Monday Liftoff Links

While the Astros were wrapping up another dismal series, this time with the Rays, I was putting these links that probably won't uplift your spirits much. Positive writings of the Astros these days are hard to find.

The Astros as a Team

Identifying the Streakiest Teams in MLB - Beyond the Box Score
Introducing Streak Games, a simple measure of streakiness. How does your team measure up? Another statistic which shows how bad the Astros are.

The Astros have fewer home runs than Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson, and other tales from a season gone bad | SportsJustice | a Chron.com blog
Richard Justice's most recent article is exhibit A in how to manipulate statistics to make your point. Recently writers have begun using ESPN's top 100 prospect list to describe how bad the farm system is, instead of Baseball America's which up to this point was probably the more popular. Justice also decides to switch between season and monthly statistics as he sees fit.

Ultimate Astros " Astros Pass First of Many Milestones in Race to MLB Cellar
Astros Pass First of Many Milestones in Race to MLB Cellar. Paul Sherill celebrates the Astros first place finish to 50 losses. He reviews several of the teams aspects that got them to this point. 

Saying Goodbye

Joe Blogs: My Friend Nick Charles
A wonderful piece about Nick Charles by Joe Posnanski

Pitching Analysis

Quadruple A: AstroBrit's Astros from Across the Atlantic: Could the Colorado Rockies trade for Wandy Rodriguez?
Wandy Rodriguez to Colorado. It would be a bad move for Wandy but if the Rockies are willing to pay it works for me. Breaking balls have a tendency to not break in Colorado so it would cause Rodriguez's splits to switch the other way. Good on the road bad at home.

The Joy of Pitch F/X: Measuring Movement - AZ Snake Pit
SB Nations Arizona Diamondbacks blog explains the basics of looking at Pitch F/X terminology. Something I thought would be beneficial here since David particularly likes to look at that data in some of his posts.