In anticipation of tonight’s 10:59pm CT deadline to finalize moves to the 40 man roster to protect players from the Rule 5 draft, the Houston Astros have made some changes. Any player who was first signed at age 18 has to be added to a 40-man roster within five years or they are eligible to be drafted by another club through the Rule 5 draft. The same goes for any player signed at age 19, but with a 4 year timeframe.

With that deadline looming Jeff Luhnow announced this afternoon that they are adding seven players to the 40-man roster. The players added are RHP Jose Cisnero, RHP Jarred Cosart, OF Robbie Grossman, RHP Chia-Jen Lo, LHP Brett Olberholtzer, RHP Ross Seaton and IF Jonathon Villar. These were all players that it makes sense to protect at this stage of the rebuild in Houston.

Jarred Cosart with the Corpus Christi Hooks

These are names that die hard Astros fans should recognize. After all, Grossman(.266 BA with 28 doubles, 6 triples and 10 HRs, 77 walks in 131 games of both A and AA play in 2012) was a part of the trade with the Pirates for Wandy Rodriguez and several others are top players in the Astros minor league system. Cisnero, one of the winningest pitchers of the system in 2012 spent time at both AA Corpus and AAA OKC ending his season 13-7 with a 3.70 ERA and twice being named Texas League Player of the Week.

Like Cisnero, Cosart spent time at both AA and AAA during the 2012 season with 21 combined appearances. In his 6 starts at OKC he threw for an impressive  2.60 ERA. Cosart was also named the top Astros pitching prospect by Baseball America and MLB.com.

Lo, who spent part of the 2012 season injured, impressed in the Arizona Fall League this year posting a 2.40 ERA in 14 games that included 3 saves. Oberholtzer had a split record of 10-10with a 4.37 ERA in his 28 combined starts at AA and AAA this past season and earned Texas League All-Stars before moving up to OKC.

Seaton spent much of his season at AA Corpus (25 games) where he was 8-8 with a 4.07 ERA allowing only 31 walks. He tied for 7th in the minors with 169.1 IP, but led the Texas League in strikeouts with 91. Finally, Jonathon Villar spent 2012 at AA Corpus Christi where he hit .261 with 54 runs, 11 home runs, 50 RBI and 39 stolen bases in 86 games. At the start of the season Villar was ranked as the 4th best prospect in the Astros’ system by Baseball America. He’s been recognized as the best defensive infielder in the system.

In addition, it was announced that RHP Mickey Storey has been claimed off waivers by the New York Yankees (no more sing alongs of “Oh Mickey” it seems), and IF Scott Moore has been outrighted to AAA Oklahoma City. Time will tell if Moore decides to accept this assignment or select free agency.

These moves leave the Astros 40-man roster at 36 just a few hours shy of the deadline.

Let the “hot stove” season begin….

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

There are three things that I can’t stop talking about regarding the Houston Astros. I thought I’d give my friends a break and talk about them here instead.

#1 – The New “Previous At-Bat Graphic” on El Grande:

This is a cell phone camera photo, and the brightness of the board makes photos tough. But you can get the idea. Photo credit: Greis Perez

I’d show you a photo, but the ones I have are from a cell phone camera and are “meh.” Well, maybe I’ll show you anyway.

Below the lineup of the appropriate team when a player comes up for his second or subsequent at bats in a game, a graphic of the field is shown along with what happened their last at bat. Is the line green? Then they got on base. Is it red? Then it was an out. A dotted line signifies a grounder while an arched line signifies a fly ball. If it’s a player’s 5th at bat of the game, you’ll see the 4 lines of the 4 previous at bats. I. LOVE. IT.

#2 – Brian Bogusevic Hands the Astros Their First Walk-Off Win of the Season!

Last night against the Milwaukee Brewers, Brian Bogusevic hit a grounder up the middle into the outfield to send Steve Pearce home. Astros win it 4-3 over the Brewers. I hate the Brewers. Well, really I hate Brewers fans. There were some incidents last season during a home series where some fans were insanely rude. So I like to see the Brewers lose.

But I really like to see the Astros finally win. This was a win these boys needed, desperately!

#3 – More Astros are on Twitter than You Think

I was updating the page on this site that has all the team’s twitter handles. Bear in mind it’s still not 100% accurate and a few guys that are in AAA are still on the MLB roster on that page, but hey – I’ve got baseball to watch. Anyway, you’ll notice that almost 20 of the 25 man active roster is now on twitter. Apparently the new guy, Tyler Greene, is not. We need to work on him. Also not on twitter – Xavier Cedeno, Rhiner Cruz, Armando Galarraga, Fernando Rodriguez, Carlos Corporan, Chris Snyder and Scott Moore.  So, if you know any of these guys, can you have a chat with them?

I really like posting a starting lineup on twitter using only twitter handles. It looks cool ;D

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

Last night when new Astro Francisco “Coco” Cordero blew his first save opportunity with the Astros against the Reds, I thought to myself, “Self, he’s adjusting to a new team, cut him some slack.” Tonight when he blew his SECOND save opportunity, I was not so nice. In fact, I’m pretty sure I dropped a multitude of f-bombs while shaking certain fingers in his general direction.

After an impressive start by Studly Cuddly Budly Norris (7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1ER, 1 BB and 7 SO) I was optimistic that the Astros bats could maybe eek out a win.

Optimism in Houston is for fools.

There were other jewels in the night – Jose Altuve went 3-4 and scored a run, Scott Moore was 1-3 with a run and an RBI, J.D. Martinez’s shoulder seems better as he was 2-4 with a run and an RBI – so it wasn’t all depressing….just the ending.

In the top of the ninth, leading 3-2 all the Astros needed was for Coco to get three guys out. But in what seemed like a replay of last night, Drew Stubbs put the kibosh on the win when he doubled on a fly ball to center to send  Xavier Paul and Brandon Phillips home. Jay Bruce would then single off Fernando Abad when Coco got benched and that would be the ballgame….because the Astros didn’t quite have the firepower in the bottom of the ninth.

Blown Save. Again. Shit.

I don’t have high expectations for this ball club. I haven’t since the start of the season. I know what’s going on and the focus isn’t and shouldn’t be the major league club. It’s rebuilding time and that HAS to happen from the bottom up. BUT COME ON! The mistakes these “major league players” are making are little league.

I wish Lou Brown was the GM…he’d make these guys drop and give him 10 every time they screwed up. The games would be like 7 hours long, but perhaps the players would learn a lesson.

Hey Coco…drop and give me 20…you owe us for two nights. And Brad Mills, the next save opportunity that the Astros have, if we see Coco come out to the bump…you can blow me.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

When the Houston Astros arrived in San Diego late Sunday night from San Francisco, they were 9-35 on the road. That record was haunting them, greeting them in every new city, laughing silently as they continued to fall.

San Diego fans were not kind to the Astros last night during the first game of the series as “Astros suck!” was screamed on numerous occasions, sometimes by the 7 year old kid sitting next to me. But the gods of baseball were kind to the visiting team. They decided last night was the night to end the suffering and torment so they blessed J. A. Happ with the pitching of his past and donned Jose Altuve the prince of the run.

And with steady and reliable pitching from Happ, two runs from Altuve, both courtesy of the bat of Scott Moore, and the short ninth inning from Brett Myers, the Astros held on 2-0 to end their road losing streak giving them that long-awaited tenth road victory.

It could have just been time, it could have been who they were playing, but I choose to believe that it was because the weeone and I were in Petco Park that the Astros won. Of course, we’ll be at Tuesday and Wednesday’s games here in sunny California as well as Friday and Saturday’s in Phoenix…so we’ll see if we’re the real good luck charm or not.

Regardless of why they won, I hope they walked away last night reminded of what it feels like to win on the road, of what it feels like to not hang your head in shame. And I pray to the gods of baseball that they find a way to keep feeling THAT.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

I begged for the bleeding to stop the other day and with a win against the Brewers last night, the Astros have ended their 9 game losing streak. But will the winning thing stick? I don’t think it’s likely for a lot of reasons.

In my house we’ve been joking that the Astros losing streak was because the weeone was at camp, but truth be told, I think the win yesterday had less to do with my daughter’s return and more to do with the insanity of the first inning and the ejection of Zack Greinke. I’m sure you’ve heard the tale or seen the footage by now, but when Greinke and Jose Altuve raced to first, and Altuve was called safe, Greinke spiked the ball in the dirt and was ejected.

I am certain that ejection was responsible for breaking the Astros losing streak.

Now, I’ll give credit where credit is due – the Astros offense was better yesterday than it’s been in a while. They put up 13 hits and attacked the bases full on, giving themselves every possible opportunity to get across home plate  and we hadn’t seen that in a while. Jordan Schafer was 2-4, Altuve 3-4, JD Martinez 3-4, Jed Lowrie 2-4 and Scott Moore hit his 3rd homer in 8 games. The bats were definitely alive. Add to that the 2 stolen bases – one each from Schafer and Altuve and the 2 sac flies from Jason Castro, and you’ve got an offense. Wandy Rodriguez put up another solid starting performance, allowing only 2 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5 in the 5.1 innings he spent on the bump.

But can the bandaid hold? With today’s series finale against the Brewers being the last game before the break for the All-Star Game, I’ve got to wonder if the turn in the tide yesterday was enough momentum to carry over to a second game? Add to that concern the fact that the Brewers will send Zack Greinke back to the mound today since he only threw 4 pitches yesterday. They’re trying to showcase him before the trade deadline and there was a decent crowd of scouts at Minute Maid Park yesterday who saw much less Greinke than they expected.

I applaud the Astros for taking advantage of yesterday’s events and riding the momentum they were handed in the first inning, but good baseball teams create their own momentum and that’s something this young club hasn’t figured out quite yet. So how long will the bandaid hold? Hopefully at least another game.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.