People need to chill out, PTBNL are almost ALWAYS a low level minor leaguer who won't ever make the big club. Losing Zobrist wouldn't have hurt as much if they had re-signed Huff. Huff was a nice player who required the Stros to give up a nice minor leaguer, don't kill them on the trade rather the events after that.
Zobrist wasnt a throw away prospect in his trade to Tampa. He was probably the main chip in the trade to get Huff. He wasnt a player to be named later.
With the state of the organization, the Astros shouldn't even be trading throw-away prospects. These are exactly the types of trades Houston should be doing, only in reverse - they should be trading their backup infielders for prospects rather than vice versa. This specific deal almost certainly won't matter one way or the other, but the principle of it should have Astros fans angry, not defending it. Even if they trade away a player with a 1 in 500 chance of ever making the majors, that lottery ticket is more valuable than exchanging it for an old, middling, backup infielder who was available for a minor-league contract a month ago.
I consider myself a die hard Astros fan. But at some point you have to put a decent product on the field and have at least watchable players on the field. Were not giving away anything valuable for the kid and it fills a much needed hole we had.
His production took a nosedive after the All-Star break. Apparently his BABIP took a pretty big hit going from .307 in June to about .220 in July, and never rose above .200 for the remaining months. He regressed across the board, but what was shocking was how much he dropped. However, his BB-K numbers from last year were pretty much identical from 2009. I would venture to say that given his past performance, Ben Zobrist will rebound and could possibly be a 20-20 guy in 2011. He can hit for power (27 HRs) and is an above average baserunner (17 steals in 09, and 24 in a down 2010). I don't think he'll get back to .297, but .280 is probably the target.
You're just wrong here. They lost their starting SS for 4-6 weeks, needed a left handed bat off the bench, and found one for next to nothing. How is someone with a 1 in 500 chance of making the majors more valuable than someone who already has made the majors and fills a hole on the major league squad? Much like RocketMania1991, I would rather see a team that has a chance to win some games rather than be the Pirates and know they're going to lose somewhere close to 100.
Zobrist was still a solid player last year even with really bad luck on balls in play. He remains one of my favorite players in baseball. He draws lots of walks, is a really good baserunner, plays great defense at many positions, and even flashed the ability to hit for both average and power in '09.
Oh no! Mediots predicting 90+ losses for our beloved Astros! Attempting to give a damn... ████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ Attempting to give a damn... ██████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ Attempting to give a damn... ███████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ Failed to give a damn. ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
haha that's great! No way we lose more than 90 this game. I know that we most likely won't compete for the NL Central, but there's no way that we lose that many games.
Sanchez deserves the job. He had a solid year last year and this past spring was much of the same. Decent hitter and decent defense. He is slow and has limited range but he will make the routine plays.
Another Astro bites the dust? Happ leaves game with oblique strain, could start season on DL: http://j.mp/gOrsvR
Lyles gonna get the call? I hope so... off topic but does anyone know if the game tomorrow will be on fsn? Im at UH and i didnt get any of the spring training games this year...
