that's the thing...how awful the guy is is completely secondary. the fact that they are entertaining the idea of trading for a piece that they believe is going to help the team this year is what's mindblowing. if wolf was actually decent, this trade wouldn't make me any less sick to my stomach.
The A's never converted their talent to wins??? uh, i think you may have your facts mixed up, or you're thinking of some other team. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say there has never been a decade of baseball where the astros could hold the A's jocks.
The Astros have crumbled ever since Gerry Hunsicker left. Drayton McLane was an idiot for not doing everything in his power to keep him. I think Cooper and Wade need to go but I'm sure Drayton will hang on to both guys another season. I don't blame Wade for ruining the Astros because he inherited a bad situation. But he sure hasn't done anything to make me think he can turn it around. If the Astros don't start planning for the future and make some trades before the deadline, they will officially be a joke of a franchise.
let's not overrate the 1992 astros. there were not 10 future all-stars on that team; there were 10 guys that would, at various points in their career, make an all-star team (such as rafael ramirez... in 1984) but many of them (reynolds, harnish) were firmly planted in the "every team has to be represented" department. besides, the all-star team is meaningless the far and away 4 best players of that era were bagwell, biggio, caminiti and kile with bagwell and biggio clearly being the best. and they finished their careers in houston. caminiti and kile, more often than not, hovered near "average" in their tenure with the astros (though caminiti was well above-average, defensively). (and btw, erie that both are dead, huh?) they were then diligent and quite good about surrounding those two best players with terrific supporting casts, never hestitating to go out and get a final piece or two of the puzzle (johnson, caminiti, kent, pettitte, clemens, beltran). so yeah, drayton inherited bagwell and biggio. but he had the good sense to keep and then build around them.
Making the all star team makes one an all star whether you like it or not. Making the all-star team is not completely meaningless....just not that it necessarily means you are one of the best two at your position for your league.
nor is it a proper measure of someone's/some team's talent; not when fans (and now, players) routinely vote in the wrong players and every team has to be represented. shane reynolds - one of those future all-stars from the 1992 team - was 6-5 with a 4.17 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP with 81 Ks in 114.1 IP when he made his only all-star team in 2000. but the astros had to have a representative, so.... reynolds was a nice, routinely above-average pitcher. but to suggest his inclusion on a team made it better by virtue of his one, undeserved all-star appearance, is disingenuous.
From 1997-2006, the Astros more than held their own. They won more total games and had equal division titles, more postseason appearances, more postseason wins (games & series), and more pennants. That period is also the majority of Drayton's tenure as owner.
Here is a list of the players on the 1992 roster that made the most starts at their respective position: C Eddie Taubensee (103) 1B Jeff Bagwell (159) 2B Craig Biggio (161) 3B Ken Caminiti (129) SS Andujar Cedeno (70) LF Luis Gonzalez (111) CF Steve Finley (160) RF Eric Anthony (113) SP Pete Harnisch SP Butch Henry SP Jimmy Jones SP Darryl Kile SP Mark Portugal SP Brian Williams RP Willie Blair RP Joe Boever RP Xavier Hernandez RP Rob Mallicoat RP Rob Murphy RP Al Osuna CL Doug Jones Shane Reynolds was also on that team. This appears far from a "stacked" team. The starting pitching was nothing to write home about and the relievers were a bunch of journeymen (for the most part). Offensively, Caminiti and Finley were nothing special prior to their trade after the 1994 season. Defensively, they were very good.
fans tend to romanticize the past because they've already witnessed that paticular past's future (if that makes sense...) truth is, offensivley, caminiti was average to slightly below average in his first tenure with the team. truthfully, the player they regrettably dealt in '94 wasn't caminiti but finley. bell and caminiti, offensively, was a wash at that stage.
and when we brought caminiti back for the 99 season, we had Alou and Carl Everett added to the mix. that was a helluva lineup.
Score one for me, lol. Not sure if I should be proud of myself for thinking like Ed Wade... Do you think they'd dare offer him arbitration? The Dodgers didn't get a draft pick when he signed with the Padres, so I'm thinking they didn't offer it to him. I've always felt this team is one pitcher away from making a run this year at the wild card (two if Roy is out). A healthy Roy, a stud #2, Wandy, Moehler, and Backe is not a bad pitching rotation, and if the offense can pick it up, this team might be able to at least compete enough to keep fannies in the seats.
I really don't keep up with the minors but he sounds pretty mediocre to me. Guess we didn't give up all that much. If we get a draft pick out of it then it may not be such a bad move.
