Let's get it started.

- Hitting coach Mallee hired by Cubs

- After losing hitting coach John Mallee to the Cubs, Astros GM Jeff Luhnow spoke highly about Mallee's work to Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle. Drellich points out that Mallee deserves some credit for the success of Jose Altuve and Chris Carter in 2014, although skeptics could also point to the strikeout problems some of the other team's young hitters had. Luhnow said he hopes to have a finalized coaching staff in place by month's end, and as Drellich notes, only pitching coach Brent Strom is a guarantee to return at this point.

- Yankees special assistant Trey Hillman has spoken to the Astros about becoming the team's bench coach, George A. King III of the New York Post reports. Hillman could also be a candidate to be the Yankees' new first base coach or infield coach.

- After letting Jorge De Leon go on a waiver claim, the Astros have cleared three additional roster spots with a series of moves today. As the club announced in a press release, it has declined its option over reliever Matt Albers and outrighted first baseman Jesus Guzman and lefty Rudy Owens. According to the team, Houston's 40-man roster now has four vacancies, though it would appear from this list that it stands at 37 (with Albers still technically on the 60-day DL). Albers, 31, will head back to the open market after an injury-shortened 2014 campaign. He allowed only one run in his ten frames on the year, striking out eight and walking three batters, but shoulder troubles ended his season. Houston had signed him to a one-year, $2.45MM deal that included the option. The Astros elected to pay a $200K buyout rather than taking on the $3MM option price. Guzman, 30, continued to see his star fade after showing some promise earlier in his career with the Padres. He hit just .188/.272/.248 at the major league level. The 26-year-old Owens, meanwhile, had his first big league start but posted a 4.33 ERA in 135 innings at Triple-A, striking out 6.9 and walking 2.2 batters per nine.

- Guaranteed Contracts

• Scott Feldman, RHP: $18MM through 2016
• Jose Altuve, 2B: $10.5MM through 2017
• Jon Singleton, 1B: $8.5MM through 2018
• Chad Qualls, RHP: $3.25MM through 2015

Arbitration Eligible Players (Service time in parentheses; projections via Matt Swartz)

• Dexter Fowler, CF (5.168): $9MM projected salary
• Jason Castro, C (4.104): $3.9MM
• Chris Carter, 1B/DH (2.159): $3.5MM
• Tony Sipp, LHP (5.100): $1.5MM
• Alex Presley, OF (2.162): $1.2MM
• Carlos Corporan, C (3.019): $1MM
• Marwin Gonzalez, SS (2.133): $1MM
• Anthony Bass, RHP (2.148): $600K
• Non-tender candidates: Bass, Presley

Contract Options

• Matt Albers, RHP: $3MM club option with a $200K buyout

Free Agents

• Jesse Crain

http://www.mercurynews.com/sports/ci_26718594/houston-astros-improvement-costs-furniture-mogul-4-million

HOUSTON -- The Houston Astros' improvement this year from baseball's worst team cost a Houston furniture mogul Jim McIngvale more than $4 million to make good on a promise to fans.

The man known in Houston as "Mattress Mack" last spring offered to reimburse the first 500 customers who spent more than $6,300 on furniture at his stores if the Astros won 63 games -- matching the age McIngvale turned this year. The Astros won 70 games.

Lineup as the roster stands right now. Guaranteed spots only

LF
2B Jose Altuve
CF Dexter Fowler
RF George Springer
DH Chris Carter
1B Jon Singleton
C Jason Castro
3B
SS

You could talk me into leaving the 1B spot open as Singleton was horrendous this year, but since we have him locked up he will get the first shot.

We absolutely have to find an upgrade at 3B. Dominguez just isn't cutting it.

Do we continue on with Marwin and Villar at SS until Correa is ready? I would say just go with those guys until we bring Correa up so we can spend money elsewhere.

LF is an intriguing spot. Marisnick played well in his short stint and the club seems to have some type of morbid fascination with watching Robbie Grossman kill our lineup. Wouldn't mind seeing us try and upgrade that spot. I don't think Santana is the answer, at least not yet. We don't need 4 guys in the lineup that strikeout 200 times a year.

I'd write in Marisnick at left prior to spring training. I expect they'll give Grossman plenty of opportunities to work his way into the lineup, which I'm not completely opposed to because he's showed a lot of improvement. I'd say stick with Villar for now at short, but obviously just keeping the spot warm for Correa. My guess at 3rd is that the staff will try to bring in someone new this season, but they won't want to spend. In my oppinion, we'll probably end up with another 3rd baseman who just won't cut it.

Whatever happened to the speculation that Correa would outgrow SS and make the move to 3B?

I want Headley

Moran/ Ruiz won't be ready until 2016, and will still be young and maybe not ready to provide the value we need to make a run.

Also, does AJ Reed have a chance to move up quick.. or is he a 2016 guy too?

I think we need to spend money on 1-2 starters, and 2-3 bullpen arms. If we still have enough money left to make an impact, I think the best player available between SS and 3B gets it. We could have Jed Lowrie back if we wanted him.

Fowler
Altuve
Springer
Carter
Headley
Castro
Lowrie
Singleton
Marisnick

Bench: 1 or 2 of Marwin, Villar, Dominguez. 1 or 2 of Grossman, Hoes, Presley. Stassi.

Whoever of the bench players that we can best package together for the next McHugh we should do it.

I believe there's a good chance we see Reed this year, because the initial plan was to hurry him through the minors and have him only focus on hitting. However, I don't know what the plan with him is, considering Carter has found a lot of success. I'd assume when he's called up, it'll be as a pinch hitter, unless Singleton continues to really struggle and they decide to shift him to 1st

Trey Hillman coming over as bench coach

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/24752167/trey-hillman-is-hired-as-coach-for-aj-hinchs-staff-in-houston

Appel looking great so far in the AFL.

Tonight's line: 4IP, 1H, 0R, 2BB, 6K.

Last week: 3IP, 1H, 0R, 1BB, 2K

I found this tool on sports-reference today and I think it's useful for getting a snapshot of which positions we are strong/weak at. It pretty obvious to anyone who is paying attention, but this just makes it more quantitatively obvious.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/team_compare.cgi?year=2014&lg=AL&stat=WAR

In summary, if you sort each position by WAR here is where our guys stand:

SP: 11.9 WAR (6th of 15 teams in AL)
RP: -2.3 (15th of 15)
C: 2.3 (7th of 15)
1B: -1.3 (15h of 15)
2B: 6.1 (2nd of 15)
3B: -1.2 (14th of 15)
SS: 1.8 (9th of 15)
LF: 0.8 (12th of 15)
CF: 2.8 (10th of 15)
RF: 2.8 (6th of 15)

Like I said most of us don't need to see these numbers to realize that RP, 1B, and 3B were terrible for us this year. However, I think there are some interesting conclusions to be made about SS and the OF.

The SS numbers are pretty weak, but they are made up of a combination of Villar's 0.5 WAR and Marwin's 1.4. I would really like to see Marwin get a full season at SS. He's only 23, under team control until 2019, and posted an above-league-average OPS this year. At worst, he's a serviceable stop-gap until Correa. At best, he shows some growth over the next 2 years to boost his value and we can trade him away when Correa arrives.

At CF, I think we are fine with Fowler. Hopefully he can stay healthy. 2.8 is a decent enough WAR; the ranking is low because so many teams have one of their best players at CF. And at RF we are obviously fine with a full season of Springer.

In LF the 0.8 WAR comes from a combination of 10 Astros. Here, I think we should just give it to Marisnick, following the same logic as Marwin at SS. He's only 23, under team control until 2020, and improved his numbers dramatically with an increased role in Houston. He posted a 1.4 WAR in only 50 games.

I'm not really sure what to do about 1B and 3B. I suppose you have to hope Singleton turns it around. I'm not really up on available free agents to plug any other holes. I mostly just wanted to post about Marwin and Marisnick. I really hope we give them the upcoming season to see what they can do.

Here's something from the Astro's twitter #AskLuhnow today. He's really pumping the World Series talk. Don't like how he answered the question though. Seems like they just kinda grabbed someone out of the hat.

Question:

quote:

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Q3 RT @ZachDevil: @astros #askluhnow Can you give specifics as to why Hinch is the right guy to manage the #Astros?

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Answer:

quote:

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Q3: Main reason, he will lead us to the playoffs and to a WS - has intangibles, experience and knowledge to be a great manager #AskLuhnow

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Rest of the Q/A is here

http://astros.mlblogs.com/2014/10/15/askluhnow-astros-twitter-takeover-october-15-2014/?partnerId=as_hou_20141015_33733467

Doesn't matter how good of a defender we put in left field. Lee and Carter played it. Could probably put my granny out there in her wheelchair and be enough.

I'd like the focus this offseason to be pitching, especially the bullpen. Unless the coaches see Carter not hitting like that again, I don't think we will have any problem scoring runs. Bullpen blowing it every game has to stop.

Just get an average bullpen please...that's my main ask

Here's an article with some interesting thoughts it the astros do go after someone for the starting rotation. I wouldn't be surprised to see McCarty, and I think he could fit in well for the price.

http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2014/10/16/6986051/astros-and-the-2015-free-agent-class-starting-pitchers

quote:

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Here's an article with some interesting thoughts it the astros do go after someone for the starting rotation. I wouldn't be surprised to see McCarty, and I think he could fit in well for the price.

http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2014/10/16/6986051/astros-and-the-2015-free-agent-class-starting-pitchers

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Liriano and Santana.

Good job Appel

There is basically a shot clock for the pitcher to pitch to speed up games. dumb

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/players-in-afl-struggling-with-adjustment-to-new--pace-of-game--measures-110749754.html

Won't a pitch clock give a major advantage to baserunners when the clock gets low? For example, if a pitch clock is withing 5 seconds, doesn't that mean the pitcher will either need to pitch or take the ball? I feel like this is flawed and definitely work in favor of offenses

Keuchel is a gold glove finalist

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/99380188/gold-glove-awards-finalists-revealed

quote:

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Won't a pitch clock give a major advantage to baserunners when the clock gets low? For example, if a pitch clock is withing 5 seconds, doesn't that mean the pitcher will either need to pitch or take the ball? I feel like this is flawed and definitely work in favor of offenses

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Yes. But you would think a pitcher would just let it run out and take the ball. It's a stupid idea. Let the umpire control the pace of the game, and tell pitchers to hurry it up. And if a pitcher doesn't follow that, suspend him for a start.

Limit batters to one step out per at bat and we shave two hours off the game.

I'm OK with both pitch timers, and limited batter step outs. Catcher can visit the mound one time per inning.

Baseball is incredibly tough to watch, especially if you don't have a rooting interest.

Some news from mlbtraderumors:

Down in Houston, the Astros are preparing for a busy offseason, as MLB.com's Brian McTaggart writes. GM Jeff Luhnow said that the club is hoping to improve in the pen and corner infield while adding some pop through an outfielder. The team has as much as $20MM in added payroll capacity to accomplish that, per Luhnow, who says that the organization already has a list of free agent targets and has had contact with a dozen clubs in preparation for trade talks. "There's been some turn over in front offices," said Luhnow. "We think we know what players might be available, but you never know until the season's over and people are taking stock of their areas of improvement and where they have excess and you never know where there's going to be a match. You've just got to talk to everybody."
One player who the Astros will not be able to get a look at to start the spring is righty Brad Peacock, who had bone spurs removed from his right hip. Per Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle, the club does not view the surgery as a long-term concern, but Peacock seems rather unlikely to be ready by Opening Day. Having already dealt away Jarred Cosart at the trade deadline, Peacock's situation could make Houston somewhat more inclined to add starting depth through free agency.

Here is our chance to rid the rotation of Peacock. If we can get 5 guys off to a good start, there will only be the pen for him to be banished to. Let him throw 30 pitches an inning in games that are out of hand.

If Peacock is still in the rotation come next year, Lunhow must have failed in free agency, and convinced Nolan Ryan to come out of retirement.

Quick look at the rotation:

Keuchel and McHugh looked great last season and should be able continue where they left off next season.

Obie has potential to be good, but not as good as Keuchel or McHugh.

Tropeano only had a few starts, and showed promise, but still has a ways to go

Feldman was pretty meh and don't expect him to do much better (or worse for that case)

Hopefully the stros will pick up another quality starter, and at the least, Peacock can be done with the stros for good.

Keuchel
McHugh
Feldman
FA

Obie/Trop/Folty/Wojo battle out for fifth spot.. but my guess is Folty and maybe 1 of Tropeano and Wojo leave us in a trade.

Why would they trade folty?

I think if Folty can pick up 1 more good pitch, he could be a great closer

Can we sign Sandoval? Please

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Can we sign Sandoval? Please

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who says Sandoval would come here? Wins 3 world series in 5 years, and would want to come to the Astros? Only if we offered way more money, and we aren't doing that

There's 0 chance the stros get Sandoval. It would be awesome, but the stros won't pay for him, and I can't think of a reason he would want to come to houston

Headley please.

Looks like Tal's Hill is gone after 2015

http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2014/10/27/astros-to-explore-changing-tals-hill-down-the-road/#22102101=0

mlbtraderumors:

A federal bankruptcy judge today approved a Chapter 11 reorganization that will allow DirecTV and AT&T to purchase Comcast SportsNet Houston, reports David Barron of the Houston Chronicle. The network will be relaunched next month as ROOT Sports Houston and will provide the Houston area with significantly greater accessibility to television coverage of Astros games. The team has issued a statement, via press release, expressing its pleasure with the outcome: "We are very pleased with Judge Isgur's confirmation of the plan to reorganize the Network under AT&T and DirecTV. Throughout this long process, our main goal has been to provide broad coverage of Astros games for our fans throughout our region. This new Network will allow us to achieve this goal. There are still a few obstacles that we have to overcome, but today's decision is a big victory for Astros fans and the City of Houston."