I was wide awake at 3am so let's just get today over with, huh?
*Joe Musgrove will be SP4 to start the season, and the rotation will be Keuchel, McCullers, Morton, Musgrove, and Fiers.
*Which of course means that Collin McHugh and his dead arm will start the season on the DL. He'll make his Spring Training debut today, about three weeks too late.
*And now the only question is who will be the final arm out of the bullpen: James Hoyt or Jandel Gustave? Hinch:
It's miserable being this guy. Hoyt's been this guy for the last couple of years; Gustave is the first time being this close to the team, (Dayan) Diaz as well. I don't want them to put so much pressure on themselves in the last outing or two they're going to have.
Hinch is looking to see if they can get lefties out to help Sipp in times of trouble. The bullpen, as of now, is Giles, Gregerson, Harris, Feliz, Devenski, Sipp, and probably Brad Peacock to serve as a multiple-inning guy (read: Out-of-Options guy).
*And Tony Sipp was scratched from both weekend games due to a back issue.
*Josh Reddick wants to hit more lefty pitching.
*Nick Cafardo is the latest to write that the Astros are still in on Jose Quintana, though they're reluctant to part with Francis Martes in that deal. "One major league source" says that the White Sox could trade Quintana before Opening Day, which is in a week, of course.
*The Astros are impressed with Derek Fisher's base-stealing ability.
*New Astros play-by-play man Todd Kalas honored his Hall of Fame father with his home run call.
*The Astros traded catcher Tyler Heineman to, who else, the Brewers for "a player to be named later or cash considerations." How funny would it be if there was a player whose actual last name was Later. Or if their name was Cash Considerations. That'd be messed up. I'm very tired.
Heineman - the Astros' 8th Round pick out of UCLA in the 2012 draft - will be 26 in June. In 2015, between Corpus and Fresno, Heineman hit .285/.334/.379, good enough to spend all of 2016 in Fresno, where he hit .359/.344/.351. What with the emergence of Garrett Stubbs as a prospect, and with Juan Centeno's arrival, and Stassi's return to Fresno, there likely just wasn't playing time available for Heineman. Fare thee well, Tyler Heineman.
*The Astros released LHP C.J. Riefenhauser yesterday, and reassigned Jordan Jankowski, Tyson Perez, Alejandro Garcia, and Jon Kemmer to minor-league camp.
*Anthony Gose - who was an Astro for about eight minutes before getting traded to Toronto for Astros Great Brett Wallace - is about to be converted into a pitcher.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
