Hidalgo, Santana, Abreu, Guillen & Garcia were here before Hunsicker. Berkman & Roy are really the crown jewels of his career. Hunsicker let Abreu and Santana go.
Just for the sake of argument, imagine what we'd hear today about the 1999 draft had Tim Purpura presided over it instead of Gerry Hunsicker. Because the opinion of the casual fan in Houston has largely been shaped by muckrakers like Richard Justice, few people bother to revisit the 1999 draft when the Astros selected Rosamond with the first round pick. Who did they pass up to take him? Hometown hero Carl Crawford. Had that been Purpura, week wouldn't pass without someone at the Comical making reference to that, but because it doesn't fit the preconceptions about the Hun's alleged genius, it goes unmentioned.
Nevin did have a decent career in SD, but was also from the previous regime. So even if he was a good pick, it isn't Hunsickers. Brad Lidge could be added to a great success for Gerry in the draft. We can for sure say Berkman Oswalt Lidge were all great picks by Hunsicker.
Right on Hidalgo, Guillen and Garcia, sorry about that one but still plenty of guys that flourished under his watch. John Buck is another that is hitting his stride right now.
You are really reaching now. Miller was entrenched with the major league team in 2000. Ward in 1999. Elarton in 1999. I am NOT arguing that there was some fine young talent developed or acquired early in Hunsicker's career. I am asking, where are the players that were in the minors in 2001-2004 when folks argue that the Astros' farm system was still good under Hunsicker?
I never complain about who got passed on because a bunch of teams did that and we make comical comments about Timmy because he earned it.
It was (at least in the playoffs). I just wanted to make sure that folks don't think Purpura or Wade was responsible for trading Buck
Amazing that we've traded most of the prospects that are still around and kept the ones that ended up tanking. Hard to say whats bad luck, and what was other teams knowing our prospects better than us.
I already did - in my first response to you. He was fired because he wasn't adding any value to the team, so it doesn't matter if he's here or not. They are experimenting.
He had good picks, no doubt about that. Oswalt and Berkman were HUGE. However, the point I'm specifically addressing is the role Hunsicker's last five or six drafts had in shaping the Astros organization today. Everyone lauds Gerry for the organization's success of yesterday while blaming Drayton McLane and Ed Wade for its failures of today. McLane should shoulder some blame since he's been a constant, but the criticism of Wade is unfair in the extreme IMO since the guys who should be helping the team today are the ones drafted during Hunsicker's terrible drafts from '99-2004.
Zobrist especially since Huff wasn't worth what Beltran was. Plus we never would have been patient enough for Buck to start hitting his stride. Then again we had Ausmus all those years.
You know the weird thing about Purpura? I actually think he's kind of like Ed Wade. We bash him endlessly, but he was the guy who actually knew how to develop players. And in the infamous draft where we signed like no one, these players have since re-entered the draft and have been picked higher than where we took them. Purpura had the double whammy of not knowing jack about major league players(minor league guy throughout his career) and Drayton not giving a damn about the farm. He basically had no chance to succeed because the owner doesn't care about his strengths, and only made him made moves where he's weak at. Basically, he and Ed Wade share the same strengths and weaknesses. But Wade finally had a more mellow Drayton to work with in terms of building for the long term.
They were every bit the contender that the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals were. In baseball, just get in the playoffs...then get hot.
Ed Wade can say he traded for Randy Wolf and Latroy Hawkins which turned out to be great moves. The Tejada & Lidge deals at worst have been a push. The deal for Valverde has to be a win. Tim Purpura traded for Jason Jennings and traded away Mitch Talbot & Ben Zobrist. Ed Wade has been good for trades, bad for signings. Purpura was bad at trades, and bad at signings.
Even if Hunsicker's only crown jewels of his draft were Berkman and Oswalt, that's two cornerstones of the franchise...pretty damn good. Ensberg was a serious contributor for awhile before he went coo coo for cocoa puffs. But don't discredit his signings and trades. Kent, Randy Johnson, Clemens, Pettitte, Beltran. He was always able to reel in the difference makers. He traded Hampton at the right time and got back Dotel who was a great set up man, and traded Carl Everett for Adam Everett, even though he was a bad hitter, I doubt we would have beaten the Cardinals in '05 without him.
Nobody is saying he was bad. Kent, Johnson, Clemens, Pettitte, Beltran were all about winning then, and mortgaging the future. It caught up to us.
Purpura was forced to get MLB level players. And he couldn't identify the right ones. Which, as I said, was his biggest weakness. Ed Wade finding solid players is like a broken clock being right twice a day. From his days in Philly, the guy's batting average when it comes to finding major league talent has been cringe worthy.
