Astros Weekend Links

Happy Winter Meetings Astros fans! Things are already getting started in Orlando as Reid Ryan made an appearance on MLB Network this evening. We also bring you a few Astros links to keep the excitement level high. We start with an interview with Jeff Luhnow courtesy of Jayne at What the Heck, Bobby? It’s a 2-parter but a great read. Enjoy.

Luhnow Interview Part One

Luhnow Interview Part Two

But wait… there’s more.

Fangraphs

"Steamer and Oliver – two projection systems currently available on FanGraphs player pages – project a 3.99 FIP for Feldman. Oliver projects a 3.62 ERA while Steamer expects a 4.32 ERA. The difference is mainly that Oliver estimates a league average LOB% while Steamer uses a figure that is close to Feldman’s career average LOB%. As such, an ERA between 3.62 and 4.32 seems like a good range of expectations. That’s a range of about 1.5 to 2.5 WAR. Since wins appear to cost around $6.5 million this offseason, the Astros investment smells reasonable."

House of Houston

"Anderson is scheduled to make $8 million this coming season, and has a team-option for $12.5 million in 2015. To acquire Anderson, the Astros shouldn’t have to trade much. Kuechel has been in the Astros rotation the last few seasons, but he’s a replaceable back-end starter. Tropeano and Perez both are far down the team’s organizational prospect list."

Ultimate Astros

"“My slider came back to being that strikeout slider, my fastball had more life on it,” Qualls said. “I was throwing those pitches harder. … I had one of the best years of my career. The sky’s the limit next year. I’m excited to know that I’m back to who I was and I’m older and I’m smarter I’m better and wiser. It’s awesome.”"