Good morning, and Happy Biggio And Three Scrubs Hall of Fame Induction Day!
Quick Hall of Fame story, if you don't mind: In 2007 Cal Ripken, Jr and Tony Gwynn were inducted into the HOF. There were 80,000 people in Cooperstown that weekend - 95% of them had driven up from Baltimore to see Ripken. On the morning of the ceremony the weather forecast called for early afternoon storms, so the decision was made to flip the order, and let Ripken go first and then Gwynn - that way, if storms did delay some of the ceremony, it would be during Gwynn's speech, and Ripken would have already finished. Well of course when Ripken's speech ended, at least half the crowd got up and walked off the lawn of the Clark Sports Center. When I got back to my house (and we lived right in town), my buddies were having a cookout in our shared backyard. They asked how the ceremony went and I said, "It was good. Although a bunch of people walked out in the middle of Gwynn's speech because Ripken was done." They replied, "Well, that sucks," to which I responded - just as a gaggle of Orioles fans walked by - "Ehh. Orioles fans are used to leaving early." A fight was narrowly avoided.
AL West Recap: The Astros, Angels, Mariners, and A's all lost, with the Rangers taking care of the Angels to ensure that the AL West remained tied atop the board. FanGraphs actually now gives the Astros the edge over the Angels, with a 49.2% chance of winning the division, compared to a 47.5% chance to the Angels, and an 82.2% chance of making the postseason in some capacity.
*There is a "good chance" that the Astros make at least one more move before Friday's Trade Deadline. Luhnow:
I think there's a good chance that we'll be involved in one other deal, but you never know, you never know who else they're talking to...The intensity of the conversations across the board is picking up, and I wouldn't be surprised to see some things happen in the next day or two. Not necessarily with us, but I mean, there's a lot of activity going on.
*The rotation for the series against the Angels beginning on Tuesday: McHugh, McCullers, and Kazmir.
*Hinch wants Lowrie to get more reps in the field on his rehab assignment. Lowrie will get the day off in Corpus today and play 3B tomorrow.
*The Royals very nearly acquired Johnny Cueto yesterday.
*Jim Crane, Jeff Luhnow, and longtime trainer Rex Jones will be in Cooperstown today.
*We posted a...post from Friend of Astros County Michael Driscoll about the space between his first Astros game and Craig Biggio's induction.
*You can read a ridiculously long article about the Astros' chase for Randy Johnson here.
*Non-Astros link of the day: The Insane Story of the Guy Who Killed The Guy Who Killed Abraham Lincoln
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
