Adam Everett

There are always CFs out there. But finding a good offense/defense catcher is easier said than done. Who is out there as a replacement? The market is pretty dry...

 

Except that Everett was a gold-glove calibur everyday SS for a pennant winning club... and plays one of the toughest/most important defensive positions in the field.

V-span simply turned out to be a flake... horrid everything.

The only reasons the fans are "split" on Everett is because of the lack of offense for the entire team the last two years (which has been mitigated this year with Pence, Lee, and Loretta). On most average teams, he's a #8 hitter that you make do with because of his defense. On this team, he's a #7 hitter... unless Munson is playing.

 

Then don't watch baseball on any level--because that'd be about 98% of baseball teams.

I'd surmise that the reason "scrubby offense in the bottom of the lineup" is so on your nerves is due to the scrubby offense everywhere else in the lineup!

 

I really wanted Paul Lo Duca when he was available. The Marlins never were going to keep him. I know he wouldn't be the long term solution, but he'd be the best stop-gap catcher available.

 

Everett is not going anywhere. He is the best defensive SS in the league. Its hard to quantify his defense, because you can't only go by errors.. his range is superior to nearly every other SS playing the game right now. Not only this, he is one of the few clubhouse leaders - Berkman just likes being a kid, Roy O is not one to do it, and Bidge is retiring and never took on that role anyway.

Everett bats #8 in the lineup. And like others are saying, we've seen what more offense out of the SS position does - and its not more wins. A club's offense is reliant on the heart of the order guys, regardless of whether they are OF, 1B, 3B.. whatever. They just have to produce. If the guy hitting #8 in the lineup isn't producing with his bat, that isn't the reason a ballclub isn't scoring runs. If Everett had been batting .330 all year and hitting in the #8 slot, the team wouldn't have been winning more games. The fact that he is so valuable in the field makes him indispensible. The 9 guys do spend half their time on the field, and not their entire time in the batter's box. Defense is easily overlooked.

 

To answer the questions about catcher, there are three primary catchers available this off-season in free agency. Ivan Rodriguez is probably a couple of years from retirement, but a two year deal would be perfect to allow Towles and Sapp to get ready. He would likely cost around ten million per. Jorge Posada is also a free agent with a couple of years left. He'll likely go back to the Yankees. Jason Kendall will be available and will be cheap. I don't know if we want to take a chance that 2007 is just an abberation or the beginning of the end.

On the trade front, Kelly Shoppach probably could be had for the right price in Cleveland and Gerald Laird is now probably available in Texas. So, no shortage of candidates if you are willing to look.

 

Do you really think if i took it personally i'd continue to respond about Everett in threads? You're there every time to defend him.

And we should have pulled the trigger. When you looked at what we we're offering it wouldn't of been a bad deal for us. It would have looked even better now. However, we haven't exactly been using any early draft picks to find a replacement SS like we've tried with the catcher position. In the end, it probably didn't go down due to Tejada's salary, not the refusal of giving up Lidge. At that time we had been growing closers from trees.

It wasn't that Carl would not be signable, it's like many of the stars we traded away. It's because we weren't gonna give him his market value for his services. He was always happy here and his teammates liked him, except with Jimmy Williams. I thought we could have done way better than Everett with what we traded away, since speedy power hitting CF's don't grow on trees either. Everett couldn't hit in the minors, why did we expect him to in the majors?

I'll also mention something again i have in the past. I wouldn't mind so much having Everett on this team, but not when we to many offensive holes like at 3b, catcher, and a RF player that can't hit. Just even one other equivalent horrific bat like Ausmus makes the 5-9 spots just about an automatic inning ender. They opposing pitcher can walk the #5 guy if he's even a threat, then go with the odds to get out Everett, Ausmus, and the pitcher. There are average hitting catchers out there, i'm not saying we need a Pudge caliber player at that position. But having just Ausmus and Everett on the field at the same time will continue to kill us.

 

Ummmm...Bruntlett had 3 errors last night.

 

Touché! But if there's a point offensively where it's no longer defensible; I just believe folks set that standard too high (and those 'folks' think I and others have it too low).

As I understand it, they backed out, not the Astros--both times.

That's just inaccurate, but we've had this argument before. You can continue to sell it if you like, but I ain't buyin'.

Everett's beef with Jimy was in Boston, not in Houston.

Headcases do. Remember how cheap we got Everett in the first place? I bet the Mets GM was getting hammered over that. And our GM was being lauded. He took a risk and it worked out. The Red Sox took the same risk, and it didn't. Perhaps the Astros got out just in time before the next meltdown.

Everett's career average in the minors was .258 with a .714 OPS. I'll take that out of my 8 hitter any day.

And that's precisely the point! Your 7 and 8 hitters aren't your problem if you're last in the league in runs scored.

Yeah, it was murder in 2004 and 2005.

 

I had always understood it was Lidge. Maybe we just waited too long to finally pull the trigger and they had 2nd thoughts by then. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. Neither of can truly know that one for sure. Only thing we can know is we would be better with Tejada on the team. Maybe we should have tried a little harder.

I will. When did Everett ever show any signs of wanting to leave a competitive team where he was happy? How many times have we got rid of someone who would cost money before they we're going to become a free agent? I see know other reason to get rid off someone with his skills at that position other than budget. The closest replacement to him we've ever had was Beltran. It's not like we had anyone in the waiting to fill Everett's shoes.

You are correct about Williams. It was his managerial style. I remember Bagwell being asked about how Everett was in the clubhouse after that incident in Boston. He said Everett was a quiet guy that always showed up on time, worked hard and did his drills, and just kept to himself. I could easily see how he would clash with a guy like Williams who wants everything done his way. With Dierker or Garner he would of had no problems. Nobody ever really has that i know of.

I would as well if he could do that now. Where did that plate discipline go? Obviously by know, we can determine he's not ever going to adapt to MLB pitching.

Yes, they are a problem because they can easily affect how your #6 batter is also getting pitched too, especially if there's a man on base. Obviously we still need another good bat. But then if we could replace at least Ausmus/Everett with a decent hitter, it would open up several more scoring opportunities.

You're forgetting we didn't exactly stroll into the playoffs with 100 win seasons. We had to have unbelievable 2nd halves that you don't see often by any team. Beltran was just a beast in 2005, who as you know wasn't an original member of the team. Could we have got past the 1st round w/o him? Of course, any team in the playoffs that has 3 Aces could win it all. Look no further than the team in 05 that beat us.

 

It was reported that Tejada nixed the deal (was he a 10/5 guy?).

And I remember several other players saying the entire locker room would get tense at times when CEverett would be on his phone hollering and screaming in rage at someone. Dude was a headcase.

No, I'm not. And Everett was in the lineup every day for that 2005 team with that unbelievable second half. Ausmus was there in 2004 and 2005. You can't have it both ways--if they "needed an awesome 2nd half to get in," fine--but these guys were everyday parts of that awesome 2nd half.

Beltran played here in 2004, not in 2005. And he was a far cry from a "beast" until late September. In fact, he was rather pedestrian for most of the second half.

The Astros *did* get past the first round without Beltran. In fact, they made it all the way to the World Series without him--and with Adam Everett and Brad Ausmus playing every day, no less.

Your 7 and 8 hitters aren't your problem.

 

good night, no kidding. i can't believe we're still harping on this crap. berkman started the season as our 3 hitter and he's batting .2 fifty-something. we got nothing out of the 3B we hoped would turn it around in the 5 hole. our rightfielder didn't show up at the plate for the entire first half of the season.

but, yeah...our 7 & 8 holes are where we really need to be focusing our attention. if we can just improve there, it will be all good. or if we can just sign A-Rod and ask him to play SS next season.

 

I doubt that AROD would play SS for Stros. Just because the middle of the order has sucked this, doesn't mean that the Astros shouldn't try to improve the 7 & 8 holes as well. Ausmus is having a good year this year, relatively, from the plate to probably keep the Atros from having the worst 7 & 8 hole in the NL.

 

Come on Uncle Drayton, I think $30mil/yr will do it ...

Back to reality, he'll probably want at least that, plus you have to deal with Scott B. again....

 

1. i'm completely joking about ARod...being sarcastic;

2. there are always tradeoffs, particularly with middle infielders and catchers...but this incessant crap about everett and ausmus is just tired in a season where we've had problems with the top of the lineup and the meat of lineup, other than Lee.

 

By how much? Everyone's 7 & 8 hitters suck, when compared to 2 & 3 hitters (which is what the typical "whining-about-Ausmus/Everett" post does when they want these guys to hit .280 to .300).

 

Carlos Zambrano could bat 7th-9th everyday if we signed him. He's got the arm to play 3b. He's a better hitter than 1/2 our team. Not to mention he could fetch us a 15-20 wins depending on run support and automatically improve our record by not having to face him anymore.

Any takers?

 

I won't bother looking up the stats, but i'm pretty much sure the dynamic duo of Ausmus and Everett is the worst #7 and #8 hitting combo in baseball. I really do hope you do prove me wrong.

And nobody expects those 7/8 slots to hit like a #2 and 3 hitter. People are just sick of them being automatic inning enders and rally killers.