44-65. July was the worst since Houston went 9-19 in April which leaves them 22 games under .500. On the bright side July saw Houston leave the AL West cellar on the strength of a sweep of the Rangers on July 7-9 and they haven't been in the cellar since. Fortunately, Texas sucked worse than Houston in July.

With the onset of August Houston at least starts off on the right foot winning it's first 3 games of the month including Feldman's complete game on Sunday. Dallas Keuchel takes the hill tonight vs the Phillies and Kyle Kendrick in Philly. BTW Keuchel has been better on the road than at home so this should be interesting to see how does in his first start since his complete game against the A's on July 30th.

George Springer is going to Quad Cities for a rehab stint before returning to Houston. I'm a bit surprised he's going all the way back to A ball for the rehab assignment. He suffered a quad strain and I guess that's the best place to do your rehab assignment for that injury. He is expected to come off the 15 day DL next weekend vs the Rangers.

Domingo Santana is back in the bigs to replace Jesus Guzman who was put on the 15 day DL with back spasms. In his first call up in early July Santana lasted all of four games. He failed to reach base and he struck out 11 times in 13 at-bats. Hopefully, his second trip to the bigs is better than the first. So far, though, Santana has yet to play in a game.

eagle eye

08-06-2014, 06:11 PM

I thought that last night's heartbreaking loss in 15 innings to the Phillies would set the stage for a big rebound night for the Astros. Yeah, that 2-1 loss was probably a bitter pill to swallow but, to their credit, Houston usually comes back strong after such setbacks. Not tonight, at least not so far. After 1-2/3 innings Brad Peacock has taken up right where he left off when he was sent down to AAA a couple of weeks ago. That is to say he sucked then and tonight he's already allowed 5 earned runs on 5 hits and 3 walks. One and a third innings.
It's such a shame Dallas Keuchel goes 7 innings allowing one run on a Ryan Howard homer in the 2nd. In his last 3 starts he has allowed 2 earned runs with a .078 ERA. Brad Peacock, well, let's just say he's hasn't been that good. By contrast, Philly pitchers have allowed just two runs in 17 innings. It's still early so Houston could turn things around but the Astros are not very good when trailing by 4 or more runs. Houston did score in the top of the 1st on a leadoff hit by Jose Altuve and a steal of second base. A hit by Chris Carter moved Altuve to 3rd and a fielder's choice by Jon Singleton plated Altuve. I shudder to think what would become of this team if Altuve was lost for the rest of the season. You can't see it but I'm typing with my right hand while I knock on every piece of wood within arms reach.

eagle eye

08-07-2014, 06:01 AM

Brad Peacock and Bo Porter will tell you that Peacock is going through growing pains. I'm sorry, what? The fact that Houston traded Jarred Cosart and are left with Peacock is not such a great trade IMO. Peacock's plus is that he is only 26......but wait.........Cosart is 24. Cosart seemed to have turned a bit of a corner and was pitching pretty well and his 9 wins was second on the team behind Dallas Keuchel's 10 wins. Maybe the prospects Houston got will be worth giving up on Cosart but so far the highest rated guy, Jake Marisnick has been what he was in Miami the past year and a half, a weak hitting center fielder with zip for power. In 148 games played in Miami he earned 9 total walks. 9. But on the bright side he did strike out 146 times. Seems like his K/BB ratio is a little off kilter. Is this a rare mistake by GM Jeff Luhnow? I suppose only time will tell but right now I think the deal stinks. I would have been much happier if Peacock was the one traded.

eagle eye

08-10-2014, 03:13 AM

The Astros have won the series with the Rangers and it doesn't even matter what happens today. Mark it in the books. The Rangers domination of the Astros, for the time being, is over. Now, the Astros have Rangers ace Yu Darvish's number. Darvish didn't even last 5 innings before poor performance and a high pitch count ran him from the game. In 4+ innings Darvish gave up 6 runs, 5 earned and he threw 113 pitches.
With Jose Altuve out due to pain in his neck Robbie Grossman of all people was in Altuve's lead off spot and his first at-bat forcing Darvish to throw him 11 pitches before finally walking Grossman to set the table for a 2 run 1st inning was a thing of beauty. Who'da thunk it, that Grossman was capable of an AB like that.
Do you know how hard it is to alter your batting average by this time of the season? An 0-fer night may only lower your BA a couple of one thousandths. Same with a 4-4 night. By August you have logged so many AB's that a good or bad night or two just doesn't make much of a dent. That's what makes the recent surge by Chris Carter so incredible. In the last 30 days he's hit .318 and so far in August he's hitting a blistering .394. One month ago on August 8th after the second game of the series vs these same Rangers Carter was hitting .194 and that was kind of a high water mark for his BA in 2014. His average is now .229 which is 7 points higher than his career average of .222. You have to wonder if Vernon Christopher Carter is seeing the same hitting coach as Jose Altuve. If he is I hope he starts taking Jon Singleton with him.
Dexter Fowler could be back in the lineup any day now. His first game of his rehab assignment in OKC saw him DH and go 2-3 with an RBI on Friday and last night he went 1-3 with a run scored in a RedHawks win over Iowa. Fowler has been out of the lineup since June 27th with a right intercostal strain. If he has no ill effects from playing back-to-back games at OKC he could be back in the lineup as early as Monday vs the Twins.
Alex Presley may be going out for a rehab assignment of his own very soon. Since going out a month ago after straining an oblique muscle swinging a bat Presley had to be patient and nurse the injury along. Last night before the game with the Rangers Presley took normal batting practice with the team. He said he felt a little sore but he thought it was because of inactivity rather than the injury. If he really has no problems after today he could go on a rehab assignment the first of this week and return to the big club by next weekend.
George Springer is still wondering when he will be back. He tweaked his injured quad in his rehab assignment at Quad Cities so he is wanting to make sure the issue is completely healed before going all out again. He said that his game is built on his speed and he's not taking any chances by coming back too soon and causing a serious problem with that quad.
Dallas Keuchel will take the hill today to try and help the Astros nail down a sweep of the Rangers. He will be looking to extend his recent dominant streak on the mound which includes a complete game and 7 strong innings against the Phillies earlier this week that saw him get a no-decision in a 15 inning Astros loss. He'll be shooting for win #11 on the season and I hope he gets it.

dacards

08-10-2014, 07:52 AM

Moran is the key for this deal not Marisnick. If they both turn out to be good then the Astros got a steal. Marisnick is likely to become a decent 4th or bench fielder at some point. The only reason he is getting so much time right now is because he is young and and Fowler and Springer are out. Hopefully Springer's back today.

eagle eye

08-11-2014, 02:43 AM

The hope that Houston could complete the sweep of the Rangers sort of swirled down the bowl in the middle innings. Dallas Keuchel wasn't his usual self and that's evidenced by two wild pitches he uncorked in those middle innings and both cost him a run. The Rangers trotted out a AAA caliber pitcher and our guys made him look like Tom Glavine. It was nice to see the Astros on TV over the weekend and I was flipping channels all weekend going between NFL games and the Astros.

BTW, in bankruptcy court this past week there was some headway made to make the Astros and I'm sure the Rockets are part of the deal as well much more accessible to local TV providers. It won't help this year but all indications are that Directv and I believe Time Warner have been included in a deal that expands local coverage of the Astros and Rockets from 40% to around 70% with deals expected to include other pay TV providers that number could rise significantly. Unfortunately, the wheels of justice spin slowly most of the time. Speculation was that the deal won't be finalized for about 70 days which means Astros baseball will be over but, on the bright side, Rockets fans may finally get to see a product this is worth seeing and get excited about. It also means as the Astros get better the opportunity to watch that progression will increase too. That's not a bad thing.

eagle eye

08-11-2014, 02:56 AM

Okay, an update on previous post. The Houston Chronicle said that DirecTV and AT&T have purchased what's left of the ComCast Sportsnet network. There is no time frame in the article but it clarifies some information regarding the Astros and Rockets exposure in the Houston market.

http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2014/08/06/att-directv-to-take-over-comcast-sportsnet-houston/

Another big mistake I made in my previous post was that Time Warner was the other party involved because I posted a note on this thread a few months ago that Time Warner was merging with ComCast and they would all be one big happy family later this year. So, it would be foolish as heck for TW to undercut their new mother with this sports deal. My bad. When I'm wrong I say I'm wrong. Truth is my last post about this subject was off memory and it bothered me enough I had to look it up.

eagle eye

08-13-2014, 04:31 AM

The Astros are 1-1 in the current series against Minnesota. They lost Monday by a score of 4-2. Brad Peacock had a gritty performance throwing 113 pitches in 5 innings of work but he only surrendered 2 runs of which only 1 was earned. Josh Fields continues his rough streak by losing the game in the ninth giving up two earned runs on 1 hit and 2 walks. The Astros defense looked like little leaguers at times highlighted by Domingo Santana inexplicably holding onto the ball instead of throwing it into the cutoff man on a single. Santana's error cost Houston a run. Santana admitted after the game that he "just panicked" and he couldn't throw the ball. Rookies, what are ya gonna do?

Yesterday Houston bounced back to thump the Twins 10-4 behind strong pitching from Colin McHugh who won his first game since June 3rd. Chris Carter got a franchise tying 6th multi-homer game with two HR's which resulted in 5 RBI's. Since July 3, Carter is hitting .325 and leads the Majors with a .756 slugging percentage and a 1.138 OPS, in addition to the home runs. He has 15 HR's since July 1st which leads the majors in that time frame. Jose Altuve had yet another multi-hit game going 3-5 with 2 RBI's and 2 runs scored. Another guy hitting his stride is Jake Marisnick. Almost since the day after I bitched about him being a bust in the Jarred Cosart deal he's hit .400 in his last nine games and he went 2-4 yesterday with a HR to lead off the 3rd inning.

Houston will get CF Dexter Fowler back today. He has a 4 game rehab stint in OKC and is ready to return to the lineup for the first time since June 26th after suffering a right intercostal strain. In his four games Fowler was 3-10 at the plate and he had no medical issues at all. He'll slide back into his CF slot with newcomer Jake Marisnick sliding over to LF.

It will be at least 2 more weeks before George Springer will be back in the lineup because of a setback he suffered last week. He underwent and MRI and team doctors prescribed 2 more weeks of rest.

Alex Presley is on rehab assignement in short season Quad Cities. In his first game he went 0-3 but had no issues with his strained oblique muscle following the game.

Last but not least, if Houston beats Minnesota today they will match their win total of 2013 of 51 games. This may not seem significant right now but if you think about it with 6 weeks left in the season the Astros will improve 10 to 15 games over last season. That ain't nuthin to sneeze at pardner. The Astros have been beset by injuries over the summer but the excellence of Jose Altuve and the recent surge by Chris Carter the offense has been able to tread water. After a dismal July the Astros are currently above .500 for the month of August. If you think about the wasted quality starts and blown leads by the bullpen you could see that Houston is not a bad team that needs some consistency at the plate and in the bullpen but there is hope on the horizon. Not only that but the Astros, despite a truly horrendous month of July is still ahead of intrastate rival Texas in 4th place in the AL West. Robbie Grossman has even had a resurgence of sorts since he was put into the leadoff spot in the lineup when Altuve missed a day with a sore neck. He has remained in the leadoff spot since Altuve's return and he's seeing better pitches because opposing pitchers don't want to put Grossman on with the AL batting leader Altuve coming to the plate. Shoot, everyone in the lineup except for Mark Krauss and Jon Singleton is hitting better. Lord, what to do with Singleton. The guy has a bad habit of swinging out of his shoes a lot which is resulting in marginal contact and a lot of K's. If he can just learn that a smooth swing will get him better results without losing his power he will be okay. Where's Altuve's batting coach, man, Singleton can sure use him.

eagle eye

08-13-2014, 08:25 PM

Okay, follow me here and see if you agree. Today Bo Porter cost his team a win. Oh, Josh Fields helped with a simply awful 8th inning. A single, a double and walk loaded the bases and Kenny Vargas hits a 2-run single to extend the Twins lead to 3-0 and all this and Fields had not recorded an out yet. And that's part of my problem. I'll explain in a sec. Bo Porter has shown, to me at least, on many occasions that he is not a very good manager. I've ranted about this before but I have a laundry list of things from today's game that sort of back up my feeling. Under the letter head "How Bo Porter Blew Today's Game" I submit these items for your consideration.

1. Dexter Fowler came back today for his first big league game since June 26th and Porter sticks him in the clean up spot in the lineup. WTF???!!! Why not put him third and have Chris Carter bat fourth. It protects Fowler and maybe forces Twins pitcher Kyle Gibson to give Fowler better looks because Altuve and Carter are protecting him in the batting order. One of many bad decisions Porter has made setting his lineups this season.
2. Why pull Brett Oberholzer after seven innings? The guy pitched 7 strong innings of one run ball and that run came on a Joe Mauer solo HR in the 6th. Obie had thrown just 100 pitches and another 14 or 15 to finish the 8th would not have been a big deal. It was still a one run game and trotting out Fields time after time just to watch him suck is getting old.
3. Why take a guy like Matt Dominguez, who really pretty much sucks as hitter, and let him hit away with men on 1st and 2nd with nobody out in a 1-0 game? BTW Dominguez is among the lead leaders in grounding into double plays and Bo Porter has got to know this. Why not let Dominguez bunt the runners over taking away the double play and getting two runners in scoring position? On deck was a suddenly hot Jake Marisnick followed by .264 hitter Marwin Gonzalez. If Twins pitcher Gibson walks Marisnick to get the double play ball back on the table I would rather take my chances with Gonzalez more than I would Dominguez. Also, the Astros were not getting to Gibson who was mowing down Astros left and right. Through 6 innings he had only thrown 60 pitches. He fell apart in the 7th and 8th a bit but playing small ball would have put some pressure on Gibson and tied the game.

As for Fields, the guy can throw a 97 mph fastball but he keeps leaving it places that hurt him. He is in real danger of losing his confidence and for a pitcher that's a bad thing. IMO he needs to go down to AAA and work on some control issues. It's not that he's walking a lot of batters, but he is, but he's not spotting his pitches very well. This isn't a Bo Porter issue it's a Jeff Luhnow issue. Foltynewicz had a bad outing on Tuesday but it was a blowout game and the team could absorb a slightly rough outing. Porter keeps putting Fields in these tight games and he keeps blowing them.
The Astros are going on the road for 10 games in 11 days beginning tomorrow with a 4 game series against the Red Sox. At least I can go to bed early for a few days.

Big T

08-15-2014, 11:07 PM

eagle eye

08-16-2014, 07:03 AM

The Astros just equaled their entire win total of last year with a 5-3 extra inning win against the BoSox. Marisnik is really starting to excite me guys. He has been at the top of the Marlins minor league charts for a while but never put it together in the Majors. Right now he is playing superb defense and swinging the bat in clutch situations. He drove in the two runs in the top of the 10th tonight to get the win for our Stros.

I totally agree Big T. The Astros hitting coach must have a way to get the light to come on for some players. If you look at the total turnaround Jose Altuve has gone through and also with the emergence (finally) of Chris Carter and now Marisnick. I just wish he could push the right buttons on Jon Singleton who doesn't seem to be getting any better.
Speaking of Carter, call be crazy, but he is looking a little like Mark McGwire when he swings? He's under control, he isn't over swinging like he had been and he's trusting his power. All that is translating into a pretty good hitter. Since July 1st he's statistically the best slugging hitter in the AL and maybe the bigs period. If Carter can continue on the path he's been on the past month and a half he could turn out to be a really nice .270-.280 hitter with 30+ HR's. He will be one to watch over the last 6 weeks of the season. If he keeps it up he could in for a bit of a pay raise this off season. Now, understand two things 1) I'm not saying Carter is now or will be in the future as good as Mark McGwire was but the effortlessness of Carter's power and just his swing reminds of McGwire. That's all. 2) I'm not saying Carter will build his BA up to .270 this season. Too many AB's have gone by and too few are left in the season for him to reach that plateau but he could end up around .240 and that would be a career benchmark for Carter.

I bitch about Bo Porter's crappy managing enough that I have to give the man credit for a move that saved the game and ended up allowing the Astros to win last night. After Chris Carter singled to start the 8th and Dexter Fowler singled to move Carter to 2nd Porter pulled Carter and put in speedy Gregorio Petit to pinch run. This was a bit of a gutsy move because Carter was 2-4 on the night and has been the best hitter on the club the past month. But, the Astros were down 3-2 at the time with time running out in the game. It looked the move was moot because both Jason Castro and Jon Singleton struck out putting the Astros down to their last out with Matt Dominguez up to bat and it looked like Dominguez had failed to come through again with a slow ground ball to shortstop Xander Bogaerts. The guy that saved the day was Dexter Fowler who was off like a rocket at the crack of the bat and he beat the throw from Bogaerts to second base. The other guy who was off like a rocket was Petit who never slowed down rounding third and he beat the throw home from Dustin Pedroia. The call at 2nd was challenged by the Red Sox and the safe call was upheld. The key to Houston tying the game was Porter's move to put Petit in to run for Carter otherwise the tying run would not have scored and in all likelihood Houston would've lost 3-2.

The biggest thing about last night's win besides what Big T pointed out was that it was the first Astros win at Fenway. Prior to last night the Stros were 0-8 in Boston. But to Big T's post about Houston equaling their 2013 win total. This is a big deal because every win from now on raises the bar of expectations for 2015. This will be the first time in 4 years the Astros have gotten better in the W/L column. For the past three years the Astros have gotten worse. In 2011 Houston had it's first 100 loss season in their 50th anniversary season recording 106 L's. In 2012 the Astros followed with 107 L's and last year they set a new low of 111 losses. Now it's guaranteed that Houston will improve on that record as they sit at 51-72. If Houston plays .500 ball the rest of the 39 games left in the season, which is basically what they've played the last month, they will end up going 19-20 which gives them a final record of 70-92 which is a 19 game improvement over the worst season in franchise history. People, I would have taken 10 games better and ran with it. This is totally possible too considering the starting pitching continues to be excellent and the offense should get better now with Dexter Fowler back, Alex Presley not far behind and hopefully George Springer soon after. Who knows what September call ups will do. I would bet a guy like Kris Bryant will get a chance to move Matt Dominguez out of the 3rd base slot. Dominguez has shown what he is and he's not getting any better at the plate. He's a good defensive player but it would be nice to have someone who can hit better than .230-ish. What last night means is better days are coming.

KABrother88

08-16-2014, 09:02 AM

Who knows what September call ups will do. I would bet a guy like Kris Bryant will get a chance to move Matt Dominguez out of the 3rd base slot.

If only we had Bryant lol...thinking of Colin Moran there EE?

Interesting fact I just saw on SportsCenter...last night was the 15th consecutive loss on August 15th for the Red Sox. Why is that date significant? Well it's the birthday for Red Sox fanatic Ben Affleck...in fact he tweeted yesterday that if they lost again yesterday that he would become a Yankee fan...well...your move Ben.

eagle eye

08-17-2014, 10:41 AM

If only we had Bryant lol...thinking of Colin Moran there EE?

Interesting fact I just saw on SportsCenter...last night was the 15th consecutive loss on August 15th for the Red Sox. Why is that date significant? Well it's the birthday for Red Sox fanatic Ben Affleck...in fact he tweeted yesterday that if they lost again yesterday that he would become a Yankee fan...well...your move Ben.

Yep. My bad on that note. So, the Astros web site made a big deal about Dominguez getting a day off after 140 straight games. Trouble is, a day off won't help. I don't mean to be negative but Dominguez is a guy who will play better than average defense and hit into double plays on a regular basis and drive in a run on occasion even though it may be more about teammates hustle than his skill with the bat.

Speaking of negativity, remind me again why we traded the second leading starting pitcher on the staff in Jarred Cosart and kept a slug like Brad Peacock. Scott Feldman and Dallas Keuchel would kill for run support like Peacock got last night. Six runs would have won both pitchers 4-6 more games. Keuchel has had to toss 4 complete games to keep the bullpen from blowing the slim leads he had. Peacock enjoyed a 5-1 lead and a 6-3 lead before a disastrous 5th inning derailed the whole night for the Astros. A ridiculous error by Jon Singleton didn't help matters any but make no mistake, this was on Peacock. Pitching like he did last night got him sent down to AAA. I hope Marisnick and the Moran better be good because right now Houston is feeling the loss of Cosart. I know it's really too early to judge the trade but Peacock's continued poor performances are getting hard to take. He threw 96 pitches in 4-1/3 innings before the Red Sox chased him from the game. Peacock's ineptitude is almost as hard to take as that of Josh Fields. He is definitely a liability at this point. Peacock and Fields are not guys who should be in Houston's future if things keep going like they are.

Big T

08-17-2014, 01:31 PM

I've been watching the Astros on wiziwig.tv I had a friend tell me about this site a couple of days back and I have been using it since he told me about it. So far it's been great and I haven't had any problems with viruses or anything like that. I thought I would go ahead and tell y'all about it so y'all could check it out if y'all liked. Hopefully they will get the TV crap worked out but until then we have a way to watch our Stros! You can also find the site by googling free mlb games live streaming. It's not just MLB but any and every sport. My only draw back so far is that they only use the home broadcast.

Big T

08-17-2014, 01:32 PM

Oh, and make sure you have Ad Block downloaded.

eagle eye

08-17-2014, 07:27 PM

Thanks for the info Big T! As for today Houston made hay while the sun shone by bombing the Red Sox 8-1 largely due to a grand-freaking-slam by Jose Altuve. He capped a 6 run 2nd inning. Dexter Fowler added a solo shot in the 3rd and Jon Singleton added even more insurance with a solo shot in the 9th. Colin McHugh earned his second win in a row upping his season record to 6-9. The win today earned a series split with Boston which isn't bad and evened their record for August at 8-8. Today's win is +1 over their win total of last season. They are also 3-1/2 games ahead of the Rangers in 4th place in the AL West.

Big T

08-17-2014, 10:14 PM

I watched a little bit of the Ranger's game today. There was maybe 10,000 people in that stadium. I just had to sit back and chuckle a bit. Not only that but is it just me or have all of the Rangers hats vanished around here locally? Somebody must be stealing them from all of the "long time, non-band wagon" fans. Very strange.

eagle eye

08-18-2014, 05:58 PM

I've been talking about how much of a phenomenon Chris Carter has become and over the last week he has done nothing to dispel anyone's opinion about him. In fact the folks a MLB headquarters have taken notice and awarded Carter the American League Player of the Week. He is the second Astros player to win this award this season with Dallas Keuchel being the first (betcha you thought Altuve was the other!). Here's the article about the award for Astros.com. You may gag on how good the stats Carter has been putting up.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/hou/improving-chris-carter-turning-into-a-force-for-astros?ymd=20140818&content_id=90257182&vkey=news_hou

Big T

08-19-2014, 10:12 PM

Chris Freaking Carter! Three run bomb to beat the Bronx Bombers! Typical Carter kind of night, 1-5 with several K's and a bomb.

eagle eye

08-20-2014, 04:28 AM

Chris Freaking Carter! Three run bomb to beat the Bronx Bombers! Typical Carter kind of night, 1-5 with several K's and a bomb.

Not only that but he hit his 30th HR of the season which is a career high and it makes him the first Astro to hit 30 or more HR's since 2007 when Lance Berkman hit 34 and Carlos Lee hit 32.

eagle eye

08-21-2014, 06:53 AM

The Astros beat the Yankees again behind the pitching of Scott Feldman (7-9) and in a way the Astros aren't accustomed to winning. The Astros have sort of lived and died by the long ball but last night, with exception of a triple by Dexter Fowler, the Stros got it done with singles. They had one big inning where they scored 4 times and it was on a walk and 4 singles with one out in the 7th inning. The 4 runs erased a 2-1 deficit and gave the Astros the lead for good. The win without a home run ups their record for such games to 11-39 on the season. The 5-2 win also clinches the season series win over the Yankees with a game left to play today. The bullpen did their jobs last night too with Kevin Chapman, Josh Fields (WTF!) and Jose Veras (who got the save) combined to give up ZERO runs on 2 hits in 2-1/3 innings of work. The bottom 1/3 and the top 4 hitters got the Astros all the hits and runs the Astros needed to clinch this series win for Houston who is now 4-2 in this road trip with a game left vs New York and a 3 game set against Cleveland before they come home and face the A's.

Wins over 2013 - +3

eagle eye

08-21-2014, 03:42 PM

Did you ever get the feeling that Dallas Keuchel would like to line up the whole batting order and kick 'em in the nads? Earlier this month he goes 7 strong and gives up one run that ends up being a 15 inning loss. Last game he pitched against the Bosox and goes seven strong giving up only 3 runs but the Astros only had 2 when Keuchel left the game. For the Astros sake they came back and won with Tony friggin' Sipp getting the win. Sheesh. Last night Keuchel pitched another complete game of the season, his 5th, but he gets tagged with the loss because the offense took the night off. So in his last three starts Keuchel has given up 7 runs in 23 innings of work and ended up with a loss and 2 no-decisions. In the last two games Houston has scored 7 and 5 runs, both Astros wins, and if they score 5 Houston wins 5-3. But nooooooooooohohooooooo. The Astros were shut out making 8-12 Brandon McCarthy look like the reincarnation of Cy Young in a 3-0 shutout loss today. I would want the whole nine man batting order to line up while I did my best Randy Bullock impression on nine crotches. Keuchel has been stuck on 10 wins since the beginning of August. It's a shame the way Houston fails to take advantage of Keuchel's superb pitching by failing to give him any run support. I'm sure a good nad kicking would make him feel better.