Thursday, July 6, 2017

Thursday Morning Hot Links

*Don't you dare put this on Joe Musgrove. Musgrove was cruising - CRUISING, I SAY - and was one strike away from an immaculate inning in the 5th before it sort of all fell apart. BUT! the Astros could have gotten out of that inning. But whatever, Astros win 10-4 and are 7-0 against the National League. I'm kind of running out of ways to talk about this team. They're incredible and I don't really know how to process this.

*Musgrove was at 56 pitches through the 4th and dealing in the 5th before single, double, single, cheap homer - with two grounders hitting gloves before making their way to the outfield. He went 5.2IP, 5H/4ER, 6K:0BB and looked really good up until the last third of the bottom of the 5th. Carry on.

*Another 10-run, 16-hit night from this ridiculous offense. Braves manager Brian Snitker:
They just keep coming at you and coming at you. They won't let you get away with anything. The two-out and two-strike RBI - they are a really good ball club. 

*Braves OF Ender Inciarte:
I've never seen a team like that.

*In terms of fWAR, the Astros have three of the top 11 players in baseball.

*Springer and Altuve each had a three-hit night. Reddick, Marwin, and Gurriel each had two hits. The Astros hit seven doubles for the third straight game. They had three 7-double games from 2011-2016. Only the 1999 Cleveland Indians had a three-game 7+ doubles streak.

*Springer was 7x10 in the two games against Atlanta and even stole a base last night for the first time since August 2016 (and did it twice!). Hinch, on Springer:
This is as good as I've seen George swing the bat in my time with him...These two-strike base hits are exactly what he needs to do to take his offense to the next level. 

Springer has 37 hits with two strikes. I chased a stat yesterday morning for an hour and a half, so I'm not going to do that again, but that seems like a lot. Jose Altuve has 28 two-strike hits. Aaron Judge has 45 so...

As for those two steals, Hinch:
He's off probation. 

*Josh Reddick, man. Since returning from the concussion DL (51 PAs) he's hitting .477/.490/.909. Twelve of his 21 hits have gone for extra bases and he's 4x4 on stolen base attempts. And check his OBP over the last few years:
2011: .327
2012: .305
2013: .307
2014: .316
2015: .333
2016: .345
2017: .364

*Jose Altuve was hitting .188/.257/.188 on the morning of April 11. Since he's hitting .351/.421/.576.

*Alex Bregman has raised his OPS 30 points (from .711 to .741) in his last 14 starts.

*The A's, Ramgers, and Angels won while the Mariners lost. The Astros are 58-27 and have a 16-game lead with 77 games left. Here's what the AL would look like if you don't factor in Astros games (* indicates the Astros have not played them yet):

AL East
Boston: 48-34
New York: 42-34
Tampa Bay: 43-40
Baltimore: 40-41
Toronto: 39-45*

AL Central
Kansas City: 41-36
Cleveland: 39-38
Detroit: 36-43
Minnesota: 43-38
Chicago: 37-47*

AL West
Anaheim: 40-39
Frisco: 38-37
Seattle: 38-38
Oakland: 35-38

*Richard Justice says the Astros are playing smart with a 16-game lead. Hinch:
I don't think there's a guy in the clubhouse that doesn't love coming to the ballpark. When you come to the ballpark with this group - a special group of guys - they're not satisfied.

*Collin McHugh threw 49 pitches in 3.2IP, 3H/2ER, 5K:0BB for Corpus last night, with both runs coming after throwing three perfect innings. The plan was for McHugh to throw 45 pitches. McHugh:
Obviously, you don't want to give up those runs in that last inning but to be able to get into that fourth inning and being pretty efficient along the way you kind of breathe a sigh of relief. You move forward from there for sure. 

In that game, Kyle Tucker went 2x3 with a double, home run, and two walks. Tucker is hitting .366 with four home runs, 8K:6BB in his last 10 games. If the Astros can land a frontline starter without giving up Tucker, Luhnow's statue will go in on August 1.

*Speaking of potentially-available frontline starter, may I present to you Marcus Stroman.

*With the signing deadline for draft picks coming at 4pm Central tomorrow (Friday) the Astros still do not have deals with 1st Round pick J.B. Bukauskas and 10th Round pick Kyle Serrano. 9th Round pick Mike Papierski hasn't officially signed, but does have a deal. Mike Elias said yesterday:
I wouldn't say there's been anything out of the ordinary yet for this point in the process. There's a very small window this year in terms of signing players. A lot of these kids, their seasons ended rather late and we don't have a ton of time to work out everything about a deal.

But wait, what's this:

*Someone come get A.J. Pierzynski:

*Here's a good article on the life of 17-year old phenom Hunter Greene.

*This is one of the dumbest things I've ever read. Naturally it's a Chicago guy.

*Can you draw all 50 states? Answer: No, you can't