Brocail back to Houston to have shoulder examined

In the linked article Footer reports that Brocail notified the team he was feeling discomfort similar to the tendinitis he reported back in Spring Training. Said he had trouble locating his pitches as a result during the game tonight.

""I had tendinitis in Spring Training, and the tendinitis went away and I thought it was all done and over with," Brocail said. "All of a sudden, it's back. Anytime I have to throw out of the windup to try to get on top of the ball, I'm in trouble. I'm a strike-thrower, and I couldn't find a release point to save my life."

 Astros.com

I don't know if this is a new feature or not, but I was alerted to it from a blog post on the MLBlogs network. The teams provide a link to the media information provided by teams on gameday. The info opens in a viewer on the web page and if you click the Print icon a PDF opens in a new window. 

The info provided is fairly trivial and available from various places, but there's info on upcoming starters for games, TV & radio broadcasts and other tidbits. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a RSS feed for it. 

You can click on the Gameday Press Pass to see links to all MLB teams. 

Astros Media Information

Link to Yahoo story

Charged for lying to Congress over steroids. Indications that there may be a plea deal arranged.

WASHINGTON (AP)—All-Star shortstop Miguel Tejada has been charged with lying to Congress about steroids. Tejada is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday where he is expected to plead guilty.

The charges against Tejada, who currently plays for the Houston Astros, were outlined in documents filed in Washington federal court on Tuesday.

The documents indicate that a plea agreement has been reached with Tejada.

Messages left for his attorney, Mark Tuohey, were not immediately returned.

The documents were filed a day after superstar Alex Rodriguez admitted to past use of performance enhancing drugs.

Link

I dug into a story I wrote from last year's general meetings concerning the trade of Brad Lidge to the Phillies. You want to talk about luck playing a factor in a baseball season? Take this: The Phillies had a unique advantage in the Lidge sweepstakes, because the Astros' new GM, Ed Wade, ran the Phillies from 1998 through 2005. He knew outfielder Michael Bourn, and he valued him much more than anyone else did. Bourn OPSed a horrendous .588 for the Astros this past year.

The Mets were interested in Lidge at the time, as a setup man for Lidge's Astros buddy Billy Wagner, but Wade wanted a package headed by either Carlos Gomez or Fernando Martinez. The Mets couldn't do that, because they very likely knew at that point that Gomez would be needed to acquire Johan Santana, and they weren't going to give up Martinez for someone they perceived as a setup man; they wouldn't even trade Martinez for Santana. Even Gomez, somewhat of a disappointment for the Twins, OPSed .656.

So the Phillies received a circumstantial discount, influenced by something entirely out of their control: Astros owner Drayton McLane's decision to hire Wade.

Projected at least, by the same guy as before.

I haven't looked up his contract status. The web site linked has him a free agent with an option (don't know if it's a team or player option).

I'm not sure if the Astros would let Brocail go as a FA. If the rumors are true that we turned down a trade for him at the deadline and even after, and given our rush to the finish, Ed Wade probably thinks we're close.