http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/p...n=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=6.1.1 Major League Baseball sources tell FOX 26 Sports that the Houston Astros have reached a contract agreement with free agent outfielder Darin Erstad. Erstad has played 12 years in the big leagues; 11 years with the Los Angeles Angels and most recently with the Chicago White Sox in 2007. Erstad has a career batting average of .284 with 118 home runs and 657 runs batted in. Last season with the White Sox, Erstad hit .248 with four home runs and 32 RBIs. Astros General Manager Ed Wade has not been available for comment.
Good signing. Add depth and also could play first base. Really is tough and brings that attitude everyday.
The Astros bench is going to be horrible this year. Erstad has all of that fiery attitude that a punter can bring, but his OPS was under .650 last season and calling him a shell of his former self defensively is a vast understatement. Add Blum, Abercrombie & Ausmus in, and you're looking at a collective OPS closer to .600 than .700. I would bet that you could not accumulate that kind of futility if you tried. I guess the bright side is that these kind of players are on the bench this season and not in the starting lineup like last year.
Umm.... splash? I can't really criticize or praise moves like this. Because most likely it's not really going to affect our season either way. That is, unless he signed for a multi-year, mult-million dollar deal. Then that's just Drayton throwing away money.
And then he'll fly over to Reliant Stadium to boom a 69-yard coffin kick punt to lock up the Texans first win of the '08 season (in late October).
What? This team has completely changed its lineup from last season with very little to work with. There are new players set to start in 6 positions from Opening Day last season. This is a one year signing for a bench player. No one is suggesting Erstad is going to be team MVP this season.
He accepted arbitration so he will be around. This is a good move. Hopefully he will show some veteran leadership on a brand new Astros team. Hopefully he will lead by his play instead of through the media.
1 yr $1 mil. Looks like he took steroids in 2000 (stats way out of whack). More depth to the bench. Now just sign Leiber or Benson and I think that would be a pretty solid offseason. If our SP's can keep their ERA's in the low 4's we should be a lock for the NL Central.
Decent signing. I don't think you can really ruin a bench when the only worthwhile people coming off of it are Lamb and Loretta...and one of those two is back. Palmeiro provided nothing last year, except on the rare occasion..so Erstad seems to be a definite upgrade there. Loretta is probably on par with the type of production Lamb provided...and Blum should be a little bit of an upgrade offensively over Bruntlett. And Ausmus is a definite upgrade in the backup catcher dept.
Are there people that really think the 2008 Astros are worse than the 2007 Astros. You can disagree with the moves by saying that it hurts our future, but the way I've seen a lot of people talking, they are acting like our team this year is going to be worse than last year. We have just as bad of pitching, but the lineup has been vastly improved. Erstad on a one year deal is not terrible.
I would much rather they re-sign Mike Lamb than signing Erstad and Blum. Oh well, maybe this will be good for the clubhouse chemistry.
