on one hand i want to be mad. but i can't be. last year, steve phillips said we'd be the 2005 version of the 2004 mariners. none of them said we had a chance at making the playoffs. that we were too old...that losing beltran and kent would be too much. guess what, fools?? see my signature. so i can't be mad...it wouldn't be hot stove time if ESPN weren't underrating the Houston Astros.
Doing rankings this time of year is moronic. These things are about as accurate as pulling teams out of a hat and listign them that way. These guys have no clue what teams will do in the off-season, so they have no way of knowing how good any team will be next year. I guess they just needed somethign to fill up som espace on their MLB front page, so they created this gem.
Ehhhh. We had no chance in hell to make the playoffs last season according to the crackpots at ESPN. This are as about as pointless as something can be.
How do they make rankings before any teams have gone through free agency signings, losses and trades. I realize that their baseball analysts probably have nothing to do for a few months but please try refraining from posting worthless "power rankings."
Here's my power rankings (as of November): 1. Chicago White Sox 2. Houston Astros t-30. Tampa Bay Devil Rays t-30. Baltimore Orioles t-30. Boston Red Sox t-30. New York Yankees t-30. Toronto Blue Jays t-30. Texas Rangers t-30. Oakland Athletics t-30. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim t-30. Seattle Mariners t-30. Cleveland Indians t-30. Minnesota Twins t-30. Detroit Tigers t-30. Kansas City Royals t-30. Atlanta Braves t-30. Philadelphia Phillies t-30. Florida Marlins t-30. New York Mets t-30. Washington Nationals t-30. San Diego Padres t-30. Arizona Diamondbacks t-30. San Francisco Giants t-30. Los Angeles Dodgers t-30. Colorado Rockies t-30. Milwaukee Brewers t-30. Cincinnati Reds t-30. Pittsburgh Pirates t-30. Saint Louis Cardinals t-30. Chicago Cubs
Exactly. It's impossible to rank teams for next season when rosters haven't even been set yet. The FA signing period has just begun and the winter meetings are still a month away and, oh yeah, the postseason JUST ENDED. This is ludacris. A couple of definite head scratchers though: Don't expect Carlos Beltran to have another year like '05. Why exactly? When are people gonna realize this guy doesn't deserve that huge paycheck. The guy's not gonna put up Pujols numbers. Their rotation is aging, but strong with Pedro Martinez and Tom Glavine... Roger Clemens' future is uncertain. Plus, he's 43, with back and leg problems. It's unlikely Andy Pettitte will pitch as well as he did in '05 Two rotations w/ aging vets. Yet Galvin and Pedro should be strong, but don't expect Clemens and Pettite to be nearly as effective. Clemens is debatable, but what reason would suggest Pettite won't be as good as he was in '05. And it's funny how they give credit to the Indians and Braves for boasting strong youthful lineups...yet forget about the Astros... young core of Ensberg (Silver Slugger, All Star), Berkman (MVP caliber), Willy T (ROY), Everett (Gold Glove caliber), Lane (solid number), Burke (Biggio-esque), Oswalt (future Cy Young), Backe (big-time clutch) and Lidge (one of the best).
exactly right. you throw up an uncertainty...and then you guess one way or the other based on bias. the mets pitching staff should be strong, even though it's old. the astros won't, because it's old. where am i?
Beltran improved in each of his first 6 or 7 years in the league and suddenly had a down year. He had 100+ RBI's every year of his career and suddenly had less than 80 last year. He had the lowest OPS of his career. He had the fewest HR's of his career. He wasn't paid to put up Pujols numbers. He was paid to be a 100 RBI, 100 Run, 0.900+ OPS, 30 HR, 30 SB type guy. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlbpa/players/6132/career The likelihood of him having another year like that IS very low based on his history. I don't see the problem here? Pedro was never really in decline (although I still doubt he can stay healthy). Glavine isn't expected to be a Cy-Young caliber pitcher. There's no reason he can't continue being slightly-above-average. Pettite had a *career-year* last year. It's far less likely for him to duplicate that than for Glavine to be slightly-above-average. Glavine pitched to his norm; Pettite didn't.
look, i'm an astro homer, through and through, but very few seasoned personnel men would trade ATL or CLE's core for our core. berkman, oswalt and lidge are elite baseball players; the others are not, and lidge has some demons to overcome now. if ensberg has another silver slugger year, fine; include him in the group, but isn't he 30? taveras is a nice player, but ATL or CLE wouldn't trade ANY of their core straight up for him. burke has a bright future, but let's not go vincent wolfe just yet and compare him to a HoF'er. he's yet to do much beyond an inspired three-week stretch in october when teams let guys like him beat them so that guys like berkman can't. and he still doesn't have a place to play in '06. backe was big-time clutch in two october starts, awful in another one and spent most of the year injured. sure, if all those guys come through, it's a nice foundation. but it's littered with question marks. i don't have a problem with people downgrading the astros. hell, i'm still trying to figure out how they made the playoffs, let alone the WS.
you are in Houston. and Houston is in Texas. That's two strikes against any sports team located in our city (in the medias eye).
If he's not meant to be the impact player that Pujols is then he's overpaid. Maybe he won't have as down a year as he did in '05 but clearly his salary was based largely on his postseason contributions in '04 and not necessarily his regular season stats. And I don't think it's so hard to suggest he won't be as productive in a highly pressurized, mass media market like NY than he would other places. It's just the way it was written suggested Beltran would bust out to an MVP season like he's supposedly meant to. Like MadMax said, the guy brings up the age factor but doesn't apply the same rules of that factor to both teams. Nevermind that the Pettite/Clemens combo was more effective than the Glavine/Pedro combo. I think it's safe to say that Glavine and Clemens (if returning) could very well put up above-average numbers and that Pedro and Pettite could continue thier effectiveness. I don't see any reason to suggest Pettite will have a significant down year in '06 as most pitchers fair better when switching to NL from the AL. So why should that trend suddenly change in Pettite's case. Plus we have Oswalt...so its not really debatable, Houston's rotation (w/ or w/o Clemens) will be better.
