Thursday Morning Astros, etc. Round Up

These come from a few days worth of clippings:

• Justice on LaTroy Hawkins success since coming to the Astros.
• Ed Wade had this to say about the unsigned draft picks:

"Most of the guys that aren’t signed are guys we’ll follow through the summer," general manager Ed Wade said. "There’s a small handful we’re going to still have active discussions with."

• Richard Justice turns a 180 from about a month ago and says that Mike Hampton was a good move.
• Former farmstro Drew Sutton is now a MLB player with the Reds.
• Jiovanni Mier had this immediate impression on professional baseball:

"I knew it was going to be much faster, but it's a lot quicker than I expected," Mier said. "Everything is much faster. I'm coming from high school, so obviously the pitching is much harder, the runners are faster. You have to be on your toes.

"High school competition wasn't too bad, but it's a huge step to the pitchers, they're much more advanced. In high school, they're basically fastball, curve. Here, they've got everything else and they can do a lot more with their pitches."

Fortunately, Mier seems to be adjusting just fine to an increased pace and gnarlier pitches.
• This article from the Hardball Times, may very well be the first published piece that leads to the full understanding of DIPS theory.