Are the Astros about to go on the meaningless run?

... at worst that will be until the September call-ups. At best, Happ does down now to AAA and is part of the September call-ups, if he gets his act together.

 

raise your hand if you expect the Royals and Pirates to maintain their recent, overwhelming turnarounds.

 

I can see it out of the Pirates if their ownership will allow it to continue. It's taken the Brewers quite a while to become consistent winners. This season could be a big springboard for the Bucs towards being a competitive team.

 

I actually expect the Pirates and Royals to both be contenders next season. The Royals farm system is so loaded with talent that a few misses and they still have a number of impact pitchers and bats coming up in a weak division. Same with the Pirates, their system isn't as good but they have a number of good arms and a few impact bats coming up soon. Again, playing in a weak division helps a lot so they should be around.

Their problem for soooooo long was BAD management but once they got the right people in place, things have improved dramatically. Hope the same happens here.

 

Idon't know about u guys, but for the first time all year i wanna watch an astros game, and there's not one on.

 

Happ could easily pitch the rest of the season. Minor league starters usually go the pen if they are September call-ups, as teams try to limit their number of innings. If they were going to bring Dallas up to replace him, they would have done it already. Instead Happ is starting Friday.

 

Really? Because I expect the Pirates won't finish the season with a winning record. For all their heralded success, they're a game under .500 right now and they have the toughest part of their schedule ahead of them. Congrats on not finishing last, but my guess is they end up finishing 4th out of a 6 team division.

And maybe I missed the boat on the Royals...I just pulled up the standings and saw they're 16 games under .500 and in dead last in that "weak division" by 4 games. You know what it seems like they've ALWAYS had?? Great minor league talent!!

I know we suck right now...but these organizations aren't on my list of organizations I hope the Astros emulate.

The problem with both of these organizations is that they haven't been willing to pay to keep that great minor league talent. As I recall, the Pirates got a slap on the wrist from the Commish a while back because they weren't throwing revenue sharing funds at payroll.

 

The 1st round draft pick is one player a year. It takes more than that to build a quality farm system. Good management, which you guys point out as reasons you expect perhaps the Royals and Pirates may continue to be relevant now (I'll just wait and see) drafts well over the entire draft and then manages their development well. Hitting on some "can't-miss" uberprospect in the first three picks may be the cherry on top of the icing on the cake--everything else matters a lot more.

In 2000 and 2001, the Astros were widely regarded as the best organization in MLB top-to-bottom. And, they hadn't had a top-ten draft pick in nearly a decade.

Losing is for losers.

 

DOH!! I just assumed Dickau was speaking accurately about this "turnaround". :grin:

 

International Free Agency is where we lost out more than anything. The guys we had that made us so stacked: Abreu, Hidalgo, Guillen, Garcia, Hernandez, etc. We are finally getting back to those international free agents.

 

good point on shutting down the VZ Academy, and also on their inexplicable unwillingness to scout or sign FAs from Asia...

...but when you lay that many draft turds in a row (Hunsicker's last two or three, and all of Purpura's) all the international FA in the world can't save you.

 

It would have saved us from being the worst. I don't know what changed about the draft. If we were just making worse decisions, or that signability hadn't been a large factor in the past. The unsigned top picks were just a disaster.

 

On the Pirates, they are headed in the right direction. They have good young pitching and looks like the right approach. They have a star player along with a solid cast and a solid staff. They have talented pitching coming up soon and regardless of where they end up this season, they have a bright future. Consider how much better they are then us, the Cubs and as of right now even better then the defending central champs.

With the Royals, I admit, it's more a leap of faith. They are so loaded and have such talent like Hosmer and Crow coming up that I feel they are primed for a good run. We are all excited about Cosart and Singleton, well they have 2 or 3 of each ready to hit the bigs very soon.

I have to disagree, I'll love for Crane to emulate these two organizations RECENT strategy not the crap of a few years ago.

 

they kept drafting HS players they didn't have a chance at signing unless they went over slot--and then they inexplicably refused to go over slot. then, why the hell did you draft that kid?????? then they missed on a larger percentage of lower round guys (most of those are misses anyway, but when you royally foul up your entire higher draft, then several grand slams are in order). on top of that, what little talent they did have they kept trading away trying to prop up an aging nucleus for one more run. Finally, they tied their hands and feet with bad contracts to Carlos Lee and (via trade) Miguel Tejada, then shot themselves in their bound feet by adding such sure-fire hall of famers as Preston Wilson, Kaz Matsui, Shawn Chacon, etc. In short, they were failing epically at every level. A season like this was inevitable.

2005 is much farther away than 6 years, thanks to a historic string of horrible choices.

 

That's right Gary: we're on the right track!! (sorry, couldn't resist) As far as the Pirates go, years ago when Kendall was one of the best catchers in the NL and they had a bunch of young talent everyone thought they were on their way then, too. It's the Pirates. The implosion is coming within the next 12 months.

And, the Royals will sell off their good young'ns, too. They always do.

 

I loved the Preston Wilson and Shawn Chacon acquisitions. We lost picks and overpaid to get Lee.

Chacon at least had some good starts, and wasn't terrible, but he had to go crazy and choke the GM. Of course I now see choking Ed Wade as a positive.

 

Wilson and Chacon were intended to be examples of a list that could go on for a couple pages. Jason Jennings (via trade), Brandon Lyon, wasting time on geriatrics hoping they'd work out (remember adding Ortiz *and* Hampton? yeah, that worked for us). It's just been a bad, bad half-decade for Astros fans.

 

Again, these Pirates and Royals are under a different mindset and philosophy so not the same as the early to mid 2000s.

Funny thing is that the Royals and Pirates have emulated the Rangers and Rays. These teams have adopted a strategy of paying high dollars in the draft and international market which is what i'd like the Stros to do. We will NEVER be the Sox, for every Pedroia, Yuk and Elsbury they sign a Lacky, Crawford and trade for Gonzalez...they shouldn't be a template.

Royals and Pirates do the exact same thing the Rangers and Rays but they started later in the game. Give them time and they WILL catch up.

 

prediction: the Astros will make the playoffs more times in the next decade than the Royals and Pirates put together.

 

Well, I hope your right of course.

I will predict the Royals have a winning record before the Stros.