Heres another kick to the balls. Not only did the Braves save their best prospects, but If and when Bourn leaves the Braves the season after next, they will receive a first round pick since he will surely be a type a free agent. Nice going Wade.
The system may be overhauled with compensation changing big time, though. Also, Crane supposedly wants to spend big on international free agents like the rangers do so not having those extra picks won't hurt as much.
I think my fav part of negative attitudes is that even if it works out well, they'll call it 'lucky'. Wade really never had a chance w most ppl. If anyone ever thinks they're fleecing the majority opinion, they lose no matter what
...one last ***** you to the fans of Houston from Drayton. Honestly at this point I'm not surprised. The combination of greed, incompetence, and the way he takes us for granted has been on display for years. It's evident as he closes the deal. (selling the team) The Bourn trade is a fitting final move, symbolic of Uncle's hinderance/pie eating ... the last of a series of ass backwards moves since HUN's departure. It's all about getting out and leaving the husk as planned ..... If ALL THIS (GIVING away our studs) is what takes to get the new regime in place ....then so be it. Signing draft picks and really developing a premiere organization ....ahhhh! Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out Uncle.
Well, every media outlet has reported these were Crane's moves to get payroll down to $60 million. With the team not ready to compete in 2-3 years with Bourn and Pence, they become superlative. The haul we got for Pence was decent. What we got for Bourn is LOL funny if you aren't an Astros fan.
I realize we had to liquidate our big assets due to the deal.......and other teams knew this which kills our leverage to a degree. But we should have gotten more. No, what irks me is.......how we got here. Like I said though, I'm ecstatic about Crane coming in, building it from the ground up, pumping $$$$ into our infrastructure, stimulating true organic growth ....This is the dawn of a new age of Astros baseball and I'm excited.
I hear you it's been a frustrating last couple years..... especially since I grew up with Bagwell and Biggio at the helm of the Astros.
Actually he will most certainly NOT be a type A. He is barely type B if I remember right. All OF and 1B are lumped together so a CF whose game is based on speed/defense/singles isn't exactly high up the food chain.
Bourn is a solid B currently, and could be an A after next season. We will have to wait and see. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/08/elias-rankings-update.html
I know a guy who is a huge Phillies fan(Actually from Philly) and pays extremely close attention to the Phillies organization, so take this for what it's worth. He feels like the Phillies gave up too much for Pence. He doesn't like Pence's swing and thinks his current numbers are a fluke. He feels like the pitching prospects we got will be solid contributors at one point and that Singleton will be something special. On the other hand, I also have a buddy that's a big Braves fan and calls us the DisAstros and the Lastros among other explitives and what not. He feels like Bourn is slightly overated by us(Astros fans), and though the Braves may have got the edge in the trade, it was only a slight edge, in his opinion, if at all. Again, take it for what it's worth, but this is coming from people outside of us Astros fans that I actually know in real life, not on some fan site....
That's a pretty fair assessment. I do feel if we were all Phillies fans that followed Pence close enough we'd feel the same way. Pence is a good player, never will be a mega-star, and we got players who could be just that (or even if they're equivalent, you're getting 2-1 at a time when the team could be much better). I also note that none of the "criticisms" of the Bourn trade are coming from those "in the know" regarding the Braves organization. Regardless of Bourn's ability being overrated "now", you can't forget the fact that in just one year, Scott Boras will be overrating him to the highest bidder, and somebody will be stuck with an aging, slowing down, average leadoff hitter.
Scott Boras will do that, but we can't be sure how Bourn will age. Speed isn't necessarily going to go so quickly. It will be curious to see the type of contract he commands. Juan Pierre got 5/$44 back in 2006. Bourn's offensive game is similar, but Bourn is light years ahead defensively.
I'm just pissed off that someone released that Crane wanted to reduce payroll to 60M. This essentially killed our leverage with Bourn and Wandy. Btw I saw that Clemens and Oberholtzer are ranked 6th and 10th on our top prospect list. I wouldn't worry about these two guys. If anything they are probably both underrated considering that the braves have all the other flashy arms in their system.
Well, if the Astros don't think that they will be able to compete until at least 2013, I doubt Bourn is even part of the equation. Good luck trying to deal with Mr. Boras. The Pence trade is hard to fight against. Pence is a crowd favorite, but his contract situation is similar to Bourns, minus the Boras part. Both players have one more year of arbitration left before they demand longer and bigger salaries. A medium of the pack farm system has about 2-3 major prospects and a bunch of possibilities. The Astros was completely dry until the Pence trade. Moreso, it gives a chance for the Astros to see what Bourgeois and Martinez could do. However, if Crane's trying to reduce payroll to o$60 million and if that has nothing to do with trying to adjust the budget during rebuilding phases to building academies and signing bonuses for int'l prospects, then the Astros will probably never get back to the glory days outside of something short of a miracle.
It may have killed leverage with Bourn, but there was none to begin with on Wandy. Nobody wanted that option year and nobody believes he will be as good in the American League. There are serious questions about his mental dedication to the game and that is a big reason why a lot of teams don't want a thing to do with him unless it is cheap.
