Rangers get Lee give up SO MUCH TALENT, uhum Astros....

yeah geez man

i hate when the stupid astros do nothing. i mean, my friend's mom's cousin's sister told me that Drayton didn't even discuss Oswalt with any teams!@!~!

Apparently the Mariners were trading Lee, and Ed Wade was literally sleeping 22 hours a day over the last month! He didn't talk to anyone. IT's CRAAAAZY

 

With how bad the Astros front office has been the last couple years they might be better off sleeping. Wade might want to trade for his FAVORITE type of player - the older guy no other team wants with weak defense and NO offense but for some reason lets give him 5 million.

 

Neither the Rangers nor the Yankees had interest in Oswalt though. The Yankees have targeted Lee for awhile now. They want him. They didn't NEED a pitcher at all, they just wanted Lee because he's their guy. As for the Rangers, they simply can't afford to take on Oswalt's money.

 

The Rangers did want Oswalt. The bankruptcy just made that a far more difficult option, and they probably weren't willing to give up Smoak for him.

Too bad it will probably take the team getting transferred to be able to deal Berkman to them. They obviously didn't have confidence in Chris Davis since they sent him down earlier this season.

 

God, sometimes I hate this board.

If it isn't the idiots in the GARM complaining that Morey didn't get Bosh/Wade/Lebron/Kobe/Kareem/Wilt/Jesus to come play for us, it's people complaining about the Astros not making moves.

How hard is it to understand that it takes TWO parties to make a move. We threw our best stuff at Bosh, and guess what, he didn't want to come here. Nothing we can do about it. I'm sure Wade also is trying to find a deal for Oswalt, but as of now nothing has happened. With the recent Ovando signing, it is obvious that Wade is trying to make our team better, and if a good deal presents itself I'm sure he'll pull the trigger. But if he just makes a deal to make a deal, then you complainers will jump right in and moan about how he should have waited. If a deal similar to the Lee one had ever been presented to Wade, I have no doubt Roy would be gone now.

Give him time. Now, Roy O is the biggest name on the market. If history is any indication, teams will WAY overpay for pitching at the deadline. If not, we get to watch one of the best Astros ever for at least another half season. It's Friday... relax.

 

While I don't condone the way you framed your point initially, I agree nonetheless. A lot of folks seem to gloss over that fact. Oswalt is owed an awful lot of money over the next two seasons, and only a few teams can actually pay it. It is difficult to move someone with that sort of contract, especially with the recent injury history on him.

Lee is a lot easier. He's only owed a few million for the rest of the year ($4.5, I think was the number) and won't be under contract next season. He was MUCH easier for the Rangers to swallow, even though they got Seattle to pay for $3 million of it.

I think the concern about the Astros is that they're not trying to make the move. Drayton often gets way too attached to some of his guys and doesn't even attempt to move them (or instructs his GM not to) when necessary. That's the main gripe, I think.

Edit: FWIW, the Dodgers, Phillies and (shockingly) the White Sox are probably the most likely trade partners for Oswalt now. The Rangers no longer need him (he'd help, just not as much), nor do the Yankees, and the Mets are claiming they can't really afford him at this point.

 

All I am hearing is the Stros don't want to help out with Oz salary and want THREE high quality prospects, teams are laughing at them because of this. Seattle was willing to pay a good chunk if not all of Lee's salary for the prospects they got, this was more then a no-brainer for Texas.

Until Uncle D realizes that he will need to pay some of Oz's salary and chill out with the prospect demands, Roy won't be moved anytime soon.

 

Bingo! As I posted earlier, the Astros were looking to raid Texas' farm system. Now the Rangers for a long time were in the farm system hell in which the Astros now find themselves trapped and they were in no mood to start back down that road. That plus the money factor doomed this trade from the start.

 

And what did the Rangers just do? They traded four prospects, two of whom were first-round picks, to a division rival for what will probably be a half-year rental. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a bold move that could prove to be a historic moment in their pathetic franchise history, but they gave up a lot to get Lee. If they don't win a playoff series, they will likely find themselves right back in the same position next year without a proven ace pitcher.

I think Nolan Ryan would've preferred to trade a package of prospects for 2 1/2 seasons of Roy Oswalt than a short term rental of Cliff Lee, but the delay in the ownership sale made a trade for Oswalt impossible by the July 31st trade deadline.

 

Cool story.

Oh yeah, next time you're hangin in the board room with Uncle D and Eddie, tell 'em I said I want a better beer selection at the Juicebox. Bud Light sucks.

 

There's no rush by the front office. They want Roy to become the Astros all time wins leader.

 

Give me some names of prospects they've traded that turned out to be decent. There really aren't any, at least not since the Zobrist deal (and NOBODY back then thought he'd hit for power). Remember when everyone was freaking out about the LaTroy Hawkins deal? Or the Randy Wolf deal? Those guys were very good for the Astros and turned out to be definite "wins" on Ed Wade's trade ledger, but the loudmouth critics have never been held accountable for what they said then. So, I ask rhetorically-- where's Matt Cusick? Where's Chad Reineke? Does anyone even care?

The truth is that the farm system has been mediocre-to-poor since the days of Gerry Hunsicker. Yes, Gerry Hunsicker. Everyone loves to kiss that guy's ass because of his reputation for getting over on teams in trades, but he bears much responsibility for the current makeup of the organization. His drafts from 1999-2004 were terrible, but for whatever reason that rarely gets mentioned.

 

Sigh. I started really watching the Astros in the mid 90's.

I've never been more disinterested in them as I am currently.

 

Important part is they got my boy Mark Lowe! Screw Cliff Lee, et al.

 

I put this on Drayton more than Wade. Although it just may be that Wade's incompetent. All Drayton has to do is give the OK to absorb Oswalt's contract to any suitor, effectively allowing the Astros to BUY prospect from other teams with Oswalt's salary. And I'm sure there will be plenty of teams lining up.

This is why the Rockets are the better-run team. Morey has convinced Les how to put things in perspective. Basically, Oswalt's value to the Astros is near zero right now. He draws some fans to the park maybe. But is that worth 2-3 prospects other teams can give him in a trade? Will that put more people in seats than selling them on a young player we can get in a trade? Probably not. Will keeping Oswalt help with future monetary gains like a young stud might? Of course not.

Morey/Les understand this. The Astros brass? Not so much.

 

I get this conceptually.....

but (and i realize i'm going to get flamed for this on a Rox message board)

for all the talk about how well they're run, i sure as hell would like to see more success in the playoffs. holy crap, i'm tired of manufacturing excitement about the rockets merely around not taking on bad contracts. i don't give a crap about moneyball or stats or any of that....at some point that needs to translate to something more than 1 playoff series victory.

 

Personally I'd prefer they trade him to the Rays or Yanks, who could theoretically outbid each other for him if the AL East race stays this tight.

Pettite is hyping up Roy up here.
I'm sure Hunsicker is hyping Roy down there.

While living in NY, I'd prefer Roy to go to the Yanks (I'd buy a jersey for sure), I dont really think we need Jesus Moreno (their stud C prospect, #5 ranked in minors right now) as much as we need pitching....and the Rays have the #4 prospect in baseball, Jeremy Hellickson, a pitcher who could be a solid #2. Thats not even their best prospect....but considering Roy's age I doubt we'd get Desmond Jennings (OF) from them. Also, they are probably going to lose Crawford to FA and Jennings can fill his shoes.

The Phils have a lousy farm system once you take their stud OF out of the picture, and he's ranked #1 of all prospects right now....so thats not going to happen. The Mets cannot afford him, and I'd die if he went to that team. I freaking still hate the Mets 25 years after the NLCS. I'm not very knowledgeable about the Dodgers farm system. The White Sox and Twins baffle me.

 

This is exactly right - the Astros need to look at his salary as a sunk cost. It provides no value unless the Astros care about winning 70 games instead of 60 next year. That said, the money does have value and it's part of negotiating, and we've heard varying stories about whether the Astros are willing to pay part or all of his salary. Until he gets traded, it's hard to judge. If he doesn't get traded, I would consider that a failure - I seriously doubt that no one is willing to offer anything.

Even if you can't get prospects but get the other team to pay his salary, that's $20MM freed up that can be used to go sign 10 of those $2MM Dominican kids.