Chron: Not trading Lidge, Vote o Confidence for Purp and Gar

I'm convinced more now than ever that Drayton knows nothing about baseball.

 

Hey Drayton,
De Nile is not just a river in Egypt!!

 

The latter can be debated (although personally I'd keep Garner and Purpura as well), but I've never understood any desire to trade Lidge. No, the Astros aren't contending this season, so in some respects, they could be sellers. However, in circumstances like these, the players available usually fall into one of two categories: free agents to be in the offseason who obviously can't help in the current season OR veterans who might not be useful by the time the team's rebuilding effort is complete. Brad fits neither of those criteria.

Lidge is under contract for next season, and he's still relatively young. His talent is as good as any closer in baseball, and his performance this season has been outstanding. All the major statistics, from ERA to WHIP to BAA... you name it, and he's at or approaching the 2005 level. He's been one of the best relievers in baseball for three of the last four seasons, and outside of him, the bullpen (both in Houston and in the minors) is pretty bad. There isn't a stud closer in waiting. Unless you get a deal of the century, why in the world would you trade him?

 

Totally agree. Unless you can get two prospects that can fill legitimate holes - and soon - trading Lidge doesn't make a lot of sense. Whatever problems you solve in other areas, you're creating a huge problem at closer going into next year.

This team is just lacking in useful assets. It has a lot of marginal players that aren't worth anything, and a handful of fantastic players that you wouldn't want to trade. How to drastically improve the team (besides just going out and getting a bunch of expensive free agents), I'm not really sure.

 

He's one of the best closers in the game.
Who hasnt closed a game.

 

First, don't misquote me... I said he was one of the best relievers in the game.

Second, the only reason he doesn't have saves is because he spent some time as a setup man and spent much of the last month on the DL. Given his dominating performance on the year, the saves will come when he's presented with opportunities. But, even if you somehow believe he's mentally scarred from the ninth (a complete load of BS)... why should this team deal a dominant reliever, period, even if he can't close (which he can, and will)?

Bottom line: this season, his ERA is around 2, his BAA around .200, and WHIP below 1.20 (much lower if you take out the first three weeks). That's approaching, and in some cases, surpassing, his elite levels in 2005. The rest of the bullpen has been awful. If you want to trade away one of the best relievers in the game this year (3 of the last 4, to be honest) and depend more on the rest of that bullpen, I can't understand that.

 

That wasnt from anything you said, sorry on that. You weren't quoted at all, all I read in here was the article and quoted Drayton:

I'da probably been more persuaded and not as negative if I read your parts...

To me based off Drayton, thats like saying Morgan Ensberg's been of the better power hitting 3rd baseman when there's little to no numbers of the PARTICULAR mentioned ability.

You're saying, using an example analogy, that Morgan Ensberg who's known for power only might have 3 homers, but (dont we wish) his batting average is .330 and obp, slugging and rbi's are sky high so he'd still be a good player. So with Lidge your right on that.

I consider Lidge trabeable though

 

I understand we don't have another closer in the waiting. I also have hopes Lidge will return to his All Star form. I just don't see the point of paying the guy 5-6 million next year for a losing team. Then trading him next year at a lower value or resigning him for twice as much. When you don't have players from the farm system to call that can fill your holes, you have to seriously bust out the check book, and it will be very expensive. But if he's gonna trade Lidge, he needs to trade Roy, Lance etc. I think he looks at the Rockets and Texans attendance when there losing, and this is effecting his decisions. I think he underestimates baseball fans wanting to watch the likes of players like Hunter Pence and exciting others. The public can accept a few year rebuilding mode after a solid deacade of winning.

Sorry Drayton, if you think just signing one more player next off season will make us a champion or even contender, your dead wrong! He's already gonna have to pay up for Jennings in the off season and that will cost big money, or that will be a major loss and horrible trade in itself we will be criticising next year. Whether you like Jennings or not, he eats up innings and gives us a chance to win. That's about all you can hope for. We will also never succeed with a lousy #6 hitter, Ausmus, Everett, and then the pitching spot in the batting lineup. That's almost 1/2 a lineup of sub par offense. Unless he's planning on forking up 100+ million for Zambrano, resign Jennings, adding a stud contact hitter, and Lidge is closing well again, then Drayton is clueless.

As we speak, Tim Purpura is probably blaming this while thing on Garner so Tim can keep his job for another year or two. I really have know idea what firing Garner would accomplish. He plays the guys he's given. Garner isn't the one drafting our players, making or not making the trades, and or not signing the free agents. He's not the one who ordered the payroll to be slashed. He's tried building Lidge up time and time again. He's never publicly blasted the players, and has been a constant professional. My only criticism of him is for playing Adam Everett. However, i don't even know if that's really up to him. It could be a direct order from Tim or Drayton. I think in the NL, these days of the long ball era and inflated era's, you can only have one guy that's on the field for defensive purposes (unless you have an All Star pitching staff) since there's no DH, but we have Ausmus to bat as well. With the pitcher slot, that's 3 easy outs that can multiply into 12 a game plus stranding runners.

Either Drayton needs to spend some serious $$$ in the offseason like never before, or i really hope he's just putting up a huge smoke screen and is gonna blow this team up real soon. If not, he's really wasting the prime of Berkman's and Oswalt's career. The two of which have very genorious contracts in today's market, which significantly adds to their value. What other duo of constant league MVP and Cy Young caliber type players have contracts close to them?

 

but there are areas that COULD be concerning, namely his K/9 is down for the 4th year in a row (14.9 in '04; 13.1 in '05; 12.5 in '06; 11.9 so far in '07) and he's walking guys at about the same pace as last year.

the fewer Ks (and, thus, more balls in play) worry me because of the poor defense behind him.

if he's not dealt, i'd be OK with that. but i think they'd be foolish not to dangle him and see what teams are willing to offer. as valuable as i know he has been, and can be, filling two needs, maybe even three needs would make him more expendable, imo.

 

My concern is not that they won't trade Brad Lidge, but that the owner states we won't even consider trading him. Given the multiple holes on this team, closing the door on negotiations for any player is asinine.

Even if you are leaning on keeping a player, why state it publicly? He has now painted his GM into a corner. If Boston or Cleveland gave us half their minor league system, we can't pull the trigger.

We have very few tradeable assets and if Drayton thinks this club is even close to competing he is very naive. It is the same blind loyalty to Biggio, Bagwell, Ausmus, Lane, Everette, and Ensberg that got us into the shape we are in now.

We have had a great ride with lots of winning seasons and playoff appearances, but if we don't start re-building soon, we are going to be into a decade long draught and all the accolades Drayton has gotten for keeping us competitive are out the door. Look at the Rockets and how they have tried to bandaid a team together year to year. The result has been a decade of frustration.

Remember Drayton, there aren't any FA on the horizon that will come in on their white horses and save us. Jason Jennings is going to command 10M for godsakes!

 

oh, and one more thing - to further my point: we currently have 15 saves as a team, ranking 29th of 30. now some of that is because of lidge's early struggles and of late, injury; some of it is because of wheeler's implosion (i believe we blew 8 saves in the 1st half). but the vast majority of it is directly tied to us not being a very good team.

and if we don't find a way to make ourselves better, it's likely to be as barren next year. i think - all things being equal, that i'd rather have a team capable of winning but no set and/or dominant closer than a dominant closer and a team incapable of winning.

so if lidge represents the quickest, easiest path to us dramatically improving the team, i'm all for trading him. but purpura can't settle.

 

Exactly ... I don't care if he is traded or not, but if the right deal came along and we still didn't pull the trigger because they are not even considering it, we are in trouble.

 

Well, he's the only pitcher that anybody else wants, besides Oswalt.

I'm not quite up to speed on trade deadline history. Do contenders usually go after hitting or pitching at the trade deadline? If the other teams want pitching, it's pretty much Lidge or nothing. Unless you deal with a complete moron, you're not going to get much for your crap, and that's what the rest of the pitching staff is, outside of Lidge and Oswalt.

If it's hitting that the other teams want, then the Astros' options are a little bit more flexible.

This is where Purpura defines himself as a GM. Is he a guy that is going to take risks, or is he Drayton's puppet? No matter what he does, he's kind of in a lose/lose situation. He trades Lidge and the trade backfires, he's done. He does nothing and the team continues to suck, he's done...

 

Methinks McLane is trying to up the ante for Lidge. Trading Lidge makes too much baseball and business sense for the Astros to not do it.

 

Man, you are a glass half-full kind of guy. I hope you're right, but I think Drayton wears his heart on his sleeve. We ain't doing nuthin with any of our good ole boys.

 

If you say that Purpura is his puppet and that Drayton has full control, you can't then have it both ways and say the mistakes are his fault and the successes are in spite of him.

 

Always have to chime in win somebody says they hate Davies and Dukes. Please get those idiots off the air. Didn't hear the purp interview, but sounds like my worst fears are indeed true. We have an owner who is running roughshod over the gm. Hunsicker was in the top 3 or 4 gm's in the league and just got tired of putting up with the **it. I think the Billy Wagner trade and the Biggio resigning were probably the straws that broke Jerry's back.