Does Drayton McLane have the know-how to build a championship team?

It's not that he doesn't have the know-how. He just has his wallet locked up.

We will never win as long as Drayton is owner.

We lose in the 1st round for the 4th year in 5 years, and we upgrade the team by adding a 4th OF, in Brian Hunter, while losing Alou and Castilla. Way to go Drayton.

Drayton is a worse owner than Bud Adams. At the very least, Adams was willing to pay money for the best talent, before the salary cap.

 

I don't really think it will be a big problem. Right now, Biggio is making somewhere around 8-10 mil a season, and Reynolds is making about 7 mil a season. Both of them will have their contracts come up within a year or two, as I recall, so that will be a lot of cap space that can be used to sign guys like Oswalt (Berkman was signed for 4 years so he will be here a while), Miller, Hernandez, Ward, etc. I am sure that somebody will be lost here and there, but that is to be expected. If we somehow lose Ward, Hidalgo or (God forbid) Berkman, then there is still Jason Lane knocking on the door almost ready to hit the majors and take their place. But I don't see us losing any of our young talent to free agency for at least another 4 years or so. When Biggio's contract is up, I think he will either retire or sign for much less (since he is much older and less productive now) and Reynolds will likely not be resigned since there are so many young arms waiting to break through into the rotation.

Yes, it does bother me that McClane is not willing to poney up the dough necessary to put us over that hump, but thankfully this team has one of the best farm systems in the league, so he can get away with it.

 

Do you honestly think that the next owner in here is going to open his wallet like the Yankees or something? It's not the owner, its the economics of the city. The organization is run extremely well and with Cleveland, may be the best "middle market" team of the last 5 years. Further, we;ve had the talent in the past. We were, in my opinion, the best team in baseball when we lost out to the Padres in the first round. The team was there, they just didn't perform.

 

The Astros have won division title 4 of the last 5 years. It was not due to a lack of money that the Astros faltered in the playoffs. For the most part, the hitting has been outstanding in the regular season and terrible in the postseason. The pitching has been good in the regular season and very good during the postseason.

Although the Astros could certainly use Johnson, Hampton and/or Kile, the lack of those players has not seriously affected the Astros in their postseason defeats. You certainly can't complain about the pitching performances of Miller or Mlicki against the Braves.

This is the first season that the Astros have lost a significant position player (Alou) in the past 5 years. While Maclane may not have made moves to keep players, he has not been hesitant to obtain players (e.g. Astacio and Johnson).

 

It's not; but the poorly-informed whiners have to complain about something, don't they? How anyone can objectively look at the Astros organization & not be truly thrilled at our prospects for success over the next 8-10 years is utterly baffling.

What's wrong w/ a little fiscal responsibility? Did anyone really expect the Astros to spend $90 M on payroll like the Dogers, Yanks & others? Everyone likes to b**** & moan about the Yankees "buying" the WS every year, but then at the same time they b**** because the Astros don't do the same thing. Face it, Houston is a mid-market city; the Astros simply do not receive the revenue from TV & radio contracts to "pony up" the same kind of cash. Florida tried, & look what happened to that franchise. Arizona spent big bucks & it paid off short-term, but the D-Backs have SERIOUS financial problems & will be, after the current crop of veterans retire or are no longer productive, basically screwed for the forseeable future. Tom Hicks has been throwing around $$$ like a monkey flinging sh*t for the last 3 years, where's that gotten the Rangers? How about the Orioles?

The Astros are a model MLB franchise: spend resonably (& w/in their budget) on payroll; spend the $$$ necessary to have one of the top 2 or 3 front offices, minor league systems & scouting departments (& foreign academies); retain selected veterans/stars (Reynolds, Biggio, Bagwell, Wagner); sign promising young players to early extensions to save long-term $$$ (Hidalgo, Berkman); & develop young pitching (free agent pitchers are always overpaid & present the biggest probability of sunk cost & zero return-on investment due to their higher rate of injury than position players).

People always complain about the players the 'Stros lose, but I don't see the problem. Kile was made a fair offer & signed for $2 M more w/ Colorado. Everett was traded partly for financial reasons, but people forget that we had a glut of OF'ers & needed to get rid of someone (oh yeah, we got a starting SS & a solid LHP prospect for him too). The Unit wasn't going to stay in Houston, no matter how much $$$ we offered. Hampton stated flatly that he would test the FA market & so we got the best deal we could (also enabling us to get rid of D. Bell) before losing him for nothing (& look at the ridiculous contract Colorado gave him, would you be happier if he'd signed the same contract w/ Houston?). Mo Alou was a fantastic hitter, but definitely an injury risk & again, we have a fantastic young player to plug into his spot.

 

Is Alou significantly better than Ward, given their differing price tag & Alou's fragility? Is Carl Everett better than Berkman or Hidalgo? Is Astacio better than Carlos Hernandez? Is Castilla better than Ensberg?

Who should we have signed?

 

You are right, Buck. The Astros are merely working within their budget. I know that, at least in the last few years, that has not hurt us at all (and in some cases helped), but sometimes I worry that our farm system might degrade to some degree, or the team will hit a stretch where some bad draft choices are made and the well of great young talent will run dry temporarily. In that situation, Drayton's penny pinching ways (which are a boon during good times) might hurt us.

But I do realize that is a baseless fear. There is no reason to think that our excellent farm system will suddenly decline, or that the overall talent level coming out of college/high school will be worse over a long period of time.

I guess I was just trying to find something to complain about.

 

Astros model of fiscal, on-field success
by Tracey Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

March 22, 2002
TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Houston Astros might be the most underappreciated franchise in baseball.

They live within a reasonable budget.

They annually contend.

And they do it without a lot of fanfare.

Why?

Because instead of moaning about their financial limitations, they have put together one of the more productive farm systems in baseball, which allows them to make their concessions to financial demands without conceding anything in the National League Central.

This is a team that since the end of last season lost right-handed starting pitcher Pedro Astacio and the middle-of-the-lineup bats of outfielder Moises Alou and third baseman Vinny Castilla. In the off-season, the Astros made only minor acquisitions, signing backup outfielder Brian Hunter and reserve catcher Greg Zaun. But as they get ready to break spring camp, the Astros expect to battle the St. Louis Cardinals for the division title.

What gives?

Daryle Ward, after two seasons of backup duty, is being given the opportunity to take over for Alou. Morgan Ensberg is being promoted from the minor leagues to replace Castilla. And left-hander Carlos Hernandez is making the move to the big leagues to take the place of Astacio.

That's about $20 million in salary savings, giving the Astros a $62 million payroll, which puts them ahead of only Oakland among teams that are considered legitimate postseason threats.

It's not as though the Astros don't have high-priced talent. But they have been careful in making long-term commitments.

First baseman Jeff Bagwell is in the second year of a five-year, $85 million contract extension. Second baseman Craig Biggio is in the first year of a two-year extension that guarantees him $20 million. Closer Billy Wagner signed a three-year, $27 million deal during the off-season. Even outfielder Richard Hidalgo has three years and $27 million remaining on the four-year deal he signed a year ago.

The Astros, though, don't have any other obligations that extend past this season, providing them long-term flexibility and opportunity for the next wave of talent from the farm system.

It's all part of the long-range plan created by general manager Gerry Hunsicker.

He is judicious with long-term deals in an effort to avoid costly mistakes. It's no coincidence that all four of the Astros players with multiyear commitments never have played a day in the big leagues with another organization, which means Houston had a strong reading on the makeup of the four before they made the financial guarantee.

The Astros can afford to follow that approach because of the job they have done in scouting and player development.

The only projected starter in the Astros lineup who has played a big-league game for a team other than Houston is catcher Brad Ausmus.

Biggio (second base), Ensberg (third), Hidalgo (right field) and Lance Berkman (center) originally were signed by the Astros, as was Julio Lugo, who is battling Adam Everett for the shortstop job. And while Bagwell originally signed with Boston, Ward with Detroit and Everett with the New York Yankees, each of the three was traded to the Astros during his minor league career.

And it carries over to the pitching staff.

Wagner, right-handed starters Roy Oswalt, Wade Miller and Shane Reynolds, and left-hander Hernandez are original Astros products, leaving right-hander Dave Mlicki as the only member of the rotation who came from outside the organization.

The Astros have promising starter Tim Redding, another homegrown product, headed to the bullpen, waiting to step into the rotation if one of the projected starters struggles.

So far, the Astros have been able to parlay their approach into a world championship. They have won four division titles in the past five years and have done it without challenging the $100 million salary barrier.

They have been able to do it despite financially mandated decisions that resulted in them losing Darryl Kile after the 1997 season, Randy Johnson after the 1998 season and Mike Hampton after the 1999 season.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/sports_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_83_1042625,00.html

Funny that the 'Stros get more respect from the national & out-of-town media than from their own "fans". The fans of about 25 other MLB franchises would kill to have their teams be as successful as Houston.

 

I just re-read the thread title & thought I'd add my $.02 on that too. Drayton admits he doesn't know jack sh*t about baseball. He is, regardless of your personal feelings towards the man, an extremely knowledgable & successful businessman. He runs the business side of the franchise, Gerry runs the baseball side, & I think there's no question that he posesses the know-how to build a championship team.

 

Two points:

(1) Drayton DID increase spending with the new ballpark. The thing is that he did as soon as he got the commitment to the new ballpark and took extra losses between the time it was voted on and the time it was built. During those years, the payroll went from like $40M to $65M, I believe. The problem is, during the same period, teams like the Yankees went from $60M to $120M.

(2) You can argue about the commitment, but the results have been amazing. We were the trendy team to pick in 1998 with everything needed to beat the 110+ win Yankees. Again last year, tons of people had us in the WS. We were even favored in 1999 over ATL with the injury-hell we had (that makes the Rockets injuries look minor -- we had all 6 opening day outfielders out at one point with Biggio and Spiers converting to outfielders for a while).

The team has choked, but management has given them all the pieces you could ask for. The last 4 post-season problems haven't been a management problem so much as a problem of our stars not producing while everyone else's do. Yeah, there are a few positions that could use upgrades (3B, speed in the outfield), but EVERY team has those -- even the ones that spend $120M.

 

I hear ya...I'm just way too excited about baseball starting to let all this negativity get me down.

 

The only projected starter in the Astros lineup who has played a big-league game for a team other than Houston is catcher Brad Ausmus.

wow.

 

That impessed me too, Major. Everyone complains about the Braves (not so much with AOL now) and the Yankees buying their success. Well, the Astros have been very successful the last 5 years with mostly homegrown players that were either scouted and drafted, or at the very least developed in our system. I take pride in being a fan of team that is able to do that.

 

You must not remember that Cleveland once had a payroll of close to 90 million dollars.

Drayton may someday spend 90 million pesos, but never 90 million dollars.

 

Re-signing guys does not ensure improvement.

Moreover, there is no salary cap in baseball, I assume it was a mistake on your part.

Also, we shed ourselves of Astacio's and Williams' contract this off-season, and who did we add?

Our last major FA signing was Doug Drabek and Greg Swindell WAY back in 1993.