awwww no willy T? was hoping i'd be able to dust off that autographed baseball and put it out on display again in my room LOL. i'll keep it in the box. anyway, i love baseball and I can't wait for it to begin!
The tour is pretty cool. It was $9 for adults and takes about an hour. During the season they offer locker room tours for like $35. I can't wait to do one of those.
Astros win another arbitration case... [rquoter]Astros beat LHP Rodriguez in salary arbitration ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP)—The Houston Astros beat Wandy Rodriguez(notes) in salary arbitration on Thursday, meaning the pitcher will be paid $5 million this year instead of the $7 million he sought. Arbitrators Richard Bloch, Elizabeth Neumeier and Fredric Horowitz made their decision a day after hearing the case. Rodriguez, a 31-year-old left-hander, was 14-12 last season with a 3.02 ERA, ninth in the NL among qualifiers. He struck out a career high 193, also ninth, and made $2.65 million. His 192 hits allowed also were a career high and 21 homers allowed were one shy of his worst. Owners lead players 3-2 with four cases pending. Milwaukee outfielder Corey Hart(notes) ($4.8 million) and Florida outfielder Cody Ross(notes) ($4.45 million) won their hearings, while Tampa Bay outfielder B.J. Upton(notes) ($3 million) and Washington reliever Brian Bruney(notes) ($1.5 million) also lost. Still scheduled for hearings this week are Los Angeles Angels shortstop Erick Aybar(notes) and catcher Jeff Mathis(notes); Washington left-hander Sean Burnett(notes); and Chicago Cubs shortstop Ryan Theriot(notes).[/rquoter] He's still making $5 million (a nearly 100% raise) and will have a better case if he improves on his 2009 season...which is something he's done every year he's been in the majors.
if he improves again (or even repeats '09), i'd think the Astros might just go straight to longterm with him anyway. He's an older player, so it's not like we need to lock up his "prime" years by extending out the arb process as long as possible--may as well lock him up and avoid that mess of arbitration again.
It is so frustrating being a Houston sports fan - but, alas, I'll be a homer forever! Today, for some reason, I was thinking about the 2005 season. All the pieces were in place for a World Series run for a franchise with too few historical moments. Yet, Astros management refused to go "all in" by picking up Jeff Kent's option. Well, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that with Jeff Kent we win that 2005 Series and finally end 44 years of futility with something we Houston sports fans could be forever proud of. On a happier note... Go Astros!
We win the World Series w/o Chad Qualls giving up a grand slame in Game 2. We win the World Series w/o Roy Oswalt imploding in Game 3. We win the World Series if we score Willy T. from third with one out late in the game in Game 4
Its all becuase they made us open the roof. Looking back on that now, it seems pretty ridiculous that MLB even had a say in that... not that it would have changed anything, but still. Some of it has to be because of TLR and other St. Louis people complaining that the roof was shut for some pretty decent day games during the NLCS (and it was), and we were using it for competitive advanatge (which we were). In fact, the weather for the World Series SUCKED compared to the NLCS (cold!), but allofasudden, we have to open the roof.
Berkman: Subpar season could mean exit from team I'm a little more optimistic about this year than the last two, but there would be a silver lining in losing Lance- it could force a true rebuilding.
I hope we can trade Berkman for some prospects. Get something outta him. While we're at it trade Roy-O.
It's an even #'ed year. He'll be hitting .330/42/120 with a 1.000 OPS and will get signed to a 5yr/$80 million contract extension...and then blow out his knee playing a charity putt putt golf tournament going into the 2011 season.
Lance isn't gonna be moved. He's here to stay imo. In fact, I'm guessing they're even committed to picking up his option barring a crazy injury or something..
This basically opens the door WIDE open for him to moved at the deadline with little to no hard feelings. I have said it before that I think Puma has begun his decline yet still a darn good player. I would not pick up his option even if he has a nice comeback season, love the guy but he isn't worth 15 million.
The question is more so 'is he worth $13m?', because its a $15m contract with a $2m buyout. This year will be huge in determining if he's worth bringing back long term. Rob Neyer's blog points out that he's been worth about $13m two out of the last four years but in the other two years was worth nearly double that. Fan Graphs says Berkman's value has never been below $13m. I don't think his descent will be as rapid as his last season would indicate. He just has a history of doing well every other year (shades of Morgan Ensberg). I think a good plan would be see how he does this year, and if he puts up a similar season to last year then pick up his option. After that, I would hope the Astros wouldn't go off the deep end and give him a big-money, 5-6 year contract that's heavily back-loaded (like Bagwell). A three year $42-45 mil contract that's evenly weighted wouldn't be too burdensome to the club. If Berkman's busts out a great season or two during that time, its all gravy. The guy's got roots here, I'd hate to see him leave.
Why can I never stop buying into the old phrase "Hope Springs Eternal" every damn season with this team, when logic tells me otherwise? :grin: Getting pumped about the season already, and as critical I am of Uncle Drayton, I have a good, good feeling that he somehow made the absolute perfect hire for this team in Brad Mills. Things are headed in the right direction with this club, boys. It just feels different. I'm still a bit shocked/disappointed that the reigns at SS were inexplicably handed over to Manzella without a struggle, but whatever. I think the best thing that can happen for this club during the spring is for Castro to destroy it and be our opening day catcher, and then I think we'd have a team out there that could surprise some folks. Go Stros.
HUGE Astros shoutout tonight on Survivor for anybody who still watches the show. Pretty random and awesome. One of the contestants is from Houston (obviously).
