*Back in September the Astros agreed to a $5.15m deal with Cuban LHP Cionel Perez. In October an "issue" with his physical voided that deal. Now they have worked out their issues and Perez signed a revised $2m deal to join the Astros organization. Astros international director Oz Ocampo:
We are very excited to bring Cionel into the...organization after scouting him for a number of years. He is a very talented, young lefty with the baseball ability and fortitude to have a very successful Major League career.
Thanks to the Astros going nuts with international signings this season, spending almost $9m and going over the allotment by 15%. This means the Astros cannot sign an international prospect for more than $300,000 until 2019.
*The Astros signed infielder Reid Brignac to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training yesterday. Brigand, who will be 31 next month, was the Rays 2nd Round pick in the 2004 draft. He's a career .219/.264/.309 hitter and has played in more than 50 games in a season twice - 129 games total since the beginning of the 2012 season. So...
*Jeff Bagwell is running at 88%, appearing on 23 of 26 known HOF ballots. Bagwell had appeared on 77.7% of public ballots prior to the BBWAA announcement in 2016.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
