Astros are one of the worst teams in baseball if not the worst. Anyone who disputes that is clearly either delusional or a homer. Reality guys, accept it.
Their record says as much right now, but this team has played much better than one of the worst teams in baseball. Prior to the last two games, virtually every game had been close and the teams disparity in runs for/against is not that bad(excluding the last two games). Things haven't gone the teams way so far but with them getting healthy and Roy coming around, this team will be much better than everyone on this board thinks. They might not win the division or make the playoffs but they are by no means going to suck.
Stros won't trade Roy or Berkman. Lee is pretty unmovable with the size of his as... errr contract. Tejada should be movable if the team decides to go that direction. I doubt the Stros go into dump mode at any point this season unless they are 30 games under .500, unlikely as that maybe.
I see Berkman as the untouchable. But Roy has the most value and he's a pitcher over 30 years old. If we suck, it makes the most sense to trade Roy. Watch it happen.
Drayton loves him, I don't think he's going anywhere, but anything is possible. I still this team is going to be in the race for the division long enough that they won't go into selling mode.
I'm optimistic sure...but it's still frustrating to watch them lose. First of all, that doesn't make much sense to me. If anything, having an offense that can score a lot of runs could, in theory, compensate for some of the shortcomings a team may have in the starting rotation or bullpen. And, as in years past, if you don't have much of an offense from the outset, then you have to have virtually perfect pitching. Plus I don't see how this team has sacrificed defense for the sake of offense. From the games I've seen, they've proven to be a quite capable defensive team; Lee is slow, that's nothing new, but Bourne and Pence are better than Pence and Scott, Matsui is an improvement over an aging Biggio, and Tejeda has more than held his own in lieu of Everett. The problem is the team has not played well in all areas all at once very many times. The offense scores enough runs (like last night) but the starting pitching gets shelled. Our starter is excellent, the team gets some runs but he bullpen blows it. Or nothing goes right at all. I do think this team is capable in each facet of the game, and if they just put it all together all at once, then they may start to win some. I don't really buy that. This team hasn't been a contender in the 1st half of the season for a few years, and never once was there any hint from the organization that they'd throw in the towel. Drayton is a guy that wants to win. I can easily see him (perhaps stubbornly) thinking (if the offense does score) they could add a few pieces (starting pitching, bullpen tweaks) in the offseason and do better next year. And why shouldn't he think that when the NL and the division is wide open. Also don't really see why you're so obsessed with this team possibly getting 100 losses. Maybe that does happen, I dunno, but now it almost seems like your wishing it to happen just to prove you are right. Personally it doesn't matter to me if they hit 100 or 80 in the L column, because anywhere in that range probably means no offseason, which is gonna suck.
The Astros aren't going to move Oswalt. He is at a prime age for a pitcher, is signed at a great price for someone of his caliber, and like mentioned... Drayton loves him. Same for Berkman. Like JunkYardDawg said, Drayton has always been a win NOW guy. He isn't going to fire-selling anytime soon, so don't hold your breath for that one. I don't understand the obsession with the 100 losses either. Basically now the argument changed from this team is going to lose 100 games to now being that Drayton is going to trade everyone away and that is why they are going to lose 100 games. If they lose 100 games, then come back in September and say "I told you so." Until then, just hang on to that thought, because no one is going to agree with you. I sure don't, I think its a ridiculous assertion.
Drayton is a WIN NOW guy agreed, AS LONG AS HE IS WINNING. But if he is not winning, he's not into paying a bunch of payroll for nothing. If this season continues to go south, he has one of three choices: 1. He's got to either make a move for a prime starting pitcher and bullpen help. Personally, I don't see the possibilities of a deal. There is no Roger Clemens out there we can sign and I don't see a trade we can make without giving up one of our superstars. 2. Or he's got to accept mediocrity and pay this payroll out for nothing, no postseason, no pennant race, just a humdrum baseball summer with declining attendance. or 3. Shell down the corn and see the need to rebuild his farm system and stock up his team with young talent. If we continue this track, then it is going to become obvious that we've got to develop some top notch starting pitching (which has been lacking for several years now) and so we'll have to move guys that aren't as young and making big salary for a whole lot of really good, young players. I am not obsessed with losing 100. I can just see it coming..........like the train headlight down the end of a dark tunnel. You can stand there and say, "Oh, it's the sun, it's the sun!". But if we don't turn it around big time in the next month or so, it's not the sun. We are already off to a considerably worse start than a year ago. I know it's still early. But I ain't seeing anything that gives me any reason to believe that things are going to change. Our entire pitching staff is in big trouble. The closer we traded for has been a walking disaster. And our starting pitching rotation looks like a piece of swiss cheese. And I don't see a guy in the minors, or a guy on the trade market, or a guy on the free agent market that could make a difference in our pitching staff. Maybe somebody else has some ideas and sees some pitching available that I am not familiar with. If so, who is it? Who is it that we can trade for, sign as a free agent, or bring up from the minors that is going to be a difference maker? I think we've got the perfect storm on our staff. Spotty starters, weak middle relief, and our closer is messed up. That spells disaster folks. My point about our pitching is if you are going to play with big offense and bad defense, you've got to have pitching that is high strikeout/walk and low hits per inning. Our corner outfielders defensively are a disaster. Our infield defense is very suspicious. Berkman is on skates over at first base. Tejada is not good at short. And Wiggington is not exactly a stellar defender. Given we are trying to replace our good D/no hit catcher with a homerun cranker, you can see our backstop defense is going to take a hit too. This team is in trouble.
What evidence is there for this? He didn't make any efforts to cut payroll in 2000, 2006, or 2007 when those teams were losing.
I seriously do not understand this. The Astros have the second fewest errors in all of MLB and the second highest fielding percentage. We have ONE corner outfielder that is a liability, one. Pence (to go along with Bourne) can cover a lot of ground. I mean am I not seeing something...how is Pence a disaster on the field? How is our infield defense suspicious when this team has the second fewest errors in the league? Tejeda (while obviously doesn't have as good of range as Everett) has proven that he was highly underrated those last few years in Baltimore. He's made some damn nice plays from what I've seen. And why do you assume that Towles will be a major downgrade from Ausmus behind the plate? I haven't noticed anything to be cause for alarm. Ty, Kaz, Berkman...their stats show they are average to above average defenders. Sure they're not gold glovers, but they're certainly no cause for worry...at least not right now. I mean jeez, the defense is actually one of the few bright spots so far.
What scares me is that they seem to have a knack for finding a new way to lose every night. Tough luck all over the place...but that's indicative of a team not playing very well.
Besides Blum's error ridden game in Philadelphia , I agree . I was thinking this D was gonna be hard to watch . Tejada has been the biggest surprise for me so far .
By all available metrics, Pence is a very good defensive player in right. I'd be curious to see what evidence you have that considers him a "disaster." Tejada has been very solid defensively, and I'm not sure what you have against Towles -- he has a good reputation in the minors for game-calling ability, and clearly has a better arm than Ausmus.
Like everyone has already said, this paragraph is a bunch of bologna. Have you watched a game this year? Our defense hasn't been the problem, not in any shape, form, or fashion.
Did anyone ACTUALLY expect that the Astros would contend with the pitching staff they have now? Lets not fool ourselves, it's going to be a really long season as expected. no surprise here.
Towles can hit, so he must suck defensively. That seems to be the logic at play here. It's certainly not based on his reputation or actually watching him. More like starting with a conclusion (the Astros suck) and then stating "facts" to fit that conclusion. The Stros are infinitely better on D at 2B & CF. They've upgraded in RF (much better range & routes on fly balls, how Pence's arm will play out in right is still up in the air). SS is a downgrade, only if you don't take into account the games that would have been started by Loretta/Blum instead of an injury-plagued AE (who's on the DL now). Tejada has looked so much better than advertised, it's not funny. And he plays every day. Towles & Ausmus, despite the growing pains, is close to a wash or will be soon. As a receiver, Towles has impressed the hell out of me. Smooth. Needs to improve on his footwork & release while throwing. Wigginton is very average at 3B, Lance isn't a terrible 1B at all (has a bad habit of ranging too far to his right, though, will be interesting to see if he stays at home more with some better range from Kaz at 2B instead of Biggio). If your biggest defensive problems are at 1B & LF, you're doing alright.
HE HAD OTHER OPTIONS THOSE YEARS TO BECOME COMPETITIVE! He doesn't have those options now. The farm system is depleted and Clemens ain't sitting at home waiting to start the season in May or June. Can't you understand that? By the way, I don't have anything against Towles, Pence, or any of our players. I don't know of any of them that I specifically don't like. But it's just obvious we are gonna struggle, mainly because of our pitching, then when guys start knocking around on us and you've got Lee and Pence skating around in the outfield, combined with Tejada and Berkman skating around the infield, combined with a second baseman that is over the hill, combined with a rookie backstop, our defensive weakness is going to be MAGNIFIED because of bad pitching, lots of hits against, and lots of baserunners. Towles? He's a first year guy. He's gonna struggle defensively..........and at the plate for that matter too. Hey, we've got some young pieces, like him and Pence. I like them, I really do. They could be a part of something really good. But they need a bunch of young pitchers with good arms, good location and high ceilings that they can grow up with. By the time Towles and Pence mature, Oswalt is gonna be 33-35 and on the downside. It's just not a good combination that we have right now. We have some high priced talent in their prime, but we obviously aren't going to be able to complete without overhauling the pitching staff. And if we are gonna bring in a free agent pitcher or two, who are they and what is it gonna cost Drayton? Nobody is answering that question. And there's the problem. You guys think that somehow this rag tag bunch of pitchers is gonna keep us competitive and then somehow they (the pitchers) are gonna magically improve to a WS level rotation next year maybe or that somehow the farm system is gonna kick us out a Cy Young winner this offseason, or we'll be able to trade Mark Loretta for Gil Meche or something. It just don't add up. When is the last time a team went to the World Series without at least 3 serious starting pitchers, actual aces or at the worst #2 starters, capable of shutting down a team for 6-7 innings consistently? And how many teams have we seen that tried to just build offense without pitching? The Texas Rangers did that year after year after year and it got them NOWHERE. EFFECTIVE STARTING PITCHING IS THE SINGLE KEY TO REACHING THE POST SEASON AND BEING SUCCESSFUL. You can be missing a lot of things or not be very good in a lot of areas, but if you have outstanding starting pitching, it covers a multitude of other weaknesses. On the other hand, you can be great at certain aspects of the game, hitting for high average and a lot of home runs as a team, but if your starting pitching sucks, you ain't going nowhere.
In 2000, Clemens was signed with the Yankees. What options did he have then? Furthermore, at the deadline last season, Clemens was again with the Yankees. What options did he have last year that he doesn't have now? It seems that you do have something against them, because Pence is a good defensive right fielder by every single metric available, and you refuse to address it when people call you on your BS and continue to use the term "skate." You've also been asked to show evidence of Tejada being a subpar defender. No response. Kaz Matsui was one of the best defensive players in all of baseball last season, and now you're attacking him?!? Evidence. That's all I'm asking for. Elaborate. If your views are going to be the complete opposite of reality, the least you can do is explain how in the world you came to these bizarre conclusions.
