Astros Crawfish Boil

Astros Crawfish Boil: July 15th, 2020

Start your morning with some of the best Astros links around

By CKuno Jul 15, 2020, 9:05am CDT

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Houston Astros Photo Day

Check out the rest of the Crawfish Boxes here and listen to the latest version of Locked on Astros, our partnered podcast, here.

Astros News

Joe Smith has been placed on the restricted list as he debates opting out of the 2020 season (MLB Trade Rumors)
Lance McCullers and Josh James have been announced as starters for the exhibition games against the Royals next week (Sports Radio 610)
Lance and JV have been seeing benefits from their intrasquad games (Astros.com)
Verlander has made changes to his mechanics that are meant to prolong his already lengthy career (Yahoo! Sports)
Brent Strom remains confident in spite of the issues the pitching staff is currently facing (Astros.com)
Those issues include injuries to Brad Peacock, Ryan Pressly, and Austin Pruitt, all three of whom are day-to-day (Twitter - Brian McTaggart)
These are the three pitching prospects most likely to help the team in 2020 (The Athletic, $$$)
George Springer was forced to miss a team practice thanks to a delay in getting the results for his COVID-19 tests (Sports Radio 610)
For $100 the Astros will place a cutout of you in the stand (ABC 13)

Around the League

10 MLB umpires will opt out of the season due to concerns over the coronavirus (AP news)
Robinson Chirinos is questionable to start the season after sustaining an ankle injury (MLB Trade Rumors)
Jacob deGrom is also day-to-day after leaving the latest Mets intrasquad game with back tightness (ESPN)
With all the changes in 2020 these are the four biggest innovations we could see (The Ringer)
Yasiel Puig has agreed to a one-year deal with the Atlanta Braves (MLB.com)
The Rangers have furloughed around 60 employees (Houston Chronicle)