If we are going to "cleanse" the roster, we should trade Lidge and be cleansed of former steroid users that can't perform off the juice. (I threw in that last part so you can't flame me about Roger.)
This is no affirmative action conversation. I'm not simply talking about minority players within the organization. And again, though I don't believe Preston is the problem, I'm not especially attached to him. The main point of my posting was an observation that the Stros do not generally cultivate impact minority players. To qualify this further, though we may have 12 minorities on our 40-Man, I believe we have 3 active. And in comparison to the White Sox, well, I know they have more than 3 active. I'm usually the last person to lean towards a racial understanding or observation about anything. But again, when you look across the landscape of the league and see such a rainbow of talent at the top, it's just disappointing to see our team not aggressively resolved to embracing minority talent from wherever. This isn't a black thing, a white thing, or a brown thing (If there's talent to be had in Europe, we should be all over it too). This is about baseball, or depending on who you are, it's a green ($) thing. My goal isn't to make people feel bad or feel insecure or get all indignant. I'm just being honest. I'm not trying to be hard and controversial. I'm just being sincere. This is just the perspective of one of the growing minority conservatives.
On the political side, I'm glad there is a growing minority conservative population. But before I get banned to the D&D... I honestly believe if you were closer to the Astros' operations you wouldn't have any impressions of any exclusion or ignoring of any people groups. Like someone else said, everything they've done is based purely on performance and making the team better.
Then you should be tremendously satisfied. For most of the past 12 years, the Astros have been in playoff competition into the month of September. In addition, they have been far more successful than most teams (win/loss wise) over those 12 years. They have been doing well. They also have embraced minority players (in particular, Latinos) over that time frame. They signed Hidalgo to a huge contract well before they had to. They made a ridiculously large contract offer to Beltran. They awarded starting rotation slots to Rodriguez and Astacio last year and each contributed to their success. When Wagner walked, they handed the closers job to Dotel who they acquired in a trade for Hampton. They traded Robertson for Taveras, had him play one AA season and then he was their starting center fielder last year and much of this season. He has been essentially benched because of his performance, not his color. What do you want the Astros to do - sign/acquire minorities simply for the sake of signing/acquiring minorities? The team has shown in the past that they will make acquisitions if they will improve the club and are reasonable. They don't care if their names are Beltran, Astacio, Johnson or Huff. It's hard to argue with their regular season success.
I'll give you that the Astros flat out don't try to scout the Asian baseball leagues. That's not a decision out of spite for Asians and their ability but rather a choice to focus more on Latin America. The Astros were one of the first if not the first baseball team to establish an academy in the Dominican Republic and were one of the first teams to actively recruit and bring over talent from there. The same goes with bringing in talent from the rest of Latin America. The Astros were always leaders in that area. In fact a lot of the baseball academies in Latin America today are copies of a successful model developed by the Astros years ago. As for lack of African Americans on this team, that's a problem throughout baseball, not just here. And that's a completely different debate. It's not that the Astros are neglecting African Americans but rather African American participation in baseball across the board has just fallen off dramatically. I suppose your only legitimate point in my mind is about Asian participation in the Astros but that's just a personel issue. The Seattle Mariners are really big into scouting in Asia but don't spend nearly as much on Latin America. It's just a choice of resources because lets face it, baseball teams are limited in terms of what they can do.
This is far from what I want. Nobody wants token acquisitions. I think it would simply be nice to see our team reflect today's baseball when it comes to personnel from top to bottom. I admit, I know very little about the organization administration. But I tend to think the sucess of any corporation's effective acquisition and developement of any recruited individuals from wherever thay may be starts at the top of the organization and filters down. Maybe I'm just crazy, guys. And I apologize if I actually am. I just find the prospects of an all-white baseball team in this day and age quite disconcerting. I just don't see how it's possible in this era with the talent that is available all over the world. It just doesn't register for me. That it could even be a realized possiblity is quite unbelievable to me. Again though, maybe I'm just crazy.
Baseball does, too. Ever heard of the RBI foundation? Anything is possible. If that doesn't register with you, how about the Astros' current heavy investment in Latin America? Just because the latest prospects aren't working out on the ML level doesn't invalidate the investment. Think about the competition for the world's best athletes: in Latin America there is fútbol; in the USA there is football and basketball. In both cases, the competition is beating out baseball for the best athletes (especially in the US).
I just find the prospects of mostly or all-black basketball teams in this day and age quite disconcerting. I just don't see how it's possible in this era with the talent that is available all over the world. It just doesn't register for me.
This is just ridiculous. Let's just start here: who on our minor league roster (12 is not the number, btw) would you replace to start over our current starting lineups (which fluctuates every day). Palmeiro is not the answer, but he gets to pinch hit literally every day lately. Taveras was a spot starter time and again but could not really provide offense. We offered a 7 year contract to Beltran, but it's not our fault that he wanted more than 105 million. Let's see, Matsui, Morales, Ichiro, Park, etc. Have you SEEN the size of their contracts?!?? First of all, logistically, the Astros would have little to no chance to land the asian players based on their preference in the coasts. Second, these players are generally over-valued by people such as the Yankees, Dodgers, Mariners, etc. (see Hideki Irabu, Chan-Ho Park, Kaz Matsui, etc.) Then Hidalgo, who was also offered a decent contract, got cold, but of course, that's the Astros's fault because Hidalgo's not white. I do remember us having this white guy named Mike Hampton... but he was traded, but of course, that had nothing to do with his race, it's just because the Astros couldn't sign him back (to which I agree, actually). Remember who we got back in that trade? I believe Roger Cedeno and Octavio Dotel was part of that deal we got with the Mets. I think Uncle Drayton didn't spend enough money on his scouts and he thought that they were white.... Our long term players are Biggio and Bagwell, who were all-stars and did NOT leave for the money, so I'm sorry that 2 of our infielders for a decade+ were filled with white guys. Julio Lugo was let go in favor for Everett, who in that time, was a prospect, but even then, Everett split a lot of time with Jose Vizcaino. Add that as another blunder to the Astros scouting report. When Jeff Kent is available, we got him because he's white, and that gave the Astros an excuse to play Biggio as a white outfielder. The Astros should be ashamed of themselves for developing Mitch Melusky to the point where a white player will replace a white player in Brad Ausmus, who was, throughout his time here, splitting time with Tony Eusebio, Raul Chavez, and such. It is also the Astros spending more money developing the likes of Berkman so that he'd take another spot, and moreso, it's the Astros who decided to pull the "ethnic cleansing" trade of Freddy Garcia, Carlos Guillen, etc. for Randy Johnson. I'm sure that cried "ethnic cleansing" like nothing else. Now, let's head to the pitching. Wagner was not our best option, but he's white, so Dotel sits. Heck, Dotel was traded to cleanse our 40 man rotation... oops, Astros screwed up again, we got Beltran. Oswalt, and Wade Miller was our white man plan, because Jose Lima's contract was just so we can trade him for David Weathers. Then, we did the unthinkable and acquired Pettitte and Clemens because that will leave only 1 spot left in the rotation, which we can cleverly award early to Tim Redding so the likes of Ezekiel Astacio and Wandy Rodriguez can stay in the minors as trade bait. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. I just think that it's ridiculous that this even has to be brought up. The reasons for any of these trades were MORE than obvious, yet it has to be this way. For every Carl Everett for Adam Everett trade, or Abreu being let go, or Derek Bell being gone, the Astros has ALWAYS given minorities a chance, and in certain instances, entrusted them with large contracts (Lima, Dotel, Beltran, etc etc etc.), yet the Astros are always being seen as a racial team because we have Biggio, Bagwell, Berkman, Lidge, Oswalt, Clemens, Pettite, etc who are just too good of players to replace and just happens to like it in Houston even though they're white? I'll end it here, it's time to go home.
I'm totally in your corner on this. I celebrate the origination aspect of our club as well. I'm not doubting this at all. The only thing I'm commenting on is the perception of our team on the field. We just don't look like a team who is still on the leading edge of Latin American developement and recruiting.
There somebody finally said it... My uncle always says ( so get mad at him not me ) that the Astros problem is that they do not have enough Cans on their team so they will never win a World Series.. Oh, what are Cans ? Puerto riCANS, D. RepubliCANS, MexiCANS, AfriCANS....you catch my drift... He is an older man so he still has that mentality.. I can hear him right now..." Did you see those stinkin Astros lose again..I told you they can't win without any Cans !!!" He was even mad when they sent Wandy down !
LOL seriously. Especially when our all black team USA keeps getting beat by white teams from Europe and Argentina in international play! We need more white people!
Well, for one example, there have been numerous posters in these and other forums in recent weeks who have suggested moving Wilson to center and Huff to left to accomodate Ensberg when he returns. I can't think of a single thing that Wilson has done better than Burke... yet people refer to him as the second-most reliable hitter on our team and many have discussed sending a much better hitter (Burke) to the bench in his favor. Furthermore, when Ensberg returns, there's been talk of either using Ensberg as a super-sub or returning Lamb to his bench role... but very little talk if any of moving Wilson to the fourth OF role. I don't understand what Preston's done to distinguish himself from Ensberg and Lamb in some fans' eyes... if anything, to me, he's distinguished himself in a negative way from those two.
You can't fail miserably when the sample size is as small as 40 at-bats. Way. way. way. too small of a sample size. Furthermore, Scott wouldn't be starting long-term. Long-term, you'd have Ensberg at 3B, Huff at LF, Berkman at RF and Lamb at 1B. Scott would be the fourth OF supersub.
