So who was a worse signing, Lee or Soriano??? Still say Lee because at least the Cubs made the playoffs with Soriano, although short lived.
Soriano, by far. Lee has been extremely consistent - you know you'll get 30 HRs, 100 RBIs and a solid #4 hitter most years. Soriano doesn't get those numbers, can't stay on the field, is just as bad defensively, and is getting worse every year. Lee has never had a year in the 0.700 OPS range as Soriano did last year. Soriano's only year comparable to Lee (and arguably better on a per-game basis) was his first as a Cub.
Seriously, he doesn't look near like anything deserving 3 years, $15 mil. What in the world was Ed Wade thinking. god I miss the bullpen days of Lidge/Dotel/Wagner or Qualls/Wheeler/Lidge. As long as the starter got through 6 innings the game was over.
This Lyon guy looks like a stud. Thanks, Ed. At least we didn't give him millions and millions of dollars... Feliz can't play 1st base. I understand that they have to put somebody there. Find somebody else. He's made 3 horrible plays in the last game or so. Pence can't hit or field right now, apparently. Roy did his job and more today. It was vintage Oswalt. What a shame if they blow it.
He's out there because Chris Johnson had been hitting better than Geoff Blum. If Blum were hitting, he'd be playing first. Lance is supposed to be back on Tuesday which will put Feliz back at 3rd so that should solve that problem. All 3 are 3rd basemen. I guess we don't have a "real" backup first baseman.
Just a friendly reminder: http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/1732/astros-throw-15-million-at-brandon-lyon Astros throw $15 million at Brandon Lyon December, 10, 2009 Dec 1011:50AM ET By Rob Neyer As a friend suggests, this is the winter's best takedown of a signing so far: Ed Wade is the GM equivalent of a bad SNL sketch. The first time he overpaid a middle reliever, we figured out that he didn’t really know how to build a roster. Now, when he gives Brandon Lyon a 3 year, $15 million deal, we just shrug our shoulders and say, “Yeah, that’s Ed Wade for ya.” Seriously, $5 million a year for the next three years for Brandon Lyon. We’re not talking about overpaying for a premium bullpen guy. Lyon is a generic middle reliever, the kind of guy who could be replaced by a minor league free agent or a Rule 5 draftee. His career FIP is 4.23, which is below average for a relief pitcher. He doesn’t even have magical FIP-beating properties – his career ERA is 4.20. But, hey, he got hit lucky last year (.229 BABIP) and that allowed him to strand a bunch of runners (80.8% LOB%), so his 2009 ERA is a sparkly 2.86. To Wade, that matters, because he’s still analyzing like it’s 1999. Don’t worry about the fact that his career BABIP is .305 or that his career LOB% is 71.4%, and that the entirety of his low ERA in 2009 was luck – pay him like the best reliever on the market anyway. I'm glad Dave Cameron said it instead of me ... but, yeah. The Astros actually play in a pretty solid market, in the top dozen or so anyway. They've got a relatively new ballpark. Owner Drayton McLane did finance roughly a third of the stadium's construction, for which he deserves credit. But the bottom line is that the Astros play in a bigger market, and are presumably wealthier, than the Cardinals, the Brewers, the Pirates, and the Reds. In fact, the Astros should enjoy huge financial edges over all or most of those clubs. The No. 1 argument against Ed Wade's competence is not this ridiculous contract. The Astros should be able to blow $5 million per season on freely available talent like Brandon Lyon and still win. The No. 1 argument against Wade's competence is that the Astros have been outscored by 232 over the last four seasons, and there's no reason for optimism about 2010 or beyond.
Unbelievable. That's like the 3rd or 4th horrible defensive play I've seen out of Manzella. Unbelievable. That was as routine as routine gets and he blew it.
Wow... runner advances on a wild pitch now. I could've scooped that ball up and thrown it to first. I can't remember the last time I've seen somebody blow the potential final out of the game like Manzella just did there.
