That's sure easy to say given that he won't be hitting in October with the Astros. There are few better hitters in the game than Jr. Career wise, he is a much more probable to carry a team than Beltran. Would you prefer to dispute that based on historical batting statistics? My contention is not adding a player, superstar or not, - guarantees that there won't be a title. Call me a pessimist, but this team is too short on fire power. I'm not sure how you reach that conclusion. My philosophy is more so applied to this year (the year in question - though probably not clearly stated in my original post). We are a team that has aging stars, aging contracts. Not a team that is built for a dynasty for the next decade. Assume for a second that Roger doesn't come back next year because they can't sign Ausmus ...well, we might just wish we had done something THIS YEAR. But we didn't --- and that is the bottom line.
How do you know (perhaps in your infinite wisdom) how close we were to making a deal. You don't, nor do I, but you assume that there was not one team answering the phone or that there was not one rational GM. That there was not ONE team willing to do a deal - that seems obtuse to me. No significant deals were made; that doesn’t mean that a deal could not have been struck. It simply means that a deal was not struck. My opinion is that he could have done a better job finding the needle (to mean: bat) in the haystack.
We had Beltran last year having the greatest postseason <B>ever</B> in the history of the game, and it didn't single-handedly carry us to the world series. You expect Griffey to do better? Any team can get hot in the postseason. San Diego made the World Series in 1998 as the worst of the 4 postseason teams, by far. Trading for a bat "at any price" makes it more likely we won't win a World Series anytime in the near future more than it makes it likely we'll win one this year. We're not an old team by any stretch. Of our pitchers, only Roger and Russ Springer are old. Oswalt, Lidge, Wheeler are all young. Pettite has several years left. The "other guys" - Wandy, Astacio, Qualls, Backe, etc are all extremely young. On offense, only Biggio and Ausmus are old, and they haven't been big parts of the offense anyway. The rest of our offense is Ensberg, Berkman, Lane, Everett, Burke/Scott, and Tavares. None of them are even 30, let alone old. Assume for a second that we traded 3 of our top prospects for Griffey, we still don't win a WS, and he's hurt next year so we can't sign anyone else and suck next year. Which is more likely?
Ah, right. Yes, we have a bad GM because he's not capable of doing something no other GM could do. So every GM in the league sucks by your standard.
You are so right. Junior carried Seattle deep, deep into the playoffs numerous times. He took Cincy pretty far too, but he doesn't get all the credit for Cincy's success due to the fact that he spent most of his run in Cincy freaking crippled. It strikes me as desperate that the Astros tried so hard to get a hamstrung, old has-been with a huge ego. But at least they tried. To my original point: Iffey Junior in an Astros uni probably does not produce what Beltranoutoftown did last year--and not even *that* was good enough to get past StL. So, all of this is just whining.
It was reported that Griffey had a short list of teams in which he would agree to be traded. The other 26 GM's don't really matter (ask the chisox) unless you use false logic to arrive at a bad conclusion and need to lump them in to support your notion that Purpurra is a good GM. The GM's of the reported three teams that jr. had interest, have much less a NEED for a bat than the Astros. Who is to say that Jocketty couldn't make a deal for him??? We had a need, had big daddy's permission, and he wasn't able to sway the Reds nor any other team. (By the way, my opinion is not exclusive to landing Jr. - I would have welcomed any upgrade and praised Mr. Purpurra had he delivered)
desperate is a fairly reasonable adjective to describe our position. roger isn't signed. he isn't replaceable. everyone else will be a year older next year. -besides- the issue at hand is Jr's ability to help the Astros THIS year. a year in which he Presently is healthy (I haven't checked the last few minutes). Who cares about seattle? The Big Unit was there too. Is he not a good pitcher because he couldn't pitch them past the A's? the point is if Jr. could have helped us. Are you saying that he isn't an upgrade over Burke/Scott? Keep on believing. Because you are simply wrong. that i'll give you. good point. the plaintiff rests...and drinks heavily.
I have not said Purpura is a good GM. I have no idea what kind of GM he is because there's not enough evidence either way. You're making a judgement based on assumptions that there is no evidence for. We KNOW that no major bat got traded. You're saying "well, maybe some other guy could have". That's a nice hypothetical, but all the facts show that several teams needed a big bat, and none of them were able to acquire one. All the media reports from July 31st to now say the Reds couldn't decide if they wanted to trade any of their guys. ESPN reported that multiple teams got frustrated and gave up on dealing with the Reds. This report supports that view. Yet you're deciding Purpura is a GM because, in your mind, a hypothetical GM would have been able to do what no one actually did and all evidence says couldn't have been gone. Good standards there.
Wow. No, and... no. I'm saying, as others have, that Iffey is no more a guarantee, in fact *less* so, than Beltran was last year. That's all.
Matt Lawton as a bad example. But, he is an upgrade. He's not Jr., nowhere near it, but he is an upgrade over Burke/Scott. Where there is a will, and A LOT of money, there is a way. I question both his will and especially his way, not that Drayton wasn't willing to spend a lot of money. Time will prove me right or prove me wrong, but I'd agree that in all fairness the sample size is insufficient to definitively say that he is both bad and fat. I've already settled though and now I'm in contempt and a tortfeasor for bad mouthing the astros - mine is an argument for arguments sake. Whine with my cheese. Go Astros! At least we got DOLLAR HOT DOG NIGHT TONIGHT!
No, he's not. And he's a perfect example of why a GM shouldn't desperately make a move for a bat. Since the All-Star Break: Lawton: 0.237, 0.308, 0.632 (AVG, SLG, OPS) Burke: 0.271, 0.467, 0.809 In August, Burke was even better with an OPS of 0.873. That's far better than any of the mediocre bats that were traded at the deadline or since.
This is one of those "yes, we did try to solve our hitting problem" leaks to the press. And while its possible they may have inquired about Griffey, I doubt there was a serious effort to bring Griffey here...
Weren't you the one saying (of course you were, it was rhetorical) that you couldn't judge Purpurra by such a short period of inactivity? But yet, you can suggest that Lawton is not an upgrade over Burke based on a sixty day sample size. You sir, are inconsistent. Perhaps, both wrong and inconsistent.
I am saying that your statement that Lawton is an upgrade over Burke has been false thus far. If you would have traded for Lawton, this team would have been worse off than it has been over the past month - that can be seen from the stats. I'm making no judgements about the long-term, except that I have said for a long time that it's better to let Burke develop for the future (I did not expect him to be this good for the past month) than to get a mediocre bat like Lawton. If you're going to trade for someone, you trade for someone actually good like Griffey, Huff, Helton, etc.
I disagree (with your argument here, not just with the ad hominem, and here's why. Whether or not Purp is a good GM will be determined by the body of his work. If he goes 8 years and becomes another Hun (not likely), we'll all feel stupid for complaining. A trade deadline "win now" move is judged on the period of time following the trade deadline. Burke is *not* better than Lawton. However, Burke has consistently performed better in the period of time during which Lawton would have been expected to help the Astros. That is why I believe the arguments you criticize are neither inconsistent nor disingenuous. Nor wrong, for that matter.
Purp seem like a guy with bad Karma. I somewhat feel that many other GMs do not "like" dealing with him. Methinks he lacks the midas touch. The only GM in the league that likes dealing with him is those of our AA and AAA affiliate. Well all will be well if we end up winning the WS this year. Then he will be considered genius. Even when it was rumoured that he was after Moyer he opted to overpay. Hmmmmm.
