Would y'all take a Biddle, Singleton, May deal for Hunter? I haven't heard anything about the Phillies saying May was untradeable but I have seen a lot of philly fans saying they really dont want to trade May.
<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kO0wew2sBZY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
When are the astros going to get back to astros ball is my question. Defense and pitching. I mean it is all well and good that we go down the list of baseball america's top prospects and pick players, but I'd much rather acquire the right player than a glut of the wrong players. That's what I don't understand about baseball trades with the phillies, it isn't about the kind of player he is, it is more about his rank. Dom is ranked twelfth so we automatically want him. How about getting this guy: Jose Iglesias to shore up our atrocious infield middle defense. The last thing we need is another right fielder or first baseman. We also need a #1 pitching prospect.
I think Wade is focused on pitching and defense. He's drafted a lot of pitchers and toolsy athletes. But we really need everything... if we can get a clearly better prospect who happens to be a 1B or OF, take it. Also, keep in my mind that Wade has spent the majority of his tenure under McClane's "win now at all costs" philosophy. He hasn't had that much time where he's been given freedom to do things the right way.
Maybe you could list the backlog of RF's that they have outside of Pence? I'm trying to think of one, but can't. They have a few left fielders, but outside of Ovando in low A, not much to get excited about in right.
On that note, I've been as hard on Wade as anybody but even going back to his days in Philly, he's almost always been under the pressure of having the big club openly being expected to make the playoffs minus perhaps a brief period very early in Philly and somewhat lately here. His biggest weaknesses have seemed to mostly be related to big league contracts and trades (trades in Philly, been OK here). You expect a MLB GM to be at least competent in all areas but if he is truly good with building talent pools, then maybe he'll finally get the opportunity to focus solely on that for the first time. Then again, Crane may start fresh. And I do wonder this at times: if a GM is bad at evaluating establshed ML talent, it can only be that much harder to do with unproven talent. I understand that he has a scouting director, a team of scouts, other assistants, etc... but it's still his call at the end of the day. A GM has a lot of responsiblities. Maybe his best role down the line, with the Astros or otherwise, will be more in the area of scouting or some other lesser role where he can focus on his strengths. I have no idea. Maybe he's learned from his mistakes.
This is something I can see happening. Biddle is going to be a beast, Singleton has turned his season around and will be a major force 2 years from now. May will instantly become the #1 pitching prospect in the system and should rocket up the system.
This probably doesn't effect the Stros directly but possibly indirectly... Upton was pulled from the Rays game and Desmond Jennings was pulled from his minor league game. Jennings isn't going anywhere but Tropicana field HOWEVER Upton...not so sure.
I think you are getting caught up in what the position it says they play. It is no guarantee that Delino DeShields works out at 2nd base. In fact many would rank Jose Altuve as a better prospect than Deshields at that position. So I think that you have to rate Deshields as a potential OF. You also have JD Martinez and Austin Wates. Plus looking ahead to the draft you got Nick Williams sitting there, what are you going to do? Not to mention that singleton plays first base, so then what? we move the walrus to LF and now where to we put delino, martinez Jason Bourgeois, wates and dom and bourn, nick williams and singleton? It is much harder to find a great ss than it is to find a rf and a 1st baseman.
Walrus can become our DH when Lee's contract expires. Singleton can play first, Martinez in left, Bourgeois on the bench, DDJ still in the minors, Bourn traded or signed with another team, Dom still on the Phillies, and Nick Williams in RF and Done!
Figure out what that the Astros are going to the AL? Complain all you want, but Crane is going to cave in when pressured by all the other owners. He's not going to piss all the owners off as soon as he joins their club. It's all hypothetical anyways. I'm just trying to pose a solution to your question.
None of the guys listed has a strong enough arm to play right field regularly. None of the guys mentioned are in the same class in terms of talent as Dom Brown. It would be like the Rockets not drafting Yao Ming because we already had Kelvin Cato in the middle. Look, fundamentally, I agree that a stud offensive shortstop is harder to find. If there were a prospect at shortstop with the tools of Brown that was available, I'd love to get him. But that guy isn't there. To go back to the basketball analogy, it would be like Joe Dumars taking Darko over Carmello Anthony. It is a mistake to reach for a lesser talent, because it might be more convenient for your lineup. And talk about putting the cart before the horse... We shouldn't trade for Dom Brown, a young player ready to play in the majors today, because our low A second baseman who is many years away from being a player may or may not have to change positions at some point in the future, and even though he'll never be as good as Brown, we need to make sure we keep a spot open for him. Not to mention that we will probably have the first pick in the draft, and the guy projected to go #1 overall one year prior to the draft needs to have a spot open when (best case scenario) he comes to the majors four years from today. That really makes sense to you? Here's the definitive Bobby Heck development philosophy story, which I've probably repeated 10,000 times in Astros threads that sums up my thoughts: When Heck was with the Brewers, they were talking about drafting some dude named Braun. But there was a big argument about drafting this guy who was a shortstop that clearly wasn't going to be able to play shortstop in the majors. Some of the scouts thought he'd be a third baseman, and what a great third baseman he'd be with all that power. Some of the scouts thought he'd be a first baseman, and that would lower his value so much. Back and forth they argued. Eventually, someone asked Heck to say what position he would play. Heck replied, "third or fourth" (as in his slot in the batting order), and they drafted him. I'd rather end up with a logjam of two stud power hitters, than get stuck with a roll-of-the-dice toolsy A league shortstop who never pans out and have a clear path to the majors for the stud power hitter we draft.
So Dominic Brown is the next Yao Ming? Umm, okay. You are taking this discussion in a whole nother direction. Hey if you like Dominic Brown, you like him. But don't blow smoke, the guy doesn't hit for power and for a "star" hitter, hitting for power is pretty important stat if you ask me. Otherwise he's no better than Hunter pence at this point. And you basketball analogies aside, I think that a guy that hits for average and plays right field is less interesting than a guy who can lock up a critical defensive position like SS with gold glove fielding. Jose Iglesias. In fact I'd rather have Jose Altuve than Dominic Brown, despite what Baseball America says. Do you know who Jose Iglesias is? You pair him with Altuve and Bourn and you'd have an all-star level middle defense, and when they did bring Dominic Brown up, he didn't do jack, last time.
Right because 20HR, 68 RBI, 17 SB, .327 AVG, .980 OPS in less than 350 AA-AAA AB's (2010 season) isn't star potential. Oh and by the way he's 6'5'' with a natural power swing. Take off the blinders. Brown is 10x the prospect Altuve can ever be.
