Astros Crawfish Boil: April 19, 2023

Welcome to the Wednesday Crawfish Boil!

Houston Astros News

Blue Jays, Astros meet in rubber match of series (deadspin.com)

2 Truths and 1 Lie About the Houston Astros (climbingtalshill.com)

Surprise candidates emerge as key contributors for Houston Astros (chron.com)

Astros Insider: We All Gotta Play Better (houstonchronicle.com)

Houston Astros Prospect Impresses, Throws Five No-Hit Innings in Win (si.com)

MLB Twitter in love with Houston Astros’ beautiful gesture for 7-year-old Zayne Harris: “Making that kid’s dreams come true” (sportskeeda.com)

AL West News

Passan: With big week, Mariners’ Jarred Kelenic displays his star potential (sports.mynorthwest.com)

In a game of ebbs and flows, Seattle Mariners drop game two in extra innings to the visiting Brewers (lookoutlanding.com)

Angels News: Phil Nevin Doesn’t Want a Repeat of Last Season with Mike Trout (si.com)

At 487 feet, Cabbage rakes longest HR of year so far in Triple-A (mlb.com)

Athletics on the verge of wrong side of history after loss to Cubs (mercurynews.com)

Reggie Jackson on Oakland and the A’s: “They’re not going to have a team here” (eastbaytimes.com)

Texas Rangers joining MLB motion against Diamond Sports, claiming rights payment was missed (awfulannouncing.com)

‘For the Metroplex’: The Rangers just dropped their new City Connect jerseys (wfaa.com)

MLB News

Here are the 6 most surprising stars so far in ‘23 (mlb.com)

Trent Grisham’s Historically Bad, Game-Ending Strikeout Had MLB Fans in Utter Disbelief (si.com)

MLB Power Rankings: Braves’ stellar start flying under the radar; Blue Jays move up after ending Rays’ streak (cbssports.com)

Mookie set to add ‘MLB shortstop’ to resume (mlb.com)

Ranking Every MLB Player Making Over $25M in 2023 (bleacherreport.com)

Quickest draftees to MLB: Where Angels’ Neto fits (mlb.com)

Houston Astros Birthdays

Aaron Pointer (81) appeared in two contests for the inaugural Houston Colt .45s and another 38 for the 1966 and 1967 Astros. He was 21-for-101 with two homers and 15 RBI.

José Cruz (49) played for nine teams over a 12-season major league career, including his final game action, with the Astros in 2008. In 38 games he was six-for-49 with 11 walks, leading to a weird .122/.283/.143 slashline. He also gave the Astros 70 innings of error-free work in the outfield.

Chas McCormick (28) has now appeared in 238 games for the Astros over the past three seasons, accruing a WAR of 4.2 according to baseball-reference.com. He’s put up a .252/.329/.429 slashline with 30 jacks and 103 RBI.

Bryan Garcia (28) played parts of the last four years with the Detroit Tigers at the major league level. He’s currently pitching for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, where he has a 7.71 ERA through 9 ¹⁄₃ innings.