[Chron] Hunsicker must prove that he's trustworthy

part of this discussion should be who acquired bagwell and biggio and how much credit Drayton should get for the success they've brought to the franchise. I don't think there's any question this team has been better under Drayton.

 

They won those divisions when there were 3 divisions, not 2.

 

That is true, but you can also argue that the Astros are still in a division with 6 teams (and have been since the 1998) as they were under McMullen. In essence, they still have to beat out 5 other teams to win the division.

 

My point to all of this is not who is the better owner but how much of a variance in opinion between Drayton McLane (beloved) and Dr. John McMullen (hated).

There's not much difference between those two men and they were good friends because they were both great business owners and they treat their franchises as such and yet one is hated and is loved. It's all about PR and as a die hard sports fan, the facade is incredibly condescending.

Yes baseball is a business and yes it does not have a salary cap. However, when you compare Drayton McLane with the other Houston owners, Drayton has a much more business angle to running his club.

Bob McNair talks about his passion of bringing a football franchise to the city and being committed to winning a championship.

Les Alexander will take risks to make the Rockets a champion.

Drayton talks about putting together a good product on the field but always infuses the monetary aspect. Is winning a championship #1 on his priority list?

This may be a nuance but it's the attitude of the owner which is partially to blame for Hunsicker's departure.

The funniest part of this whole Richard Justice/Drayton McLane "feud" was when Drayton met with Justice to discuss his less than flattering article. After all, it was bad pr. Drayton will spend the money - when it makes good business sense.

We must now hope Adam Dunn professes his love for the city and goes on a pro-Houston media campaign. Maybe then Drayton will bring the local boy home so we can all applaud his greatness. Maybe, then maybe we can get that cleanup hitter.

Always a business man.

 

now I do totally agree with that. Drayton cares more about keeping fannies in the seats than winning. Doesn't mean he doesn't want to win, but money is his first priority.

 

People always bring up the Yankees and Red Sox. If it was purely a business, would anyone notice if Steinbrenner only spent 150 million? Wouldnt it make more sense to pocket the extra $50 million?

If the Red Sox spent $100 million and shaved $20 off their books, would anyone fault them? Wouldnt that make more business sense?

Yes they have more $ to spend but they also have the expectations to win.


Future potential Astros acquirees:

Adam Dunn
Carl Crawford
Woody Williams (oops, not the local splash needed and yesterday's news)

It's all about the image.

 

Once again, it's easy to say you're all about winning or taking risks when you're in a league that has some sort of salary restraints.

Put McNair (whose franchise is doing a bang-up job of putting a winner out there) and Alexander in a league where they have to worry about the big-market teams out-spending everyone and you might hear a different tune from them. On the flip-side, put Drayton in the NBA or NFL and things might be different.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens if Roger Clemens retires - whether Drayton pockets that $18 million or uses it to bring in another starting pitcher and a bat.

Do we stay at 12th in the league in payroll or do we drop to 15-18.

 

It will be interesting. I'm assuming he'll do something. For someone who ya'll just criticized for being all about his image and public relations, you would think he would use that money on something.

By the way, does anyone have handy our payroll for the last several years and it's rank to other franchises?

 

http://asp.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/salaries/totalpayroll.aspx?year=2005

 

The scary part now is Pupura thinks this strategy will always work. It's his calling card. So he'll likely never stray. What he may not understand is that Clemens was the high priced Free agent we will always need to go the distance..

 

C'mon, you have to give him more credit than that. Not to mention, it was only his strategy because there was nothing available that would've significantly helped the team at the trading deadline.

 

I think Purpura knows that this past year was less of a strategic plan and more of a roll of the dice....at least I hope so.

 

To address two earlier points:

--Another difference: McMullen signed Ryan and Sutton within his first two years of ownership. He went to on to trade for or sign... nothing. Well, a washed up 60-year old Omar Moreno I guess counts for something. McLane signed Drabek and Swindell, experienced the same disappointment, but then went on to trade for or acquire by free agency: Moises Alou, Randy Johnson, Ken Caminiti (the healthy, strong one), Jeff Kent, Carlos Beltran, Andy Pettitte, and Roger Clemens. Yeah, that's pretty "similar".

--With regards to it being "easier" to make the playoffs after the realignment and instating of the Wild Card, I would argue, based on the results, that it's *harder* nowadays. Wait, don't tune out just yet even though at first that sounds crazy. You see, it seems that the realignment, in addition to the ridiculously escalated, non-capped salary structure, has further polarized the league. For instance, between 1983 and 1993 *every* team in the NL West won the thing at least once (Padres in '84, Reds in '90, Jints in '89, Dojers in '85 and '88, the freaking Br*ves in '91 and '92, our beloved Astros in '86). Between 1994 and 2004, however, two teams have *dominated* the NL Central, with only a cameo appearance by the Scrubs in 2003 and Reds in '95. These NL Central perennial losers weren't absent from the playoffs for an entire decade back in the '80s: the Brewers in '82, the Reds in '90 and '91, and the Pirates in '90, '91, and '92. Several of those even went to and/or won the Big Dance.