You do understand that minor league prospects are in the minors, and thus, wouldn't have led the major league team anywhere, right? The Rangers were 13 games better than the Astros last year, have substantially more talent in the minors and a much younger major league roster now. In addition, they have $30MM more in payroll flexibility than the current Astros. What exactly makes you think the Astros are in better shape than the Rangers?
Indeed. Prospects are worthless. Some Astros prospects entering the 97 season: Lance Berkman, Roy Oswalt, Billy Wagner, and Freddy Garcia. Yeah, what did those players ever accomplish?
The Rangers have have had great players before and where has it lead them ? Teixera/Rodriguez/Pudge/Soriano..just to name a few. Where have those players gotten them ? I don't envision the Rangers competing for a wild card spot over teams like the Yankees/RedSox/Rays let alone other strong teams such as the Twins and Tigers. As for the division I'd put the Angels/Mariners ahead of them. The Angels got off to a horrid start last year and still came back to take a more than comfortable lead in the division. As for the Astros and possible playoffs. The NL Central has not had an overwhelming team in years and is almost a throw up as to who could win it (Cardinals/Cubs being the favorite) For godssake we almost made the playoffs 2 years ago with somehow a less talented squad than what we have now.
And that KC team NEVER was an World Series contending team. Wade built an all-around good team in Phila. KC's season is always done after the first month of the season except in 03. Baseball Knowledge 101.
The smartest thing Ed Wade has done during his tenure as the Astros' general manager was the hiring of Bobby Heck as the director of scouting. Heck got rid of a lot of scouts that were "comfortable" and hired new scouts across the nation to watch not only college and high school ball, but JUCO and independent leagues as well. Wade also got the ball rolling on scouting the Pacific Rim and getting a baseball academy started in the Dominican Republic. Ed Wade knows that the farm system is the lifeblood of an organization, and for that I applaud him. Unfortunately, Wade also loves relief pitchers way too much, and likes to overpay for over-the-hill veterans. Some of Wade's moves have been very questionable at best (paying Lyon a boatload of money, trading for Oscar Villarreal). If Ed Wade were fired tomorrow, his legacy would be that he started the rebuilding of the farm system by putting the right people in place. I have no problem with the Astros giving him an extension, because it means three more years of the farm system being under his supervision.
At the time Dotel was a good closer, but not a prospect anymore. Getting Beltran for so little was an absolute steal. Buck was our top prospect, but he fell back outside the top 100, and was #3 in the organization when traded. He was 24 with already 6 years in the minors.
You're right. Dotel was not a prospect. I was kind of generalizing because I remembered Buck. There's not much of a point in arguing how much of a prospect he was. He was enough to get Beltran, so he obviously was worth something at the time.
I'm certainly in agreement with you on your argument. The Beltran deal was just amazing to me that we didn't have to give up anyone else. Unfortunately even our highly ranked prospects haven't become much. Towles, Patton, Albers, Hirsh, Burke, Astacio, Hernandez, Rodriguez, Lane, & Redding. All were BA top 100 prospects for Houston this past decade that have never really made it in the ML.
Not exactly this decade, but the prospects we gave up for Alou didn't turn out well. Nor did our prospects for RJ, Freddie Garcia being the notable exception. But that's pretty much on par for the course. Most flame out at or before the major leagues. Still, even with the Reddings and the Hernandezes that flame out, you get your Billy Wagners and Roy Oswalts. Btw, this thread reminds me how our scout Hal Newhouser quit because we wouldn't pick Derek Jeter at the time, and instead took the oh-so-amazing Phil Nevin. Drayton may be a pretty generous owner on the major league level, but he's always been pretty cheap when it comes to prospects.
Hernandez didn't flame out--he got hurt. He was looking pretty great when he came up prior to that injury. Also, don't forget Carlos Guillen.. (you mentioned prospects for RJ...Guillen has arguably been more successful than Garcia)
Two starts is a small sample size. Hard to say what would have happened had Hernandez not gotten hurt. There have been plenty of pitchers that had really amazing first couple of starts then turned out to not be so great.
Carlos Guillen has had a very productive career, and Halama was a fairly average MLer. It would just be nice to see more success with our top guys.
That's fine. But I'm saying don't call it a "flameout". He got injured.. maybe it's an "unknown", but if nothing else, then at least the small sample size you mentioned should work the other way--you can't call him a prospect that sucked because he never got that opportunity
Injuries killed what could have been a great rotation with Oswalt, Miller, and Hernandez. That happens to a lot of pitchers though.
Carlos Guillen was part of the RJ trade and he's still in the majors. John Halama was the PTBNL and had an 8 year major league career. I'm not saying I wouldn't have done the trade, because I would have done it. They had to. Just saying that we didn't just give away crap to get RJ. We gave away what became a very good starting pitcher, what became a power hitting SS, and a back of the rotation/long reliever for a few month rental. The Moises Alou trade was simply a freaking burglary. IIRC, not one of those prospects even sniffed the majors.
You aren't kidding. I know it was a complete fire sale by the Marlins, but I just looked up the deal and none of the 3 guys we traded away did anything. 2 of the guys we traded were listed as top 10(5th & 10th) in the organization. Too bad we lost Bobby Abreu one week later for nothing.
