*Minnesota comes to Houston tonight (they actually probably got to Houston, like, yesterday or something). Jose Berrios is the Twins' starting pitcher. On May 29 Berrios allowed 5H/4ER, 5K:4BB in a 7-2 loss to the Astros, after the Twins spotted him a 2-0 lead.
*Tonight's Astros/Twins game will be streamed live on Facebook.
*Brian McTaggart says the Astros likely won't do what they did last Trade Deadline (nothing) and would like to add a couple of pitchers. He even has a trade scenario for you:
Houston receives: Sonny Gray and Ryan Madson
Oakland receives: Francis Martes, Derek Fisher, Daz Cameron, J.D. Davis, and Rogelio Armenteros.
Would you make that trade?
*He also says in an Inbox that Derek Fisher is more likely to be traded than Kyle Tucker.
*Jake Kaplan says yesterday's Quintana trade will increase the Gray-to-Houston speculation and has a notable quote from Luhnow:
Billy Beane and I have the same philosophy, which is we want to make win-win trades. And if there's a trade that helps your club and helps the other club even if it's a division rival, it's not worth putting it aside just because it's a division rival.
*Jon Heyman reports that the White Sox were insistent on both Kyle Tucker and Francis Martes for Quintana (and the White Sox wanted Gleybar Torres or Clint Frazier from the Yankees). The White Sox are stupid. Later in his (surprisingly useful) Notes Column, he says if the starting pitching market is too pricy, the Astros could go after Zach Britton. One scout compared Yordan Alvarez to David Ortiz. /fans self.
*You want Brad Hand, that cool lefty reliever from the Padres? They're asking for one of your top prospects.
It is 17 days until the Trade Deadline.
*Jeff Sullivan: The Astros lineup has been historically good.
*ESPN asked 27 baseball experts (BREAKING NEWS: ESPN STILL APPARENTLY EMPLOYS 27 PEOPLE TO TALK ABOUT BASEBALL) for their rest-of-season predictions and here's what they got:
18 of 27 think the Astros win the pennant
10 think the Astros win the World Series, 10 think the Dodgers win the World Series
6 think an Astro is MVP
The Astros will finish somewhere between 96 and 113 wins (note: if the Astros go 36-37 in the 2nd half, it will be disappointing)
*Yahoo's Big League Stew staff made their revised World Series predictions. Two picked the Astros.
*Twitter Bregs is back, baby!
*Astros County favorite Colby Rasmus will step away from baseball, according to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays do not expect him to return this season. Tony Rasmus says on Twitter that Colbs can't get his hip back to game shape.
*The Reds are modeling their rebuild after the Astros. Which is funny because Reds Executive Assistant to the CEO Walt Jocketty (who had been the GM of the Reds until the end of the 2016 season) left St. Louis after becoming "unhappy" that Jeff Luhnow was promoted to VP of amateur scouting and player development.
*Brett Phillips will open the second half with the Brewers.
*I know we're all supposed to hate every single thing about the West Terrell Rangers, past and present. And while that's fun to an extent, that's not really my thing. So you need to read Evan Grant's interview with Prince Fielder on life after baseball.
*Vice: When the lights went out at Shea Stadium.
*Vice: The $5 bump of cocaine that destroyed an Olympic dream
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
