... now Beltran. They all, with their agents, played us like fools saying it wasn't about money... Till it was!!! Up all their asses!...
Hampton never played us for a fool... we knew we weren't gonna keep him, so we shipped him out. He then played the Mets for a fool... and since then, he's done nothing but steal money from his employers. He'll be known as the biggest pitching FA bust in MLB history, simply based on that ridiculous contract (8 years, 121 million). Meanwhile, we got Dotel which propelled us to being a division champion in 2001, and then Beltran which = NLCS in 2004.
Actually, Beltran's the only player to really mess with the Astros. Hampton was pretty upfront about asking for money the Astros did not care to match(which turned out to be the correct call). RJ made it abundantly clear that he was not going to back to Arizona. During that offseason, pretty much no Astros fan expected him to be back. Beltran, on the other hand, deserves all the flak he gets. He's the one who made it seem like the Astros had a shot, that he liked Houston, winning, etc. But then he bailed for an extra $17 mil to a crappy team run by a bunch of idiots.
You forgot Mark Portugal and Darryl Kile. Those were the days when our pitchers would have an amazing year and the Astros wouldn't even try to sign them. They just let them go tried to get by on the cheap. I believe the Astros and Mclane are different now, after the signings of Pettite and Clemens, and how much money we were offering Beltran. I do believe Mclane has come to the realization that sometimes in baseball you have to spend alot of money in order to make money.
We didn't try to sign Darryl Kile? That's news to every other Astros fan. Mark Portugal didn't do jack after he left the Astros. Not to mention, the Hampton trade ultimately enabled us to even be in the Beltran sweepstakes.
As far as Randy Johnson is concerned, Bagwell said that Randy was up front with everyone and said that he wasnt coming back from the beginning. (790 had Bagwell on yesterday) Hampton was a bust.
Bagwell also went on to mention that he felt like Beltran wasn't planing on coming back as well. I liked the interview Baggs is a real class act, IMO.
What's the problem with you two guys? Get a clue if you're going to come on here and talk smack. Mark Portugal 1993 18 - 4 2.77 ERA How he performed after he left Houston is irrelevant. This was the time in Astros history where if a player (expecially a pitcher) had a great year and was a free agent you could count on him going to another team. Portugal was our best pitcher at the time we allowed him to leave. Who else did we have in the rotation that was decent? Darryl Kile They lowballed an offer to the ace of their staff, then lied about it, according to Jeff Bagwell: 12-09-97 Bagwell is disputing claims by the Houston Astros that they offered a three-year $21 million contract to teammate Darryl Kile before Kile signed with the Colorado Rockies. Kile, the ace of the Astros staff with a 19-7, 2.57 ERA last season, got a three-year, $24 million deal from the Rockies. The Astros signed free agent left fielder Alou away from the Florida Marlins. "If they (Astros) claim they offered him $21 million for three years, that's a lie," Bagwell said. "My understanding is Darryl was offered $18 million for three years with an option year with a $2 million buy out which would bring it to three years at $20 million guaranteed. "Darryl didn't want the option year and those things. He told them three weeks ago, 'if you guys change it to a signing bonus of $3 million and then three years at $6 million, we'll sign it."
How can you say how a person performs after they leave is irrelevant? Perhaps the Astros' scouting department, which has been quite good over the past 10+ years didn't think he warranted a long-term contract. Are you saying if Beltran hits .240 for the rest of his career with limited SBs, the Mets still made a good deal? Either way on the Kile deal, he was given a competitive offer by our club when you said we just let him go. Just like Beltran was and honestly, so was Kent this year. Of course, funny you should bring up an article containing quotes from a current player who will be earning $17 million next year from our cheap owner.
Hey, now - don't hate on Mark. Dude got a sandwich named after him at the Mucky Duck. Can RJ, DK, CB, etc say that?
