Could have gotten a 3B for very little? Really? Who? Please don't say Wigginton. That train left Union Station when we did not offer arbitration. If we had offered arbitration, it would not have been "for very little."
No, it didn't. There was absolutely no reason for the Astros not to stay in regular contact with Wigginton after they did not offer arbitration.
Tell me that they would have gotten Wigginton for the roughly $750,000 they were willing and/or able to pay for a 3B. What a laugher.
If you want a laugher, consider that Wigginton signed for $3m and the Astros spent nearly $10m on Brocail, Hawkins, Blum, Boone, Backe, and Michaels. Eliminate any one or two from that mediocre-at-best group and that's all the money you need.
Blum was going to be here regardless. IIRC, Blum had an option that vested. Boone was signed for $750,000. Even if all that is not true, it was an extra $1.1M that the team was not going to spend. All of this is assuming that Wigginton would have wanted to sign with the Astros after being denied arbitration, which is not a given.
As Refman stated, there's no indication that Wiggs wanted to stay here, after he got refused arbitration. He got a 2 year deal from Baltimore. And as to the rest of your post, Brocail and Hawkins combine for 6 mil of that total you complain about. Brocail had a 3.93 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP in 68 innings. In Houston, Hawkins had a 0.43 ERA and a 0.76 WHIP in 21 innings (3.92, 1.21, 62 inn. overall). That makes them both good setup men that eat a good number of innings. Hawkins-Brocail-Valverde isn't the famed Lidge-Dotel-Wagner unit, but it's a very solid pen combo that's absolutely critical when you can't count on any of your starters other than Roy O to make it past 5 innings. Both of those WHIPs, btw, were better than Lidge's 1.23 last season (and he makes 11.5 mil this year). Not saying they're better pitchers, but I don't think it's ridiculous to pay for good setup men when your starting staff doesn't pitch deep into games and you'll need a bridge to your closer often...
Wait, what? Why are we assuming guilty until proven innocent? Most players don't hold grudges -- they simply let the market play itself out and typically pick the best combination of financial/winning situation for themselves and their families. Wigginton said immediately after the decision that he held nothing against the Astros. Had Houston made an offer competitive with Baltimore's, I feel confident he would have stayed. Ty liked it here -- trust me. First of all, the Hawkins sample is ridiculously small and you know it. Second, I never said they weren't solid or that they couldn't help the team win. But to me, having a deep bullpen is like the cherry on top of the sundae. Sure, it's a nice luxury, but when you have a legitimate, power-hitting 3B (.850 OPS ish) and your alternative is Geoff Blum... to me, that's a clearly bigger priority than a seventh or eighth-inning reliever, and I'm pretty sure that would be true for most teams. It's not that they are worthless, and I hope I didn't imply that. But it's about being able to prioritize, and one of your top run producers (whose alternative is Geoff freakin' Blum) should generally be higher on the list of things to maintain, if the finances are similar, than a setup man.
