Tuesday's Three Astros Things

If you haven't noticed, we kind of went cuckoo bananas on the Jed Lowrie trade. There's plenty of good stuff in that stream, so keep checking it out for more updates. Meanwhile, here's three things to talk about that don't involve Jed Lowrie...much...

1) TROGDOR

Thank you, Raised Eyebrows, for my favorite Astros nickname in years.

Oh, i forgot:

Carter’s nickname at AN is ‘Trogdor’. I entrust you all to use it wisely.

by Raised Eyebrows on Feb 4, 2013 6:21 PM CST reply Unrec? Delete Hide 2

TROGDOOOR! TROOOGDOOOR!

This is gonna be sweet.

2) Keith Law's Prospect List

Yep, this kind of shows the weaknesses in my Three Things structure. I wrote yesterday's Sunday night, published it Monday morning and literally minutes after, Keith Law comes and posts his Organizational Rankings, totally topping anything I had written in Monday's Three Things.

That's because Law ranked the Astros as the fourth-best organization in the majors:

The Astros had the second most money to spend in last June's draft and used it extremely wisely, landing the second player on my draft board and four other players off my top 60.

Pretty sweet. Check out the entire list to see more analysis and the rest of his rankings.

3) Aledmys Diaz age problems

If you want other conspiracy theories surrounding the Lowrie trade, maybe I can create one here. See, maybe the Astros are keen on Aledmys Diaz being Lowrie's replacement, but all the age-related scandal has held them up. What, you're not familiar with Diaz age scandal? Where he actually claims to be older than he is? Well, here's a handy primer from Baseball America:

While many players have falsified their ages in an attempt to appear younger and thus more attractive to major league teams, there is greater benefit to Diaz to be 23, since that would mean he would be exempt from the 2012-13 international bonus pools. Until July 2, 2014, Cuban players who are at least 23 and have played at least three seasons in Serie Nacional—which Diaz has done for Villa Clara—won't have their contracts count against a team's international bonus pool. If MLB determines that Diaz has presented a false age, he would potentially be subject to a penalty of being ineligible to sign for one year.

So, what if the Astros put the brakes on the Lowrie trade until they were sure they could sign Diaz and play him at short. Makes sense, doesn't it? You're nodding along, aren't you?

Of course, they may just be getting ready for a Reid Brignac trade, but hey, I like a good Cuban defector conspiracy every now and then.