The Astros Were A Busy Team Off The Field Yesterday

Some days in baseball transpire more slowly than others. Yesterday was not the case for the Astros.

Where do I start? First, there was the “backlash” from Alex Bregman’s tweet on Sunday. Apparently the Texas Rangers used that as bulletin board material before their first game against the Astros. No judgement here; whatever floats your boat I guess.

Then you had the Lance McCullers behind-the-back pitch to Mike Napoli that sparked a bench-clearing…discussion. You can’t even say that’s a brawl. This was basically a heated discussion. Anyway, the backlash from that spilled over into yesterday as well. At least it made for some interesting interviews.

On a more somber note, the Astros lost their 2016 Minor League Pitcher of the Year, Brady Rodgers, to elbow surgery for the rest of the season.

Rodgers had an impressive 2016 season in which he pitched a total of 132 innings with a 2.86 ERA/3.20 FIP with the Fresno Grizzlies. He was also a September call up and pitched 8.1 innings with the Astros. It’s a shame that he didn’t get a chance to repeat that performance again this year.

In what was likley a response to the Rodgers injury, the Astros added another pitcher to the mix in Fresno. No, it wasn’t a promotion from Double-A Corpus Christi. Instead, the front office purchased contract of one Casey Coleman of the Atlantic League. You may recall them as they are in the same league as our own Sugar Land Skeeters. I think I earned a point for mentioning the Skeeters, right?

Coleman, 29, has been in-and-out of various organizations throughout his professional career. All in all, he has been a member of he Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mariners. Basically Coleman is minor league depth for the Astros who could be someone interesting down the line.

On the bright side, the Astros bested the Rangers again last night to the tune of 8-7. Thanks to a pair of Marwin Gonzalez hone runs, one of which was a grand slam, the Astros finally have some momentum against their in-state rivals. And, yes, I know that it wasn’t an off the field incident, but still it is something worth mentioning. Oh, did I mention that Carlos Gomez was the final out with the tying run on third? Yes, I would like to call that poetic justice.

**Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs**