Do you seriously believe that I forgot about that, or are you just being facetious? I believe it's rather obvious that I was talking baseball. And, as others have stated, we have a good thing going with those Rox right about now.
I personally believe this to be a serious BS non-issue (but I don't mean to combative about it). The reason is--it's human nature. The eastern and western seaboards are *much* more populated than the south central; the media markets are HUGE. So, it's human nature IMO, not a lack of respect. People are drawn to things that are kindred: my city, my state, my region, etc. So I don't believe Houston is disrespected, or despised, etc--just not familiar.
I called in to remind Charlie about the Justice article from last summer. I also told him I thought most of the guys people thought we missed out on by going after Beltran haven't been doing all that great themselves. He was up against a break so he didn't really respond at all. Seriously, can someone answer this question for me? Who should we have signed out of the guys who were mentioned in connection to the Astros last offseason? I'm not stating a position here, I'm really not remembering. The only four I remember were either impossible to get or would've been wastes of money, IMO. Posednik (Carlos Lee is better than anyone we could've offered), Finley, Drew and Ordonez.
How do these numbers grab you: Moises Alou .270 avg 3 HR 12 RBI 16 runs 1 SB .415 OBP .432 SLG Jason Lane .232 avg 5 HR 15 RBI 15 runs 5 SB .284 OBP .435 SLG obviously, OBP is the notable difference. but i'm sorry...if you're talking about relative value given the investment...there is no reason to spend what Alou got from the Giants (or top that offer, considering his father was there) when Lane is out there. and i say that as someone who has serious questions about jason lane, period.
That's so damn funny. When I heard you on 790 I had a feeling that it was either you, MadMax, or msn. I know that there are only 3 Drayton sympathizers in Houston.
THANK YOU. this is exactly what every Astros fan should be upset with, and it baffles me that we have guys defending Drayton/Front office's every move. WE WERE A FEW OUTS AWAY FROM THE WORLD SERIES. when will that opportunity come again???? giving last season, our Front office brain trust should've been on FULL THROTTLE trying to improve this team. regardless or whether beltran would've signed here or not, our complete lack of planning and/or contingency plans was unacceptable. staying w/in budget shouldn't have even made the list of priorities this offseason. letting kent go to save $2 million??? our most productive hitter throughout all of last year, and we let him go for nothing. and for what??? to save a lousy $2 million. and letting Borass play us for months??? our front office should have more foresight that that. it just furiates me that our team was soooo close to making it to the world series FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, and we just let it slip comletely away, just because mcclane doesn't want to go over his precious budget. go out there, improve this damn team - money be damned - and reward the fans who have sat patiently for 40+ yrs.
So you believe that had we re-signed Kent and signed, say, Magglio instead of Beltran...we'd be in the same position as last year? Oh right, Bagwell injured. Oh right, Berkman out for the first month. Oh wait, Magglio went down (or Finley is sucking, or JD hasn't produced as expected..take it across the board). Oh wait, Kent's production is suddenly in the tank. You'd be leading the complaints about why the Astros shouldn't have spent so much $$ for players that were such "OBVIOUS" risks. I don't understand--you say we were so close last year, so we should have spent all this money. First of all, we wouldn't have fielded the same team without Beltran, so spending all that money doesn't even equate with the players. Next, we'd be on the hook for extra years with Finley or Alou, or on the hook long term with Drew or Maggs. And finally, since when does "coming really close" to a WS mean "spend at all costs no matter what you think the right move is" ? They thought the right move was not to overpay for some of those OF's at their age, injury risk, or semi-unproven talent. They should still make decisions they believe to be the correct ones, regardless of where the team went last year. I believe there's a way to just "go for it"...but signing a bunch of guys long-term and hurting your future is not it. If Drayton had the opportunity to overspend and sign guys to 1 or 2 year deals and really go for it, I'd be all for it. But that wasn't the option
when did i say we should've just thrown money around at however came ou rway??? just because i said we shouldn't have worried about some magical budget figure, doesn't mean i said we should waste it on multi-year contracts to mediorce players. did we improve at all this offseason? NO..... we got worse. much worse. Bagwell's shoulder has been shot for how long now? and he's been struggling both offensively and defensively for what, a couple of seasons now? did this injury completely shock you, or are you saying that we're desperately missing his .250 BA? we shouldn't be depending on Bagwell for much of anything by now. and you think that because Kent is "struggling" in LA, that he'd automatically be struggling here, even though he's proven to be succesful here and he's only played about 40 games with LA (nevermind the fact that he's hitting .292 w/ 8hrs and 30 RBI)? or that Magglio would've coincedently injured himself here as well, or that JD wouldn't help our anemic offense? i would take a re-signed kent righ tnow that's for damn-sure. do you think Clemens and Pettite will be playing for us forever? we brought the both of them in here to help us win a title, not to get close the first year and then say "well, we tried." not fielding a competitive team behind the starting pitching we have is downright criminal. and all this adds up to...... Front management putting all their eggs in the beltran basket, only to get completely played and miss out on the opportunity to sign other players we most definitely would've made an offer to. we let Kent go, thinking we could use that $2 mil for beltran, only to allow beltran to toy with us for 2 months before bolting anyways. how a professional sports front office could get duped so easily is beyond me. we could've picked up 3 solid players for the money we were planning to throw to beltran, but management lacked the foresight to devise any sort of relevant backup plan. i agree that after beltran bolted, there wasn't much we could've done to salvage the offseason. but it shouldn't have ever come to that point, especially after the year we had. and drayton raising ticket prices and earning more $ off of new TV deals doesn't help one bit.
Be prepared for such treatment if that is the market you chose (or actually were forced) to live in due to factors beyond your control.
What is this diversion, Sam? Don't take your professional frustrations out on me. You shouldn't have spent so much time on the internet at work. Not my fault.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=6063 Plus I think we could have worked out a trade for one of the Twins outfielders. They still need a 2nd baseman over there and they seem to be enamored with Adam Everett's defensive skills. Burke + Everett for any one of Stewart/Jones/Ford/Hunter + Lecroy would have improved both teams. I know that Lecroy can't throw anyone out, but we could have sat him down whenever we faced a running team, plus he'd be available to backup Bagwell.
You show a link to Troy Glaus. The team felt comfortable at 3rd base with the Ensberg/Lamb platoon (and Ensberg is playing just fine this year). Not only that, Glaus signed a mega-million dollar deal and was coming off rotator cuff surgery. WHy should the fans have expected Houston to go after a 3rd baseman? The only outfielder the Twins would have considered trading (within reason) was Jacque Jones and only because he can become a free agent. The Twins have their own young SS in Jason Bartlett. They don't need Everett.
I still don't think Ensberg or Lamb are the answer at 3rd base. Ensberg is on a hot streak for sure, but I don't see him hitting 30 hr's and driving in more than 90 runs. This team needs to add some kind of slugging and Glaus would have been a perfect replacement for Kent's bat. Ensberg is a decent hitter and if I was setting up the lineup card now I'd put him in the number 2 slot for this team. The problem is that this team has too many of these 2 slot type guys and not enough 3 or 4 type hitters. We need someone that can hit the ball over the fence consistently. Biggio 2b Jones cf/lf Berkman rf Glaus 3b Bagwell/Lamb 1b LeCroy c Taveras/Lane cf/lf Vizcaino ss That's roughly 13 mil extra payroll. Alot of money no doubt, but I'm thinking maybe Roger wouldn't have asked for 18 mil if some of these type moves were made before his negotiations began. That's just a guess though. I could have lived with just Glaus.
Realistically, though, there was no reason for the Astros to pursue a 3rd baseman, which is the crux of RM95's question. For the 2005 season, there were only 2 positions where the Astros needed to realistically pursue players (once Kent and Beltran were gone). Assuming that the plan was for Biggio to return to 2nd, then one of the positions was outfield, the other was an additional arm or two for relief. There is no way LeCroy is even close to an everyday catcher. As an example, the Twins started this season with FOUR catchers on their roster (Mauer, Redman, LeCroy and Corky Miller) due to the uncertainty of Mauer's knee. On that list, LeCroy was 4th. They kept Corky Miller (lifetime average of .193 including 1 for his last 51) as a 3rd catcher (recently demoted him) rather than entrust that job to LeCroy. If a team with 2 catchers who could start for many teams, can't even trust LeCroy to be a THIRD catcher (much less the backup), why would any team consider starting him?
Im my scenario there Ensberg would have been traded for one of those relief arms. Don't ask me which one, though. You're probably right about Lecroy and that's probably the weakest link in my argument. The guy can hit pretty well, though. He's just another guy that doesn't defend well enough to justify playing catcher and doesn't hit well enough to justify playing at DH or 1b. Pretty much like Lamb... Still think one of those Minn outfielders could have been had for Burke.
