Thursday's Three Astros Things

Some things to talk about while we get excited for Vox Media's new video game component, Polygon...

Meet Kelly George, a former Miss Arkansas USA who has served in the Air Force, worked for Disney and is generally pretty awesome-sounding. I have not been able to find much on her baseball background yet, but she does appear to have some broadcast training and I'm sure she'll be most friendly on Twitter and the like.

Fitting in with most of the recent hires in this front office, George is young at 29. Other than that, I got nothin'. How do you feel about this hire? Is Ms. George what you were expecting the new social media director to be? Were any of you kind of hoping that Rachel Frey landed the gig?

2) Matt Adams for Jimmy Paredes...who says no?

Sean brought this up on Twitter earlier this week. Well, maybe not the entirety of my thought here, but he brought up the possibility of Houston targeting St. Louis first baseman Matt Adams in a potential trade. Adams, as Baseball America explains here, is sort of blocked for many reasons in the Cardinals organization.

So, since Houston also has a similarly blocked young prospect in Jimmy Paredes, who happens to play a position naturally in second base that the Cards are sort of weak at (don't you dare bring up Kolten Wong...), does it make sense for the two teams to build a trade around those two.

I'm not sure that a straight swap of Adams for Paredes works, but if that's the meat of it and all that's left is a throw-in prospect or two, wouldn't Houston have to make this move?

Now, here's when you say that Adams plays the same position as Jonathan Singleton and he'd be similarly blocked in Houston. Not so fast, my friend. You may not realize that the Astros require a DH now that they're in the American League. I'd take an Adams-Singleton middle of the order, thank you.

I submit to you then the question of the title...who says no to this trade? Who thinks longer about it?

3) Lance Berkman: "AL is Mickey Mouse"

And I don't think he was referring to this (NSFW) Mickey Mouse, either.

When Lance Berkman said that ""It only cemented my opinion that the AL is Mickey Mouse and the National League is real baseball," he said. "I hate the DH, even though it might prolong my career."

Now, does that preclude him from ever joining the Astros as a DH? Would he willingly sign back with Houston if it meant he did something he though was Mickey Mouse and play a position he hates? I doubt it. In fact, juding by these comments, I almost think Berkman would rather retire than come back as a DH in Houston.

Money talks, though, and maybe the reality of not having those huge paychecks will hit him harder and force his hand. Still, this can't be a good sign for anyone wanting that tearful reunion with The Big Puma.