Yea, that year the Dodgers got Casey Blake for Carlos freak'n Santana just because the Indians threw in some cash, now imagine what the Astros would've gotten for Berkman (who started the All-Star Game and just went on a tear the first half)
Berkman wouldn't have gone there at that point in his career. Say it with me now: NO MORE NO TRADE CLAUSES.
I thought it was a MLB rule with players like Berkman. "10-and-5 trade veto rights – players with 10 years of MLB service and five with the same team have veto power over all trades" http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ti-berkmanclose073010
It is a MLB rule also that 10/5 players have veto rights, but it also can be included at the player's request when he signs a contract. That is why Carlos Lee has a no trade clause, which expires after this year. But his 10/5 kicks in after the 2011 season.
A pretty negative take on Wallace from The Harball Times: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/blog_article/is-brett-wallace-still-a-prospect/
I was getting nervous reading that article, it seemed legit, but the ignorant Keppinger comment at the end made me breathe a sigh of relief. Put him in, let him play, and see what happens. I'm loving all the youth, the Astros are interesting for the first time since Biggio's 3000th hit.
The author is a "longtime APBA and Strat-o-Matic player, [who] still tends to look at everything as a simulation. " Comical. You couldn't make that **** up if you tried.
The last paragraph where he gives his advice? Yea, I noticed that part. What else did you catch beyond that? The rest of it is pretty much just stats. The question is whether those stats are valid or meaningful.
I was hoping someone would catch that. He's basing his whole premise on extrapolations of minor league stats. There's entirely too many variables for those to be of any use when, you know, actually projecting what a single guy will do. I'd imagine if you took 100 random major leaguers, went back & ran their numbers from the minors, *as a group* the projections would probably be relatively close. But for 1 guy?
Agreed, I just came across the article while doing some reading last night. There are tons of players who outperform or underperform based on these cryptic projections. I gurarantee nobody predicted Berkman would end up as good as he became. Nobody certainly saw Oswalt turning into one of the top pitchers of the past decade. Way too many unknowns but I don't mind reading stuff like that. I find it interesting and it doesn't worry me.
I don't see anything wrong with what he said - it seems to agree with most projections. He projected as an decent offensive 3B, but when moved to 1B, he would be bad. We have to hope that he's wrong, but the underlying analysis is fairly sound. He's saying the minor leagues stats are good but inflated due to elevation, and that he's walking less, striking out more, and hitting for less power - all of which are yellow flags. Of course the actual statistical projections are just projections - some players will play above them and others will play below them. But absent any additional data (like actual major league stats), projections are the "best guess" for prospects. As Astros fans, we just have to hope that Wallace is one of the guys who performs above the projections.
Agreed. The biggest fear is that he ends up being a AAAA type guy (think Luke Scott or Jason Lane). That cannot happen if he is to be our 1B. On the flip-side, he could turn out like Pence (good, not great)... which is also iffy if he's a 1B. Finally, there's the chance that he actually could improve (still only 23 years old) and be a truly dangerous hitter. We shall see... I wouldn't worry too much at this point. Its not like we drafted him and gave him some huge signing bonus. He's merely part of a trade that we were going to likely have to make regardless of what we received.
Check out Luke Scott's numbers this year: R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS 43 76 20 1 17 42 29 65 .279 .347 .548 .895 far from AAAA type numbers. Jason Lane though, definite AAAA player.
According to twitter post (no link because I'm on phone but AstrosCounty RT), Mills plans to give Lee a shot at 1B before season is over. Why? Wallace was the biggest prospect we got from our deals.. We should be giving him every AB we can. Who are we trying to make room for ahead of Wallace?
even a top prospect will need some time off. moreover, mills wants to handle him with baby gloves and let him build his confidence (ex - pinch hitting for him last night in a tight situation) Trying lee will also allow us to see if bogusevic can play (he should be a sep call up) and if lee can prove he can handle first base, he may be movable next year as the no trade becomes limited.
