Barmes desperate to return to Houston

I think Clint Barmes will be surprised at what teams will offer him to upgrade what they currently have at the shortstop position, but right now he's thinking about staying in Houston. We have some indication that he would like to stay in H-Town, but that's before knowing what other teams might offer him and what Ed Wade is willing to put on the table (if anything) to keep Barmes around, probably for 2013 as well as 2012.

As I've said again and again, I think Jonathan Villar needs to be given as much time as possible to mature so he is polished when he gets called up to the majors, rather than fast-tracking him like we've done to Jimmy Paredes, Jose Altuve and JD Martinez.

In today's podcast at TCB Sean says that Barmes is on the cusp of being a Type B free agent according to Elias reverse engineered rankings done by MLBTR, and offering him arbitration would be a no-brainer whatever happens in the offseason.

The Astros blog 'What the heck bobby?' says this on the subject of Barmes:

Barmes is really a good guy and badly wants to come back next year.  

Hmmm....

Epic win against the Cardinals last night and hopefully the Astros will follow it up and wreck their playoff hopes.

Vincent Velasquez's re-hab from Tommy John surgery going well

Speaking to Fred Nelson, the Astros director of player development, Brian McTaggart got a little nugget about how Vincent Velasquez's re-hab is going after having Tommy John surgery just under a year ago.

Meanwhile, Vincent Velasquez is making progress in his return from Tommy John surgery. Velasquez was the Astros’ second-round pick in 2010 out of high school in Southern California, and he injured his elbow pitching at rookie-league Greeneville.

Nelson said he’ll throw some innings in the instructional league later this month.

“We’re excited about the progress he made, and we’re looking forward to him getting back into action,” he said. “It’s almost like we acquired another [player through the draft].”

This is good news. If Armstrong and Velasquez as a pair can be healthy and turn in good seasons in 2012, it helps the depth of our system immensely. Then in three years we may be talking about a rotation of Cosart, Lyles, Armstrong, Folty and Velasquez. That group doesn't have the crazy upside some people would like, but they could become a pretty darn effective unit.

Obviously we do not know anything until he gets on the mound and starts throwing. More in April then I guess.

Why do I bother reading Bleacher Report?

Well, sometimes I get tricked to clicking on a link, before realizing it is a Bleacher Report article. Like this one, Houston Astros: ten ways to speed up the rebuilding process. Don't subject yourself to it. Sometimes it is fun to point out the sheer idiocy of the site, and when discussing the bullpen, the author adds 2+2 and gets 5.

So the Astros have a .48% save conversion rate, which is worst in the majors. This is correct. We know how horrible our bullpen has been this season. However the article claims that if that stat was at 75% the Astros would have a record of 80-61.

Before the Pirates game last night the current record was 47-93. Considering the Astros have 21 saves and 23 blown saves, I'm not quite sure how improving our save conversion rate would get us 33 more wins. Perhaps he meant to write 60-81, or 61-81, but neither of those figures would be correct either.

If the Astros had converted 75% of their saves on the season, they would have 33 saves and 11 blown saves. Which would give them a record of 59-81. It would be impossible for them to have an 80-61 record anyway, since before last night they have played 140 games.

Riding the old Santana Bandwagon

Domingo Santana's slash line through 15 games at Lexington reads thus: .393/.464/.705. That's pretty good for a guy who has just turned 19 and has been toiling in the Sally league for a year. Scouts talk about the high strikeouts and the holes in his swing, but they also say he's got great upside. I'm excited to see what he could do in a full season in the organisation next year.

I'm guessing he starts in Lancaster, considering he's been in the Sally for a year and a half, but the Astros might start him off at Lexington. It is sample size and how much weight you put on these 15 games for the Legends.

Last night's game
Lucas Harrell had a stellar debut, holding the mashing Brewers scoreless through 5 1/3 innings. I like his pitch repertoire, he has an 87mph tight slider, a good change, and spotted his pitches well on the outside half of the plate when he needed to.

Unfortunately after Wesley Wright and Wilton Lopez pitched out of the sixth all hell broke loose and a 2-0 lead became an 8-2 deficit. The Brewers are a well-rounded team and Zack Greinke is a pitcher you will have trouble scoring runs off, so I do not feel too bad, especially since we got another solid start by a starting pitcher. If Harrell would have made it through the sixth inning, it would have been the Astros eighth straight quality start, a streak we have been nowhere near approaching all season.

However, runs are becoming a scarcity at the same time. We're getting runs off squeeze plays and RBI groundouts, like we did against the Pirates in a 2-0 win earlier in the week. Bud Norris takes on Chris Narveson tonight.

Pence-watch
You know Hunter Pence has suddenly become a .400 OBP player in Philadelphia, where did that come from? Suddenly he's discovered the ability to draw walks. In 29 games with the Phils he has 16 walks, which over the course of the season would translate to about 90 base-on-balls. I doubt anyone on our team next year will get anywhere near close to that number.

Clemens Rocked
Paul Clemens made his debut at Oklahoma City in place of Harrell who was bumped up to the majors. Not the greatest start, lasting 4 1/3 innings, surrendering eight runs, and six walks, while also striking out six. Half of the runs allowed came on a third inning grand slam. You just chalk it up as I bad start I suppose.

Jordan Schafer/ Michael Bourn trade
After coming over to Houston from Atlanta, Jordan Schafer has seemed like a good fit. He's got terrific footspeed, a modest .788 OPS and a handful of steals. However, when people are starting to say, I feel better about the Michael Bourn deal, remember that Schafer was a throw-in piece from a GM who had no use of it. With Bourn an everyday player in CF, Schafer's time was up in Atlanta. He was just a piece Wren should have chucked in at the end to make sure the deal got done. Don't get me wrong, I like him and think, at 24, he has a shot at being a solid major leaguer. I just don't think his subsequent performance as an Astro should change our perception too much of what Wade did and didn't get from the Bourn deal. You may disagree.