If the Astros don't already know all of this, they need to fire their entire front office.
This isn't like in the corporate world, where assets and what they can do for you are often unknown.
MLB lists Biggio at 200 and Vladdy at 250.
Here's the respective pages if you're interested:
Vladdy: https://statsapi.mlb.com/api/v1/people/665489/
Biggio: https://statsapi.mlb.com/api/v1/people/624415/
It was a ball, but he was gifted one earlier in the at-bat. Too close to take.
As far as the umps go, if you're gonna make a bad call, don't have rabbit ears.
Not really. The idea of the opener is to have the starter face the top of the lineup one less time, while guaranteeing yourself certain more favourable matchups. If you're not going to do that, then don't bring in a reliever with an xFIP over 5 to face the best batters from the opposing team while your 4.25 xFIP starter likely begins with his team already in a hole.