If you play in a National League-only Strat-O-Matic or fantasy keeper league, and own one of the Houston Astros' good players, you're officially screwed. OK, if you're in an NL-only Strat-O-Matic league, you probably already know the news we're about to tell you, and you also know that the Houston Astros have no good players. But we digress!
As part of the team's $610 million sale today to Houston businessman Jim Crane (above), the Astros will begin playing in the American League West in 2013. Since the Milwaukee Brewers moved from the AL to the NL Central in 1998, Major League Baseball had operated with an uneven number of teams in its two leagues, with 16 in the American and 14 in the senior circuit. The Astros' move corrects that imbalance, and creates a natural rivalry with the Texas Rangers; it will also end the team's 50-year residency in the National League, and leave the aforementioned Jordan Lyles and Jose Altuve owners bereft. But good news Astros fans: Carlos Lee's contract expires after next season...just in time for the club to re-sign him to play DH in the AL (the position he should've been playing for the last five years in Houston)! Go 'Stros!
[via MLB.com]
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