There had been some question, given the Astros’ budget cutting, whether Byrdak would be non-tendered. de la Vera may be a back up plan in case Byrdak doesn’t return?

…but I’m afraid they’re mostly unrepeatable luck.

His BABIP was .243, about 60 points lower than one would expect. That’ll probably trend back to the norm next year and he won’t have as good of a year.

Seeing as how Byrdak made $712,500 last year, and he’s arbitration eligible, and he had good enough results last year to make the case to an arbitrator that he deserves a raise, my guess is that he gets non-tendered, and the savings from that go to cover Backe’s increase.

At the very least, it gives the Astros what negotiation theorists call an Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, which is a fancy way of saying they can still try to get Byrdak to sign cheaply, but have an option that allows them to walk away from the table if Byrdak asks for too much.

that doesn’t seem like all that good of a deal for the Astros. Jordan Parraz had a pretty good year last season. It seems to me that, unless there’s something (and I’m sure there is) that I don’t know about Parraz, he is a far better prospect than Lumsden.