*Brian McTaggart listed Lance Berkman as the Astros' best left-fielder, followed by Jose Cruz.
*MLB.com says the Astros' fiercest rival is the Ramgers, and vice versa, and the Astros are also the A's fiercest rival. Weird, I thought the Astros' biggest rival was Mike Fiers.
*Imagine building the game's best player, one tool at a time, and not listing Jose Altuve.
*From June 28-September 29, 2013 the Astros went 21-62. They "hit" .240/.301/.367 as a team, struck out 802 times, with a 4.84 ERA.
*Jake Kaplan: 2009 1st Round pick Jio Mier (selected four spots before Mike Trout) is a happy Southern California cop.
*South Korean baseball could be coming to ESPN, after all.
*Jeff Passan: There will be baseball in 2020, it's just a matter of how, when, and where.
*Was Steve Dalkowski MLB's hardest thrower ever?
*Vice: Dating a billionaire seemed like fun until I tried it.
*GQ: The eruption of Instagram Island.
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We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
