Why are some of you showing hesitation or pause because of the addition of Eshelman? The only thing he brought to the table was a crazy K:BB ratio...but then he gets to the minors and he doesnt even have that going for him. The guy can be good, Im not writing him off, but he's nowhere near being able to help this team. Also, this team needs to get rid of it's surplus of minor league prospects because it will be impossible to play all of them. We need actual major league talent because we are now at the point where any season is a possible championship season. Im excited about the possibilities of Ferrell setting up Giles.
I don't think anybody is saying the addition of Eshelmen suddenly makes this a bad trade. But he was one of our better prospects, and most of us thought the 4th player would just be another guy. Therefore the trade isn't as great as it was, but it's still a good trade.
I think Astros paid a lot for certainty and now at a position of need for a cheap cost controlled player. It makes the Astros better so they should be happy. Phillies should be too as they have a good chance to get more raw production out of deal, but take a lot of risk. Reminds me of the Cosart deal except the Astros future looks a lot better than the Marlins future did at the time.
Astros willingness to include Eshelman makes me wonder if they saw something this year that gave them reason to believe that his stuff might not translate well to the majors. Remember Kirk Saarloos?
(slight diversion) In looking up the box score for Kirk Saarloos's most important game (1.1 innings in the 6 pitcher no-hitter), I noticed something I had forgotten - Dotel had 4 k's that game in his one inning of work.
Eshelman gave up 18 walks in 376 collegiate innings. He gave up 5 walks in 10 minor league innings last year. I bet that raised some eyebrows, considering it is his most important skill.
I would hope they would not make any judgements at all about a player based on their first 10 innings.
Considering they shut him down for a month and a half, I don't think his results from last season mean much of anything. After that much time off most people wouldn't be sharp. They were just getting him a little work, they weren't even full starts. He doesn't really need to prove himself in the low minors.
This is where I'm at. I still love the trade. But now it feels like a realistic haul, and a fair one. It's not that I don't want to give up Eshelman or Fisher specifically, but putting those 4 guys together is just a lot of prospect value that could have been dealt in other deals ideally. So yeah, it stings. But I'm all in on Giles. Love it so much
Nice stat I never want to see Tucker play OF again Lidge was throwing 99-100 with the big league club? I don't recall that. He could be argued as Astros greatest closer, as Wagner was not reliable in the playoffs.
Wagner easily had the better career, Lidge was only a great closer for 1 1/2 seasons before he became an unreliable basket case. Wagner did suck in the playoffs, but he only appeared in 5 games, we didn't have many leads in his postseasons. I'm not gonna allow such a small sample override the much larger stretch of reliability he had over Lidge.
You're right. Not sure what I was thinking. There have only been two 6-pitcher no-hitters in history. Four strikeouts in one inning has happened like 75 times.
