they are much better and a whole lot more fun to watch, but in fairness to the original poster if the Astros are going to refuse to "blow it up" and we are still 2-3 more good drafts and then another couple of years for these players to come up through the system then Drayton needs to go out and get two legit starters and pray Bourn ends up being a player and Kaz can stay healthy the catcher position get fixed etc. etc.
Agreed. Sports is littered with coaches and front office guys leaving that sucks. It sucked when the Oilers canned Bum Philips. It happened. We have to move forward from here rather than lament the past. OK...don't believe it. I never said they were already losing money. I posted figures from Forbes magazine. You have figures from "I don't believe it" magazine. I have no reason to doubt the Forbes figures that indicate that the team made $18.4M last year. Simple math would tell you that if you add $20M of salary to that, the team loses money. Of course, it wasn't until then that the team consistently put 30,000+ in the seats. Even then, the team made $18.4M. That they were losing money when they were putting 15,000 to 20,000 in the seats isn't that far fetched. I really like this idea actually. You mean the young guys that we already know cannot play at the major league level? Not a good idea.
The Astros are significantly better this year than they were last year and I would even venture to say 2006. The Astros need two legitimate starting pitchers and they would be in the thick of the WC chase. They have made it clear that they are not blowing up this team. That being said, and if that is the direction that the front office wants to go, the Astros need to get two quality starting pitchers. Two out of the following would put the Astros right back in it: 1) Sheets 2) Pettitte 3) Burnett 4) Garland
OK so all the pitchers named are not available. My point is no less valid and that is that we put enough money in Drayton's pocket that he can afford to get a copule of major league caliber pitcchers to fill the 2 and 3 spots for this team. Moeller may be a keeper as well. Wandy and Backe are too unreliable to be stoppers. We deserve some pitchers to go with the bats that we have and can afford them! Whoever is available and dependable. Fill in the blank. We can be competive salary wise.
The SP's below apparently will or MAY be available either by opting out or ending contract. We can afford to get a number 2 and 3 guy from this list with 3 million fans showing up at Minute Maid. Starting Pitchers Kris Benson PHI A.J. Burnett TOR (may opt out) Paul Byrd CLE Ryan Dempster CHC Jon Garland LAA Tom Glavine ATL Mike Hampton * ATL Rich Harden * CHC Orlando Hernandez NYM Jason Jennings TEX Randy Johnson ARZ John Lackey * LAA Esteban Loaiza CHW Braden Looper STL Derek Lowe LAD Pedro Martinez NYM Mike Mussina NYY Jamie Moyer PHI Mark Mulder * STL Carl Pavano NYY Brad Penny * LAD Odalis Perez WAS Oliver Perez NYM Andy Pettitte NYY Mark Prior SD Horatio Ramirez CHW C.C. Sabathia MIL Ben Sheets MIL John Smoltz * ATL Julian Tavarez ATL Steve Trachsel BAL Brett Tomko SD Claudio Vargas MIL Randy Wolf HOU
