I can't recall anything quite like this either. Trading a decent player making a minimum salary with 4 years of club control remaining for 2 middling prospects. The logic is sound, but this team is going to suck (120 losses suck) if the young guys can't show something next year.
it is unusual but i think they are also looking at how tough the AL west is going to be for at least the next 3 years. angels/rangers have it on lockdown. seems they are setting up to take advantage of their downfall and have a young team that can dominate for 5+ years.
Love the direction this team is going ... Hope some of these young guys in these trades turn out to be conerstones of our future competitive teams
And this why Drayton, bless his heart, refused to rebuild. I always admired (if (mostly) disagreed) with his approach because he didn't want to subject fans to what Crane is about to subject fans to. Im ean, they're terrible *with* the players they traded - this next year and a half? Oh, good Lord - it's going to be brutal. Baseball fans will stick around - but the casual fan is lost. That ballpark is going to be EMPTY for years.
Bah. They won't be scaring the Rangers any time soon, but 120+ loss predictions and empty ballparks are a little over the top doomsday predictions, methinks. As horribly as Drayton&Co screwed up since 2006, we are still a far cry from the depths to which the Pirates, Royals, & ilk had sunk. If Luhnow lives up to what everyone says he is, the Astros won't see that longevity of sucktitude.
And the second there's a winner again, people will start flocking to MMP. Like they do in 95% of sports towns.
I went and looked back at the Astros from that era - they won the division in '86. After that, they posted 76, 82, 86 and 75 wins - not terribly dissimilar to the post-'05 seasons (82, 73, 86, 74). They were a decent team - but they also had a robust farm. In '91, they bottomed out (65-97) - but look who was on that team: Biggio, Bagwell, Caminiti, Gonzo, Finley, Harnisch, Kile, Schilling were all on the ML roster (And Reynolds came in '92)... Any wonder they went from 65 to 81 wins in a year? And posted a winning record in 14 of the next 15 seasons? This team is almost certainly looking at 90+ losses at least through 2013 (and they'll likely flirt with back-to-back-to-back 100-loss seasons) before it even *starts* its march toward .500. The "fun" next 10 years... I don't see it starting until, minimum, 2014. ("Fun" = pushing .500; I certainly understand watching young prospects develop, independent of wins, can be fun, too - but....)
This team has been terrible for 2 months, and historically terrible for 1. We don't seem to have a savior on the horizon. Next year will be brutal unless some of the young guns are here early, and prove to be the real deal. We need some pitching desperately.
I have faith in the guy, and yes - all the Kansas City Devil Pirates talk is way premature. But this will be their fourth consecutive losing season (and very likely second consecutive 100-loss season) - and I don't see how they sidestep 100 losses again next year, nor can I see them pushing .500 until at least '14 at the earliest - and that's if Wade/Lunhow haven't royally screwed the pooch and the Cosart/Singleton/Springers of the world develop quickly. 2015 seems far more likely. As a matter of comparison, BTW - the Royals' last playoff appearence was '85 - they've posted 4 100-loss seasons since. The Pirates? Since '92, they've had 2. Even Tampa only posted 3 prior to '08. This is an historically awful stretch by the Astros - literally one of baseball's worst-ever if they have a third consecutive 100-loss season. (KC, BTW, lost 100 in three consecutive seasons and 4 of 5 overall. Yikes. So it won't be THE worst-ever. Yea?....) To put all your marbles in a complete organizational revamp by trading away every even remotely decent ML'er means if you ARE wrong.... those Pittsburgh Devil Royals comparisons are very much in play because your franchise will be set back some 5+ years on top of the 5+ years of bottoming out. In fact, we become the new standard of awful if it fails. There's a swing-for-the-fences excitement to it, and I'm invested and curious to see how it plays off. But man oh man... is it a giant risk.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Even after dealing Carlos Lee, Myers, Wandy and Lyon, Astros telling teams they're still open to more deals. Even Lowrie, who is on DL.</p>— DKnobler (@DKnobler) <a href="https://twitter.com/DKnobler/status/230018714450399232" data-datetime="2012-07-30T19:15:09+00:00">July 30, 2012</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I'd expect them to be fairly active in free agency this winter. Luhnow has hinted as much lately, saying to expect a payroll in the 50s... there's a long way to go to get there. I doubt they go after any true elite types, but I could see a number of two-to-three year signings (placeholders) in the $3-to-5 million range.
I've gotten that feeling, too. It might be moves that will bring in vets to play and create value for. I'd like to think they might bring in some guys that will make the team a little more respectable. I can see Crane agreeing with Luhnow on the direction, but at some point he's going to get sick of the outright embarrassment they've been on the field. There's something to be said for trying to avoid the losing culture (i.e. Pirates, Royals). That's the reason I'm advocating for the firing of Mills now. They need a new voice.
I know that new CBA has cracked down on this practice (at least w/r/t in-season trade acquisitions), but I could see Luhnow go after veterans, signing them to one-year deals in the hopes that they can amass the necessary stats to then leave next offseason and give the Astros a compensatory selection or two. In other words, the Clint Barmes Approach.
RE: the '91 comparison, believe me I understand where it breaks down. The point is, I hope all this young talent we'll be seeing going forward generates excitement the way the "Young Guns of the West" (seriously am I the only one to remember that promo ad??) did back then. Unlikely as it is, wouldn't it be awesome if we were speaking 15 years from now of these guys with the same fondness with which we remember Gonzo, Finley, Bags, Biggio, etc.?
I've been told this is absolutely Crane's threshold; their model is the Texans - build homegrown talent and add key pieces when it makes sense. They love them some Texans over at Crawford. But that the days of Carlos Lee-like signings is over.
