Welcome to the Launch Briefing, a daily feature, where you will find a roundup of news and interesting stories from the Astros clubhouse and from around the league.
Discuss and share in the comments!
It’s the Wednesday Launch!
Houston Astros News
Astros activate Hader off 60-day (NYT)
Shewmake to IL (HC)
AL West News
A’s select Morris (TR)
MLB News
Pettis hired by the Giants (ESPN)
Verlander impressive in Triple-A outing
Royals claim Lugo (CBS)
Crochet diagnosis (ESPN)
Rays place Heasley on IL (MSN)
Houston Astros birthdays
IF Jim Gentile (92)
IF José Tolentino (65)
OF Carl Everett (55)
RHP Lucas Harrell (41)
IF Ramón Urías (32, St. Louis Cards)
Feature photo from Astros on X, Source Link
So Jo Adell pulled a Jose Canseco and let a ball bounce off his glove, off his head and out for a home run:
What’s insane, is that this is the SECOND time he’s “assisted” a fly ball become a home run. This was rookie year Adell:
With Brown scheduled to come back soon, has Mike Burrows basically Weiss’d himself to AAA? Teng has been unlocked, and I couldn’t imagine seeing him demoted back to the pen after sustaining a bit of success. Teng can have trouble going through the order the third time is looks like, but it is much preferable to what Burrows gives us nine out of ten times.
who would your 5 be then? Brown, Spencer, Imai, Lambert, Teng? I guess we just need to keep throwing darts at the rotation until we find a set of 5 that can be serviceable, but a bullpen of Hader, King, Santa, DLS, Teng and maybe Ullola down the line sounds really enticing. But no sense having a good bullpen if you can’t get good starts, I guess.