— Gurriel's Intellect⚾ (@big_john819) July 23, 2016
*The Royals beat the Rangers, The Mariners beat the Blue Jays. The A's beat the Rays.
*So the Astros are 2.5 back of Southeast Denton, three up on the Grand Marniers. The Red Sox and Blue Jays both lost, so the Astros are 3.0 GB of Boston for WC1 and 1.5 GB of Toronto for WC2.
*The County Mountie has your potential Astros trade targets.
*FanGraphs gives the Astros a 51.2% chance of winning the AL West, with West Terrell at 38.0%.
*FiveThirtyEight throws the thing down, flips it and reverses it with the Rangers at 52% and the Astros at 38%.
*Baseball Prospectus has it 51.4% for West Terrell and 32.1%
*Lance McCullers apparently became the first right-handed pitcher to strike out Mike Trout in three straight plate appearances. Trout:
He threw me curveballs all night, and I just wasn't picking them up.
*Defense was the key to the Astros win, writes Jordan Ray.
*Alden Gonzalez writes about Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker's unlucky 12 game stretch...
*Preston Tucker tripled and scored in his first game back in the Majors. Tucker:
Once I got in a rhythm and started getting consistent at-bats down there, kind of getting in a groove, things took off. It took about a month for it to click, but the last month felt pretty good.
*Evan Grant writes about the Rangers' trade plans.
*Quad Cities pitcher Elieser Hernandez struck out 14 batters in 6.1IP last night.
*The Astros are about to finalize a $1.5m deal with 22-year old Cuban infielder Anibal Sierra.
*A judge ruled that minor-leaguers who want to sue for better pay have to do it individually, not as a class-action lawsuit. Finally baseball owners catch a break...
