True, but it is a crapshoot. Maybe Norris and Bogusevic. In order to get somebody like Garland or a comparable pitcher, I would trade any prospects not named Castro, Lyles or Seaton.
Instead of trading for someone, why not bring up one of the young guys at AAA that's having a great season and see what they can do? If they don't do so well, at least they have some experience for next year. They are the 5th starter anyway, so it's not like all the pressure is being put on them. And you're much more likely to catch lightning in a bottle with those guys than the Snells of the world - you'll just get guaranteed mediocrity from a guy like that. Not bad, but nothing exceptional.
i guess...wandy had a good year last year too though. like i said, i'd take duke, but i certainly wouldnt give norris for him before ever giving him a chance in the bigs.
Maybe. One thing to keep in mind is that you are taking a risk on an unproven, unknown talent. If that unproven happens to fail, you have wasted a good opportunity to get into the postseason. With Miggy being a FA and with Berkman and Roy being a year older, how many chances to we have left before we really need to rebuild?
The same applies to any of the pitchers we can get. We're talking about replacing Russ Ortiz' 4.5 ERA with Ian Snell's 5.5 ERA or Garland's 4.5 ERA. It's all a crapshoot - it's not like we're talking ace pitchers here. You have a better chance of getting a 3.5 ERA out of one of the rookies than any of those guys (and a better chance of 6.5 - but then, you still have Russ Ortiz as a fallback). We've been saying that since at least 2004, when it was Bagwell, Biggio, Clemens and Petitte on their last legs. If we actually hold on to prospects and bring up cheap talent, the team can be competitive fairly soon. It's only when we keep making these flier deals that make it more and more difficult because we have fewer and fewer useful prospects.
Drayton has shown the willingness to stretch the payroll if he thought that a move would make us a winner. See Drabek, Swindell, Randy Johnson...etc etc etc.
i'm not saying drayton is cheap. I think it's admirable that he kept the payroll at what it is now, but 2009 is a different economic environment than 1999 or 2004 or basically any time in his tenure. I would be surprised if he could afford to add any payroll.
Agreed with DoItDickau. Swindell and Drabek are going back 15 years now. Johnson was 10 years ago. He's shown a willingness to add on the margin for guys who can help (e.g., Randy Wolf last year), but I would say the limiting factor with Bedard is asking price. Bedard has been hurt a bunch, and considering Seattle gave up Adam Jones and George Sherrill for the guy 18 months ago, I would imagine the asking price is not going to be cheap. In short, a guy like Bedard isn't a slam dunk to rocket us into the playoffs like Randy Johnson or even Carlos Beltran were. If you can get him for guys you project to be 20th-25th roster slot guys (some gaggle of Bogusevic, Manzella, and the like), then sure. But we're not in position to trade our top prospects (Castro, Lyles, Seaton) as part of the package. Otherwise, you quickly get into a Victor Zambrano for Scott Kazmir type deal. For a half season rental who may not even land you in the playoffs, that could end up being a pretty high asking price.
This just makes my Sunday.... As reported by MLB.com's Brian McTaggart, Astros general manager Ed Wade reiterated Sunday that his club isn't likely to make a move before the July 31 trade deadline. "We're having conversations with clubs, but I don't expect us to be doing much of anything," Wade said. "The key components aren't going to change, and that's the economics and the talent in the system. Those things aren't going to change overnight. If something makes sense we'll pursue it, but there's nothing going on now." The Astros stand 50-48, two games behind the Cubs in the National League Central. But, as the GM himself noted, Houston already has a fairly high payroll and doesn't want to ship off any major prospects. Oh well...atleast we still in the race and hopefully Norris/Bazardo/Paulino will get called up and make some more starts.
Problem is, we wont be in the race when they get called up. At least not Norris and Bazardo. I could see Paulino come back sooner rather than later, and we'll maybe still be in contention.
Agree...I hope they give Norris the next shot instead of Paulino, Ortiz has to be hanging by a hair...Hampton will get a much longer leash I believe
Ortiz is definitely on a short leash at this point. I can forsee him getting moved to the bullpen if he has 1 disastrous or 2 more bad starts after this weekend. The Astros apparently don't feel like Bud Norris is ready or he would have already gotten the call this season. Paulino will probably get the next chance (again).
I really don't understand what else Norris can do...the win lose thing isn't his fault and the ERA is great. Saying that I haven't given up on Paulino by any means so its fine if he gets another shot.
I think his secondary pitches and control still aren't where they want them to be. But, that's just a guess on my part, I haven't actually spoken to Wade or Heck.
