David Carpenter Gets Bump From Oklahoma City

David Carpenter, acquired in the Pedro Feliz trade to the St. Louis Cardinals last summer, has been recalled from the 25-man roster with Brian Esposito making way. As you may or may not be aware, he has pitched 19 scoreless innings at AAA Oklahoma City this year. 19 straight scoreless innings in any level of baseball is pretty impressive.

A few pieces worth reading on Carpenter before tonight's gametime. David has these words of caution over at TCB, meanwhile Mike Tauser seems to have pre-empted this move with a piece a couple of days ago.

If, during the constant roulette wheel that has been our season, you have forgotten who the other six guys in our bullpen are, I will remind you quickly. Aneury Rodriguez is still there, and will remain there if the Astros want to keep him as their rule 5 pick. Mark Melancon and Wilton Lopez serve as our 8/9 guys, and Sergio Escalona, Enerio Del Rosario and Fernando Abad round off the group.

Its hard to imagine a more incompetent bullpen, but in fact, the bullpen ERA is 4.87, second worst in the majors after the Twins. As a unit they have just 10 saves, a rather pitiful amount, compared to 17 blown saves. Again, I was surprised the Nationals beat them in this category with 18. The Phillies have 2 all season (and they say their bullpen is in trouble).

I do feel a bit sorry for Fernando Rodriguez, who had to make way for Esposito when JR Towles suffered that cut to his chin and they were not sure if he would need time off or not. Bit of a kick in the teeth not to be recalled since he had a 2.87 ERA in 13 appearances for the Astros. Four of the five runs Rodriguez allowed were off home runs.

The Texas League All-Star Game is tonight (that's the league AA Corpus Christi are in by the way), and Xavier Cedeno, Dallas Keuchel, JD Martinez and Jimmy Paredes will all be involved. Here are the full rosters. Other names you may notice, the Angels Mike Trout, and the Rockies Tim Wheeler and Christian Friedrich that I mentioned earlier in the week. Martinez and Keuchel may get bumped up to AAA Oklahoma after the game. Worth keeping an eye on.

Are Writers Misreading the Jim Crane- Ed Wade Relationship?

The reports I have read from several areas seem to suggest that Ed Wade is a lame duck GM and is basically hamstrung from making any serious moves, and when Jim Crane does take full ownership he will probably get rid of Wade. While I don't disagree with the second point, as I think Crane and George Postolos will bring in their own man, but they will not rush it. By the start of the 2012 season or maybe later on then they should have their man.

But suggesting that Crane has told Wade to do nothing over the next six months and will put the brakes on any potential moves makes no sense. Crane was kept in the loop over the draft, and he must know that giving the Wade the freedom to move pieces as he sees fit before the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline makes the most sense for the franchise, especially when some players' stocks are high. If Wade was smart he cough engineer a bidding war. My hopes aren't high, but who knows.

Going back to Ken Rosenthal's story two days ago, he says:

“The Astros remain unlikely to trade right fielder Hunter Pence unless new owner Jim Crane is approved before July 31 and orders such a move.”

 While Crane will not be the most backseat of GM's, he seems like the type to set directions of the franchise and let his GM, scouting director, and director of operations get on with it. This is not the summer of 2006 when Drayton McLane reportedly ordered Tim Purpura to trade Brad Lidge, and was close to sending Roy Oswalt to the Orioles for Miguel Tejada.

Wade will listen to offers, try and play teams off against each other, get the price he wants for a player, while keeping Crane in the loop, and then right at the end of the process he will need Crane's sign-off on the move. I highly doubt Crane will take full control of the team by July 31st, but I don't see this affecting Wade's scope for making moves in the way Rosenthal seems to suggest it will.

CBS Sports have an adequate summary of the position the Astros face with regards to Pence. The two teams that seem to be mentioned most with regards to Pence seem to be the Braves and Phillies. Expect that group to widen over the next month.

Jason Bourgeois is back on the DL. This leaves us short in the outfield again with Jason Michaels the only real stand-in. Humberto Quintero has started a re-hab assignment and should be back in the team. Brian Bogusevic has been recalled from Oklahoma City to take Bourgeois' spot on the roster.

Xavier Cedeno Masterclass at Corpus Christi

Left-handed pitcher Xavier Cedeno

Extraordinary scenes last night in Corpus Christi, as the Hooks starting pitcher Xavier Cedeno pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, while striking out 14 Frisco batters, including the first nine hitters he faced.

We do knock the front-office on a daily basis, and they have an awful lot of faults, but they do seem to pinch the odd cheeky bargain. Cedeno, signed after missing the entirety of 2010, seems to fit that bill, pitching very well for the AA Hooks this season.

However he will turn 25 in August, and has never pitched higher than AA. If Myers and Rodriguez are really on their way out of Houston, then Dallas Keuchel and Cedeno could get the bump up from Corpus to the major leagues, especially since Ed Wade made comments recently to suggest that the former is the closest pitcher in the whole system to reaching the majors. More likely he and Keuchel will be promoted together to AAA after the minor league all-star games.

Jose Altuve also went 3-4, snapping a run of three games without a multi-hit game (yes I know, something unheard of from Altuve this season). He's starting to slow down, and while his BA remains steady, most of these are singles as his power starts to drop off a bit (you just have to look at JD Martinez's power drop off last season to see that this happens on the jump to AA).

MLB trade rumors asks what the Indians need, and maybe Jeff Keppinger would fit the bill if they need help at second base. Just putting it out there. Keppinger is batting .336 in 28 games in 2011 after returning from foot surgery in January.

Rosenthal thinks Braves should trade for Pence

Which would be nice, but most teams seem very jumpy at trading pitching prospects. And there is always a risk when trading in pitching prospects. And while I think Pence's value is high right now, he is probably the most irreplacable player on this club right now. We're awful, yes, and we aren't going to get much better unless we start doing things radically different, but there is a danger if you blink too soon that you get a handful of pieces for Pence that never help you at the major league level.

We are already on track to lose 100 plus games, attendance numbers and viewer ratings are turning into a wipeout. Can this franchise really afford a firesale. Drayton McLane worked very hard to turn Houston into a baseball town (and while this might have been the case for a few years, it certainly isn't the case now). If you take your finger off the pulse now, you might never have another chance at turning the franchise around.

Lets be shrewd about this. We need to be looking for guys like Brett Lawrie, who are on the cusp of the majors, but are only available because they are blocked in their organisational depth charts. I'm just not sure Ed Wade has the nouse to pull off the sort of coup this franchise needs to pull out of this tail-spin. Whether Jim Crane has green-lighted these sorts of moves is another thing we will see as June turns into July and the trade talk heats up.

Rockies would not trade Christian Friedrich

We talked yesterday about the possibility that the Rockies might look to trade for Wandy Rodriguez. In a discussion with TCB's native_astro, the two most talked about pieces would be Christian Friedrich and Tim Wheeler.

Tyler Matzek is probably the Rockies top rated prospect, but has struggled so far in 2011 (rated #32 by BA coming into this season). At A+ Modesto, he has a 9.82 ERA and a 2.424 WHIP in 33 2011 IP. Friedrich meanwhile dropped out of BA's list this year, but has rebounded while repeating a season at AA Tulsa.

But apparently Friedrich would be unavailable in any trade, as you can see in this story from Purple Row.

Chips that Renck says the Rockies could use in a deal include Ian Stewart and Dexter Fowler and "any pitcher but Christian Friedrich."

If the Astros were looking to shop Michael Bourn in addition to  Rodriguez, trading for Tim Wheeler would give them a center field option for 2012. Wheeler's line at AA Tulsa .308/.393/.575 with 18 HR 57 RBI, 60 runs scored and 11 steals is impressive. His defense is rated as excellent. Wheeler would seem like a sell-high candidate for the Rockies, Matzek a sell low candidate.

Needless to say we would NOT want Ian Stewart and Dexter Fowler back in a trade. They are two players I would be very wary of.

This season is going from bad to worse to even worse

Trot over to SBNation Houston and read my column on how to cope as an Astro fan over the next three months. I'll post my thoughts on last night's game later today. I've got a lot to say, as you can imagine after a game of that length.

Could the Colorado Rockies trade for Wandy Rodriguez?

Intriguing notion that Rodriguez would be a nice fit for the Rockies, according to Troy Renck of the Denver Post.

Wandy Rodriguez would be best fit, giving Rox a lefty to replace De La Rosa. But price high bc so many teams need pitching

TroyRenck 47 mins

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And Jim Tracy himself has said that the Rockies will explore a trade for a pitcher. Whether he would do well in the mile-high environment is anybody's guess. I think this is interesting not only because the Rockies are mentioned, but because if one beat writer is thinking this, then possibly a bunch of others might be too.

Considering Brian Cashman's comments and the way the Yankees have seemingly viewed Rodriguez as a back of the rotation starter, it seems to make sense for Rodriguez to stay in the NL. That limits the number of bidders, but probably means the return will be higher.

And what would the Astros want back in return for Rodriguez? Two pitching prospects would be nice, but at what level? Can't be too picky and just have to pick one with a heigh ceiling and the other with a high floor. At the moment we have Keuchel/Bushue/Folty and Velasquez when he returns in the system. Add the pitchers we drafted in 2011 and Ross Seaton if you are being generous. That group needs some augmentation.

Mills desperate to get Downs in lineup, plays him at shortstop

This confuses me somewhat, because I think Matt Downs does not have the defensive capabilities to play third base, never mind shortstop. Still, you have to get that bat in there somewhere, and while I disagree with the position, he really needs to be there the way he's hit, well basically all season. He has only started 2 games in 16 June appearances, but in 27 plate appearances he has 6 walks 2 HRs and has an OPS of 1.269.

In 22 June Astros games the rest of the team has 5 HR. Yeah, not great.

According to my back of the envelope calculations, of Downs' 454 minor league games 57 of them were at shortstop. He's also had one major league start at shortstop, playing three games there. That totals up to 11 innings. Why not play him at catcher, we're short there. Or center field.

Carlos Lee meanwhile remains entrenched in the four spot, the position he has been ensconced in for 72 of 73 games this season. Lee, now an average hitter with diminishing power and equally atrocious on-base skills should not be there.

In other Astros news, Bud Norris is upset that he walked into an Academy Sports store without being recognised. What is the world coming to?

Give Matt Downs More AB's? Uh, yeah

Matt Downs, utility-man and .916 OPS owner

David Coleman had this to say a couple of days back, and its the sort of piece I wish I had written if I had the time. As David points out, we've got the measure of Chris Johnson now he has roughly a season worth of ABs, and he is basically a replacement level player over that time period, with an offensive WAR of 2.1 and a defensive WAR of -1.9. This season as bad as we think he has been with the bat, he is still better than a replacement level player would be.

But I think this has been pointed out several times before, but  Johnson is not much younger than Matt Downs. I know everyone says we're so far out of contention that we should be just looking at young players to see what they can offer us down the line, but Downs fits that mold as well as CJ does. Downs is six months older than CJ (27), while Johnson turns 27 in October.

In extremely limited playing time he has the Astros highest OPS at an excellent .913. He has driven in a decent amount of runs, walks a good amount of the time (13% BB) and shows decent pop in his bat (ISO .260). Defensively I could not gauge how well he is at each position, for what its worth fangraphs has his UZR as 0.4 at second base and -2.2 at third base for this season. Now he has only had 96 plate appearances which seems very meagre for a player who has done that well, but remember, Johnson is entrenched at third base, and Hall/Keppinger have occupied most of the playing time at second base when Angel Sanchez is not playing there.

If Ed Wade really wants to trade Jeff Keppinger, and with two years left till free agency, and rumors would suggest he does, then Downs would be the beneficiary in terms of playing time.


Vote Wandy
Other things to talk about today: I made a case for Hunter Pence being an all-star, since I was talking about position players and either he or Michael Bourn will likely be selected by NL manager Bruce Bochy. But the case could, and should be made for Wandy Rodriguez's inclusion. Not only because I think it would be freaking hilarious, but also because over the past 12 months he has been one of the best pitchers in the senior circuit.

To DH or not to DH?
True, Carlos Lee can look a little silly on defense, but I wonder how bad he actually is, especially when manning first base. The defensive metrics actually rate Lee pretty good, compared to Brett Wallace, who rates very badly. Playing Lee at first base might trick a GM dumb enough to trade for Lee thinking he could play the position, and take him and something like $10m off his contract (we can only hope).

We've now lost 12 of our last 14 games to the Rangers and will send homer happy Brett Myers to the hill against equally homer happy Colby Lewis. Considering this game is taking place in Arlington, the ironic nature of baseball will probably see the game finishing 1-0, with the winning run scoring on a suicide squeeze. And how many games is it since we last hit a HR? Eight games? Nine games?


Keuchel heating up at Corpus Christi
If Jose Altuve is head and shoulders our hottest hitting prospect, then the nod for his pitching counterpart goes to Dallas Keuchel, the seventh round pick of the 2009 draft. A college arm, he and Tanner Bushue are the two pitchers overlooked in the system when all the focus is put on Lyles. They may not have the upside that Folty does in Lexington, but Keuchel has a 2.84 ERA in 13 starts in 2011, and looks good for a callup to Oklahoma at some point this season. The only thing that rings alarm bells is the tepid strikeout ratio, currently at 4.7 per nine innings. We'll have to watch that.

Myers plays stopper for Astros

Myers: having an up and down season

Good win last night for the Houston Astros and boy did we need it after losing 11 of the last 13 games coming into the Dodgers series. The bullpen also got its' first night off with Brett Myers pitching a 4-hit complete game, picking up his third win of the season. Alas Myers still gave up a home run in the ninth, and I have a quick discussion of his problems with the long-ball this season at SBN Houston.

Brett Wallace has nine walks in his past five games, and its weird as something odd started in the Pirates series when pitchers started tip-toeing around the first baseman. He's drawn seven walks in three days, two more than Humberto Quintero has managed all season, and one less than Bill Hall managed in his short Astros career.

After tonight's game were also 1-0 in 2011 when the bullpen doesn't pitch, and 25-45 when they do.

Its still not an awful offensive unit as last night showed when everything clicks, but we went 2-8 on the 10-game homestand because we had something like 13 hits with runners in scoring position. Over the entire homestand. Jeff Keppinger and Clint Barmes have looked effective up the middle, and even Carlos Lee's numbers sort of look healthy (not for a cleanup hitter, but a #7 hitter maybe). His OPS is still below Michael Bourn's, but he's nudged his OPS+ over the 100 line for the fist time in ages.

Looks like Brandon Lyon is done for the season, which can only be a relief, but the bad news is that Hunter Pence is not 100% either, and is being bothered by arm troubles. Fernando Abad has been recalled from the wilderness to take Lyon's spot.

Hunter Pence is getting screwed in the All-Star voting

Can we just cancel the all-star game already. Why do we want to watch loads of Yankees and Red Sox play a lot of Philly players?

The biggest joke of them all is Derek Jeter, who leads all AL shortstops in voting, even though he has a lower WAR than Clint Barmes. And its not even close. Jeter has been worth -0.1 wins above replacement, while Barmes, who has probably received no votes, has been worth a whole run above replacement.

But it is Hunter Pence who has been screwed most by this process, and while I'm on the right fielder, there are some good reads on him that you should check out. One of the TCB's interns has this on Pence's future, Rivers talks about the all-star snub, and Conor Nielen focuses on the same lines.

Its all about how much media exposure teams get, and really does not add up to anything at all, but it annoys me when people start judging on HOF credentials on all-star appearances, as if this has more relevance than how many gold gloves he has (another stupid accolade).

As good as Pence is hitting, it is still all hitting. He's riding a huge BABIP over the last few weeks, and his power and on-base skills are round-about the same place they always are, as someone pointed out today (I forget who). That's the problem with Pence, he is very valuable when he's hitting well, but he's just not elite because he doesn't hit a lot of HR or walk lots. He's a solid complimentary player, but not a cornerstone.

Mike Tauser has the list of new Astros and some old ones reporting to Greenville. Ariel Ovando is among those names.

The schedule for the next few series looks pretty ropey and if we cannot beat the Pirates in a home game, don't expect us to pick up too many wins against the Rangers, Rays, Red Sox. Brett Myers will start against the Dodgers tonight and will try to stop the bleeding, at the ungodly hour of 9.10 CT.

Brad Arnsberg gone, Doug Brocail In

This is looking more and more like a franchise implosion. Before it was just a sinking ship. But now with the Hall move, Brandon Lyon still on the rotation, and now Brad Arnsberg getting unceremoniously booted off the team, this looks like Ed Wade scrambling for answers, and Brad Mills hot under the collar because his team is dive bombing.

As some have pointed out, it is a good bet that Jim Crane cleans house anyway when he takes over the team, starting at Ed Wade at the top, but Wade and co could continue to do more damage in the interim if they do trade the club's 'premium' talent for prospects before the deadline. As Arnsberg's comments suggest, this was coming for a few weeks, as trouble has obviously been brewing for a while beteen the back office's staff.

But what set all of this in motion? Did Arnsberg not want Lyles called up, or Aneury sent to the bullpen? Or any of the moves made in the last two and a bit months. Did he not like the excessive pitch counts the starting pitchers were racking up? I was really excited to see what Arnsberg could do with Aneury Rodriguez, Bud Norris and Jordan Lyles as they develop as young pitchers, as they really fit the pattern of guys that Brad has helped develop in the past in Florida and Toronto.

But at the moment Houston is in a pretty bad way, and we should probably envy Arnsberg getting out when he did. It can't be much fun taking flak for that pitching unit right now. Happ and Myers have not had good starts to the season, Wandy Rodriguez has been injured, Aneury Rodriguez is not progressing as fast as we we would like and Nelson Figueroa was absolutely awful before being demoted. As for the bullpen, the whole lot of it has been a joke from the beginning.

For those who don't think that An Rodriguez should have stayed with the team, and there might not be many who would argue against it, he is still a prospect at 23, and we have got him for free. It makes sense to hold onto him and see if he can develop as a solid major league pitcher. Because we have very few major league ready alternatives, as our staff at AAA consists of Sergio Perez, Andy Van Hekken, Gustavo Chacin, Ryan Rowland-Smith and Nelson Figueroa. Bet your in a hurry to give any of them a spot-start.

Anyway good luck to Doug Brocail, who has been operating as a scout and has some other capacity in the franchise that I can't quite remember. I like the guy and good luck to him.

I want to hear what Ed Wade says in the pre-game conference today and will post a bit more of a post.

Hunter Pence meanwhile moved his hitting streak up to 23 games, and this is my SBNation Houston piece from this week on the ludicrous possibility that Pence might actually break Joe DiMaggio's 56-game record.

Good Morning World

Well, its actually the afternoon here, but you know what I mean.

Firstly apologies for being away the past month. I've been very busy on top of writing for SB Nation Houston and Crawfish Boxes.

Here is today's SBN Houston Sunday Roundup on the Astros next wave of prospects, and the RSS feed link is on my profile there if you want to subscribe.

I'll be online and posting as the draft starts tomorrow evening. So stay tuned. It should be a good 'un.

Chris Reed Rumors

Masaru Oka/ Stanford Daily

I've kept quiet on the draft because I don't want to look like a fool, but with a h/t to Lee Street and Matt Jackson, there is a rumor flying about that the Astros are talking about taking Chris Reed, Stanford lefty with their first pick of the 2011 draft at number 11.

Either money is really tight, which it might be considering Jim Crane and co. bought the Astros through leverage.

But I among others was a bit upset originally on the DDS pick, because I wasn't sure about DeShields' ceiling. When teams are slobbering over Bubba Starling, Dylan Bundy, Gerrit Cole and co. and we pick a guy who isn't profiled as a first-rounder.

This comes from Frankie Pilliere, who I haven't heard before, but is a trusted source, so there must be something to this.

If you exclude the last three first round picks, the Astros have made a bit of a hash of it over the past decade. 2007 they did not have a first round pick, 2006 was Maxwell Sapp, 2005 Brian Bogusevic, 2003 & 2004 no pick. 2002 Derick Grigsby, 2001 Chris Burke, 2000 Robert Stiehl, 1999 no pick and 1998 Brad Lidge.

Lidge roared onto the season in 2003, but only after years decimated by injury.

Why would the Astros take someone who the limited scouting reports say profiles as a setup man? The only justification I can see for this move if the organisation thinks they can convert him to a starter and ramp him up the minor league levels quickly. Or maybe they do have him in mind as a closer. Maybe this is fitting into Ed Wade's mid-term plan, which I have labelled 2013, because I think if everything and I mean literally everything goes to plan, the Astros could start competing, with the caveat of a few minor miracles.

If you pick a high school arm it will take at least four years for them to be big league ready. The Astros need help down the line, but they also need a lot of help now.

Unless money is an issue with signing some of the high first round draft picks.

He's a lefty with good stuff, but has limited control on all his pitches. He has served as Stanford's closer and is in his junior year.

Hall Released, Bourgeois Activated

Errors like this will no longer trouble the Astros

This move either shows how high the Astros are on Angel Sanchez, or that he has no options left. Anyway, Bill Hall has been released after stumbling his way through two months of the season and Jason Bourgeois will be found ABs from Brad Mills in left field, second base, and the other spots of the outfield when Michael Bourn and Hunter Pence need days off. This would be academic if they released Carlos Lee as well, but since he has sparked into life in May, unless Ed Wade can shift him to another team, which is highly unlikely, he stays put.

Lee's splits for May were .316/.337/.453, which illustrate how far his power has evaporated and that he just can't draw walks. His ISO (isolated power) has dropped to .131 for the season, Bourn's is .093 by comparison, someone who never hits home runs.

Where to put him in the lineup is more of a mystery. Having Bourn and Bourgeois at the top of the lineup worked perfectly, but Mills also likes Jeff Keppinger in the number two spot. They could bat Bourgeois ninth, but I think Mills is too much of a traditionalist to do that.

Funnily enough, in Friday's fantasy column over at TCB, I did say it looked like the Astros would cut Hall in favor of Bourgeois.

Moving onto last night's game. Chris Johnson had a good game with two triples, getting on third twice with one out in the inning. Once J.R. Towles got him home, with a bunt of all things, and the other time he didn't. Not the offense's finest hour. Clint Barmes doubled in the fifth, but apart from that Dustin Moseley really earned his second win of the year.

In these last three games against the Padres, we have three mismatched pitching matchups. Aaron Harang will have the edge on Aneury Rodriguez, and Matt Latos will be favorite to beat Jordan Lyles in his second major league start. 5.35 pacific coast and 3.35 PT starts for these next two games of the season.

Teams Sniffing At Michael Bourn

Michael Bourn: Trade Bait?

With a H/T to Mr De Block, we hear that the Nationals have made tentative inquiries as to the services of center fielder Michael Bourn. Fangraphs also had a piece were it speculated about a trade to the Indians.

Bourn is one of the best if not the best defensive outfielder in the majors, leads the NL in steals and would be perfect in steals this season if not for two blown calls. Even when he is mediocre at the plate he brings your team value. Toss in the higher RBI total this year there is plenty to like about him.

But I just do not see a scenario where a team is willing to part with enough to prise Bourn from the Astros. Even when he's being praised people seem to underestimate his value, which is probably about a 4-5 WAR player.

I'm not entirely happy about the Scott Boras agent swtich, but the best thing might be for the Astros to keep Bourn until the 2013 season when he becomes a free agent, offer him arbitration and see if anything shakes out.

I'd quite like to have him as an ever present fixture in center field and at the top of the lineup as the changes wreak havoc with the rest of the club in the next two years. That said, if a team comes and offers stupid for Michael, I would be happy to see him go onto a team where he could make a difference.

Whether he stays or not depends on Jim Crane's faith in Ed Wade's mid-term strategy. If Crane thinks Wade can field a winner in 2013 he may hang onto him and tweak rather than bulldoze the present team. What would that team look like?

The Astros have enough complimentary pieces as it is, and desperately need one or two cornerstones. Can players like Chris Johnson have enough of an impact to be worth keeping for the long-term of the franchise? Hmmm....Jose Altuve and Jonathan Villar are exciting a lot of people, but they have a ways to go, and players like Mike Kvasnicka even further.