So I guess signing Cy Young winners in their prime don't count, in your mind? Fascinating. Still can't answer any of the questions posed to you, I see.
The moment: Drayton McLane makes his first big splash as Astros owner after the 1992 season, signing free-agent pitchers Doug Drabek and Greg Swindell to four-year contracts totaling $38 million. The moment behind the moment: Drabek and Swindell don’t come close to living up to expectations, leaving McLane loathe to long-term investments in pitchers. With the Astros having improved from 65 wins in 1991 to 81 in 1992, they tried to shore up their thin pitching ranks by signing two Texas natives with strong resumes. The righthanded Drabek was 81-50 with a 2.89 ERA in his previous five seasons with the Pirates and had gone 15-11 and finished fifth in the 1992 Cy Young vote. He was also 30. Swindell had gone 12-8 and finished ninth in the National League in ERA in 1992, boosting his record to 64-53 over a five-year run. Soon to turn 28, he’d had most of success pitching for the lowly Indians. Though the Astros improved to 85 wins in 1993, it was in spite of Drabek and Swindell’s 21-31 combined record. Swindell went 30-34 with the fourth-highest ERA (4.48) of any pitcher to pitch at least 500 innings for the Astros. Drabek checked in at 38-42 with a 4.00 ERA. Burned by those signings, McLane couldn’t bring himself to go the extra mile to sign Randy Johnson after the 1998 season or Mike Hampton after the 1999 season. When the chance came to land Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte for hometown discounts after the 2003 season, McLane relented. Clemens and Pettitte helped the Astros get to Game 7 of the National League Championship Series in 2004 and the World Series the next year. It turns out signing free agents isn’t the problem. It’s signing the wrong ones at the wrong time. There ya go!
More big-time free agent pitchers have runs similar to Drabek/Swindell than they do Randy Johnson.... just the unfortunate nature of signing any pitcher past their club control years as their arms have a finite amount of elite pitching years left before either regression or injury sets in. Sure, the best of the best pitch at an elite level for an extended period of time (Clemens, Ryan, Randy Johnson)... but those are exceptions.
Wow--revisionist history lives! McLane and the Astros offered a *very* lucrative deal to RJ, which he rejected in favor of Arizona. Hampton had already let the Astros know that he intended to leave via free agency after the end of the 2000 (not 99) season--so they traded him after the 99 season in order to ensure getting some value for losing him.
Also nobody said the Astros never had good pitching, I said they farm not sign and everybody got their panties in a bunch. Yeah and they also made a "very" lucrative deal to Beltran and he left, whats up with this town and FA's?
funny how we don't take kindly to misinformation. i don't know. Maybe ask Nolan Ryan, Don Sutton, Drabek & Swindell, Moises Alou, Carlos Lee, Jeff Kent, Neshek, Gregerson, Lowrie... or, Scottie Pippen, Shandon Anderson, Dwight Howard... Damn shame this town never gets free agents.
Whats wrong with you? Ya left out maybe the best defensive player of all time, JJ Watt! You call yourself a fan? Pfffft!
All speculation but fun to think about. http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/105963664/houston-astros-mlb-hot-stove-max-scherzer
