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Luhnow, Astros sharpening after Christmas shopping list
Somehow the Astros’ off season just doesn’t seem to be complete. Something tells me Jeff Luhnow has some after-Christmas shopping left to do, though the bargains may not be as plentious as shopping at Macy’s and J.C. Penneys. He probably sharpened his pencil after Christmas dinner and crossed through some things, underlined other items and…
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The Twelve Days of an Astros Christmas
Merry Christmas everyone!! On the first day of Christmas my front office gave to me – A Martes involved in no trade On the second day of Christmas my front office gave to me – Two Oiled gloves and A Martes involved in no trade On the third day of Christmas my front office gave…
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WTSWTM: The off-season edition
This is the off-season edition of What They Said, What They Meant, where a quote (from Astros.com) is broken down between sportspeak (what they said) and people speak (what they meant). In other words, we are here to serve you with the translation from what they said, to what they actually meant! GM Jeff Luhnow…
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Nothing’s changed: Pitching and defense still wins baseball games
In football, if you can’t run the football and play defense, you aren’t going to win many games. In hockey, a strong goalie — or not — often defines your win-loss record. In baseball, it’s pitching and defense. History is replete with examples of great hitting teams that run up against good pitching and fall…
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Untouchables: Ranking the Astros’ core and nucleus
Most valuable? Most difficult to replace? Most sought after? Untouchables? Available? Houston has a long list of players that other teams covet. There are some that could be pried loose and others who aren’t going anywhere. But which players are the most coveted and which ones might be available are probably in the eye of…
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Hey MLB, when are you going to punish the Cards?
Between 2013 and 2014, Chris Correa, the St. Louis Cardinals’ scouting director at the time hacked into the Houston Astros’ servers multiple times and accessed confidential data about potential Astros’ draft picks, player information and trade talks among other information that he should not have seen from one of his 29 competitors. Federal prosecutors estimated this action as costing…
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Free Blog Weekend: Backwards thinking, drools and futures
It’s Friday and if you’ve been around these parts for long, you’ve come to expect a Free Blog Weekend from time to time. It’s a tradition that emanates from my radio background when the old DJ used to offer Open Mic Friday and anyone could chime in on any subject they wanted. In other words,…
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Are sabermetrics sucking the life out of America’s past time?
Recently on these pages, a new stat was introduced to followers that apparently is “all that” in ranking pitchers. Over the past decade, sabermetrics and sabermetricians have become as popular as flies on a cow’s tail, and while many of those stats may have merit, those of us old schoolers are often pessimistic, skeptical and…
