Tuesday Morning Astros, etc. Round Up

by Stephen Higdon on Jun 23, 2009 7:00 AM CDT in Link Dumps

Bourn on Bourn (there's a lot more to read besides this in the link, so you should click it...like the Coop comment on Bourn being the team's MVP and some player reaction):

"I still feel like I'm a little raw and will be for a couple of years," Bourn said. "I have to do the best with the talent I think I have. I knew I could do it, and it's just learning how to do it from the people that are around me right now."

Dave Cameron, of FanGraphs, asks the question: "What did we learn from Week 11?" One of the answers is this:

Wandy Rodriguez’s regression has come swiftly.

JJO checks in on Bud Norris, praises Burt Hooten, and then gives us this juicy, juicy tid bit right at the end:

Paulino will throw a simulated game today, and he is a candidate to start Saturday against the Detroit Tigers if Backe doesn’t get the nod or Norris doesn’t get a call.

Brandon Backe

I think the Houston Business Journal Stole HLP's idea, but their inquiry into bring food into the Juice Box is still worth the read.
Curious as to how far Lance Berkman's home run would have really traveled on Saturday? Here's your answer.
New kid on the block, at SBN, MLB Daily Dish, asked its readers which manager will be the first to be fired and amazingly, Cecil Cooper was not on that list.
Hit/fx looks at the tendency of right and left handed batters to pull the ball and the results are pretty, pretty interesting.
Richard Justice chimes in with a nice piece on MLBPA head, Donald Fehr's retirement. The question he asks, which I've yet to resolve for myself, is this:

His thinking was flawed because a player's right to privacy should be less important than keeping the public's trust. If the public thinks every player is using cocaine or steroids or greenies, then baseball players ought to surrender some of their privacy for the greater good of the game.

Tonight the Astros square off against AL heart throb phenom, Zack Greinke. It's not every day you get to face off against the league's best pitcher on your home turf, so show up at 7 PM and share the moment with your closet, non-face-to-face internet pals.

0 recs | 12 comments

Comments

i would be here

but im going to the game…well first batting practice then the game…

looking forward to it tonite!

go stros!

EveryHoustonTeamRox! - June 23, 2009 reply

Are the Astros going to be buyers?

An interesting fanpost from TalkingChop

ol Pete - June 23, 2009 reply

Do not buy!

The Astros absolutely do not need to buy a rental player at the break. Just stand pat and promote done youth to see what they can do. Buying needs to stop unless we’re just sitting on top of the division. Buying Aubrey Huff for half a season cost us one of the best players in the league this year in Ben Zobrist.

Irish Pete - June 23, 2009 reply

Javier Vazquez is not a half year rental.

And that is the pitcher whom the Astros were supposedly scouting. Vazquez’s contract runs through 2010. His salary is $11.5 million. However, I would take this blog posting with a grain of salt. The Astros are probably scouting a bunch of pitchers, so that they have reports on them just in case they need to consider a trade proposal at the deadline. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are targeting this pitcher. The blog poster said the Astros’ scout gave vague answers when he was asked about trading for Vazquez. Of course, he will be vague, no matter what the plans might be.

I don’t have an opinion, pro or con, about trading for Vazquez. It would all depend on what the Braves get in return. I have skepticism that Drayton is in a mood to pick up that contract, but I suppose that could change if another high price contract is traded away too.

clack - June 23, 2009 reply

Zobrist was a bust until he got outside instructional help.

He probably wouldn’t be in the Astros system right now, even if they hadn’t traded him. As a practical matter, Zobrist’s defense only plays well in the outfield now.

clack - June 23, 2009 reply

What about Vazquez for Valverde?

the braves need late inning help and we need a SP. I believe Papa Grande is making close to $8 million this year so we would only be taking on roughly $3-4 mill….. that is .. if they believe Hawk can continue to be successful in the close role. Just throwing it out there … but if we were going to make a trade like this … it helps us out in the long run and now.

Rhombus67 - June 23, 2009 reply

interesting.

clack - June 23, 2009 reply

Probably the most logical proposed trade I've heard yet

Very, very interesting

Stephen Higdon - June 23, 2009 reply

BPro has a good article up about Fehr (a subscription's probably req'd)

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=9111

The relative popularity of Fehr and his NFL counterpart, the late Gene Upshaw, ran in inverse proportion to how good each man was at his job of representing the athletes in their charge. Since 1983, when Fehr took over following the brief, unlamented stint of Ken Moffatt, the MLBPA has established itself as the most powerful players’ association in sports, and one of the few successful unions in American labor. They won three grievances over collusion at a time when free agency was still in relative infancy. They beat management in the courts when necessary. Under Fehr’s watch, we’re into the longest stretch of labor peace since the players were serfs.

For this, Fehr became a reviled figure, first for not caving in to MLB’s demands in 1994 and leading the players into a strike that lasted through the World Series, then for defending the principle of privacy, the right to refuse unwarranted searches, and the sanctity of collective bargaining, all as the public, management, and a grandstanding Congressional committee looked to trample all three.

Personally, I think Fehr did a great job for exactly the reasons Sheehan gives. While the Players’ Unions in all the other major sports leagues lost significant ground (the NBAPA and NHLPA in owners’ lockouts; the NFLPA to gutless leadership), the MLBPA did surprisingly well. The Players’ Association is probably in a worse position today than it was twenty years ago, but the losses it did sustain (after the ’94 strike; steroid testing) were less costly than the alternatives.

Fehr’s basic problem was his inability to get the public on his side. I don’t know if that was really his fault, given the way that the nation’s sports media sucks up to owners and fans have the (frankly weird) tendency to side with billionaire owners over millionaire players. Sheehan points out that Fehr didn’t do a good job of defining the argument, and that’s showcased pretty well in the Justice quote given above.

The issue should not be about whether or not individual players should be willing to give up their privacy for some fans’ peace-of-mind. It should be about whether or not owners have the right to invade players’ privacy.

Ultimately, Fehr and the union agreed to testing (it was probably inevitable, though), but putting up the fight they did made sure that the invasion was not extensive.

Only_A_Lad - June 23, 2009 reply

I did c

a braves fan mentions Carlos Lee…

Maybe something like Javy and Francouer for Lee is possible…

i dont think ATL wants that big contract tho

EveryHoustonTeamRox! - June 23, 2009 reply

Sure Zobrist was a bust under us...

But when you repeatedly buy buy buy… some “throw-in” that may not be much now will eventually become a stud. It happens all the time.

Lee would NTC anything other than Texas.

Irish Pete - June 23, 2009 reply

Actually, I was referring to Zobrist’s first two major league seasons (06 and 07) with Tampa Bay when put up consecutive OPS of .573 and .389. He turned into a different hitter before the 08 season when he an independent batting instructor worked with him. My article about that is here.

clack - June 23, 2009 reply

The Crawfish Boxes