The Indians won for the 19th time in a row. The Astros are 1.5 back. The Dodgers have lost 11 in a row. Short Hot Links today as the rest of the baseball world has seemingly, and acceptably, forgotten the Astros exist.
*Francis Martes had to grow up quickly.
*In a curious move, the Hooks named lights-out reliever J.D. Davis as their 2017 Player of the Year.
*Quad Cities beat Cedar Rapids 6-1 last night to advance to the Midwest League finals. Kit Scheetz threw 6.2IP, 3H/1ER, 9K:1BB. They'll face Fort Wayne in the finals in G1 on Wednesday.
*After 14 seasons the Astros made a weird decision to unaffiliate themselves with Greeneville, effective immediately. The Astros will not field an Appalachian League team in 2018; they'll roll with the GCL, Tri-City, and the four full-season minor league teams. No explanation was given, other than that attendance was down 15% from last season.
*Projection Check!
-FanGraphs: Astros face Red Sox, 57% chance of advancing to ALCS.
-FiveThirtyEight: Astros face Red Sox, 11% chance of winning World Series
-Baseball Prospectus: Astros face Red Sox, 12.5% chance of winning World Series
*Want to work for the Astros?
*Verlander vs. Garrett Richards, who will be making his 3rd start of the season, tonight at 9:10pm Central.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
