So you telling me they're not comparable to other number 3-5 starters in the league? I know, I know, Backe and Wandy are the number 2 and 3 starters for this team this season...but that speaks more to the fact we don't have a solid number 2 than whether or not they're good enough to pitch on a big league team, which they are.
There is such an inferiority complex in this city. TNT hates the Rockets, ESPN hates the Astros ... etc. The reason that ESPN says bad things about the Astros isn't because they have a personal vendetta against them, it's because they are turrible. Most sources that I've seen rank the Astros organization among the 5 worst in the game right now. It's not a conspiracy theory when it's true.
Brother, the Baseball Tonight gang hated the 'stros when they were winning the pennant. I haven't heard them make one comment about the 'stros this season...I was saying that all off the past. And again...this isn't just Astros fans saying it.
The moves Wade made this year are about nothing but trying to make immediate impact in SOME way, ANY way. The last several years have been mediocre at best, and status quo was not going to cut it. The pitching is not significantly worse than it was going to be anyway, but at least this team will score some runs. Get ready to lose a whole lot of games by 4+ runs. Lots and lots of games with final scores like 12-7. The real test will be how the Astros deal with the draft from now on. For the past many years, the Astros acted as though the draft was an inconvenience, something to be avoided and ignored. Hopefully the organization will lose the mentality that a prospect needs about 10 years in the minors before being ready for the bigs, and start fast-tracking some of the guys they draft. But even then, since the farm system is essentially at zero, even best-case we are probably looking at at least 4 to 5 years before any prospects could be drafted, developed and brought up in a productive manner, by which time, of course, the current 'core' of the team will either already be gone, or in decline. Which means wholesale roster turnover before this team even sniffs post-season success again. 2015 or so. Yay.
The last several years? Perhaps the last 2 and 2006 (while the record was mediocre), the comeback to climb back into the playoff race in late September (winning 10 of their last 11) was anything but.
I don't know about that. Even on the broadcast last night, they pulled up the season stats, even for the playoff/pennant years, and they were not great. Both of the 'good' years, the team had to get incredibly hot over an unreasonably long stretch of games just to squeak into the post-season. This was all said in an attempt to explain why such drastic moves were made this offseason. Not saying they were terrible, but even back then the fans knew that more pro-active moves needed to be made, and nothing of note was done.
I'm not disagreeing with you with respect to needing to make some moves this season. I just don't find the 2004 and 2005 seasons (92 and 89 wins, one barely missing the WS, the other making the WS) mediocre, regardless of when and how their wins came. It is also nothing to be ashamed of when a team "squeaks" into the playoffs in baseball, considering only 4 teams make it from each league.
i think the point is that those two runs, plus the one to end 2006 (anchored by superior, and in some cases, historic pitching) were given too much weight. they were the exception, not the rule - take them out of the equation and this team is 40-50 games under .500 since the start of the 2004 season. those runs covered up what, in hindsight, were some glaring weaknesses: the farm had deteriorated while the ml roster was getting older and less productive, filled with too many aging hitters and mediocre talent. that's not to discount anything that happened, or to disparage the organization. if you're winning, why fix what ain't broken? but i do wish they had been a bit more critical and cognizant of what they were doing and - more importantly - how they were doing it and been a little more proactive as they moved forward. unfortunately, it doesn't look like they've learned any lessons. i think this is a horribly constructed ballclub with the same glaring weakness: no farm and a roster built on aging hitters and mediocre talent.
We will be lucky to win 70 games this season. We should have made 2009 our target year and tried to get more prospects instead of Matsui and Villareal. I like our young guys a ton but making a shot for 2009 would have made sense because Oswalt and Berkman, and Lee are still in their prime. I still like the deal for Tejada though.
