Totally Astrotious

It has been a rough four years for the Houston baseball fan. Four losing years, and then the announcement that the team would be changing leagues, which will remove all of the team's traditional rivals from its schedule. That can't help to sell tickets, can it?

I was hanging around at NotGraphs the other day and the Astros were the subject of a recent post.  If you are a baseball fan, and haven't hung out at NotGraphs, you are definitely missing out. If you are in the mood for a little baseball related bric-a-brac, it is a one stop shop. It's also a free shop, where you can take home the memory of a .gif or unedited tweet, or even enjoy a little Dick Allen in great works of literature, for no initiation or membership fees.

The Astro's post in question was this one. And someone in the comments thought it might be helpful, perhaps even enlightening, to find all the other instances of the Astro's that were .gif-able, and to put them in one spot. I don't thing this was suggested with the Houston Astros fanbase in mind, because I would have to believe that putting all of the Astro's moments together like this, is a form of torture any real fan. Especially one who is watching and hoping that they suddenly turn it around. If you are one of those fans, this is your chance to avoid the train wreck. The rest of you can join me after the jump.

SF Giants: Illustrated Defense

I must confess, I find it difficult to come up with something that I feel is original enough to post here. I hop around the Internet, visit my favourite sites, and get directed this way and that by Twitter accounts I admire. Everything is covered. So I try to take things and show them in a slightly different way, and I certainly hope you find that entertaining. Maybe you don't spend half the night on the net like I do, and this is all new to you. That would be cool, too.

A couple of days ago, Getting Blanked, featured this post on Aubrey Huff's first career appearance at second base. It includes the following GIF. This is could be and instructional video on how not to turn the 6-4-3 double play.

I couldn't stop laughing the first time I saw this. Burriss knows exactly what to do, setting his body to make the throw to his left. The cameraman knows exactly what to do, panning over to second base. The umpire knows what to do, moving into position to make the out call. The runner knows what to do, sliding into second base, ready to 'take out' the second baseman with a hard slide.

Aubrey Huff does not know what to do. As the camera quickly pans over to the play at first, he appears to be strolling towards second base. I'm not sure why. I don't blame Huff, as Bochy was the one who sent him out there, but, WOW, does it look bad.

The Giants are a team worth watching, though, and by the time April 23rd came around, the middle infielders had completed the script for their new instructional video. I think the title is "How To Turn and Infield Hit Into Two Outs" or "Saving Pitcher Lincecum", whichever you prefer.

It appears that nobody has found the time to GIF this up, so here's a link to the MLB.com video highlight.

Nifty little transfer, isn't it? First, Crawford says "I know the glove is for catching things, but I'm going to throw with it too." and Burriss responds with "Who needs the glove, I will use my hand for catching AND throwing, as is more effective at this time."

Pretty simple, really. I'm sure that's just the way they set it up when they take grounders every day.

This has been your How To/ How Not To entry for the day.