While You Were Drinking: Weekend Link Dump

Some fairly big news related to the Astros over the weekend - what do you miss?

Jim Deshaies might not be in the booth next year. TCB was all over this over the weekend, but news broke that Deshaies has interviewed to call games for the Cubs.

David Barron has an update from JD:
“I spoke with George at the end of the year, and he was reassuring and said we like your work and we want you back. It’s a case of getting the call from Chicago and them asking if I would be interested in the job and thinking, ‘Well, that’s worth talking about.’ ”

We are, of course, in agreement with all the outrage. For those of us who live out-of-market, Deshaies was enough to get us to watch 213 losses over the last two seasons. It's hard to believe that both JD and Bill Brown weren't locked up far enough in advance so that Deshaies didn't have a chance to talk to the Cubs.

It sounds as though the ball is in the Cubs court, and the Astros let that happen. Deshaies said he would wait to hear from the Cubs before deciding either way. Let's all hope that the Astros pull their heads out and keep Deshaies.
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Berkman in mix as DH.

We've talked about this before, but Lance Berkman is going to be a volunteer coach at Rice before determining if he wants to come back to baseball. He told McTaggart on Friday that he plans to play in 2013.  He indicated to Crane that he would be interested in joining the Astros, and also had lunch with new manager Bo Porter, and characterized the nature of the conversation as "informal."

Berkman:
"There was absolutely no discussion of me signing a contract. They've said they have some interest, but so far, they haven't made an offer."

It's pretty clear that a 75% Berkman is better - on paper, anyway - than any 2013 option the Astros have right now. He brings familiarity to what will be a wholly unfamiliar situation, new uniforms, new league, new faces. Is he worth it? For $5m + incentives...maybe.
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Jim Callis ranks the Astros as one of the top three systems in the AL.

In his chat, Baseball America's Jim Callis has nice things to say about the Astros' system:
Based on our BA Grades, the AL's three best Top 10s belong to (in order) the Mariners, Rangers and Astros.