Felix will be coming up to the majors so he can, Appel was suppose to be hitting 93's and 94's, but thats gone downhill since.
I have to disagree, Appel continues to show the great stuff, his problem is consistent, but not lack of stuff. He continues to throw in mid 90's
I found this, although it is from last year. It lists Reymin Guduan and Jandel Gustave as clocking 100mphhttp://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/throw-hardest-minor-leaguers-100-mph-pitchers/
There's a handful of guys at every level. Keep in mind there's a big difference in touching 95mph, sitting at 94-95mph in relief and consistently hitting 95+ as a starter. -Michael Feliz -Mark Appel -James Hoyt -Jandel Gustave -Reymin Guduan -Riley Ferrell -Francis Martes There's probably a bunch of lower profile relievers and IFA's who at least touch 95mph that I'm missing.
I'm actually OK with this. Top 10 in terms of odds, with the same chances as a 90+ win Pirates team, and a Rangers team that has a significantly higher payroll. Who would have thought that the Astros off-season might end up being the most exciting aspect of Houston sports versus the Rockets and the Texans regular seasons?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Astros have informed RHP Chad Qualls that the club will not pick up the 2016 option</p>— Brian McTaggart ⚾️ (@brianmctaggart) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/661634012000231425">November 3, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Astros have informed RHP Chad Qualls that the club will not pick up the 2016 option</p>— Brian McTaggart ⚾️ (@brianmctaggart) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/661634012000231425">November 3, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Don't like to cheer whenever someone is out of a job but this is good news for Astros fans. Qualls still gets a $250K buyout and Luhnow gets an extra $3.25MM to work with.
great news, and Qualls could still be back at the end of the offseason. He's good depth, just no way is he worth $3M at his age / relative performance and lack of upside.
August Fagerstrom, who is a Fangraphs writer and has a lot of connections in the industry, said today that he has heard rumblings that the Astros are going to open up the checkbooks big time this offseason. I know it is all circumstantial but the fact that teams are talking about it as a possibility makes me happy.
Take this with a grain of salt, but a friend of mine texted me this last week: "My dad said he talked to Greinke's father in law and Astros are one of three teams he's looking at" My friend is from the same area as Greinke, although about 12 years older, and went to the same high school (Apopka). His dad is not an insider or anything, but he did teach and coach at Apopka for many years, and is really into the community. He happens to be chummy with Greinke's FIL and he passed this info along when they were at the gym. Of course I asked if he knew who the other two teams were and my friend said "yankees were one team and he couldn't remember the third" Anyway, I just thought I'd share. This information coupled with the poster's above information about the Astros spending, I won't be surprised if we are in the middle of Greinke rumors when they start flying. And I won't be surprised if nothing comes of this either, and it ended up being an uninformed FIL getting teams mixed up.
Well free agency is one week away so it'll be interesting to see what direction the Astros go this offseason
This probably means nothing, but I googled Keuchel's name again the other day and this showed up below his picture. It's still showing Zack's picture, but I had to do a double take when I saw that.
