Smoak struggled at AAA, and is struggling in the Majors. If he doesn't pick it up by the beginning of June, then a trade for Berkman starts looking like a very good idea, since he could be just a one year rental, or get his option picked up to be their DH for 2011, and provide protection in case Smoak doesn't pan out.
Guys, calm down. We obviously need to understand that a "leader" is someone that would go out in public and criticize the team so that everyone would know how pissed off he is. ... But on a more serious note, there are a few ways you can improve your team. The Astros tried to shell out money, but won't shell out as to where the stars will look at the Astros and go, ok I'm definitely going there. The only time we tried to go that far was Carlos Lee, and you see how that could set a franchise back a few years. As for building up a franchise, you can put some ridiculous money out there to Latin America and try to look for players out there, but you'll be competing with a bunch of other markets. Even then, the bidding war that the Yankees and the Red Sox has put out in the past is nothing short of ridiculous. That goes for Asia too. The other way is to develop within the US through amateur draft status, and trading aging stars to contenders in hopes of hitting the jackpot on a prospect or two (a la Milwaukee Brewer ball). Trade down until you can get a few prospects to come up around the same time and roll the dice. Then, sign a couple players and play the salaries that way, allowing enough years to regain monetary resources to make a long-term push. If Wade can develop players as time goes, then great. Right now, our biggest problem is that we're spending all of our resources on exactly what Lance just said, on middle to below-average veterans just to push out a product in the ML level. That money would've been great elsewhere. The money spent on Kaz and Lyons is stupid. We won't even get draft picks for them when they leave after their contracts are over. Now, about leadership. To say that Lance's pattern stemmed from last year and how he struggled sounds pretty hypocritical to me. If you're really following the Astros, you'd realize that Berkman's pattern is nothing short of puzzling when it came to the numbers he puts up every other year. His "leadership" is fine.
He's struggling but it's a bit overstated. His BABIP is .176, so he's suffered through some just rotten luck so far. But he has more walks than strikeouts, and a 5 game hitting streak currently, so there's reason to believe he'll be just fine. Not to mention, he's one of their best prospects in the organization. I don't think they'll give up on him so early so as to trade a ransom for an aging Berkman. I'd suspect they would be much more interested in Oswalt, perhaps even because of Nolan's familiarity with him. EDIT: He was hitting .300 this year in AAA prior to his call up, so he wasn't struggling prior to his debut this year.
In 50 ABs. I'm talking about the 197ABs in AAA from last year where he hit .244/.363/.360. Just because he is putting balls in play doesn't mean they are good balls in play. BABIP is an overused statistic. If he is still hitting .200 or below in June, you don't think Texas will consider sending him back to AAA and look at Berkman as a perfect rental? I'm not expecting a ransom either. It's not like they are going to give us Smoak, and sending him back to AAA this year, when he hasn't played a full season in AAA isn't exactly giving up on him.
Why wouldn't he want to be traded, the as*hol** are in the midst of a dismal start to a looong season.
Before Berkman wants out, he might want to start hitting a bit first. No one's going to trade for him without knowing whether he'll fall off a cliff this year or not. And the market is pretty crappy to say the least. Most contenders(non-contenders have no use for Berkman anyway) have either solid young 1st basemen or vets that are better than Berkman. So it's not like there will be 10 teams vying for his services. Now Oswalt... If he waives his no-trade clause, that's how the big prospects may come.
Yeah but we're both using small sample sizes, not just me -- for the year in 2009, he hit .290.. and for 2010, he was hitting .300 before his call up. Obviously Texas is not going to put up with a .200 average all season, but my point was more that he's been showing good plate discipline and he's been hitting the ball pretty hard lately if you've watched him. Sending him back down to AAA is not necessarily giving up on him, but no organization wants to be yanking their top prospects up and down. In addition, I just don't see why the Rangers would give up anything substantial for Berkman. Offense has never been a problem of theirs.. but pitching has. If they were going to be buyers at the deadline, I would imagine it would be for a SP to bolster their rotation, not another bat. They have Kinsler, Hamilton, Vlad, Cruz, Young, Andrus.. they don't need to give up prospects for a half-season rental, they need pitching. Oswalt is much more likely to interest them than Berkman is.
Am I the only one that seemed to notice that Berkman said it would be for 3 or 4 months. Sounds like he is ok to be traded, take the club option out of the deal in exchange and then resign here in the offseason. Would get less for him that way...but might get a prospect or two...and then get Lance back. Classic.
Lance has always been too intelligent to be a Biggio or Bagwell type leader. If someone asks Lance a question, he's usually going to answer it as well as he can whereas the usual team leader type will use a bunch of cliches so not to step on any toes in the clubhouse or front office. Lance is just intelligently planting the seed in the media for the Astros to be able to trade him without a fan backlash. Lance for GM!!
I did notice. First time I read it, I was thinking Lance, you have a club option on your contract. I'm sure he would resign here as long as we made a fair offer.
