Saw this poll over at rivals.com and was curious to see what some of you thought. Way early I know but here's to hoping we remain the worst team and get that #1 pick.
What are the chances that those players listed are represented by the spawn of satan? Does uncle drayton really want to pay that type of money? I don't think he does. And what's the point to drafting them if they will be kept in the farm system for an entire decade.
Lol spawn of satan aka Scott Boras? I won't say which one but he has a player on that list. I know there are a ton of people that dislike the guy BUT he gets his players paid, which means he is doing is job and doing it breaking contract records along the way. I'm sure the people he represents have no problem with that. As for Drayton, I don't think he has a choice. I really see us with either the #1 or #2 pick which in my mind is Rendon and Jungmann in no particular order. They are going to both have a very high price tag and if he doesn't pay up he's going to piss off alot of fans by not showing he's committed to doing whatever it takes to get top level talent. Kind of similar to Washington and Strasburg last year imo. As for being kept in the farm system for too long I think the Astros face the same situation. You have a #1 or #2 pick in your farm, fans are going to want to see him play in the bigs. Especially when a team is this bad and your praying to see some light at the end of the tunnel like we are now.
I still can't comprehend why fans root for their teams to lose. We're only 10 games into the season. Houston has some of the worst "fans" on the planet.
Child please. I hate to break it to you, but there are people like that EVERYWHERE. Anyone that's a fan of this team is way past desperation for something good to look forward to. Generalizations like that are just ignorant.
The worst fans are the ones that continue to patronize Drayton McLane in spite of his putrid attempt at putting out a product while he's got a bunch of Rich Lords (incompetent good ol' boys) running his front office. I used to be the biggest Astros fan ever, knew all the history and even started to read the books about the old time greats in baseball in general. I'd also play multiple money leagues in fantasy and did quite well. It was unhealthy how much I cared. But then Hunsicker left in disgust and who could blame him. And this is the result--nothing but brown-nosers (Purpura, Wade, Tal Smith) failing to do their jobs. Poor drafting, poor dealings with free agents, and extremely poor dealings with other teams. Juxtapose that to Morey who seems always to get the upper hand in negotiations with agents and GM's alike. Simply put we will never be a respectable franchise again until Drayton is gone as owner. It's fine if you still want to attempt to enjoy the game as a spectator, just realize that, by continuing to patronize the Astros in their current manifestation, you are contributing to prolonging the process of turning this rusty freighter around. And please don't blame the fans who are angry because they have a right to be after what's transpired these past five years.
In the famous words of Lee Corso...NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!!! Sure looks like the Orioles will have a say in this race. To early to tell who will emerge and who falls back in this coming year. As bad as the Stros have been I kind of figure the pitching will be good enough to get their share of wins but I still think at worst it will be a top 5 pick.
Hopefully none of these guys, and hopefully the Astros start winning consistently. #1 MLB picks suck, Pujols was taken 402nd overall, pretty much boils down to how great your scouts are.
What? You're crazy. #1 picks in baseball are about 50/50 to becoming an all star in the majors. Here's the list since 1965. It includes a few all time greats. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_first_overall_draft_choices
I couldn't agree more, but you cannot say that McLane has been cheap, he spent to bring home Pettitte, sign Clemens, Kent and even Carlos Lee (although each year that looks more ridiculous). The beef that alot of fans like us (I say us because you and I agree on many of your points) is how McLane decides to spend his money. The success the Astros had between 2001-2006 was at the cost of the farm system, trading prospects, signing free agents and losing picks, etc. Daryl Morey is a top notch GM in his own right, but baseball and basketball are two different animals. Hunsicker was able to do great things as GM, but he saw what was coming and warned against 'going to the well too often' in terms of trading away prospects and not offering arbitration. Hunsicker also had a hand in the downfall of the farm system as well, the Astros didn't draft a single major leaguer in his last few years sans Chris Burke and Hunter Pence. I still don't know what Tal Smith has over McLane, but it must be something good, cause I have no idea what the guy does for the club, other than the occasional arbitration case. Here is where we disagree. The Astros can be respectable again within a couple of seasons (maybe 2012 or 2013). When the big contracts are gone (Lee, Berkman, Oswalt) and some of your farmhands start coming up (Lyles, Seaton, Clemens, Steele, Gaston, Mier, Meyer, Keuchel, Castro, Martinez, etc.) you free up salary to acquire a couple of key veterans to help guide the young players and get back to contention. To be honest with you I didn't go to a single game last season because I was angry just like you were. Ultimately I love baseball and started watching the minor league affiliates (Legends, Hooks and Express). It was a hell of alot more fun watching those guys come up rather than watching guys like Carlos Lee loaf and worry more about his cattle ranch than winning. Now that the last few draft classes are starting to move up, it'll be even more fun. I'm planning a trip to Corpus to watch Jordan Lyles pitch, the guy was great last season and is the youngest guy on that squad and also happens to be our top pitching prospect. As frustrated as McLane and Co. can be, its still a game (for the most part) so try to enjoy the game as best you can.
Baseball is unlike the NBA or the NFL in that the best players aren't always taken at the top. There's no slotting salary system in baseball. And as a result, sometimes you can get 1st round talent in the the 5th or even the 10th round, if you're willing to pony up the jack. The best player who demands the money don't always go first for the same reason. Now whether you're willing to pay for such a player... that's up to the organization. And the Astros have been notoriously cheap in this regards the past few years. So quite frankly, I have no expectations even if we do win the mythical non-important 1st pick. Lance Berkman was a mid 1st round pick. And he slipped to the Astros because his cost scared away other teams. We then gave him a huge bonus to sign. Wagner I believe was the same. Oswalt was a draft-and-follow where we drafted him late, and then paid him huge money later to sign. But alas, the days when Drayton was willing to pay extra for top draft talent is long gone. And we're left with such draft debacles as this one.
Yeah I used to go to ~10 games a year (I was out of town a lot though) up until 2006 and have been perhaps twice since then. I think we can agree that McLane has been putting money into the organization but with the wrong thinking in doing so. The problem then is not that he had in the past made poor decisions about money allocation, but rather that he had hired people to run his organization that were no better judges than he at how to properly run a franchise. Or at least they had no clout to convince him otherwise. My mindset in never wanting to give money to McLane again is that he has a track record of exercising poor judgment in hiring his executives, and that even to this day he's got an incompetent one running his team. It all comes down to whether or not you think Ed Wade can really scout up the quality of our draft picks. Heck seems to be decent, but honestly we were moving from a period of Raiders-esque ineptitude back to baseline. In comparison, a random number generator program selecting from Baseball America's rankings could have done a better job than Purpura, so anybody else is bound to look good. Like I said before I haven't been following as closely now as I did before, but hopefully some of the prospects you mentioned are the real deal, and numerous enough to preclude us from becoming the next Pirates aka Yankees farm system. I'm not holding my breath though. Drayton is 73. If that's the only clock that's ticking for the sake of the Astros' future then so be it.
I agree McLane has hired and listened to a bunch of yes men, more than likely the reason why Hunsicker left. McLane has a tendency to meddle with contract negotiations (see Beltran, Carlos or Lee, Carlos), although it is his money, he should trust the people he employs. Actually in the 2007 draft Purpura and his staff of scouts identified some real talent. Without a first or second round pick (due to the signings of Carlos Lee and Woody Williams) the Astros selected Derek Dietrich in the third round, Brett Eibner in the fourth round, Chad Bettis in the eighth round and Chad Jones in the thirteenth round. All four players had very good college careers thus far and are considered 1st-2nd round players (Jones has chosen to stick with football, but did well as LSU's relief pitcher/closer last season). The Astros should have had 1st round and supplemental picks in the 2007 draft from the Yankees for resigning Pettitte and Clemens but McLane did not want to offer arbitration. I believe that Bobby Heck and Ed Wade can build the Astros farm system back to its glory days. Heck was considered a great hire by the Ed Wade and Wade knows the importance of building a farm system. Something you have to keep in mind is that the draft (especially in baseball) is a crapshoot. There are numerous factors that could make or break a prospect on his way to the majors. The Astros definitely have some talent, most of it is from the last two drafts and still in the lower minors (thus why Baseball America ranks us dead last). I'm pretty sure that as the prospects start to ascend through the minors that our ranking will continue to go up. More importantly though is this June the Astros will have three of the top 33 picks (#8, #19 and #33). The Astros have the chance to draft some very talented players that could help them get back to contention in a few shirt seasons coupled with what we currently have in the minors. I'm really hoping that Wade and Heck can convince McLane to go after talent vs. signabilty when drafting. Lets hope for the best.
I don't think the Astros will end up in position to make the first overall draft pick, but if they were, I'd want them to take Rendon. He's the prototype of a five tool player, even though I think that term gets overused now. He's still putting up numbers this season even though I've seen first hand that he really only gets one hittable pitch per game. Generally, he hits that one pitch hard. The rest of the Rice offense has struggled this year, and thus, opposing pitchers have tread carefully around Anthony. You also have to applaud him for the number of walks he is taking when pitchers won't throw him strikes. A lesser player would expand his zone and try to do too much out of frustration. He takes his walks and trusts his teammates to come through.
I don't disagree with any of your post, but how many of the players that the Astros have traded away over the past 10 years have been great? We gave up Dotel and John Buck to get Beltran I think. Dotel has been injured off and on, and John Buck is below average. Most of the guys we gave up for Tejada aren't even in the majors. The only trade I'm pissed off about is giving up Ben Zobrist, but who could have seen that guy having the season he did last year?
