Sour Grapes Why defend Jeff Luhnow, he wasn't perfect. No GM is, but to blatantly dismiss those facts. You are ignorant to ignore his flaws which is trading for overrated players that have bad character issues (Carlos Gomez, Mike Fiers) which is worst trade in Houston Sports including the Rockets and Texans.
Not even close to the worst trade in Houston sports history. Fiers did help them win a championship. Gomez didn't turn out well. But he was an above avg fielder in CF with the ability to be an impact bat. Who knew he was off in the head, he did start for a few more years after he left the Stros with several different teams Worst trade in Houston sports history was the Joe Morgan trade followed closely by the Ken Houston trade.
Morgan Bobby Abreu (not a trade, but he was immediately traded, so whatever) Cuellar Caminiti Lofton Hader ...other people
Agreed, He's a guy that if injuries hit you can put in the lineup in a playoff game and probably get production out of the position.
Abreu is one I still wish I could go back in time and find a way to reverse ( not that the trades weren't tragic) MLB really screwed them ( and all teams) with the expansion draft rules that season. They were severely limited in who they could protect, and had to choose between he and Hidalgo. They lost him, Hidalgo wasn't quite ready so had to trade for Carl Everett.
Santana was just a roster crunch, they didn't think he'd get picked (he was in A ball, iirc), but the Twins sucked and had space in their pen to carry him all year Abreu is admittedly Hunsicker's biggest regret as GM
I refuse to believe they had 15 more valuable players than a 22 year old Hidalgo and a 23 year old Abreu. After Bags, Biggio, Kile, Wagner, Ausmus, that was a pretty mid 84 win team - not a stacked contender that couldn't afford to keep two good young OF. That said, they brought in two excellent replacements the next year in Alou and Carl Everett and had their best season ever in 98.
Lol, i was kidding. I used to get pretty annoyed when santana would throw another 8 inning 3 hit 0 run game
We miss more those high first round draft picks, that the Astros got from tanking multiple years. Luhnow does get credit for turning those picks into great everyday MLB players.
