Astros Crawfish Boil: January 4, 2023

It’s your Wednesday Boil!

Houston Astros News

Detroit Tigers trade outfielder Bligh Madris to Houston Astros for cash considerations (freep.com)

3 Bold Predictions for the Houston Astros in 2023 (si.com)

Carlos Correa once jokingly cautioned his Houston Astros teammates to stop hitting on his wife (sportskeeda.com)

WATCH: Houston Astros Superstar Nails Street Dancing Flawlessly on His Homeland Return (essentiallysports.com)

MLB News

No more shift could mean quite a few more hits for these batters (MLB.com)

9 players looking for fresh start after tough Year 1 of new deals (mlb.com)

MLB rumors: Red Sox, Rafael Devers agree to one-year contract to avoid arbitration (sports.yahoo.com)

Oops! All Astros: Juan Pablo Lopez

Juan Pablo Lopez is a six-foot-four, 222 lb. left-handed pitcher from Guasave, MX. Born on February 17, 1999, he signed his first professional deal with the Houston Astros on July 2, 2016.

Lopez worked his way through Houston’s system over the next few seasons, spending 2017 with the Rookie-level GCL Astros, 2018 with the Short-Season-A Tri-City ValleyCats, 2019 split between Tri-City and the Middle-A Quad Cities River Bandits, and the 2021 season with the High-A Asheville Tourists.

Lopez began the 2022 season back with the Tourists, and got off to a less-than-great start. In his first three games, he pitched four innings and allowed 24 baserunners for a WHIP of 6.000. He allowed 19 runs during that time, including 15 earned, and posted a 33.75 ERA. After that third appearance, on April 24, he didn’t pitch again for five weeks.

After missing May, Lopez pitched three innings on June 2, striking out five and giving up one run on a pair of hits in a 7-3 win over the Hickory Crawdads. On June 8, he struck out five over four shutout innings, giving up three hits in a 2-0 win against the Greenville Drive.

All told, Lopez posted opposing slash numbers of .372/.461/.488 and a 2.429 WHIP in 28 innings of work. He struck out 29 and walked 20 over 28 frames, with a 1-1 record and a 10.61 ERA.