Who Else Thinks....

Quadrupled is probably too high an estimate. Certainly more than doubled, though. Probably tripled, at least.

I'm not sure he could get $412 million for the Astros right now, though (which would be quadruple what he paid).

But I'll guess we'll see when he sells how well he did (whenever that sale happens to come).

I don't think the next buyer will float an advance to up payroll in the next few years, though.

 

There is something to be said about an owner of a major sports franchise that claims to have lost millions, claims that he is doing everything in his power to field a championship team, says that he needs a new stadium to compete (read between the lines, more $$$) and yet says that he cannot because of budget constraints, after the fact that he already has a new means of $$$.

Drayton McLane bought the Houston Astros for the sole purpose of making money (which he claims he has not yet done, and is in the red financially---not to mention its the wrong reason to buy a team). If I recall correctly Drayton McLane is on the Forbes 500 list, so we know he obviously is a keen businessman. So why can he not take the same approach to his baseball team? Doesn't he know that if he opened the purse strings a little more Hunsicker could do wonders, thus giving us (the fans) a contending team, thus making us want to go to the ballpark, therefore putting more $$$ in his pocket. I still don't believe that McLane has lost the astounding amount of $100 million dollars since he has bought the team. Common sense would tell you that a legitimate businessman would not stand to keep an investment such as this one that continually keeps him in the red. As a lifelong Astros fan, I'm tired of the posturing and empty promises that McLane has made. I will say that although he is not the worst owner (hell he could be Donald Sterling), he certianly isn't a good owner.

Although I am aware of the fact that a new owner may be worse, I haven't seen too many new owners come in and operate a team at a relatively low budget and expect the fans to come flocking with no real hook to bring them in (the obvious being having a contending team). We all as fans know that Drayton McLane is making money off of this team and us, the fans. But hearing a rich man cry poor is something that infuriates me. If you don't like whats happening then sell the team.

 

Uh....The Astros ARE a contending team. With the exception of the aberration of 2000, the Astros have either won the division or finished second every year since 1994.

 

It doesn't hurt to play in what is considered the worst division in baseball overall, from 1994 until now.

We never had a chance at winning a WS. 1998, on paper we did, on the field we didn't.

 

How easy to say this now. I bet, at the time, if the Astros had NOT pulled the trigger on that trade, and it got out that they didn't, you would be complaining to high heaven that the Astros never make the big move when they need to and that we could have won a WS if we had Johnson. That team SHOULD have won the WS, and saying we never had a chance is bull****. We had the best chance, it just didn't work out.

 

We had a chance, but I never thought we were favorites.

 

I'm pretty sure winning 102 games (with a balanced schedule) or even 97 games is going to put any team at the top of their division no matter how good or bad the rest of the division is. Even in 2001, the 93 games the Astros won was better than the 2nd place team in every division except the AL West (and technically the NL Central since the Cards also won 93 games in 2001). The 1997 NL Central that the Astros won was admittedly weak (sadly, that was the last season I saw the Astros play in the Astrodome).

And I would maintain that until very recently, the AL West was a poorer division than the NL Central..... Of course, those sad-sack Angels somehow managed to win the World Series even though they had a smaller payroll than the Astros. And the dreaded Athletics could've taken on Bagwell's salary and still not come within $4 million of the Astros payroll.

So maybe they don't really count when determining which divisions are good and bad.

Going back to overall MLB spending, it is quite amazing how quickly the disparity between the richest and poorest teams has climbed. The first season Drayton owned the Astros, his payroll was $28 million. The highest payroll that season was the Blue Jays' $45 million. The lowest was the Colorado Rockies' $8.8 million. Basically, Drayton was $16.9 million off the top payroll in baseball and the Astros ranked 16th in payroll expense.

By 2002, the Astros now ranked 14th in player payroll expense, but were now $62.5 million behind the top spender in baseball.

So in 1993, the Astros would've had to have raised their payroll by 40% to equal the top spender in baseball. In 2002, the Astros would've had to have raised their payroll by about 100% to match the top spender in baseball. This despite being spending more than more teams in 2002 than they did in 1993 (the Astros had a higher payroll than 12 teams in 1993. They had a payroll higher than 16 teams in 2002).

This last part is not meant to be a defense of Drayton, but just meant to show how much the game has changed financially since Drayton bought the Astros.

 

No, the Yankees were the favorites.

I don't believe the National League team that made it to the World Series that year were the favorites, either. They weren't even the favorites in the opening series.

 

I'll play along...let's assume that his franchise value has quadrupled. His revenues have NOT. But even if they had...his increase in spending of 376% seems just about right.

 

BTW...a lot of people think that the Astros are waiting to see which players will not be offered arbitration by their current teams as a cost cutting move. If any good players are on this list we will likely go after them.

 

How much do you think the team would go for if sold?

 

A dollar three eighty two.

 

According to Forbes:

Drayton bought the team in 1992 for $103M.
Today the team is worth $318M (so mrpaige was right...tripled).

The Astros have player expense of $775,066 per win. The league average is $727,143 per win. (this data is based on the 90 win season)

Looks like Drayton should be expecting more wins than he is getting.

I ask everybody to also remember that most teams do not actually sell for their appraised value. A few sell for more (Red Sox). Most sell for much less. This is because teams do tend to lose money.

 

Reynolds, Astros strike a late deal
By JOSE DE JESUS ORTIZ
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle


With time ticking against him and the Astros, free-agent righthander Shane Reynolds reached a deal on an incentive-laden, one-year contract to remain in Houston late Saturday night.

Although terms of the deal weren't announced, a person with intimate knowledge of the contract said Reynolds will make $1 million in base salary with the potential to reach $7 million if he earns all the incentives.

Because his 2002 season was cut short by back surgery in June, Reynolds expected a one-year deal, knowing he must prove he is 100 percent healthy again. Major-league teams had until 11 p.m. Saturday to offer their free agents salary arbitration or lose the ability to sign them until May 1, essentially ending any hopes of re-signing them.

Reynolds and Astros general manager Gerry Hunsicker reached the deal nearly three hours before the deadline.

As expected, Hunsicker did not offer arbitration to the Astros' other free agents: righthanders Doug Brocail, Tom "Flash" Gordon and Dave Mlicki, lefthander Pedro Borbon and infielder Mark Loretta.

With Reynolds, the Astros' starting rotation now has the veteran No. 3 starter Hunsicker and young aces Roy Oswalt and Wade Miller wanted.

"We are pleased to have Shane returning next season," Hunsicker said. "We hope he will regain his form of previous seasons to anchor our pitching staff. This was an especially difficult set of negotiations, considering Shane was coming off back surgery and our need to protect the club."

Oswalt and Miller have credited Reynolds for helping them mature as major-league pitchers, and Oswalt was ecstatic after learning his mentor would return.

"I think it's going to help out our pitching staff a lot, because he's a veteran pitcher, and he's a guy you can turn to," Oswalt said from his home in Mississippi. "He's a good leader. He's not the type of guy that tells you, 'You're doing this wrong, that wrong.' He tries to tell you some of things he's done through the years."

Reynolds was declared a free agent shortly after the 2002 season when the Astros declined an $8 million option for 2003. He rejected the Astros' first offer three weeks ago.

Nonetheless, Reynolds had made no secret of his desire to remain with the Astros.

A member of the Astros' organization since he was drafted out of the University of Texas in the third round in 1989, Reynolds was 3-6 with a 4.86 ERA in 13 starts in 2002.

His past three seasons have been interrupted by injuries, including the season-ending back surgery in June. Moreover, he was 24-35 over the recently concluded $21.5 million, three-year deal he signed prior to the 2000 season.

Although he made only 63 starts over the course of that three-year contract, his work ethic is beyond reproach. Equally important, Hunsicker and Reynolds are optimistic about Reynolds' health.

"I'm as comfortable as we can be," Hunsicker said. "With any serious injury, you don't know until the player is out there performing and see how his body responds to pitching consistently."

 

****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since Woody Williams left us standing at the proverbial alter, I can understand the need to resign Reynolds. But not offering arbitration to Gordon and Loretta...that upsets me. Who are we going to go after to replace these guys?

 

Well...it upsets me more that they didn't go after Gordon rather than Loretta. Loretta was good for us, but I doubt he will perform up to that level or even close to it for a full season. It looks more and more like Gerry and Drayton are just going to hope that our youngsters can step up and handle the vast load of work this coming season. I hope they are up to it.

 

Or they may be saving their cash to go after a player who was not offered arbitration by their club. Who knows?

 

Unfortunately Gordon was injury prone and wanted to be a closer. There is not a place for Loretta when everyone on the team is healthy. Loretta was only acquired because of the injury to Lugo and the ineffectiveness of Everett. Personally I'd rather see Loretta at SS instead of Lugo but the Astros are committed to Julio.

 

Well, the deadline is passed, right? What are some of the other free agents that weren't offered arbitration? Anyone know?