All game talk goes in here. Please do not give play by play. If you need play by play go to CBS, ESPN, or Yahoo. Pitching Proabables: 8-2 Roger Clemens (9-4, 1.46) vs. Claudio Vargas (4-5, 5.26) 8:40 on FSSW 8-3 Ezequiel Astacio (1-4, 7.17) vs. Javier Vazquez (9-9, 4.29) 9:10 on FSSW/ESPN2 8-4 Wandy Rodriguez (6-4, 5.90) vs. Brad Halsey (7-7, 3.81) 8:40 on FSSW
I'd love to sweep, but I saw WLW... They always bring it for Roger...I'm still confused why we didn't bring another bat, but hell, I'm not the GM...
D-Backs have been playing much better as of late (4 out of their last 5), so I don't think we'll go into the BOB and just roll over them. Plus we've got the two rooks pitching.....yes, they have been pitching much better lately, but they're still rookies and susceptible of big inning blowups. 2 out of 3
Watch sports center to get the payoff. Although, it's not much of a payoff, but you'll be like, ok, I get it. It'll hit you over the head as you are watching.
Those aren't facts. They are just his subjective beliefs, which, if anything, are not based on "facts". The fact is that our starting left fielder is hitting 233/300/306 this year. I think he's likely to someday be a productive hitting secondbaseman, but he's not even a replacement level hitting corner outfielder right now and is far from being "productive" with the bat. The fact is that matt lawton was available and producting a 273/380/433 line which is right in line with his career averages. The price the cubs got for him was entirely reasonable, especially considering that next year we have at least have 4 sports in the rotation secure and a surplus of B to B+ quality back-end of the rotation pitchers in the high minors. Perhaps Lawton isn't beltran or randy johnson, but he didn't need to be. His impact on the team would have been just as great as those were when taking in consideration the player and production he would have been replacing. Replacing burke's production with his, would been about as equivalent with replacing everett's with miguel tejada. So there was at least one player available on the trade block who woul dhave had a big impact on our offense. and i'm not even considering players would who have been a available for a higher price. So now we're left with a once in a lifetime top of the rotation (none of clemens, pettite or oswalt has put of an era as low as they have this year) with a top closer and a league average offense with major holes in a couple spots. We're also left with a surplus of B pitching talent in the high minors, which could have been leveraged to fill at least one of those holes.
Who would we have given up for Lawton? Also, the Astros did make it clear they didn't want a rent a player. I would've personally liked Lawton, but I'm not convinced he would have put us over the top. I think you're overstating his value, personally.
We've never fared well against Javier Vasquez in the past, but we now have some hitters who aren't looking to pound the ball out of the park at the bottom of the lineup. I say Astacio proves that he's all that he was hyped to be at the beginning of the season... W W W!!
I would have put together a package of one or two of our B level starting pitching prospects in the upper minors/majors (think astacio, nieve, bucholtz, hirsch, hernandez, and rodriguez. not backe). With Oswalt, Pettite, Backe and (just my belief) possible clemens coming back next year, basically only the 5 spot and maybe the 4 spot in the rotation will be up for grabs between those guys. and with some potentially A level pitching prospects in the low minor (patton and barthmaeir) it doesn't seem like the best allocation of resources to hold on to potential trade bait when we don't/won't even have spots available for them. Let me also be clear in that i don't think lawton is a great player on the level of beltran or johnson or some of the other elite player that have changed teams at the deadline in the past, but that's not really the issue. The issue is that this year and at his career averages project he would produce at over .80 points high in on-base-percentage and over .120 points higher in slugging percentage than burke is. That is a substantial and significant increase any way you look at it. I like burke and i think given playing time that he'll be a productive hitting 2nd baseman who will get on baseball at a 350+ clip and slug 400+ in his prime. But he's not doing it this year, and i think it would be overly optimistic to think that he would all of a sudden start doing it at the end of this year. Put another way, the value we could have gotten from a trade is not who we would've gotten or who was available relative to the rest of the league, but rather that said player relative to who's playing leftfield for us now. I think as houston baseball fans we've almost gotten spoiled with always being in contention. There are franchises that go for years without getting to the playoffs much less having a legitimate shot at the championship. The stars have aligned to give us 3 healthy elite starting pitching each performing better than they ever have in their careers; a 27 yr old closer with a severe injury history healthy and pitching lights out; and in berkman and ensberg, two of the best hitters in baseball in the prime of their careers. The only significant part missing in this team is the holes (some excusable, like everett due to the value his defense bring at an important position) at some points of the lineup. If we could filled one of those holes (wiht a player that bring a upgrade of over 200pts of ops) for a reasonable price (i think nieve straight up or even less would have gotten lawton) I think we should have done it. The astros have never had this type of frontline starting pitching before (even in 98 or 04) and i would hate to squander this opportunity and lose in the playoffs cause we couldn't score more than 1 or 2 runs off of jason marquis or mike hampton.
