I think Suppan's a quality 3. I don't really like him as a #2, but probably would prefer it to giving up Buchholz and Hirsh and Wily for Garland. I'm curious to see his price tag - it mentions a 3 year, 18-20 mill offer, which is a downright bargain in this market. If you get Roger back, it's a really nice rotation: Roy, Roger, Suppan, Woody, Hirsh. But I wouldn't count on it. Oswalt-Suppan-Woody-Hirsh-(Albers/Buchholz/???) isn't bad, but a lot of wild cards. Then again, I think in the current MLB environment, it's going to be a key to any winning team that isn't the Mets, Yanks, or Red Sox to have home grown studs at the top. The hope would be for Hirsh to grow into a legit 2 behind Roy, and then Suppan is a quality 3. Of course if you expect that from him, then you wouldn't deal him with other young players for an $11m guy.
I think I'd rather take my chances with Albers/Bucholtz/Sampson than to tie up $20 mil with a very mediocre Suppan. i'd rather use the $20 mil on Huff or another hitter. I know $20 mil won't get Huff but it's a good down payment.
Yep. Suppan + Hirsh + Willy + Buchholz (or whoever is outgoing) versus Garland or Jennings. I go with option A. But then again, I'm delusional (woulda missed that without your quote, msn, thanks a ton ) And you're right on about the importance of developing young pitching, that's the single biggest key to having a managable & flexible payroll going forward. "Develop pitching, buy hitting" is a good axiom to follow these days. The single biggest thing the Stros lack right now is another pitcher who can give them 200+ quality innings. You simply cannot depend on Albers/Sampson/Hirsh/Buchholz/Nieve to fill 3 rotation spots in their second year, and have 2 of those guys emerge as inning-eaters. Way too much to ask of the youngsters. Is Suppan great? Of course not, but he can do that.
Jason Jennings, with Oswalt.... that's a killer duo. why are you people complaining? we have plenty of better offensive options at CF now. and when have we ever run out of great pitching prospects... come on. this gamble was well worth the stake.
As long as we can sign Jennings long term, I'd make the trade with the Rockies over having Suppan as our number two starter and keeping the young guys. I don't know how likely re-signing Jennings is, but when it comes down to it we had to get another quality arm or we weren't going to do anything in 07 and we would have had absolutely no chance of bringing Roger back (although we only have a slim chance of that anyway since AP left). I don't mind Suppan that much as a number three, but I just don't think we would have a had a realistic chance of making it to the postseason with him as the number two and then filling the last two spots of the rotation with unproven commodities.
I don't know if this has been thrown out there yet, if so never mind then... BUT I think with all the $ that free agent pitchers are going for this off season, i think that we should at least make an attempt at signing him to a 1 yr. deal maybe with an option.... With his injury last year the price cant be to high on him. and with the departure of Andy i would much rather see us fill are missing lefty spot in the rotation with Moulder then Wandy.. it is a risky move but with the risk it could lead to a huge reward, in that moulder has always been a work horse.. and i think with the combo of Oswalt, Jennings, Moulder (healthy and in reg form) we have an pretty good top 3 to the rotation.. I'm not gonna say as good as the end of last season but it is still pretty darn good.. plus 4 of his last 5 seasons he has had a era under 3.6 This all depends if he looks like he could be healthy... but i think it is worth the risk..
The more I've read about Jennings, the more I like this trade. Reading b/t the lines, it's obvious that the Stros thought differently of Hirsh/Buchholz than I, and a lot of fans, did. They've pretty much earned the benefit of the doubt from me, as they've been one of the best organizations in baseball for about a decade. I'd *still* love to see them sign Suppan though. Not going to happen, most likely. His agent has said he's going to wait to see where Zito signs & then have Suppan be the fallback option for those teams that missed out on Zito. This equals bidding war, late in the offseason. Taking a flyer (incentive laden, reasonable deal) on Mark Mulder would be nice. He's supposedly going to be ready a couple of months into the season. 1 more starter would be a good thing.
Stros signed Borkowski for 1yr/575K. Unless he just falls apart in ST, he's got the long-relief slot in the pen nailed down. What the implications are for Sampson & Holdzkom remains to be seen.
Whatever, just NO WANDY! We put Magic Wandy in our rotation & we're throwing away the season from day one, IMO.
I agree that we HAVE to get 1 more starter from the FA pool. 3 starters, Wandy and X will not cut it. Wandy as a 5 is more Wandy than I want to see. I'd rather see us go crazy for Zito, then Suppan, then...well I don't know, but I don't think we should wait on Roger.
"Throwing away the season" is a bit excessive, no? Depends on which Wandy you get: the one with good command who didn't show up umps when they missed calls & didn't fall apart at the first sign of adversity (you saw him on many occasions the first 2-3 months of the season); or the puss-throwing candyass you saw the rest. p.s. the Astros were 11-13 in games started by Wandy last year. Spring Training will be huge for Sampson/Wandy/Nieve/Gutierrez/Albers this year. Stros need 2 to step up.
Looks like Detroit is trying to get Luke Scott? Any thoughts? http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061214/SPORTS0104/612140322/1129
we'd be forced to start jason lane. i can't see us parting with luke scott. i think he's a big part of where they think offense is coming from this year.
I don't know what they have to offer... but the 'Stros would be dumb not to at least listen. I'm excited about Scott as well... but you never know what's going to happen to a batter once pitchers/coaches get the complete book on him (which only comes after at least a full year in the big leagues). He's a 28 year old rookie... if he could fetch you a decent pitcher, then go for it. If not, forget it.... pretty eeasy.
I saw this too and wanted to post it to see if anyone could come up with who Detroit would offer. All of their players are way out of Scott's league unless they are trying to go cheap which I don't see them doing or think someone will bolt next year. I can't see them giving up any of their top pitchers or hitters. I would love to have Carlos Guillen but that is impossible even though he is not a very good fielder. I would not be for trading Scott and another player but it looks like a lot of teams might offer an all star caliber player for Scott and blank (Lidge, Ensberg, Everett or a prospect). I can't see a trade involving Scott as a straight up player for player trade. If we did trade Scott(which I doubt) I would hope we sign Huff or get a solid left handed bat in the lineup.
yeah, they do. but i can't see them giving up their good young starters from last season, really. not for luke scott. i mean, they rode those guys to a world series berth.
They've talked about dealing Mike Maroth. Missed most of last year after having surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow, but was pretty solid the couple of years before that. I believe he's under club control for 2 more years. They do have lots of young relievers, but I'm not sure that the Stros are still looking for help there. Would take more than Scott to get him, I'd imagine. 3 team deal could be a possibility.
