Ensberg had a bad year last season. Lamb is a shaky defender. A move to shore up that position would have been justified. I didn't advocate trading for Glaus because of the injury history, and because we had bigger holes in the lineup, but there's no doubt he's an excellent player. I could have seen shifting Ensberg to the OF to accommodate Glaus, a la Chipper's move to the OF a few years back, or Biggio moving to CF when Kent was signed. Wouldn't have been a bad signing, honestly. Burnitz, who we almost signed, and who I did think would be a good fit, is doing very well in Chicago. .287/6/21 so far. And he wanted to come here.
I can guarantee you that there is no way Hunter or Stewart could have been obtained for Burke. I suspect Jones could have been acquired, but the Twins have been trying to trade him (off and on) for 2 seasons now and have been unable to. Since Jones is a good player and seems to be a good guy, I can only imagine that the Twins are asking for too much. The Astros fans would have been in an uproar if the team traded Burke for the likes of a player like Lew Ford, especially if Biggio got off to a poor start.
Glaus signed for 4 years at $45,000,000. He is a good "slugger" with a lifetime .254 average. Is that worth $10,000,000 per year?
Dunno, in the current market, I guess it might be. A slugger who can play 3B, and has 200 career HR by the age of 28 (Ensberg is 29 and has 45 career HR), doesn't come around every day. Basically, he'd be the Stros answer to Scott Rolen. If he was healthy! I still have my doubts about the guy long term (wasn't sold on Ordonez either for that reason, a guy who would have fit even better). Injury is a funny thing though, Bags had several seasons early in his career cut short by injury, but then was healthy after that until the recent shoulder stuff.
His per 162 game stats as of 2004 are .253/.854/36 hr/101 rbi. Sure, he's worth it as long as he can stay healthy. I say roll the dice and hope that he can. Then again its not my money.
SamCassell, I completely forgot about Burnitz. I heard something about him over the weekend when I wasn't really around here and told myself to remind myself to post about that. I think that was a mistake. I don't think the Glaus thing would've ever been seriously considered. I'm thinking the Astros think the platoon of Ensberg/Lamb is good enough, which I'm not sure if I agree or not. However, I can understand why they'd want to give it one more season to see if Ensberg could return to his 2003 form. I think, despite his tendency to watch strikes down the middle, he has. I still say that the Astros were in a no-win situation last off-season. They could either be played by Boras and have tons of fans whining or they could've halted their pursuit and the same tons of fans would be whining. Outside of Glaus, had they signed Finley, Ordonez, or Drew, people would be whining. It's the curse of the whiners. It'd be nice to think that an owner who has helped bring five playoff appearances in the last decade would have a little reservoir of trust among the fans, but he doesn't. Personally, I'm going to wait until after next off-season before I pass judgement.
Justice was on 610 this morning and had a few good comments to say about Uncle Drayton that's not openly known. When the Beltran talks stalled with Kansas City, Drayton went into his own check book and gave Kansas City 500k to sweeten the deal. Justice told Drayton he should release put this story in the open because it would improve his image. Drayton didn't want to. Hunsicker didn't want Drayton to give the extra 500k because he thought it was just positioning on Kansas City's part. Justice explained the main point of his article was that Uncle Drayton made a huge mistake running Hunsicker off, and pointed out that Hunsicker's plan would have been the right way to go this offseason. #1 keep Kent, Beltran time table, if Beltran doesn't sign use cash for middle relief and OF.
Screw the fans, honestly. Houston is full of front runners. If you do well, they love you. If you suck, they drop off the map. In fact, that's why I prefer letting GMs run the team instead of owners, because the only thing that should matter is whether the move makes the team better on the field. Give the GM a budget and let him manage that to the best of his ability. Hard decisions have to be made, sometimes. As negative as I can get, I still think the season's salvageable with the aquisition of one or two players. Not superstars, just Burnitz type guys. You can't wait until the trading deadline to make the moves, though.
I think (for better or worse) they were waiting on the Bagwell situation to resolve itself. In essence, it now has. They know now they need to acquire an additional bat (either OF and move Berkman to first, or a first baseman). for at least the remainder of this season.
I think we should have upgraded at SS and C, our 2 biggest holes. David Eckstein, while not great, is much better than Everett. Eckstein would be a solid #1 or 2 hitter. Guzman also available as a lesser option. I'd have to look up the Catchers available. Also, how about trades? Carlos Lee got traded for Podsednik, either of those guys would have been great for us. If we had a timetable for Beltran, maybe we could have got a bid in for Beltre. I am no Drayton basher at all, but I agree a lot with Justice and thing we could have done some more things.
I have no problem with what Drayton did in the offseason. He took a big risk, and it failed, but I can handle risk. The real test will be this coming offseason when we are not going after Carlos and Roger will be gone. Will he still spend the bucks to bring in another pitcher and a bat or two? That will be his defining moment. I personally am quite proud of what Drayton has done since the late 90's in making this a competitive team nearly every single season. I guess his only flaw is that he can't make this team the Braves and win the division every single year.
I disagree that SS should've been upgraded. While Everett will never be a league leader in average, he is one of the best defensive shortstops in the league. Based on what Eckstein did last year, I don't think that he should've ever been considered. He is having a much better year at the plate currently, but is that enough to warrant making that signing? I don't think so. Who could we have offered that is of Lee's value? I'm not sure we'd have gone after Beltre. Without looking at his stats for this year, I'm sure many teams were scared off by his sudden production in a contract year. Many thought he was another in a long-line of overhyped prospects before last season. Maybe, but I'm going to wait until next offseason when we'll most likely have tons of money to work with before I bash the guy. I'd probably be more likely to agree more if it was someone else writing the article too.
Beltre will be a one-hit wonder who is HUGELY overpaid...here he is in the limited sample size of 2005 .237 4HR 23 RBI 22 Runs 0 SB .264 OBP .359 SLB
Tough position for Purpura to be in this offseason. Dude was really thrown into the fire. They got played by Boras, and lost out on a couple of pretty solid contributors (Finely, Burnitz, Drew). You cant really base stats on what might have been, but Im pretty confident that all would have made some impact. Who knows what type of numbers they would have at hitter-friendly Minute Maid?? Keep that in mind when you guys are using stats from a 1/4th of a full season. Drayton isnt a baseball man - he is a business man. He wants to make money. If anyone thinks that he has really lost money with this franchise, you are seriously kidding yourself. Look at the facts.... 2 uniform changes (the most recent having like 8 different styles) Numerous playoff runs A new ballpark Ticket increases High priced Concessions Luxury Suites, Club levels Highly marketable players the list goes on and on........ We got caught up in the frenzy of last year, and Drayton used our euphoria to create more wealth for himself. Done like a true businessman would.
that's fair....but that's kinda the point, too. the judgments for everyone, astro/other, owner/player are being done through a 1/4 of the season. The same 1/4 of the season that Justice based this entire article on.
Like you've pointed out in other threads, it's still early. I'm not a big fan of his, just pointing out the options we had. He signed for $64 million, a little over half what we offered Beltran. I doubt Beltran will be worth twice as much, unless Beltre is a total bust and Beltran continues to improve.
That's kind like saying we got a steal because Clemens' deal is worth less than one sixth of Beltran's deal with the Mets. Beltre's deal averages just under 13 mill a year. Beltran's deal averages 17 mill a year. You could get Beltre and maybe another average position player, back end starter, or reliever for the price of Beltran.
or a good GM by the way...Max/RM....email me thru the site...I have a game or 2 in June that I know I will be away for.
