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

I think we pretty much agree. I wouldn't trade either Lidge or Oswalt for nothing. My barometer on Lidge would be if you could feel 2 holes. On Oswalt it would have to be 2 holes and 1 top pitching prospect.

 

The Astros trading philosophy is a paradox. They won't trade guys like Ensberg and Lidge, guys who have been really good then sucked, because their value has dropped. They think these guys can recover and don't want to sell low. If one of these guys actually does recover (Lidge), then they don't want to trade them because now their a valuable part of the team. I'm surprised we trade anyone at all.

 

astros are a joke...not trading lidge??? lol

 

trade jennings for ANYTHING

 

if we're planning on keeping lidge, we need to look for trades for qualls or wheeler. teams are always looking for bullpen help

we might be forced to keep jennings and resign him for a bogus amount because of his poor play and his injury.

loretta, lamb, and qualls are our best trade chips, but we dont have a 3B to replace lamb since morgan is broken.

our biggest problems are our lack of premium position players. 3B, SS, C, RF. we also lack the big trade chips to obtain a premium position player.

qualls for a guy like wladimir balentien or adam jones from the mariners would make me happy. both are in AAA and both have tools out the wazoo.

the mets could use loretta, but they dont have many prospects available. phil humber and mike pelfrey are the only guys they may be willing to give up, but loretta isnt enough. it would take a guy like juan gutierrez to even up the deal, but thatd be a bit much to give up. they do lack outfielders, maybe they'd take palmeiro to be their pinch hitter. or perhaps luke scott.

resign Jennings
trade qualls for OF Adam Jones/Wladimir Balentien
trade Loretta and Scott/Palmeiro for Phil Humber
promote Paul Estrada

outfield of lee, pence, and Jones/Balentien
rotation of oswalt, jennings, sampson, humber, wandy/williams/patton

 

I don't think either of your trades will work. Qualls or Loretta won't bring that much via trade. That's the conundrum. In order to solve multiple problems we will have to create a huge hole at closer or trade Oswalt, both who would be untouchable on a contending team. I just think we trade one or the other to build a contender in 2 or 3 years.

 

backe? nieve in the pen? who is catcher?

 

Hilarious.

For the past several years, people have commented how great Purpura was at running our farm system and that he would be as good as Hunsicker.

Here is a thread where you contradict yourself:
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=65993&highlight=hunsicker

I said this last year, two years ago, three years ago: Hunsicker was the best GM this town ever had.

 

to be fair, oswalt, berkman, lidge, qualls, ensberg, taveras, lane and burke were all (iirc) under purpura's watch and were all important parts of our two-year run in 04 and 05.

the problem is that they've given away picks for beltran (yes?), kent, huff, pettitte and clemens by refusing arbitration on them while struggling to replenish the farm.

 

And those players alone did not = contender. Hunsicker was able to make the trades that differentiated us from what we are today.

As a GM with a limited budget, you have to make good trades and Hunsciker did it every year.

 

can we really depend on 2 guys that just had major surgery? catchers are hard to come by. i dont think any team is really willing to trade a young catching prospect for what we have.

 

no i was asking why you left those guys out and who is your catcher?

 

No one's disagreed with that, riet. At least he's far and away the best Baseball GM this town has ever had--I haven't followed basketball and football GMs as closely.

He was the best, but the last few years and his last few drafts *did* hurt this organization. I would take him back in a heartbeat, personality rifts and all, too--nobody's perfect.

 

Wasn't Tim Purpura's job, director of player development??

GM obviously oversees that but Purpura would seem to be the person in charge of that role.

I would attribute the trades more from Hunsicker and the drafts more Purpura and the scouts.

 

The way it was explained to me once, and I'm really hoping someone will correct or confirm here, is that Purpura oversaw player development, not scouting and not the drafts. Scouting and the drafts were much more, *IF* I remember correctly, Gerry's responsibility.

 

Can you give a logical reason (short of them getting an overwhelming offer) why they should trade him?

 

If you could get the Red Sox to pony up Ellsbury, it could end up being the Larry Anderson trade all over again.

 

pshh...who knows. astros probably dont even know who their catcher is. maybe hector gimenez if he'e healthy. maybe jr towles rips up spring training by batting 1.000 with 8 homers.

lidge to cleveland for kelly shoppach (major league ready catcher) and trevor crowe (not having a good year so far) may be a realistic deal.

shoppach has pop, never a big average hitter. plus plus defensively.

cleveland experimented with crowe as a 2nd baseman last year, and he may still be suffering psychologically (he struggled ALOT at 2B). he draws walks, has speed, and had a good track record coming into the year. we are in desperate need of a leadoff hitter next year, especially since burke hasnt proved he can play. if crowe can play like everyone knows he can, this may be a really good deal. cleveland probably had plans for him to split between AA and AAA this year, but he's struggled this year.

of course, we'd be in need of a closer. but what good is a closer if you never have the lead?

 

Closers on losing teams are unnecessary. This team has a lot of holes, and we're not likely to be able to fill all of those holes by this time next year, at which point, if I'm not mistaken, Lidge will be half a season from free agency. If we can turn Lidge into a bonafide prospect that will fill one of those needs for the next 5-10 years, you do it.