Astros Crawfish Boil: November 26, 2022.

Nov 26, 2022 - 2:00 PM

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Here’s the Crawfish Boil!

Astros News

There’s good news for Astros fans in 2023, key coaches and players are coming back (click2houston.com)

Potential competitors for Astros in Justin Verlander free agency pursuit (chron.com)

Looking for breaking news about the Astros has turned out to be both gratifying and annoying. I usually check Yardbarker, MLB Trade Rumors, and Bleacher Report, along with a lot of other sites. I’m gratified by B/R in that most of the stuff near the top of their page is stuff that I wrote, but that’s also annoying because I really shouldn’t link my own, old stories on this page. Someone else write something!

Dixon Machado is a veteran of five major league seasons, and he recently signed with Houston to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invitation. He plays mostly second base and shortstop, so the best he can hope for is as a depth piece or a mid-season injury call up.

MLB News

The Statcast 2022 All-Defense Teams (MLB.com) tl;dr—Alex Bregman is eight-outs above average at third base to lead the American League.

Angels: Another Stat That Shows How Incredible Shohei Ohtani is at Baseball (si.com)

Source: Pirates, free agent 1B Santana agree to deal (mlb.com)

Let the Past Die: The Mariners Should Sign Carlos Correa (sodomojo.com (op-ed))

With Josh Jung at third base, Rangers’ infield of the future is here (Dallasnews.com)

Oops! All Astros: Diosmerky Taveras

Diosmerky Taveres is a six-foot-five, 265 lb. right-handed pitcher from Mao, DR. Born on September 23, 1999, he signed his very first professional contract on July 2, 2017. The deal included a $55,000 signing bonus.

After signing, Taveras spent his first two professional seasons pitching at various rookie levels within Houston’s organization. After taking 2020 off, he split the 2021 campaign between the Low-A Fayetteville Woodpeckers and the High-A Asheville Tourists. Between the two clubs, he appeared in 21 games, including 11 starts and finishing at 6-4 with a 4.37 ERA. He also struck out 95 in 78 ¹⁄₃ innings against only 62 hits. His 49 walks led to an unfortunately inflated WHIP of 1.417. Opponents touched him for a .218/.352/.306 slash line.

Taveras opened the 2022 season still with the Tourists, where he remained for the balance of the campaign. He started in 12 games and came out of the bullpen 11 more times. In his season debut on April 10, he pitched three scoreless and hitless innings, striking out three in a 1-0 loss to the Bowling Green Hot Rods. On May 11, he started and pitched four scoreless two-hit innings, striking out eight in a 4-3 win over the Greenville Drive. On July 16, he had his best game of the season, striking out six and walking zero over five three-hit innings to earn his first win, 10-6 against the Winston-Salem Dash.

In a total of 75 ²⁄₃ innings, Taveras struck out 92 for an elite 10.9 K/9. Unfortunately, he continues to struggle with his control, throwing eight wild pitches, hitting three batters, and walking 49 for a 1.507 WHIP. He held opponents to a .227/.344/.315 slash and allowed six-of-nine baserunners a stolen base.

Taveras’s power profile says he’s ready to proceed to the Double-A level with the Corpus Christi Hooks, but his control problems may keep him at High-A for a while longer.