Grantland article on the Astros

Even thought it's all old news, it's still incredibly depressing to read.

 

Depending on the GM and owner, the Stros will be .500 in two years and competitive in three.

 

Although I think he sold short the talent we got back in trades, the author did an otherwise spot on recap of th Astros present status for those who haven't been following the situation.

 

yeah it's hard to disagree with the majority of that. And it's depressing

 

That 1991 team had some incredible up and coming talent. Biggio, Bagwell, Gonzalez, Finley, Caminiti...What a difference from where we stand today...

 

They screwed up when they got rid of Nolan Ryan.

 

I don't agree with this. Seems like he is just stretching the pile-on too much at this point. While I don't believe he will be an ace exactly, he has the potential to be a good 2 starter. His stuff isn't mediocre, it was good enough to get him to the bigs.

 

They didn't get rid of Ryan; he left.

 

I've long since tired of listening to the national media remind us the Astros suck. They are just piling on and aren't actually saying anything we don't know. What's the point of posting an article like this.

 

In retrospect, yes, those were outstanding up and coming players. But they were not outstanding back in 1992. Our new crop of up and comers havent been playing at the ML level long to evaluate. They may turn into Bagwell's and Biggio's or Hildalgo's and Ensberg's. We just dont know yet. Likely somewhere in between.

 

Frankly, I think that assessment is close to a best case scenario, depending on what you mean by competitive.

If we stay in the NL Central, and it continues to be a relatively weak division, than placing 3rd in 3 years might be doable. If you mean favored to win our division and compete in the playoffs, I think we are much longer than 3 years from that.

 

The two points made in the article that seemed most relevant to our near future were:

But this time, the rebuilding process will take longer. Houston doesn't have anyone like Glenn Davis to trade...

...the infusion of talent only upgrades the Astros' farm system from "terrible" to "below average.

We mortgaged most of our trade-able assets this year and last year already. There are not going to be any fast infusions of talent injected into our farm in the next few years. This off season might see something back of worth if someone gets interested in Wandy. Buts thats it. Basically, what we have in our below average farm now is all we have to work with to get better in the near future. Yes, we have a number one pick coming, but one pick is not going to transform us into playoff contention.

 

No. they didn't pay him a million dollars, a drop in the bucket for the owner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolan_Ryan

 

Oh I thought you were referring to when Ryan left the Astros organization to become team president (and later part owner) of the Rangers. That, IMHO, was due in some part to Drayton, Tal and Pup but it was mainly Ryan wanting to be more than he could in the Astros organization.

 

@xcrunner: Nolan Ryan "left" just like Gerry "left".

 

whoops; please disregard my post; I "quickposted" on a stale window and a lot more conversation happened in the meantime. I was referring to 1988. my bad.

 

I don't think so. Gerry was forced out because Drayton and him never saw eye-to-eye. Ryan voluntarily left because he wanted a high-level management (president or GM) position with the Astros (and/or ownership stake) and the Astros wouldn't boot Tal Smith or Timmy P to give him one. The Rangers were willing to make him team president and he jumped on that. Ryan later secured partial ownership in the Rangers too; he got everything he wanted from that organization (again... sigh...) and the Astros got even worse under Tal/Timmy.

 

Where the DBacks that much worse then we are last year or the Pads two years ago? Neither had a GREAT farm system or major league roster. Notice my disclaimer, DEPENDING on the GM and Owner.

We will be fighting for the division in three years...mark it down.

 

I think he is completely undervaluing the moves we made. I think we went from below average to average and we will have a nice infusion coming. Wandy will be the most attractive pitcher on the market now that Carpenter has resigned and Oswalt/Buerhle want to stay in the mid-west. We also have the #1 pick in the draft coming up along with each round following. You're right, it won't take us into playoff contention but will help the process down the road and looking at what is available, it might be sooner then later.