Astros Morning Snippets: “Daddy’s back” steals the show

The latest news around the Astros and baseball on February 19th, including a 2019 preview about the club from Baseball Prospectus and speculation about who could possibly be an extension candidate.

Another 2019 preview

Rob Mains and Wilson Karaman of Baseball Prospectus give their thoughts here about the Astros in 2019. Both writers are optimistic about Houston’s chances to win the AL West this year, although they did voice (reasonable) concerns beyond 2019.

Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman, extension candidates? 

Matt Synder of CBS Sports presents an extension candidate on all thirty major league rosters. For the Astros, Synder highlighted both Correa and Bregman, however, he singles out the latter as the more likely extension candidate.

At this point in time, it is rather doubtful if Correa is open to a contract extension. For one, he has already entered arbitration, and he likely doesn’t want to sacrifice any chances at free agency. Bregman, on the other hand, is not an easy one to speculate upon. With the current labor discord in the game today, I am not sure how pre-arbitration players feel about extensions. Heck, I am not sure how the lack of movement in free agency the past two seasons will impact the decisions of players like Correa.

“Daddy’s back”

Check out Forrest Whitley‘s jersey, which was provided by Justin Verlander after the Astros’ top prospect posted a picture with the caption “Daddy’s back” on Instagram.

So, who would like to see Whitley and Verlander star together in a movie about a student and master relationship? I think we already have a title for the film.

The best uniform in baseball

Thanks to a fan vote, the Astros were named as the organization with the best uniforms. Honestly, I think the voters got it right, although I could be perceived as biased. There is much to like about the Astros’ current uniform set, but I wouldn’t mind seeing more of an embrace of the “rainbow guts” or “sunrise tequila” design sometime in the future.