The Astros wouldn’t give up two picks if they sign Soriano, because of their W/L record. I think there may be good reason for the Astros to go after players who are Type A, IF (a big “if”) the type A designation reduces the player’s price enough that the Astros get a bargain. A second round draft pick has far lower value than a first round pick. So it can make economic sense if the Type A designation reduces the market for a player enough that his asking price has to go down, say, $2 million. This could happen if Soriano goes to free agency (that is why is agent is considering accepting arbitration)…indeed, there is some chance that it could happen to Valverde and allow the Astros to sign Valverde for less than he would get in arbitration. (Of course, in that situation, the Astros forego draft choices, which is a consideration, too.) Of course, if Valverde’s agent has second thoughts, like Soriano’s, he may accept arbitration. I doubt it, though.

I had never seen it before, but nice to see that a substitute teacher/minor leaguer can write well. My thought is that Sadowski’s best feature seems to be a sinker and decent groundball rate, but he will need to improve his control in order to enjoy success in the majors. The blog, above, takes the reasonable view that that Sadowski is neither as good as his first two starts nor as bad as his last three starts for the SF Giants. He takes us back to his blog entry when Sadowski shut out the Astros, and said that Sadowski’s “groundball after groundball” make Berkman, Lee, and Tejada look like members of the South African WBC team.