1. I post here way too often, and I still don't give a rat's ass what you think about my "whining." 2. Within the last decade the Astros won a pennant and were in the playoffs twice in a league where only 1/3 of the teams make it in. Their management from 06-10 blew goats. 3. yes these players are so much fun to root for that no one watches, they never show up on national TV and no one buys tickets. what an awesome business model.
apples/oranges in different sports...but do you really wanna go through that lineup? they really only acquired their two top starting pitchers through recent trades. everyone else had been there a while or really did come from the farm system. 1B- Berkman - drafted by 'stros 2B - Biggio - drafted by 'stros ss - Everett - traded to 'stros by Sox while still in minors 3B - Ensberg - drafted by 'stros C- Ausmus - had been with 'stros forever LF - Chris Burke - drafted by 'stros CF - Taveras - drafted by 'stros RF - Lane - drafted by 'stros Aside from Clemens and Pettitte, the other starting pitchers were Oswalt, Backe and Wandy -- all of whom were drafted by the 'stros.
I thought the dancing cat picture would convey my lack of seriousness/desire to explore that topic. But yeah, a couple of big FA signings is what got them over the hump, yo.
honestly, i hadn't thought about it until i thought about it. that team was almost entirely built through the draft. i really hadn't considered that before.
Come on now, that team didn't even win a playoff game until AP and Clemens showed up on a white horse. They were good, but it took mana from heaven/free agency to make them great. [/totally over my head and out of my element]
You're barking mad if you think yesterday doesn't confirm what I was telling you before. They just dumped $20 in salary + luxury tax penalty yesterday after dumping Lamar Odom for NOTHING since they traded us the pick to get a reserve big and to get rid of Fisher. The Lakers saved cap space and gave up the ONLY thing they got for their 7 footer.... that proces their management is considering $$ in everything they do. I never said they would blow the team up at the trade deadline, my argument was that Kyle's contract was the best they were going to get for a PG at his skill level so Morey could have held out for more.... it never came.... Kyle stays and that's how it should be. I even said that the Lakers would trade for Sessions or Calderon because they can't afford anyone better, trade exception or not. And gues what happened.... they traded for Sessions! Lastly, don't you dare lump Morey in with Cleveland. Fisher's contract hardly qualifies for "multi-year constraining salary". He has one year left for a few million dollars which is about the value of the 1st round draft pick. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT CDAVE?! You're hilarious.
They won playoff games long before Clemens/Pettitte showed up. They didn't win a playoff series until 2004. I'm not arguing those guys weren't super important...they were the free agent pieces you add to the base to put you over the top. That's the way free agency works best in baseball. I'm just saying...that entire lineup was pretty much homegrown.
That entire homegrown team only won 2 playoff games from 1997 until the Roid-Bros showed up. I'm not familiar enough to know, but how different was the 1998 team to the 2004 team? I'm guessing very different. (I love this argument, because even if I get my ass kicked, I had nothing to lose in the first place, woot)
I'm not even arguing with you That's what makes this so difficult!!!! (though making the playoffs, alone, in baseball is an actual achievement...the 1998 team won 102 games -- most would tell you that was the greatest astros team of all time...that's how MLB goes)
This is how I see it as well. Camby gives McHale the flexibility of pulling whoever is not playing well. And that also means that we don't have to suffer watching Scola play the 5 anymore.
i'm guessing the "intense talks" consisted of morey leaving a message with howard's agent hoping he would get a return phone call.
Morey - We really really want Howard Orlando - Ya and so does everyone else including us Morey - But we REALLY REALLY want Howard Orlando - We know Morey - Please!!!! we really Really REALLY want Howard!!!! Orlando - It's 11 we are hangin up now Morey - but but but zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Morey - call em again I think I got this!!
I pretty sure I said to you that they could accomplish all of their objectives including comfortably dumping some unwanted salary to get under the luxury tax (the significance of which you overinflated as panic time for a front office is total disarray). The $20M they just SAVED was for an injury plagued SF - Luke Walton, one foot out of the league, Jason Kapono - enough said, Derek Fisher - aging PG, and yes the yet to be exercised TPE for a Lamar Odom that has been so bad this year because he's so hopelessly out of shape, it's inconceivable he would have had any favorable effect on this year's team. In fact Odom is a classic example of addition through extraction for anyone paying attention to rise in play from Andrew Bynum who's minutes were being held back by Odom's presence. As I suggested to you the Lakers cap will go from 87M to around $70M placing them out of harm's way from the dreaded luxury tax with still another year to go. It never came because it was Kupchak holding out for more and then Lowry was hurt and the whole thing was finished. They easily could afforded more. they could have afforded Chris Paul and they proved it. But Lowry would have been decent consolation prize and now Sessions is a step further away from that. It does from the Lakers perspective. After trading for Sessions they had 3 PGs on multi-year deals. 4 if you include a low priced rookie. Only two PG's are going to play. There aren't enough minutes, As a result of the Houston trade there is now one less multi-year constraining contract for PGs to worry about. That draft pick is "fenced off" entirely for 5 years. It'll probably have to be executed this year as a mid twenties pick or later. It has about as much of a chance of developing into something for the Rockets future as Jordan Hill has in becoming a quality 4 off the bench for the Lakers. I'd argue less. The Fisher salary dump was an added bonus purely from the Lakers perspective that is.
