Astros Rumors & News

The Score "Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez, Martin Maldonado, and Robel Garcia are scheduled to return to the Houston Astros active roster for Tuesday's game against the Colorado Rockies in Denver, a source told Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. They still need to..." April 19

Bleacher Report "The 2021 MLB season has been underway for a few weeks now, so enough time has passed and enough games have been played to identify some players who are beginning to put together big seasons. Whether it's an emerging young player, a candidate for a breakout season or a..." April 19

The Athletic "Right before Opening Day, I was all set to write a mea culpa. Major League Baseball had sailed through spring training with virtually no disruption from COVID-19. So, regarding my position in late January that the league and union should delay the season by one month if they..." April 19

Bleacher Report "The 2021 baseball season is young, but that doesn't mean fans aren't already starting to overreact to small sample sizes, bad performances and bloated ERAs. A few bad starts is all it takes to declare a pitcher done or a hitter a bust. But the reality is that no team..." April 18

The Score "To say Jake Odorizzi wasn't a fan of free agency is an understatement, but his opinions of the New York Mets might be at an all-time low after being snubbed by them in the offseason. "My time in free agency this year was my single most frustrating time..." April 16

Bleacher Report "For some players, free agency never ended. Some big names are still looking for employment with the 2021 season underway. These players remain unsigned for any number of reasons, whether it's age, health or a recent decline in production. While it's early in the..." April 16

Sportsnaut "Tim Mead, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, announced his resignation on Friday. He will remain on the job for about another month. He didn’t provide a specific reason for his pending departure. Before assuming the position in Cooperstown,..." April 16

MLB Trade Rumors "An abnormal number of picks from the 2020 Rule 5 Draft survived Spring Training and made the Opening Day rosters with their new clubs. The Orioles and Marlins both broke camp with a pair of Rule 5 picks on the active roster, while the Pirates opened the season with one Rule 5 pick on the roster..." April 15

The Undefeated "The letter from St. Christine School to Mike Shuba’s parents said their son had teased another kid in his kindergarten class for being overweight. When Mike got home, his father, George “Shotgun” Shuba, pointed at the wall above his recliner to the only memento..." April 15

MLB.com "A day that began with news that the Astros were going to be without four key position players for Wednesday’s series finale against the Tigers ended with starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. getting an IV because he had become ill during the game. If that weren’t..." April 15

The Score "Major League Baseball will test the most radical potential change to its playing dimensions in more than a century this summer on minor-league fields in small towns like Gastonia, North Carolina; Lexington, Kentucky; and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. MLB announced Wednesday it will partner..." April 15

The Score "The Houston Astros placed Yordan Alvarez, Jose Altuve, and Alex Bregman on the injured list, the team announced Wednesday, according to Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. Houston also placed Robel Garcia and Martin Maldonado on the..." April 14

Bleacher Report "More than 100 MLB players will donate their game-day salaries on Jackie Robinson Day to the Players Alliance's Breaking Barriers campaign, the nonprofit organization announced Wednesday. Led by David Price, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Jason Heyward, the donations will help launch the..." April 14

Yardbarker "Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that it will experiment with a pair of new rules during the 2021 Atlantic League season: a “double-hook” implementation of the designated hitter and moving the pitching rubber back one foot. MLB and the Atlantic League began a partnership back..." April 14

The Athletic "It seems like every year since we’ve had the ability to measure exactly how the baseball is spinning, flying, and landing, we’ve had revelations about how different the ball is. That isn’t to say that things weren’t a little different this year — because this year,..." April 14

CBS Sports "On Monday Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch returned to Houston's Minute Maid Park for the first time since being fired as Astros manager during the sign-stealing scandal that roiled baseball not so long ago.  Prior to the first pitch of the game..." April 13

MLB.com "The Astros are finalizing a one-year contract extension with catcher Martín Maldonado that would keep him in Houston through 2022 with a vesting option for 2023, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand on Tuesday. The club has not confirmed the deal. After trading..." April 13

Bleacher Report "There are many good things about Major League Baseball's return, but it hasn't taken long for one of the lesser aspects of the sport to come to the forefront. Yes, replay reviews are also back. And yes, they're still often frustrating. Mind you,..." April 13

USA Today "For a century, Major League Baseball’s golden goose has been its antitrust exemption, a gift from Congress and the Supreme Court that allows it to operate, in essence, as a monopoly. On May 29, 2022, the exemption will mark its 100th anniversary – though don’t expect..." April 13

Yardbarker "This year’s trade deadline will be slightly earlier than usual, with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reporting that it’ll fall on July 30 rather than the customary July 31. Major League Baseball preferred to have the 4 p.m. ET deadline fall on a day where afternoon games..." April 13

USA Today "After Major League Baseball's All-Star Game was pulled out of Georgia because of the state's voter suppression efforts, the governor, Brian Kemp, declared it was an act of cancel culture. “Cancel culture and partisan actions are coming for your business,” he..." April 13

ESPN "When I was a kid, our elementary school used to have these book fairs, run by Scholastic book publishers. The company set up a display in the lobby outside the library, their various books for sale, and each spring I would spend a dollar or two on the latest edition of "All-Pro Baseball..." April 13

Talking Chop "Well, well, well. It looks like Major League Baseball’s umpires are back on their [redacted] once again! This past weekend has seen MLB’s umpires provide multiple embarrassing displays on the field, and I’m not even talking about the regular misses on balls-and-strikes...." April 12

Yardbarker "Whether it be a big debut for a rookie, an inspirational comeback or season for the history books at the plate or on the mound, or shot caller that makes all of the right moves off of it, there is a potential award winner waiting within every franchise. So, who is the most likely award winner..." April 12

Clutch Points "Top 50 lists are a common thing within the sports world, but it is particularly fascinating in baseball. MLB has been around longer than any other American professional sport. The amount of time the sport has been around makes the amount of players to choose from expansive. These 50 players are..." April 12

Sportsnaut "Gerrit Cole and George Springer are gone, and Justin Verlander is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Even with those factors working against them, the Houston Astros took the Tampa Bay Rays to seven games in the American League Championship Series last season and are off to a 6-3 start to..." April 11

Bleacher Report "The old adage goes something like, "Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint."  Indeed, a 162-game season ensures players will go through peaks and valleys, slumps and hitting streaks. Finishing strong is more important for both players and teams; just ask anyone on the..." April 11

Bleacher Report "The old adage goes something like, "Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint."  Indeed, a 162-game season ensures players will go through peaks and valleys, slumps and hitting streaks. Finishing strong is more important for both players and teams; just ask anyone on the..." April 11

Bleacher Report "No matter how Major League Baseball evolves, home runs will remain one of the most entertaining parts of the game. Players can be signed and re-signed solely because of their long-ball power. There simply is no substitute for driving home yourself—and everyone else on..." April 10

Houston Chronicle "Injured Astros lefthander Framber Valdez resumed throwing on flat ground this week in what general manager James Click called a “tremendous step forward” on his journey back from a fractured left ring finger. Valdez had not thrown since March 2, when he tried to field a..." April 09

Bleacher Nation "Because of the way the Cubs’ offseason played out (we knew there wouldn’t be a ton of spending, we knew there were very specific slots from a very specific tier of free agency that were going to get filled and then that was that), I didn’t pay as much attention to the big..." April 09

Bleacher Report "In an ordinary Major League Baseball season, early April would be a tad too soon for trade speculation. But in 2021, it feels like it's never too early to start considering trades teams might make. There have already been two trades of note, with the New York..." April 09

ESPN "The reigning 2020 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers enter the 2021 season as a favorite to repeat. In fact, the best-case scenario for this year's L.A. squad is downright scary. But that doesn't mean the rest of the league is just going to lie down and watch the Dodgers..." April 09

USA Today "In the 20 years since the Texas Rangers gave Alex Rodriguez his historic 10-year, $252 million deal, wins and championships have come at a price. USA TODAY Sports has tracked Major League Baseball salaries since 1989 when the Los Angeles Dodgers made Orel Hershiser the..." April 09

Bleacher Report "There is a certain group of baseball fans that love the traditional aspect of the game. It's America's pastime, it has a human element and it needs to be left alone. There are too many replays, the advanced metrics are clouding the game and the rules were made for a reason and are not..." April 09

The Athletic "Players peppered Vinny Castilla with questions that day at Coors Field, wondering how far the ball might fly. The tall tales of extra-terrestrial home runs in Colorado had already grown to outsized proportions back in 1998, just five years into the Rockies’ existence, as if Paul Bunyan..." April 08

Sports Create "As part of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Topps baseball cards, we’ve asked fans (as well as our staff) to submit their all-time favorite baseball cards, and we’ve broken them down by team. We’ll be revealing submissions regularly throughout the season, ranging..." April 08

MLB.com "Everybody knows what the Astros did. This is about who they are. This is about who they were last October, when only their own fans were rooting for them to somehow make it back to the World Series, and about the way they’re still playing right now for a great old baseball man..." April 08

Larry Brown Sports "Many professional athletes have spoken about how much they missed having fans at games during the pandemic, but Zack Greinke offered a different take during the playoffs last year. Now that ballparks are once again allowing spectators, the pitcher seems to have changed his..." April 07

The Athletic "Three days after Rob Manfred announced he was pulling baseball’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta, the blowback grew in intensity not only from outside the sport, but also from within. Leaders on the left, including former President Barack Obama, have praised Manfred’s..." April 06

The Ringer "Baseball is a sport made for large numbers. It’s predicated on “We’ll get ’em next time” and occasionally its darker cousin: “Oh, no, not again.” Because MLB teams play almost twice as many games per year as their next closest major-league counterparts,..." April 06

Bleacher Report "If baseball history is your thing, then Sunday night's matchup between the Los Angeles Angels and the Chicago White Sox was for you. Angels' two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani finally got to pitch and hit in a major league game that was years in the..." April 06

NBC Sports Washington "  The Houston Astros have spent the first week of the season experiencing what it’s like to travel to opposing cities and play in front of their fans still upset over their cheating scandal that unfolded prior to the 2020 campaign. After the coronavirus forced MLB..." April 06

MLB.com "USA Baseball named Mike Scioscia its manager for the 2021 Professional National Team on Monday. A three-time World Series Champion as both a manager and a player, Scioscia will look to lead Team USA to a berth in the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer. Olympic qualifying will continue..." April 06

Bleacher Report "With the 2021 Major League Baseball season underway, all of the game's most exciting players are now on display for all to see. We recommend paying special attention to young guys who haven't broken all the way out yet. And since every team has at least one such guy, we've..." April 06

Purple Row "According to reports from sources including ESPN’s Buster Olney and Altitude’s Vic Lombardi, the 2021 All-Star Game has a new home. In a huge boon to the city of Denver, Coors Field will play host to July 13th’s Midsummer Classic. Things have been moving very fast..." April 06

BroBible "Back in 2019 the Astros were labeled cheaters after the MLB found the team banged on trash cans to alert hitters to what pitches were coming during their 2017 World Series run. Since then, fans around the country have gone out of their way to troll the Astros. On Monday night, it was..." April 06

Sportsnet "The discourse is too easily hijacked in these disquieting culture-war days, distilling complicated issues into a rhetorical jingoism that prevents rational conversation and nuanced arguments. Predictably, Major League Baseball landed in the woke-versus-MAGA fray with its decision..." April 04

CBS Sports "Of the 13 MLB games that wound up being played on Opening Day, four went to extra frames. This of course meant that the extra innings rule that's been in place since the start of the 2020 season wound up playing an outsized role on one of baseball's signature days on the..." April 04

Bleacher Report "As the 2021 season kicks into gear, we set out to create division-by-division MLB superteams. Let's set the stage with some parameters. The full roster and payroll breakdown for each superteam can be found here. Let's get started. ..." April 03