the astros are looking for players that fill very specific needs. a team like the yankees might be willing to throw a mis-mash of "prospects" at tampa bay, but it's not what houston wants. they want club-controlled, producitve everyday players to bring a power and/or lead-off stick to the line-up. thus, ty wiggington and their pursuit of bourn.
why wouldnt the indians do it? barfield is hitting .250 with 2 homers and shoppach is a backup catcher for victor martinez. throw in quintero. shoppach will never be more than a backup for them since they just signed martinez to an extension angels need a bat with some power and santana has struggled alot this year. theyve been trying to trade him for the past 2 years. maybe his value is down and theyre willing to trade him for a piece that helps them now. theyd prolly want another guy, so give them a midlevel prospect. are the exchanges equal? not really, but they do make sense for both teams. much more sense than hirsh, willy, and bucky for jennings.
Considering what the Twins got for Luis Castillo, Astros will get nothing for Loretta. Castillo is a lot better than Loretta on offense and defense and the Twins only got two low level prospects. Lamb will fetch if a better offer but I doubt the Astros trade him. After the deadline passes and he makes no move Purpura is going say, "We want Mike Lamb and Mark Loretta back next year so we didn't trade him."
honestly, if that's all they'd bring in return, i think they DO have more value here looking into next season.
i think yall are overestimating castillo's value (and im prolly overestimating lamb and lorettas) castillo is not the runner he used to be and doesnt provide extra base power, which makes him pretty much a singles hitter without the speed he used to have to turn those singles into doubles. he doesnt have the versatility that loretta does either. the market wasnt very high for castillo from all that ive read. the mets seemed to be the only ones after him. loretta had alot of suiters before everyone already made trades. phils, mets, san diego, yanks, and seattle. seems like seattle and san diego are the only ones interested now, but i dont see why the indians wouldnt be interested since barfield has been struggling and shoppach hasnt played much at all this year. cleveland is also in 2nd place in the central. loretta may help them catch the tigers. i mean, they did trade a top catching prospect for kenny lofton. why not a backup catcher for a starting 2B? as far as the angels go, they lack power. even guerrero has been off this year. they prolly dont want to trade their prospects, even though the angels are deep, which means santana, who was just demoted to AAA, is their only trade bait. seattle is chasing the angels and are only 3 games back. theyre struggling to score runs...get something done.
He's backtracking: http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=16703 Roger (Austin, TX): Ensberg must've run over Garner's cat or slept with his sister? I think it's the other way around. Tim Purpura kept him around as his value plummeted and Garner kept running him into the lineup after her continued to hit .230 over the last year. Ensberg did not get a raw deal. The Astros gave him too many opportunities if anything. Jonah Keri: (2:39 PM ET ) He just needed to be spotted correctly. Ensberg against all lefties and softer righties, and Lamb against legit righties wou;d've netted some nice numbers. I don't think Ensberg is a star by any means, but I do think he'd be a very useful part-time player. "Spotted correctly?" LMAO!
why would the indians deal a (marginally valuable) commodity like shoppach for a 35-year old FA2B when they already have one of baseball's best offenses? they rank 4th in runs scored and 6th in OPS in all of baseball. but, yeah - what they REALLY need is mark loretta to put them over the top... they're not TRYING to trade santana; they've been trying for 2 years to upgrade their team and santana has been the player most teams have targeted because he happens to be one of the best young arms in all of baseball. here're the players that have been linked to santana in the past 2 years: mark texeria, todd helton, andruw jones, miguel tejada, carl crawford.... but sure - mike lamb ougtha do it...... no, they make sense to the astros, or any other team hoping to deal $.25 in exchange for a $1.00. what you're doing is setting an artificial measuring stick for the astros. and tomorrow, when they don't turn lamb and loretta into the next bob gibson or johnny bench, you're going to rant and rave and likely call tim purpura fat. these guys have marginal value: look at what position players are fetching right now (which will be my THIRD time to post this): LOW LEVEL PROSPECTS. even texeria brought only one MLB-ready prospect.
no details given yet for nothing most likely http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.aspx?sport=MLB&hl=218683&id=3150
so we can't trade Lamb or Loretta to them, so the Padres are desperate and we say have Ensberg for some semi prospect? Best case scenario here.
ok ok, fine. but all those santana trades were before he started to suck this year and before the mariners were right on their asses. trades at the deadline are different than trades before the season. but in any case, since these guys are going for lower level prospects, why not trade our lower level guys for guys that can help us next year? ostrand has no chance in the near future if Lee is here through the life of his deal, especially since ostrand was a senior draft pick...last year...which makes him 22 in low A...23 next week. maybe his homer in the futures game gave him some value. i dunno...just an idea. lets dump ralph henriquez or koby clemens. 20 minutes left...get creative
