http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2012/06/17/astros-close-in-on-deal-with-supplemental-first-round-pick-mccullers/ *Bowing before Jeff Lunhow* "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!" I'm not sure there is another GM in the world that could have done more in his first year with this team. So far, without trading any of the big name trade assets (Wandy, Myers, Lee), Lunhow has managed to breath life into a barren farm system. 2 top 15 draft talents without moving in the draft. A solid group of talent signed from the following rounds. Not to mention the borderline AAA names we moved for legit prospects with realistic upside. Jason Bourgeois and C Humberto Quintero to Kansas City Royals for LHP Kevin Chapman & D'Andre Toney. Jed Lowry & Kyle Weiland for reliever Mark Melancon (lol) Who else want's to have their farm system robbed by the 'Stros?
Wade breathed life into our barren system. Luhnow has done a great job and getting Chapman and Toney for guys that may not have made the 25 roster added depth to the system, and getting Lowrie for a reliever was a steal for the ML roster. Luhnow's draft looks impressive. He hasn't really robbed anyone's system, yet.
On the Crawfish Boxes game blog someone mentioned a tweet that reported it was for $2.5M and the highest signing bonus over the slot in the MLB draft. Whatever it takes man. That's $1.3M left from the Correa savings to distribute between Rio, Hinojosa, Virant etc. Not counting our other below slot savings which are liable to be minimal in comparsion.
And that would put him just between #12 and 13 in terms of draft slot money. He was probably that level of talent though, so it basically amounts to the Astros getting a consensus top-5 player and top-15 player. In the NBA they would have had the #1 and #13 picks. We've got to be happy with how management has navigated the new draft rules.
You're right about him not exactly robbing anyone yet. Bit of an exaggeration on my part. However, he has obtain real value for nearly nothing. I have to call you out on Wade, though. There are fans sitting on their couches who could make moves with his level of effectiveness. Saying his decisions had a coin flip chance of bearing fruit is an overstatement. He occasionally found some value, but for every Randy Wolf or Michael Borne find, there was a Kaz Matsui, Miguel Tejada, or J.A. Happ. Not to mention the fact that every first round selection he made in Houston was mediocre at best. Martinez and Altuve are nice surprises of course.
I disagree on Wade. He was here what 4 years and the farm system made minimal progress at best. Still should have got a lot more for Oswalt and Bourn.
Tejada? You mean giving up virtually nothing for a guy that went to 2 all-star games with us? His signings, aside from Myers the first go round were terrible. No debating that. The simple fact is we went from dead last, to close to middle of the pack on most farm system ratings during his tenure. The Oswalt trade produced 2 top 100 prospects in Gose and Villar. Only bad trade he made as GM for us was flipping Gose for Wallace, but we all thought it was a great move at the time.
I saw Tejada as a 34 year old, $14+ per year, controversy. His power was gone, and still couldn't draw walks. Troy Patton would be the best young arm in our pen right now. The return on Oswalt and Pence were reasonable. The return on Bourn was a joke.
Wade pretty much did a below average job--especially on the ML roster. That said, to pretend the minors didn't improve on his watch is to bury one's head in the sand. And, to cede that Wade indeed improved the minor league outlook for the Astros doesn't take anything away from the grand slam Luhnow has hit so far. Massive kudos, Mr. Luhnow. Good luck in keeping it up.
Agree. In hindsight, I keep those guys, let Luhnow deal them away. Pence deal, probably got the best you could get. Bourn, I don't think so. Roswalt, I don't think so. My hate for Eddy Wade will never go away.
Tejada making the All-Star was a joke....give me a break. He traded good players for some potentially good prospects. Anyone with a brain could have scored the players he did for Pence and Bourn. As a matter of fact, both were and are considered to have been traded below value by pretty much any credible baseball source. And the signings....any marginally good work he may have done on with the farm system (which again, wasn't particularly clever considering that's what was expected for him to do once the team was obviously going to be sold....and it's not like he knocked it out of the park) is negated by the money he threw out at Jennings, Matsui and Tejada....ALONE.
Wade's method to improving our system. 1. Trade away prospects from inherited farm system for a declining former star, and players from your former team. 2. Outbit other suitors for various Class C free agents by an unreasonably wide margin. 3. Once nearly every draft pick and/or free agent signing fails, we come to the final step. 4. Unloaded what little value you have managed to retain over 4+ years in charge. Preferably in firesale fashion. After this, said farm system should be slightly improved since you took over. At least we all agree that we are better off now.
Ed Wade cared more about running marathons than running the Astros. Drayton played the sob story to a comical level. If you buy any of the crap those two were selling, then you just don't have my respect. Criticize his major league moves all you want, but it's the player development ones I take most issue with. "Oh here comes another MLB draft, time to draft a player up the middle whose primary tools are his foot and glove!" And no, Wade should not get any credit for improving the farm system by selling off young major leaguers still on the right side of 29 for other teams' #3 and 4 ranked prospects in AA and AAA. That'll get you brownie points on MLB scouting websites that rank farm systems, but I'm still waiting for the effects to be felt on a major league level.
Good to hear that the farm system will be loaded in next two-three years. Our major league club wont be a contender until 2015.
