I’m predicting about 30 home runs during the remainder of 2013 and 50 next year.

$1.44M sounds like a lot of savings to spend further down their draft. And a rare example of a top pick going back in the draft and making a ton more than the previous teams offer.

It’s obvious that $100 million just doesn’t buy what it used to. That’s the approximate gap in respective payrolls for the 2013 season between the Los Angeles Angels and the Houston Astros, with the ‘Stros bringing up the rear in the major leagues…They’re not getting their money’s worth.

The Astros outscored the Angels 15-8 in the series and won their sixth straight game on the road for the first time since 2005, when they went to the World Series.

Somebody dig up McLean Stevenson…it’s been renewed!

Larry Dierker, who has been a part of Major League Baseball in Houston as a player, manager and broadcaster for almost a half-century, will rejoin the team as a special assistant to new Astros president of business operations Reid Ryan, the team announced today.

“I’ll be doing some writing and will be a right-hand man for Reid, mostly in the area of public relations,” Dierker said. “I get the feeling that I will gravitate to the area ...

Its not like the Astros need good publicity with the way the team is playing.

he Houston Area Women’s Center is reeling from a financial blow after learning their largest fundraiser has been canceled.

The Black Ties and Baseball Caps gala was an annual event at Minute Maid Park put on by the Astros Wives Organization.

The popular gala raised $250,000 for the women’s center in 2012.

An Astros official said the team’s charitable foundation is changing directions and will focus on ...

Let the post-Postolos era begin!

The Houston Astros announced Monday that their president and CEO, George Postolos, resigned from his position with the team. Postolos later told FOXSports.com in a telephone interview, “It’s a good time for me to step away because it’s a stable situation.”

In professional sports, partings never are quite that simple. There are multiple reasons Postolos stepped down, and not all of them were his own.

...During Postolos’ tenure with the club, fans ...

Is that an Altuve in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

The Astros said that the fan who stood up and pretended to expose himself while inside Minute Maid Park’s exclusive Diamond Club is not a season ticket holder and that the team would work with “the proper authorities” to investigate.

Sitting in the section that became famous as the seats for former President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush, a fan appearing to hold either a cigar or a hot dog weiner stood up ...

The Houston Astros have designated outfielders Rick Ankiel and Fernando Martinez for assignment and reinstated outfielder J.D. Martinez from the disabled list.

Houston also selected the contract of outfielder Trevor Crowe from Triple-A Oklahoma City on Monday and recalled infielder-outfielder Jimmy Paredes from their top minor league team. Infielder Brandon Laird was also optioned to Oklahoma City.

Not every day you see a team get rid of their leader in slugging percentage.

Is this the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever did suck?

The Houston Astros have five pseudo regulars in thelr lineup — FIVE — who are striking out more than once per game. This is a rather astounding achievement, possibly historic, and it leads to my prediction that this team will get no-hit before the year’s out, maybe twice. They have already flirted with no-nos — Yu Darvish took a perfect game into the ninth against them and Justin Verlander had them no-hit for six innings on Sunday. ...

Blatta-up! Good stuff from Steve Goldman.

When I was a kid, Barry Bonds’ dad Bobby was still playing. He spent the first seven years of his career with the Giants, but after that he was traded roughly every two minutes. The answer usually had something to do with how his team couldn’t abide all his strikeouts. He averaged 154 per 162 games played and set the single-season record of 189, since obliterated by Mark Reynolds, Adam Dunn, and five others. He also had tremendous power and speed and ...

I recently called Luhnow after I heard something in scouting circles that I found difficult to believe — that the Astros are instructing their minor leaguers not to swing at any 3-2 pitch.

“I don’t know where that came from,” Luhnow said, chuckling. “I heard that as well. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Our approach is the same top down. It’s driven by our hitting coach, John Mallee, and (assistant coach) Dan Radison. We want (hitters) to swing at pitches they can ...

Early in spring training, before the exhibition games started, the Houston Astros practiced victory celebrations. It was part of their daily schedule - nothing fancy, just handshake lines, game balls and smiles, and maybe the outfielders would bounce together on their way to the mound.

“I’m a firm believer that if you want to be it, you have to be it before you are it,” Bo Porter, the Astros’ new manager, said in the visitors’ dugout at Fenway Park on Friday. “You want to send a ...

RIP, Grady Hatton…or as we used to call him The Creeper.

Grady Hatton Jr., a Beaumont-native, major league baseball player and manager of the Houston Astros, died Thursday morning from causes relating to cancer, his daughter-in-law said.

Hatton was born in Beaumont and played in the majors from 1946-60 after attending the University of Texas-Austin. He made his major league debut on April 16, 1946 as a 23-year-old second baseman with the Cincinnati Reds. In 1952, he was named a National ...

Why don’t these foreigners learn ‘Merican?

Even if Ashby is ignorant of Darvish’s linguistic agility, what he said was silly — and colleague Geoff Blum even said as much in the booth at the time. Here’s a transcript of the relevant part of the broadcast, via the Four DVRs blog in the Houston Chronicle:

Blum: Man. Gosh, that has got to be a tough pill to swallow.
Ashby: That’ll force a guy to learn some of the language here in America.
Blum: Some of the more inappropriate language. ...

Yu Darvish saw the ball skip between his shins, dashing his chance at perfection. Immediately, several Texas Rangers came to the mound to console him.
“I think my teammates were more disappointed than I was,” he said through a translator.

Darvish was one out from a perfect game when Marwin Gonzalez grounded a clean single through the pitcher’s legs, and Texas beat the Houston Astros 7-0 on Tuesday night.

The celebrated right-hander from Japan struck out a career-high 14 and was in complete ...

As players, managers and front office executives embrace the esoteric statistics, teams increasingly want their radio announcers just as fluent in the language of WAR, VORP and B.A.B.I.P. (Those stand for wins above replacement, value over replacement player and batting average on balls in play, for those of you dusting off your radios as the season begins.)

“They wanted a broadcaster who is at least comfortable with exploring the idea of discussing advanced statistics and what they mean,” ...

I haven’t seen so many Texans step forward since The Hugh Beaumont Experience held a band reunion!

Anyway, on this one Sunday night, the Astros, this team no one expects anything from, played a perfect baseball game. They ran the bases aggressively and forced the Rangers into a couple of mistakes. They got great pitching from Bud Norris and Erik Bedard.

Ankiel hit a three-run pinch-homer, and Maxwell drove in two runs and made a couple of flashy plays in center field to back, and the Astros ...

Apologies to Gamingboy for stealing his thunder…

They’re in far different places, the Rangers and Astros, these two franchises that will open the 2013 Major League Baseball season Sunday night at Minute Maid Park at 8:05 ET on ESPN. The Rangers are constructed for the short term, hoping to win now and knowing that anything short of another World Series would be a bitter disappointment. Life is really simple for the Rangers in that way.

Even after an offseason in which Josh Hamilton and others ...

The title explains itself. Also of note:

Rodriguez’s Yankees are on track to have the highest payroll on Opening Day for the 15th straight year, climbing above the Los Angeles Dodgers to a projected $228 million with this week’s acquisition of Vernon Wells.

So now we know why the Yankees wanted Vernon Wells. :p

Hello, Larry (no radio talkshow host though).

Dierker said last week he would end his contractual relationship with the Astros after April 15 because of his disappointment about not being selected for a broadcast job and concerns about the team’s direction.

After meeting with Crane, he said that while he will not have a contract for the 2013 season, he is willing to make limited appearances on a voluntary basis as his schedule allows and will revisit his association with the team after the ...

“To find the answer, the Houston Astros are boldly going where few teams have gone before. They have lost 213 games in the last two years alone, more than any other team. They’re moving from the National League Central, a relatively weak division, to the American League West, one of baseball’s toughest. If they lose 106 or more games, they’ll become the first team in half a century to do so in three consecutive seasons.

Nevertheless, the Astros have stripped their roster of recognizable ...

Hope for Astros fans!

While fans will have to be patient, they don’t have to look too far into the horizon to see hope and excitement. While Springer, Cosart, Singleton and Villar are among those knocking at the door to reach Houston, another wave is coming.

“The most reliable estimate for all those guys to reach the big leagues is 2014,” Luhnow said. “Just because they’re good prospects doesn’t mean they’re going to have an immediate impact on the big league level. It’s a substantial step, and ...

The Baseball World According to Tarp.

The Houston Astros may be going to the American League, but they may not play America-League type ball. Former Cardinals star Vince Coleman, the first man to steal 100 bases or more in the big leagues in three consecutive seasons, is the baserunning instructor for all levels of the Astros’ system, and he is preaching aggressiveness.

Coleman, who will spend a lot of time at Class A Quad Cities, was recommended to Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow by ...

Breaking news: The Rockies, Astros, and Rangers are not interested in me either. Well, the Astros might be if I’m willing to play for less tha minimum wage.

A source has told CLNS Radio that 9-time All-Star Vladimir Guerrero is attempting to make a comeback to the major leagues, and is currently in the process of reaching out to many teams to see if they are interested in him.

Guerrero, 38,  has sent a video of a recent workout to many teams, and will continue to reach out to teams ...

Bing Google it on!

First, there’s the Google rule. To understand the men and women in charge of rebuilding the Houston Astros, indeed to understand the unique path the franchise has headed down, this is a good place to begin.

“We encourage our people to spend 10 percent of their time pursuing whatever project they want as long as it’s baseball-related,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said.

Got that? One of Luhnow’s first hires—a guy with multiple advanced degrees in engineering, a guy ...