I think those Tejada trade proponents must not understand baseball very much. Our starting rotation was already weakened (with the loss of Clemens). And you would merrily weaken our bullpen as well. Really smart. I'll say it again, good pitching beats good hitting. I guess ya'll would like our team to be like the Cubs.
you act like the hitting is all that great......outside of berkman there's nobody. and try to tell me preston wilson is that good...
Like the Cubs? How about like the Cardinals, Red Sox, Yankees, etc.? There are more teams with good offense than just the Cubs. Also, the Cubs might have won some more if Prior and Wood have actually been healthy. It's not the fault of the Cubs' offense as much as it is a lack of durability among their starting pitching. It's one thing if folks were talking Oswalt or Pettitte for Tejada. An elite starting pitcher typically is more valuable than an elite hitter. But we're talking about a closer - a pitcher that in some seasons won't even pitch 60 innings. It's also a position that isn't even needed in every game (it's been over a week since Lidge has even gotten a save). It's also a position (relief pitching) that the Astros have considerable depth and talent in and could plug in Wheeler or Qualls into that role. That's not to say that I don't like or appreciate Brad Lidge. He's a wonderful player, and his performance in the 2004 playoffs was the most dominant of any pitcher I've ever seen play. But if you're able to get a relatively young premium offensive talent at the game's most difficult position (SS) for a reliever, you do it. No matter who the reliever is. That said, not much point to the debate because if we offered the Orioles Lidge for Tejada straight up, they'd laugh hysterically and hang up the phone. To put it in perspective, pretend for a second the Astros didn't have Brad Lidge and didn't have a consistent closer. Let's also pretend that Mariano Rivera was a couple years younger, and let's say the Yankees offer Rivera to us for Lance Berkman. Would any of you actually seriously consider that trade? I hope not. Relievers aren't starters. It's great to have an All-Star closer, and it helps you so much in close games. But if you can acquire one of the game's elite offensive talents at the most offensively-challenged position for a reliever, you do it. No questions. Not a second of hesitation. It's that simple. And it's not a knock against Lidge at all - I think the world of him. It's just the relative value of the two positions.
Where did you hear this? As far as I know, the difference between throwing a curve and a slider is nothing more than ball placement in the hand.
You're completly right, and I think you know that anyone unwilling to trade a closer (the most easily replaced role in the game) for a top 30 hitter is crazy.
Lidge is incredibly overrated, he's currently suffering from the "Nick Anderson syndrome", let's hope we can trade him for an impact player before the rest of the league figures it out. If the rumors that we could've had Tejada for Lidge and some other mediocre player, then the Orioles GM should be immediately tested for steroids...I hear they shrink your brain as well.
Even with our weak offense, add Clemens + a healthy Backe & we are better than all three of those teams. Just another example of how much more important pitching is than offense.
Aceshigh, When the Cards club us to death this season, you'll understand (I thought the White Sox series sent that message home, but I guess not). No one is saying either/or, of course you need great pitching and at least very good offense to win it all, but I don't think that a closer like Lidge is more valuable than a Tejada-caliber player, it's not even close...that's just crazy talk.
We had Clemens and a healthy Backe last year and we weren't better than the Cardinals. Though I'm told they lost some people.
i know pitching is important but so IS HITTING! players like tejada come once in a lifetime. you gotta jump all over the oppurtunity just like the astros did. they were gonna do the deal until bemore dropped out. you can replace a closer easily. there are so many good closers, im sure there will be one on the market during the trade deadline
the cards got scott rolen back. probably the best third baseman two years ago and wouldve been last year. maybe the 2nd best this year if he can stay healthy (behind david wright)
You guys just don't understand. When I say we are better than those three teams, i'm not talking about ability to build nice regular season records. I'm talking about being best when it counts in the playoffs. After all, that's what every team plays for. One or more of those teams might finish with a better regular season record than us. But with Clemens & Backe we would have the dominant pitching staff, and that's what counts in the playoffs. Look at the 90's when the Stros had one of the powerhouse offenses in the league. Look at the first round playoff failures. Now look at the last two years with our awesome pitching. The two most successful playoff runs in Astros history. I don't give a rats ass about regular season records. In the playoffs, the team with the better pitching performances wins.. Period.
I know I'm in a small minority here, but the playoffs mean nothing. The sample size is too small. Statistically, MLB should work like the Premiership--whoever has the best record in the end is the winner. No playoffs. Look at the Devil Rays' record against the Yankees the last few years--which team is better, really? And the fact that you think a guy with a career ERA of 4.79 is dominating alarms me.
OPS and ERA are the most effective common stats in determining success. OPS, ERA rankings of the last 7 champions: 2005: 16th, 4th 2004: 1st, 11th 2003: 13th, 10th 2002: 6th, 6th 2001: 9th, 4th 2000: 10th, 16th 1999: 4th, 8th Teams with a better OPS than ERA: 3 Teams with a better ERA than OPS: 3 Teams with identical ratings: 1 Average champ OPS ranking: 8.43 Average champ ERA ranking: 8.43 Looks to me like pitching is as exactly as valuble as hitting.
Even if your argument is correct, lets look at our minor league system. It's chock full of pitching prospects. Buchholz and Nieve just got out and were top prospects. Jason Hirsch and Troy Patten are both guys who could be really great. And we've got other guys that are slowly moving up. We are and have been loaded for years when it comes to top pitching prospects. On the flip side, we have virtually no offensive prospects. The only name mentioned is Hunter Pence and he's a few years away. Luke Scott could develop into a good MLB player but he's still not there yet. Other than those two we have no one who we can count on. So we need hitting and we need it badly. Tejada wouldve been a damn good edition to this team even if we had to give up backe and lidge. Lidge can be replaced as we've replaced closers in the past. And we have enough pitching prospects to fill the void with Backe.
I don't want to get into OPS, ERA, W-L, or any other statistical debate. All I can say is Lidge is a pretty good to great closer but a Miguel Tejada effects a LOT more in terms of winning than Lidge does.
