Astros send down Brett Wallace

The Astros announced this morning that they have sent Brett Wallace to Triple-A Oklahoma City and promoted Brandon Laird.

So this means I can delete that "What To Do With Brett Wallace" post. Wallace's strikeout issues thus far in 2013 are well-documented. Despite playing in less than half of the Astros' games this season, he's still 14th in the Majors in strikeouts. And his .042/.115/.042 line in 2013 (for a -53 OPS) just wasn't helping a team in desperate need of hitting and/or at least getting on base.

I thought coming in to this season that it was Wallace's last shot. In the minors the guy just raked. In 401 minor-league games he hit .307/.381/.491. And at Triple-A he maintained a .304/.370/.490 slash line...in four seasons.

But that success hasn't translated at the Major League level for the former #27-ranked prospect in all of baseball (coming into 2010), for whatever reason - be it Brad Mills' inconsistent use of Wallace early in his ML career, or just an inability to hit.

In 239 games (818 plate appearances), Wallace hit .243/.316/.366. The power just never showed up. He has 16 career home runs, 38 doubles, and two triples.

I don't know what this means for Wallace. Hopefully he can figure it out, and if I'm reading this right, he has one option left after this season. He'll at least get everyday ABs at Oklahoma City - God knows he wasn't getting them with Houston over the last week. But he'll be 27 in August - do we know already know all there is to know?

Brandon Laird, meanwhile, makes the jump to the Majors. Laird was killing it in OKC (12 games, 55 PAs), hitting .353/.364/.569, with seven of his 18 hits going for extra-bases. He's also struck out 12 times. In 17 games in 2012 for Houston, he hit .257/.297/.371, so now we'll see what we have in Brandon Laird.

In order to allow the roster spot for Laird, the Astros designated Xavier Cedeno for assignment, which means the Astros care about my liver. Yesterday I tweeted:

New non-profit idea: For every appearance Xavier Cedeno makes, I'll drink a bottle of bourbon

I can't give you any more proof that the Astros care about us than that...

Also, since there's an open spot on the 25-Man roster, the Astros will call up a pitcher at some point soon. Or they'll add Julio Borbon. Who knows?

Update: Luhnow gave some thoughts on the ordeal. On Wallace:
"He needs [to get] a steady diet of at-bats at Triple-A and find the swing and approach the way it was [in Spring Training]. This is not the Brett Wallace we've gotten to know and developed. It's in there, and he needs to get back to that.

On Cedeno:
"We want to keep him in the organization. We're going to review all of our options at this point."