Tuesday's Three Astros Things

I'm just a bad blogger, guys and gals. Sorry for punting yesterday's Three Things....

1) New uniform possibilities - The story broke yesterday with some news on the new Astros uniforms finally leaking. Sure, we're probably six weeks away from Houston's actual announcement, but still, it was nice to even have some rumors to talk about.

What are those rumors?

Basically, Houston is going back to the Star-H logo, with an orange and navy color scheme. The logo on the jerseys will be similar to the ones on the old Shooting Star unis while the actual team logo will be fairly pedestrian. Judging from the post, I'd guess it's the Star H in a circle with Houston Astros Baseball Club written around it.

Considering I was on board with going back to the navy and orange last May, I'm pretty happy with this. I also like returning to the old-school design from the franchise's early days. That'll be a nice touch for the new era of the American League.

Most of all, if they really do go back to the Star H hat, I'll be getting one of those as soon as I can this winter. Love those caps.

So, what do you think? Is this a good change? I know there were some of you who liked the current color scheme? Are you glad they're switching, but still keeping it somewhat traditional and not the more garish late '70's models?

2) Why would Paredes be called up? - We know Jimmy Paredes is a good prospect. He's hit really well in Triple-A after not being overmatched in the majors last season. He's still a man without a position, as the transition to the outfield has been, ah, shaky from all reports. He's not playing second any time soon, and when Jeff Luhnow moved him back to second base in the offseason, it was because he wasn't a third baseman in his opinion.

So, why did Houston call him up? It wasn't because of his bat, which had cooled off lately. My theory is it's because of Justin Maxwell's bruised hand. Remember, JMax is going in for more tests on the finger, but hasn't been ruled out for long enough to warrant a trip to the DL. Still, it leaves new manager Tony DeFrancesco with basically one option in center field, Brandon Barnes, and a backup at a couple of different outfield spots in Brian Bogusevic.

That's why it makes sense to bring up Paredes. He can play out in center field in a pinch, until Maxwell is better or placed on the disabled list or Jordan Schafer is ready to be activated. You have to figure he'd get the call next week anyways when rosters expand, so this is just a week early to fill a spot that needed a backup.

It won't really hurt his development either, since missing a handful of games in the last week of the season isn't crucial to his time, even if it was in the outfield. I'm not sure how much of Paredes to expect to see in the near future, but I bet he gets at least one start in the Giants series. The question is now where will that start be at?

3) Generations of sabermetricians - Short and sweet with this one, as I send you over to a great article on the generations of sabermetricians and the danger of that last one. I'll admit, I'm in that last group, having really been introduced to the idea of advanced metrics thanks to Rob Neyer and Moneyball.

But, one of the key reasons I wanted to do a weekly statistics is exactly to combat the phenomenon listed in the article. We have some of the smartest readers here, and I wanted everyone to be on the same page as to how those stats should be used. Clack has done an absolutely amazing job of helping all of us learn something every time that feature goes up. Add in Tim coming up with experimental stuff and emphasizing Game Score and I think we've got a base to work with.