It takes two separate links to make this a real story as I approach the midnight hour. First, Ed Wade informed the Chronicle that the Astros were exercising their part of Brian Moehler's 2010 option. Then, just before 9PM, Brian McTaggart tweeted that he had talked to Moehler and that Moehler also intends to to pick up his part of the option. So yes, 2010 will see more Brian Moehler—rest easy. Also awesome to note (not really), the Astros 2010 Hotstove Season begins with Brian Moehler's option being picked up.
This link is really about the the Astros managerial search, but what I am caught up on is the BS that Drayton McLane is trying to pass off in this quote:
"I think there will be a lot of good candidates," he said. "Houston is one of the best five or six teams in baseball, the fourth-biggest city in baseball and has some of the best attendance in baseball. I feel there will be strong candidates because we're a major city and have one of the best baseball fields. Our organization, in the 17 years I've owned the team, has the fifth-best record in all of baseball."
Yes, Drayton, over a fifteen year average the Astros are the fifth or sixth best team in baseball. Unfortunately, fifteen year averages have nothing to do with the present condition of this franchise.
The Unofficial Scorer breaks down the Astros highs and lows and than places our dismal season in context.
*******The next three stories are from the Wall Street Journal simply because they're the only newspaper that has a reader-app for Blackberry.********
Not the greatest effort at to proving a point, but perhaps one of the best mainstream treatments of the controversy over clutch hitting I've come across.
Tangentially related, but PECOTA creator and now political stat guru extraordinaire, Nate Silver made headlines this week. Having run into Nate at a bar in New York this summer, I'm glad he's getting national recognition for the work he does at fivethirtyeight.com because hearing the passion he brings to that project straight from the horses mouth was inspiring.
