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 Thursday Launch!
Houston Astros News
Javier puts on in his first rehab start (HC)
Astros Minor Leaguer claims back-to-back player of the month
Arrighetti earns MLB pitcher of the month (HC)
Let’s talk about the tarps off thing (C2H)
AL West News
Angels resign Lucchesi to minor league deal (TR)
Raleigh set to begin rehab assignment (SNW)
MLB News
Manfred discussed new proposal
Castellanos DFA’ed by Padres (BR)
Reds option Friedl (TR)
Phillies’ Miller undergoes setback (NBC)
Houston Astros birthdays
LHP Arnold Earley (88, died in 1999 at 66)
C Tony Peña (69)
C Scott Servais (59)
C Rick Wilkins (59)
OF Darin Erstad (52)
RHP Kent Emanuel (34)
Feature photo from Astros on X, Source Link
Wild, wild game last night. Our offense isnt a fluke, that’s for sure. With Espada removing Yordan while he was having the night that he had, and burning King in the 6th, it feels like we beat the Pirates and Joe last night
I can see the pinch running for Yordan. He represented the tying 9th run. His spot wasn’t gonna come up again unless he (or his pinch runner) scores, so sell out to make the tie happen and deal with how to get the 10th run later, because it’s moot anyways if you don’t get Yordan or his pinch runner to score.
Interesting that Castellanos was DFA’d by the Padres. Maybe it’s the end of the line for a guy with a pretty good offensive career. He gave an interview this week praising how he has been treated by the Padres front office. Then he gets DFA’d the next day so they can bring up a AAA player from El Paso. He was hitting .190, so not much secret why he was DFA’d. If he would be willing to be a bench player, would the Astros be willing to offer him a contract? Probably not. But he has always been an extremely streaky hitter, and you never know if he might start hitting.
No way.
Even then, Castellanos would make our defense worse and that’s probably one thing that’s keeping us afloat besides a decent offense and pitching that has leveled out from April.
I wouldn’t even have Castellanos on my radar.
Surely Cole is going down (lefty bat).
Very low risk, high reward move I think.
Decent power, gets on base at a very good rate. Positional versatility, can play OF and 1st Base (give Walker a breather or 2).
Hope it pans out.
Wade is a LHB which is a plus for the Astros. I am guessing Dezenzo could be sent down, even though Texian makes a pretty good argument that it will be LH OFer Cole. I’m not sure what to expect from Wade. He has always had a good BB/9 and that continued in AAA with the White Sox. He is more of a line drive hitter when he was playing well. I suppose it’s worth trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Can’t really quarrel with picking up a guy who normally has a wRC+ of 115-120 and can give some LHB protection.
Dana is good at identifying these guys. Low risk, moderate reward.