Brandon Backe should be release without a second thought. He was terrible all year. No pitcher in baseball this year gave it up like Backe. That the Stros would continue to run him out there ever 5th day with those type of performances is mind boggling! League leader in HR given up(37), 6.00+ ERA and gave up 8 runs or more 6 or 7 times. I would go after Ben Sheets. I agree that a top of the line starter would be better than two marginal middle of the road starters. If the Stros make it to the playoff, Roy O., Sheets and Wandy would not be terrible. I would also move Pence back to Centerfield and bring up my best hitter from AA, the guy from Tulane who was a pitcher and put him in the lineup everyday! No more no hitting outfielders like Michael Bourne. The bullpen is serviceable. Catcher and CF is the biggest position problems.
i dont think the astros are going to do anything besides resign Wigginton as far as position players go. Wade is going to give Bourn time because he brought him in. if bourn doesnt work Wade is banking on that one dude who moved from Pitcher to OF like the poster above me said. catcher will be a band-aid until Castro shows he's ready. either from towles/Q or trade for mediocre catcher. hope they spend all money on SP. im a bit hesitant on sheets due to injury. isn't CC from houston? how come everyone says he is going to NYY? maybe he doesnt want to pitch in the cold like he was in cleveland. i wouldnt mind AJ Burnett or Garland. AJ is better than Garland i think. maybe both if they dont sign sheets/CC. add a strong arm to bullpen.
I thought CC was from Los Angeles... and the reason ppl talk about CC going to New York is that they would probably offer him 5 years 500 million if they had to.
isn't wiggington under team control through next year? i think wandy's too wildly inconsistent to be anything other than a back of the rotation starter. look at his game logs - just all over the map: he's good for 3-4 starts, awful for 2 or 3 after that, pulls back together, falls apart again... he's not a guy you can trust and i sure as hell wouldn't want him starting a playoff game for me. i like, on paper, the idea of hampton and pettitte doing a second stint with the team... but at the right price. and for me - that price is probably several million dollars below what either would want.
Pettitte's on record saying he doesn't want to be back in Houston. Hampton was in the paper yesterday or so saying he *does* want to come back. Incentive-laden deal, and I'm in. At the very least Bulldog could pinch-hit for us. [as an aside...] Don't remember the year or the opponent, but he was pitching lights out and so was the other pitcher. You could tell he was pissed. The Astros had like two or three hits the entire game. He came to the plate in like the 7th or 8th with a runner on, and he had this look in his eye. I told my wife, "watch this--the pitcher's going to get the only RBI in the game." He hit the first pitch to deep right for a triple and won the game, iirc, 1-0. Bill Spiers once was tackled in left by a drunken fan in Milwaukee. The first guy there wasn't the C4 in center or Bidge or Bagwell---it was Mike Hampton. Ran full speed from the mound, jumped the guy, and started pounding the ever-living CRAP out of him. Awesome. Hampton was my favorite guy on that team; I understood their reasoning for trading him as he had already made clear that he wasn't staying around, but I was still pretty disappointed.[/aside]
We need a solid 2 guy in the rotation and a dependable 3 or 4 guy that can keep us in most games. I think our team as a whole overachieved but our offense did not show what it can do. Partly from Carlos going down partly because Bourn was so green. Just keep all of our bench players like Abercrombie, and the 3 wise men and add some solid pitching. Matsui won't play the whole year but that keeps our bench players ready to go, which is why I think we had good production from them.
i don't keep up with all the MLB free agent rumors. Is Ryan Dempster a free agent? is the assumption that the Cubs will just do whatever to resign him. He seems like a more obtainable version of CC.
I heard CP on 790 talkin about Dempster and sayin..... A. the Cubs aren't going to let him get away B. the Astros aren't going to pay what he is going to get I hate his glove sharade anyway. lol.
BTW......... Starting pitchers Kris Benson (33) A.J. Burnett (32) - can opt out after '08 season Paul Byrd (38) Roger Clemens (46) Matt Clement (33) Bartolo Colon (36) Ryan Dempster (32) Shawn Estes (36) Josh Fogg (32) Freddy Garcia (33) Jon Garland (29) Tom Glavine (43) Mike Hampton (36) Mark Hendrickson (35) Livan Hernandez (34) Orlando Hernandez (43) Jason Jennings (30) Randy Johnson (45) John Lackey (30) - $9MM club option for '09 with a $0.5MM buyout Jon Lieber (39) Braden Looper (34) Rodrigo Lopez (33) - club option for '09 Derek Lowe (36) Greg Maddux (43) Pedro Martinez (37) Sergio Mitre (28) Jamie Moyer (46) Mark Mulder (31) - $11MM club option for '09 with a $1.5MM buyout Mike Mussina (40) Carl Pavano (33) - $13MM club option for '09 with a $1.95MM buyout Brad Penny (31) - $8.75MM club option for '09 with a $2MM buyout Odalis Perez (32) Oliver Perez (27) Andy Pettitte (37) Sidney Ponson (32) Mark Prior (27) Kenny Rogers (44) Glendon Rusch (34) C.C. Sabathia (28) Curt Schilling (42) Ben Sheets (30) John Smoltz (42) Tim Wakefield (42) - perpetual $4MM club option Kip Wells (32) Randy Wolf (32) Jason Jennings anyone?
Middle relievers Jeremy Affeldt (30) Luis Ayala (31) Joe Beimel (32) Joe Borowski (38) Doug Brocail (42) - club option for '09 Shawn Chacon (31) Juan Cruz (30) Alan Embree (39) - $3MM club option for '09 Scott Eyre (37) Kyle Farnsworth (33) Casey Fossum (31) Keith Foulke (35) Tom Gordon (41) - $4.5MM club option for '09 with a $1MM buyout LaTroy Hawkins (36) Mark Hendrickson (35) Matt Herges (39) - club option for '09 Bob Howry (35) Jon Lieber (39) Jason Johnson (35) Damaso Marte (34) - $6MM club option for '09 with a $0.25MM buyout Trever Miller (36) - $2MM club option for '09 with a $0.4MM buyout Guillermo Mota (35) Will Ohman (31) Darren Oliver (38) Chan Ho Park (36) Horacio Ramirez (29) Al Reyes (38) Dennys Reyes (32) Arthur Rhodes (39) Juan Rincon (30) Glendon Rusch (34) Rudy Seanez (40) Brian Shouse (40) Russ Springer (40) Mike Timlin (43) Ron Villone (39) David Weathers (39) Kip Wells (32) Matt Wise (33) Jamey Wright (34)
I have a feeling we're going to make a strong run at Pudge to hold down the catcher's spot until Castro is ready.
Wade on payroll flexibility: "It's there. But in order to retain players we have right now that are key components that's going to take a lion's share of what we have available, but we're going to be out there and try to be aggressive as we could possibly be to improve the club, no question." Link
That is Latin for: We don't have a whole lot to spend, but if the right deal comes along, Drayton will pony up.
