22-year-old rookie Jonathan Villar has been exciting to watch at shortstop since being called up 10 games ago. He plays excellent defense, can lead off in the lineup, and is one of the fastest runners in the organization. Just a matter of him becoming a better hitter. He's in the early stages of his MLB career, but so far he's been a pleasant surprise. At the very least he'll be a nice stopgap until Carlos Correa is ready for the big leagues which likely will not be until 2015.



He stole home plate last night. He struggled in tonight's game though. 0-for-5 with a walk, scored a run, in the Astros 11-0 win.

Speaking of rookies, Brett Oberholtzer's line tonight: A three-hit shutout over seven innings with a career high six strikeouts.
He must have ate his Wheaties in the club house for his pre-game meal. I had no idea he could pitch like that.

The Astros are a very young team. They have guys even younger than 22 years old that will be called up soon.

your poor pitcher got hit in the head by a fly ball in batting practice

North Carolina State left-hander, Carlos Rodon, continues to shine for team USA

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/time-to-rest-rodon-heads-to-offseason-after-heavy-workload/12722059/

RALEIGH, N.C. — Another summer down, another season of supremacy for North Carolina State pitcher Carlos Rodon in a Team USA jersey.

The 6-foot-3 lefty from Holly Springs posted a 3-0 record in four starts for the Collegiate Men’s National Team as they went 20-3 in their summer tour. Rodon did not allow a run and only surrendered five hits in 17 innings of work for Team USA while striking out 21 to just four walks.

"It was a great experience. (It was the) second time I've played against Cuba, last year I got to play in Havana, and it was some good baseball," Rodon said. "So, overall it was a lot of fun."

The race for the 1st overall pick in 2014

1. Astros 36-70
2. White Sox 40-65
2. Marlins 41-65

The White Sox finally passed the Marlins for the second worst record and the Astros won 11-0 tonight (not good, LOL).
We only have 56 games left and a five-game lead in the loss column so we're still in pretty good shape.
I think it's important we end up with the first pick. I don't want to miss out on Carlos Rodon. I enjoy the kid's game.

Joe Sheehan from Sports Illustrated, says the Astros will have a winning ball club by as early as 2015. He says their farm system is already one of the best in all of baseball. I wouldn't want to go that far just yet. I'm thinking more like 2016 or 2017 will be their next winning record. The talent in the AL West division is pretty good so you can't just overlook that. But another good draft next June, with some Major League ready players like Rodon, and then I might agree that it could be sooner rather than later.

We have some tough games coming up so we shouldn't win very much over the next few weeks. We'll probably beat the Twins on Saturday Night with Jarred Cosart starting. I didn't expect the team to win tonight and they shocked me so who knows. But we can spare a win here and there with a five-game lead in the loss column.

Bud Norris is definitely going to beat us tomorrow night. So we'll hit 71 losses in another 24 hours.

are you happier when the astros win or lose?

Who was it? Must have missed it. Didn't hear about it on the telecast. Yikes, and the White Sox have lost 6 games in a row. We may have to go on a losing streak just to be on the safe side. But I doubt Jarred Cosart is going to have a bad start. The kid is the real deal. He's been money in three starts already. Should be 3-0. FML. The White Sox suck so bad right now, they're worse than us. I just hope we lose enough to get the first pick.

Right now, I want to lose. More important to get that first pick in 2014. But we have tons of young talent already called up or on the way. It's going to be very difficult for us to hold off the White Sox at this point. But they only lost 6-5 to a good Indians team tonight so who knows.

White Sox still have a far greater bullpen, I would classify them as top 10 bullpen in all of baseball.
Pitching rotation is mediocre, and the bats are just as bad as the Astros.
It may not be as close as you think.

White Sox are about to lose their 7th game in a row, down 5-1 in the top of the 6th against the Indians. Having a good bullpen is meaningless when you fall behind early in most games. The Marlins are also playing a day game with the Mets and will probably lose right now as well (0-0 in the 3rd). But it doesn't matter too much because I expect Bud Norris to shut us down tonight.

I was selfishly hoping Jarred Cosart could go undefeated this year and make a run at 10-0 while we still pick up the first pick next year, but I doubt he'll reach double-digit wins getting two no-decisions already (1-0 through 3 starts despite the 0.86 ERA). So it may just be I'll have to hope for some losses down the stretch even when Cosart pitches.

We'll still have five more losses than both teams after tonight. But the White Sox losing seven games in a row is hard to ignore.

Its not meaningless at all when you are making comparisons. A bullpen pitches more than a 3rd of your season on even good teams.
White Sox are a far superior team.

As long as we end up with the first overall pick next June so we can draft Carlos Rodon. That's all I really care about. The Astros bullpen, as of now, is looking much improved because they've been making a lot of changes and getting rid of some of the guys with ERAs over 6, 7 and 8. I've been impressed with some of the new relievers they have recently called up from the minor leagues, they are actually looking good.

You have to understand that the Astros (ranked 5th - I'd argue the best) have a far superior farm system than the White Sox (ranked 26th) and a lot of that young talent is starting to be called up to the big league level. it's not a stretch to think the White Sox could still finish with the first overall pick with a bad final two months of the season. They're on a seven-game losing streak as I type this.

I have to actually give credit to the Astros for not going into a full tank mode. They have been trying to slowly improve the team by calling up better players from the minors. That being said, I wouldn't panic just yet about losing the first pick. We haven't called up guys like George Springer, Jonathan Singleton and Mark Appel. If we were to call up all three of those guys soon then I'll worry.