The Astros former scouting director has sued the team

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Chalres Norton, the Astros former director of baseball research/pro scouting coordinator, has sued the team, claiming they breached his contract when they terminated him on January 12.

Kind of strange in that, with a new owner, president and general manager, you expect house to have been cleaned. And the man who presided over a scouting and analytics program that gave the Astros one of the worst if not the worst minor league systems in the game is probably prime for the chopping block.  But Norton says that he was promised a job for a year:

According to the lawsuit, during a meeting on Dec. 16, 2011 that included Norton, Luhnow told those who were there, “everyone here and around are signed through next year and can have comfort that they have a job for a year.”

The lawsuit also states Luhnow made similiar comments on Jan. 3, 2012.

Hurm. I have no idea what happened, but it’s rare in this day and age for a new manager to say such things to a group of people when the subject of employment and firings and stuff come up. No one in that context even promises that the sun will come up in the east for fear of getting sued.

As for the plaintiff:  I wonder if he read the news reports at the time those promises were allegedly being made.  because if he had, he probably would have realized that the Astros were decidedly not content to stick with the current slate of employees going forward …

Dodgers place pitcher Noah Syndergaard on injured list with no timetable for return

dodgers syndergaard
Katie Stratman/USA TODAY Sports
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CINCINNATI — The Los Angeles Dodgers placed pitcher Noah Syndergaard on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a blister on the index finger of his right throwing hand.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the timetable for Syndergaard’s return is unknown despite the 15-day designation.

“The physical, the mental, the emotional part, as he’s talked about, has taken a toll on him,” Roberts said. “So, the ability to get him away from this. He left today to go back to Los Angeles to kind of get back to normalcy.”

Syndergaard allowed six runs and seven hits in three innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, raising his ERA to 7.16.

Syndergaard (1-4) has surrendered at least five runs in three straight starts.

Syndergaard has been trying to return to the player he was before Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the better part of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Roberts said Syndergaard will need at least “a few weeks” to both heal and get away from baseball and “reset.”

“I think searching and not being comfortable with where he was at in the moment is certainly evident in performance,” Roberts said. “So hopefully this time away will provide more clarity on who he is right now as a pitcher.

“Trying to perform when you’re searching at this level is extremely difficult. I applaud him from not running from it, but it’s still very difficult. Hopefully it can be a tale of two stories, two halves when he does come back.”