Roger is a Houston fan but he's much much much more a Roger fan. I hate to see it but I'm beginning to understand the animosty that Red Sox fans have towards Clemens.
I don't think any particular guy, at this point, will lead to Roger coming back or not. I think if his body allows it..he will be back in May or June. I agree that Juan would be a booby prize compared to Abreu or Manny...but we'll see. RM - next week sounds good
I hate to say it, but I don't think Drayton and Tim have the cohones to go after Abreu or Manny. My guess is that we'll be welcoming Juan Encarnacion or Jeremy Burnitz as the "big" off-season acquisition. Looking at all of the chatter going around about the Winter Meetings, the Astros are not mentioned once...which tells me that either the information gatherer's are from the East or West coast and do not have relationships w/ Astros insiders, or the Astros are not seriously considering any big targets....I know he's a 2b and he'll be in the last year of his deal, but Soriano is just the kind of bat that the Astros could have used. I hate to seem like I have a case of sour grapes, as the Stros were indeed in the Big Show this past season, but look at what the White Sox did...they addressed a need right away and didn't screw around....that's what a Championship organization does.
Um, they were mentioned in the Abreu sweepstakes and they also offered Burnett the same contract the Cardinals did. Not to mention, there was absolutely no chatter about the Astros acquiring Beltran or Randy Johnson before they did. Yeah, they have no cajones. Who have they added outside of Thome and resigned a player? If we didn't have Bagwell's status in question for next year, a replacement for him who has openly said he prefers to play 1B, and/or we had the luxury of a DH, our options would've expanded.
It's easy to spend other people's money, eh? Clemens next year for $20M is a terrible idea. Good for the Astros not caving on that.
Exactly. Had the Hendricks brothers and Roger even showed the willingness to negotiate before last night, I think we would've seen a better chance of the team offering arbitration.
That's exactly right. The Astros asked Clemens for a number. He wouldn't give it to them. They wanted to know what they could expect. He wouldn't give it to them. So they made their decision. They weren't gonna get caught flat-footed again.
I think if anything, this Clemens situation showed that Purp and Drayton learned from last years mistakes
And, I think, it's giving us our first look at the "other" Roger Clemens. All he had to do was give the Stros a number, and he didn't do it. It's clear who he's looking out for, IMO.
First look this week, maybe. He's been all about Roger, all the time, for a long time. There's a reason Hun went ballistic to the media when the negotiations b/t the Astros, Toronto & the Hendricks's fell through. There's a reason many UT folks were upset at how he went about getting his jersey retired there. He's a b*stard, but the last couple of years, he was our b*stard. Now he's just another b*stard, unless he becomes our b*stard again.
Well yeah, that's what I meant. The first look since he's been a Stro. Truth be told, Rocket was probably my least favorite player in baseball before he put on our Mud and Blood unis.
He's not worth $18MM...period...I'd love to have him back, but man, to wait for him to decide is crazy and detremental to the club...We'll see how this plays out...I suspect we'll add a quality FA and then Roger will come back...
Exactly... a lot of people here were saying how dumb Drayton and Tim were to wait around on Beltran last year, when they should have seen the writing on the wall well before (even though Boras and co. were using the dark side of the force to convince us we were still in the runing). Now, the same people are going to criticize the Astros, and say they should have offered Clemens arbirtation... even though that means that they would have had to likely wait around again till that same January deadline before they got a decision.
Oh boy, we've heard that before... All this from the guy that was trying to shout down people last year who wanted to add a bat. I guess now we need one? ...the apologists are once again bending over backwards to defend Drayton and Purpura. Ticket price increase, brand new stadium, an extra $15 million/year from a new tv deal, postseason income --- SPEND THE MONEY DRAYTON.
TJ -- you have very little credibility in an astros message board right now. you told us this team was doomed to mediocrity or worse. and worst of all..you were never able to admit you were wrong. this owner and GM you critcize just won the NL pennant.
Is the offseason over Trader_Jorge? Did they make an announcement last night that free agents couldn't be signed and trades couldn't be made after last night? I was at a friend's rehearsal dinner and honestly could've missed it. I just did a quick scan of espn.go.com, www.cnnsi.com, www.foxsports.com and really haven't seen anything to that effect.
I'll be honest...now that Roger is gone, I'm not even thinking about winning or even going back to the World Series. I think that, without Roger, that dream is pretty much over for a while. We wouldn't have done the incredible things we did the last two seasons without him. He led us to where we had never been before. Noone can replace him and his value to this team. With such a great loss, I think we are back to mediocrity for a while. It will be interesting to see how it plays out next season without him. I'm not holding my breath for Roger to come back in May, either, given he was surprised by the arbitration move. I think he was expecting the Astros to make some moves and still keep Roger in their plans. What a sad way to end the Roger Clemens era in Houston.
LOL, this coming from a guy who recently said that we're going to pick up Manny Ramirez and re-sign Clemens. That's funny. Um, yeah, Purpura pretty much shot you down cold. I have always argued that had the Astros added a bat last year -- either in the offseason or at the trading deadline -- then they would have been in position to win a title. I was right. You were wrong to think they could win it all without another bat. In case you missed it, the Astros have yet to win a WS game.
