So the Braves, who traded Jordan Schafer and Brett Oberholtzer, Paul Clemens, and...somebody else to the Astros for a season and a half of Michael Bourn (before Scott Boras goes and sells his soul), have now claimed Jordan Schafer off waivers.
This means that there are 39 players on the 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 draft. The Astros are now in a position that other teams might make a run at the system in the December Rule 5 draft, so they'll need to protect some players to keep them from getting poached.
Oh, and, I'm pretty excited about not having the 26-year old (!) Schafer on the roster. He struck out 106 times in 360 PAs in 2012 on his way to a career-worst .591 OPS. The Astros were 27-55 when he started (they were 28-52 when he didn't. This is depressing, huh?), and in June he struck out 26 times in 23 games (80 PAs).
He just struck out too much, too often. Fare thee well, Jordan Schafer.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
