Important dates this month (all times Central)
November 6, 4pm: Free agency opens
November 9: Silver Slugger awards announced
November 13-16: GM Meetings
November 16: MVP winners announced
November 20, 7pm: 40-Man roster set (for Rule 5 draft purposes)
December 1, 7pm: Deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players
December 10-14: Winter Meetings
December 14, 8am: Rule 5 Draft
*Watch Altuve, Springer, and Bregman on Weekend Update.
*David Barron says the Astros stuck to Plan A:
It was an overnight success six years in the making. Derided for what some saw as penny-pinching ways during three straight 100-loss seasons with the smallest payroll in Major League Baseball, Crane always said he would spend real money on the Astros when the time was right.
*FanGraphs: What if more teams follow the Astros' rebuilding plan?
*Twins GM Thad Levine said the Astros' "formula" may be too complicated to follow:
I think the way the Houston Astros built that team is so unique that I'm not sure you can really do that effectively anymore, with the changes in the draft and such that you're a little bit less invented to lose to try to win. We picked towards the top of the draft once - they did it for multiple years in a row. And they did a great job with that.
*Kevin Sherrington: How Alex Bregman's grandfather helped bring the Rangers to Arlington.
*In the first and, likely, last appearance E! News will ever make on the Hot Links, here are the dreamy details of Verlander's wedding to Kate Upton. Yeah, the location isn't bad.
*Oooooh look at the New York Daily News' John Harper throwing shade, saying the Yankees rebuild is working like the Astros' - but without all the losing:
While the GM Jeff Luhnow and the Astros are being celebrated for winning the first-ever franchise, let's not forget they tanked to completely that they were practically non-competitive for a few years.
You can take out that "practically," idiot.
*Hunter Atkins: The 2005 Astros share an emotional bond with the 2017 team.
*NY Post's Joel Sherman: What other teams should learn from the Astros:
Getting the 11 or 12 wins in the postseason is a beast. The Astros played the best because they were not deterred by all that goes wrong on the way to nirvana. They stayed a proper course - right to a parade.
*The Ringer says the Astros didn't win the World Series, the Dodgers blew it.
*Guys, Clayton Kershaw is having a tough time:
Maybe one of these days I won't fail, we won't fail and we'll win one of these things...I think once the dust settles and we go home, we can realize that we had a pretty amazing season and we finished in second place, which nobody cares about or remembers.
The @Dodgers took out a full page ad in Sunday's @HoustonChron to congratulate the @astros. Well done. pic.twitter.com/Nk5FsC2vSn— Astros Future (@AstrosFuture) November 5, 2017
*The Guardian: Why the Astros' World Series may end the era of super-rich baseball players.
Raise your hand if one of Correa, Altuve, and Springer won't be considered super-rich because of the Astros World Series.
*MLBTR has your Astros offseason outlook. They're also predicting the Astros sign Wade Davis to a 4-year/$60m contract this offseason.
*Jose Altuve gave a young Venezuelan kid his hat:
This is what it's all about. pic.twitter.com/39LRqVmUJz— ESPN (@espn) November 5, 2017
*Yu Darvish told Evan Grant that he had lost some of his joy for baseball in his final days in Arlington.
*MLB players are returning home to the Virgin Islands to help with hurricane recovery.
*The Houston Press will basically cease to exist, and that makes me sad.
*Watch Gary Pettis' son Donte set the record for most punt return TDs in NCAA history...and celebrate with the trademarked Pettis Windmill:
HISTORY on Montlake! @dmainy_13 is now has more punt return TDs than anybody in @ncaafootball history.— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) November 5, 2017
📺@fs1 pic.twitter.com/vxw4mYB4D0
