The Astros sent a Class A catcher - Garrett Gentry - to Colorado to complete the Astacio trade. Coincidentally enough, Gentry missed the last month of the season due to a shoulder injury.
I believe Gentry was also the team MVP. He hits laft-handed and had great stats last year. I can't find his stats at Astros.com but I think I remember him being quite impressive with the stick. I am not terrible happy...
As per http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/minors/stats/2001/midmicbat/: Gentry led the team in HR (with 24) and RBI (103), his BA was .299, had 39 BB, and only 45 SO. I like those stats. Assuming his injury isn't real serious (and I have no idea about that) I would tend to think we got hosed on that one. This guy sounds like he might be a keeper...
The Astros have another catcher, also at the Class A level, named John Buck. He is more highly regarded than Gentry. He hit .275 with 22 HRs. I am not disappointed at all that the player to be named later was a Class A catcher. Too bad Astacio got hurt. Had he been healthy and continued to pitch the way he did in his 4 Astros starts, that would have been an outstanding trade. With the development of the Astros young pitchers and the fact that they still have good arms in the minors, Elarton was expendable.
What I've heard of Gentry, is that he has terrible catcher skills- bad at handling pitchers, not a terribly strong arm- sounds like a Mitch Meluskey type of catcher. Buck is supposed to be the opposite: A great handler, and a cannon of an arm. He is also supposed to be developing power and the organization thinks his offense will grow. They expect he'll be ready right around the time Ausmus is leaving. It would've been nice to have kept Gentry, and if he develops he'd be a good candidate to turn into the Eusebio/Eddie Perez role as someone's personal caddy, and a left handed stick to throw into the lineup.
remember that Elarton and/or Hidalgo for Roger Clements trade that the Astros were contemplating? Did we not want to let go Elarton or Hidalgo because who has so much promise? I forgot, just curious...That trade would look pretty good now you get to look back at it...
ChenZhen, of course it does in hindsight. But, Hidalgo also hit 44 home runs and Scott won us 18 games last year. Clemens is unreal THIS year, but I still would not have made that trade. I have no problem with the Astacio trade. Astacio had never been on the DL, and it was just bad luck. Gentry sounds like a decent prospect, but he was still a lower level prospect and definitely not one of our big name guys (Redding, Lidge,Miller, Nannini, Steihl, Sarloos, etc.). The Hun did well on both deals.
I found it interesting that on one of the Astros ESPN games, Jon Miller said that the Astros offered Hidalgo for the Rockies centerfielder (Pierre) right before the trading deadline. That is the only report I have ever heard/read regarding that.
Bob, I probably would have done that trade. Pierre would address alot of our needs. But, I get the feeling that Hidalgo will revert back to his old form next year.
I agree, however, there is a lot to be said for chemistry and I think Hidalgo is a well-liked player. I'd rather not see that type of trade made during the middle of the pennant race. That's one for the off season so Bagwell and Biggio have 3-4 months to blow off steam.
There was a little feature on Garrett Gentry on the TopProspectAlert.com site. They said he has better plate discipline than John Buck but that Buck is the better athlete. I guess you have to give up something to get something. I just wish our something was still playing!
bobrek: wow, I hadn't heard that. Pierre would be a great fit on the Astros. I wouldn't be surprised if the Astros let Alou go, and then picked up a speedy CF like Damon, or trade for Pierre. If they let Alou go, they should offer Ward and another prospect for Pierre, and use the money saved from Alou to lock up Miller, Oswalt, Dotel, and Berkman long term, along with resigning Wags. Jason Lane can fill Ward's role soon enough.
I swear if the Stros let Alou go, Ill give up on them as long as Drayton owns the team. Alou carried this team throught the middle months of Bigg's, Bags, and Doggies severe slumps. Well he and Lance did, and does anyone else realize that he is top 5-7 in fielding percentages for outfielders. I think if the Stros do finally go to the series, then they will be harded pressed to let him go. If not I think Drayton will see fit to cut him loose. Please Please god, keep the core together for once. We're always cutting people loose, or allowing them to leave.
Hidalgo for Pierre? Ugh. I don't like that idea. Granted, Pierre's a human vacuum cleaner in CF, but his slugging % in Coors field frightens me.
I love Alou's hitting but I'm sorry his defense sucks...He looks so lazy out there, never ever hustles...especially down the line to first base... Alou never made any errors because he couldn't get to any balls that were hit out there...I would rather have outfields with decent fielding percentage and cover a lot of ground rather than super slow and lazy ones...outfielder's fielding percentage is so misleading...it doesn't represent how good their defense is in general..
yeah actually when I think about it, its good that we didn't do the deal...I wouldn't want Clemen's attitude in the clubhouse. If Dierker didn't mess up Elarton's arm like he did, he would've been pretty good for us in the years to come...Elarton (prior to injury last year), Miller, Oswalt, Hernandez, and Redding as our starting pitchers...we'd be dominating with that nasty rotation...
Have you watched Alou's Defense outside of last year when he was afraid of reinjuring hiself? Or are you just going by what other people said of him based off of last year. Hes taken away some homers (at least one game winning grand slam) and has played solidly. Andrew Jones is lazy, but noone argues his prowess, and he oftenly drops routine fly balls to make one handed basket catches. Alous .995 fielding percentage isnt an albatross. He is solid, what Alou have you been watching this year?
dude, what are you smok'n? He's a slightly below average defensively at best...I've watched like 60-70 games this year at least and I'm basing my comments purely on my observations of him on the field.... Do you prefer a guy like Andrew Jones, who 'often' drop routine flyballs yet cover so much ground to save you so many runs in the long run or Alou, who covers absolutely no ground & robs one or two homeruns and make no errors?????? Think of how misleading the fielding percentage for outfields is...it DOESN'T show how good defensively you are... How many times is 'often' when you say he often drops routine fly balls? Once a year maybe? Twice the most I'd bet..
The real downside about signing Alou is his health. Unfortunately these guys won't sign a 1 year deal (unless as a last resort) and how much confidence does anyone have that Alou can play 140 games a year. At the point of the year when the Astros need him (and everyone most) he has a calf injury. He has had a history of mising games the last few years (all of 1999, 36 games last year, 25 so far this year). Can they afford to sign a guy to a 3 year deal when they can't be sure they can count on him. Alou's defense is better this year than in the past but ChenZhen is basically correct. Also, it is not too hard to "take away" HRs in RF at Enron. You just go back to a 5 foot high wall and stick your glove into the first row. It's not like watching Lofton go flying over an 8 foot high CF wall to pull one back in. OF fielding percentage isn't much to go on. At one point (still in the 1990's) Terry Puhl had the HIGHEST lifetime fielding percentage of any outfielder in baseball history. Terry Puhl was a solid player, but never won a gold glove.
hmm Alou's defense sure looked good on that game saving about to go over the fence for a grand slam he caught in arizona his defense has not been that bad this year.. and no matter what his defense is like.. he sure can hit the ball
