This one I've already asked... no. Hunter said that growing up, he followed the Astros as much or more than the Rangers... because even though the Rangers were the local team, his favorite players growing up always played on the Astros. So with Biggio still here, he's an ideal mentor... and that's the role he's taken.
Response is the typical... if we can improve the team, we will. Honestly, so much of it will depend on how this team finishes July. I get the sense this team doesn't want to sell if it doesn't absolutely have to, but they might. It depends. Let's say the Astros can get these last two before the break, and Milwaukee drops one of two. That'll put them 10.5 back. If they can get within 7-8 back by the end of July, I think they'll try to address pitching for this season. Because with that, you could potentially get within 5 by September... and then you have a race. Basically, no one can answer that question all that well until the 'Stros get home from the 10-game road trip and see where they stand with the division. Biggio has said he'll tell all of us his plans for next season at some time during the second have when the "time is right"... there's not a reporter or anyone I've talked to that doesn't think he'll retire. With Burke, depends on the second half. He's a tricky subject. Like the article I wrote the other day, his approach is fine... he's swinging at strikes, hitting it relatively well, no hitch in his swing... etc. He's just not getting results. Some bad luck, some other things. If he proves he's even close to what he was last year (.270 ish, .350 OBP, .770 ish OPS) he'll be at second. Everyone likes him. He's got a terrific attitude, he's coachable, a terrific leader, good speed and discipline at the top of an order... and he's cheap! Still got a few club control years left. So, they'd love to have him at second and batting leadoff next year... he's just got to get a few more hits in the second half and rebound to normal levels, which I think he'll do. If he doesn't, I'm guessing they'd bring back Loretta as a stop-gap 2B until the new 2B of the future is developed.
Elaborating on the Wagner question a little bit cat, (1) I forget what Wagner's salary was at the time. How much was Wagner asking for and what price was determined too much for a closer such as Wagner? and unrelated (2) Do you work for the Astros? I know you write postgame recaps and such for the Astros, but I never got the full story of what you do with the Astros. Thanks.
1) Slightly above $8 million, I believe. While he was very good and not overpaid in that sense, it's a lot to commit to the bullpen when you had much cheaper options with similar nasty stuff (Lidge, Dotel at the time). They thought that money would be better allocated to another area of concern, so they went out and addressed the rotation with that money. Ideally Dotel wouldn't have flamed out so they could've had two great relievers instead of one, but it happens sometimes. 2) No, I work for MLB. As does Alyson. It's basically finding all the relevant news about the team and producing all the content for the Web site, so I exclusively cover the Astros... but it's all under the giant MLB.com umbrella, so to speak.
I dont thing Wags salary got him traded. I remember the last day of the season he basically ripped the front office for not doing anything to acquire any pitching help for the stretch run.
The reason he was so open in saying those things was that he knew it was a strong possibility that he would be gone. The writing was on the wall. While I'm sure McLane didn't like the criticism, the 2003 offseason was about freeing enough money to sign Pettitte (and later Clemens), and Wagner was someone who had to go to make that happen. Some of the fans tried to make Wagner's quote into what sent him out of town, but that wasn't it. Simply economic.
I don't quite believe that. I do believe that the Astros were not going to re-sign Billy. But, Andy and Roger had nothing to do with that. I still remember listening to the radio and reading the articles back then.
I don't think it makes much of a difference to Wagner when he talks to the media about whether there's a strong possibility in him being traded or not. He's always been extremely outspoken to the media. Just the other day he was mouthing off saying Reyes shouldn't have played the day after he didn't run to first on that near foul ball. He seems like the type of person that like confrontation. Wagner's a good player, but a bad guy to have in the clubhouse. Even though we basically traded him for nothing as none of the players we got in the trade have done much if they're even still on the team, I don't mind that we did.
