I never really paid attention to the TV situation. Any chance suddenlink will have the stros next season?

Good article on Keuchel's defensive play

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/53215/improved-fielding-helped-lift-keuchel

Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports that the Astros have claimed right-hander Will Harris off waivers from the Diamondbacks.

Harris is 29 years old and has been passed around the waiver wire quite a bit during his career, but he's also got a 3.42 ERA with 88 strikeouts in 82 innings for the Diamondbacks since 2013.

Despite that success Harris spent much of this season at Triple-A, where he posted a 0.99 ERA in 46 innings, and combined in 75 career innings at Triple-A he's got a 1.56 ERA and 87 strikeouts.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/11/03/astros-claim-will-harris-off-waivers-from-diamondbacks/

First step towards not having a sh**ty bullpen!

Interesting. Seems like too good of a pitcher to be on the waiver wire. I'll take it though.

Sounds good to me

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Looks like Tal's Hill is gone after 2015

http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2014/10/27/astros-to-explore-changing-tals-hill-down-the-road/#22102101=0

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Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports that the Astros have claimed right-hander Will Harris off waivers from the Diamondbacks.

Harris is 29 years old and has been passed around the waiver wire quite a bit during his career, but he's also got a 3.42 ERA with 88 strikeouts in 82 innings for the Diamondbacks since 2013.

Despite that success Harris spent much of this season at Triple-A, where he posted a 0.99 ERA in 46 innings, and combined in 75 career innings at Triple-A he's got a 1.56 ERA and 87 strikeouts.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/11/03/astros-claim-will-harris-off-waivers-from-diamondbacks/

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Sounds like a pretty good pitcher. Seems like our bullpen ERA is about 9, so.

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"We're going to keep evolving," Ryan said. "That's one of the things (owner Jim Crane) started with us from day one is: we're moving forward. We're going to do something in the outfield. I don't know what exactly that means yet: could be Tal's Hill. It could be bullpens. It could be adding cabooses to the train. It could be adding something in center field of meaning. It could be putting in a Hall of Fame.

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Or it could be big giant ads on the outfield walls, infield walls, bullpen walls, brick walls, on the glass windows, seats, stairs, scoreboards, grass, bases, dugouts, you name it, we can slap an ad on it.

I saw Ensberg on twitter the other day call the hill "a silly attempt to be different."

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I saw Ensberg on twitter the other day call the hill "a silly attempt to be different."

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Ensberg was a silly attempt to be a big leaguer.

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I saw Ensberg on twitter the other day call the hill "a silly attempt to be different."

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Ensberg was a silly attempt to be a big leaguer.

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Very short career. Pretty sure he took the roids.

I like the hill and Ensberg, can't we all get along?

I never understood the hate for the hill? What does it matter if only a couple balls per year get hit that far anyways?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/yankees-not-planning-to-spend-big-this-offseason--won-t-chase-top-free-agents-183832324.html

This might make it pretty hard to get Headley.

A new blog post from McHugh: http://www.adayolderadaywiser.com/

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The season ended, the last pitch was thrown for the Astros, and we boarded our 43rd plane of the year. It was roughly 11:15 pm as we descended over Atlanta, and all I could think about was how much I missed that place. I missed the trees lining the freeway and the familiar skyline rising into the warm, late summer air. I missed how the roads have no discernible patterns (thanks Gen. Sherman) and how, if you time it just right, you can beat the traffic by cutting through the east side neighborhoods. I missed my family and friends and familiar faces. I missed birthdays and weddings and holidays. As I was thinking about the things I missed (longed for nostalgically), I began to realize all the things I missed (out on) because of baseball. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to conjure up some great sympathy for professional baseball players. I was just keenly aware of the things that have already, and must continue to be, sacrificed at the altar of the game. One fact of our life is tried and true. Baseball takes

[cont...]

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If he keeps it up, he can afford to move his whOle family to Houston.

Keuchel wins the gold glove

Good to see him get some recognition for a great year. Well deserved.

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Keuchel wins the gold glove

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Congrats to Dallas!!

Had no idea he is the first Astros pitcher to win a Gold Glove. Thought for sure Mike Hampton would've won one and maybe Oswalt.

Man Hampton was a an awesome fielding pitcher but I guess when you're playing in the same time and league as Maddox you SOL as far as Gold Gloves are concerned.

C Carlos Perez and RHP Nick Tropeano traded to LA Angels for C Hank Conger.

Seems an odd move considering catcher isn't really a position of need for us. I guess if they're not confident in the future of Castro it makes sense. Or maybe they may try and move Castro? I don't know but he sounds promising.

From mlbtraderumors

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The Astros announced that they have acquired catcher Hank Conger from the Angels in exchange for fellow catcher Carlos Perez and right-hander Nick Tropeano.

Conger, 26, split time with Chris Iannetta in Anaheim this past season but wasn't a traditional backup catcher, as he received about 40 percent of the club's plate appearances at the position. A former first-round pick, Conger batted .221/.293/.325 with four homers and is a lifetime .224/.294/.353 hitter in 768 plate appearances. Conger frequented top prospect lists prior to reaching the Majors, twice making Baseball America's Top 100 (No. 79 and No. 84) and four times appearing on the Top 100 list of Baseball Prospectus (ranging between Nos. 81-89).

Though Conger's bat hasn't picked up at the Major League level to match his excellent Triple-A track record (.298/.371/.470), the Astros have plenty to like about his work behind the plate. He caught a slightly below-average 24 percent of base-stealers in 2014, but shined in terms of pitch-framing according to both Baseball Prospectus and StatCorner.com. Both metrics rated him as one of the four best framing catchers in baseball. The arbitration-eligible Conger is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $1.1MM this season and can be controlled via the arbitration process through 2017.

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Really have no idea why we traded for this guy. Would have thought that between Castro and stassi that we could field the catcher position. Whatever, I don't think we gave up much. Basically like trading two turds for a booger

I like this trade. Castro wasn't going to get any better and he wasn't that good. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Stassi now

Just looks like a trade simply to make a trade. Nothing about this guy's stat sheet really excites me. Whatever

The part that really stands out to me about this guy is he was ranked as one of the top 4 framing catchers. I wouldn't be surprised if that was a major selling point with some of our pitchers having newfound success this past season

Perez was unprotected for last years Rule 5 draft and went unselected. The astros recently added him to the 40 man roster. This trade allowed us to upgrade at catching depth while also open up a 40 man roster spot (both Perez and Trop were on the 40 man), so it looks like a useful trade for us. I liked Trop, but we have plenty of guys in the organization to compete to be the 5th starter, which was likely going to be his ceiling here.

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The part that really stands out to me about this guy is he was ranked as one of the top 4 framing catchers. I wouldn't be surprised if that was a major selling point with some of our pitchers having newfound success this past season

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This. With a young pitching staff I can see this a main selling point.

I was always taught that a bad catcher can make a decent pitcher look bad, but a good catcher can make a decent pitcher look great.

Isn't Castro up for arbitration?

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@HaloHangout: Hank Conger's pitch framing will be missed. Fourth best in MLB in 2014. Got 160 strike calls also fourth best, but caught 3900 less pitches.

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Thought this was an interesting stat

This was clearly a 40 man move to make room to protect some prospects. Conger's pitch framing and defense fit with our scheme. Overall an unexciting trade, but we now have a spot open. Expect another trade like this at some point.

Corporan is as good as gone now too

That's impressive!

And he put up .221/.293/.325 while Castro put up .227/.297/.377. Not much difference there.

If Jason doesn't improve at the plate the extra help behind the plate could give this guy some more PT.

and this will probably be our only offseason move