Justice (I know, consider the source) is saying that Drayton wants payroll at $100 million and that to keep the team in tact currently will take about $120 million. So the Chron report could be what is actually happening. I truly hope not, but I am also not getting my hopes up that they will do anything earth shattering any time soon.
http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/11113409 Astros' starter Roy Oswalt is pushing SP/RH Ben Sheets to consider the Astros.
Looks like Peavy to the Cubs is back on, with Baltimore as the third team: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/a...otstove2008&fext=.jsp
Broken link? http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081201&content_id=3696564&vkey=hotstove2008&fext=.jsp Is Pie enough to get the prospects needed from the O's to make it work for the Pads?
I don't think Peavy to the Cubs is "on." I think it's still possible. Still going to take some serious manipulation to put it all together.
Poor decision to not offer Wolf and Brocail arbitration. The worst that could happen is that they accept. The only scenarios were either a.) the do accept and help the much talked about thin staff or b.) get signed by other teams and bring picks to the system. Real headscratcher. http://houston.astros.mlb...mp;fext=.jsp&c_id=hou
WHAT??? I thought they fired Purpura???? Somebody please explain what good this does us. Are afraid Wolfy's going to garner $10MM in arbitration? Was Brocail a highly enough rated FA to bring any picks? IIRC, Wolfe ended up a class 'B' (much to our surprise).
I saw the Yanks declined arbitration to Abreu after they told him they would....they cited the uncertainty of the economy. The New York Yankees cited the uncertainty of the economy.
If we were willing to offer Brocail arbitration, we never would have exercised the option. I'm surprised anybody thinks they might have offered him arbitration. Looking around, there are a ton of people much more valuable than Wolf who would have been offered arbitration in years past who weren't this year. All the teams that have been publically worrying about budget in a down economy seem to really mean it.
More valuable than a type B... hrmmm... I guess it'd be intriguing to know how many MLB teams choose not to offer arbitration to players who will bring them draft picks should they decline. Maybe it's not such a big deal after all---but with our farm system in such a big mess, "arbitrarily" surrendering picks doesn't seem that smart. Perhaps the Astros felt confident both would accept?
And what team is going to sign a 41 year old guy like Brocail and lose picks over it? If you offer him arb, you better be prepared for him to take it as that's the likely scenario.
There's a lot of inactivity it seems in the free agent market, generally. I really do think teams are trying to assess the impact of what's happening on the bigger picture..and how it should affect their offseason spending. I think we may have a very watered down market, aside from the Sabathias of the world.
Absolutely that's a risk they should have taken on both Wolf and Brocali. Insofar as the latter...even if the crazy worst case economic scenario of 10M was granted in arbitration, its not a multi-year deal that would create a possible albatross for years to come. Regarding Brocail, Wade has stated publicly they are still hoping to sign him anyhow. It's a win-win either way. It seems worth the risk to possibly 'lose' arbitration and pay more than the figure they had in mind. Then on the off chance he bolts...then you get a tasty sandwich pick.
