Also, if you wanna be mad at something, be mad that McLane allowed the farm system to become completely depleted while the big club got old and bad. Worst combo possible. There are teams in contention now that also have deeper and better farm systems. Yuck. Say all you want about the Astros "semi-golden era" coming under McLane but it came at the cost of the current situation, which can take years or even a decade+ to fix, which he won't be around to watch. He cashed in whatever assets he had, always tried to win now with no concern for the medium or long-term and he ran out some good baseball people in the process. You simply can't operate that way in Major League Baseball. Not even the Yankees or Red Sox let their farm systems dilapidate to this extent. I don't care what he did right, he did more damage than it was worth, esp. in retrospect since we didn't win a WS. We could've still had good teams during his tenure without neglecting the drafts and farm system to this extent.
In other words, if not for the total neglect in a number of areas, we probably don't need to trade Hunter Pence (let's assume he was still here had things been done differently). Instead, maybe we're currently battling for a playoff spot right now (while still having been a successful team over the past decade or so) and Pence serves a similar role for us as he does for the Phillies: a solid but not great hitting RFer who is the 4th or 5th best hitter on the team and provides mediocre-at-best defense. You can live with that if you are better in other areas... kind of like the Phillies.
Nah, he's a good player, but he's not a star. We got two prospects back who could become much better than Pence down the road. Great return.
this only tells half the story. he was also the owner that took over after mcmullen and had the 'stros rated as the top organization in all of baseball.
Drayton was a hell of an owner however this Uncle D fool is a joke. To bad Drayton never came back, would have been nice to see where the team might be now.
I see Oswalt is going against Big Time Timmy Jim....again How many times have they matched up over the past 3 years?
