Out of all that I find this quote the most intresting due to the fact he is talking about teams in the NL Central and due to the fact that he mentioned "clubs" as in plural and the fact that the Reds are probably done trading one would have to assume he might be talking about the Cardinals and the Astros. add that to the fact that Rosenthal says the Astros are now monitoring the Carlos Lee situation: msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5820714 and you have the makings of something very interesting to say the least. (although rereading that article for the second time he could be talking about two teams for another division so nevermind)
Nieve is nasty as a reliever. He had a 2.95 ERA as a reliever and opponets only hit .245 against him. He never get rattled. Qualls has been nasty this past month and so has Wheeler. Borkowski, Springer, Miller are all solid end of bullpen guys. This enables them to trade a Lidge. Get a bat or two and this team will be a lot better.
We really need to replace Ausmus or Everett to significantly upgrade this offense, so I hope we can get Tejada. If we get another outfielder to replace Wilson, that's not as much of an upgrade as upgrading from Everett.
He says the inquiring clubs are in the same division - not necessarily in the same division as the Brewers - which dovetails into his point about teams leaking bogus info to drive up the acquisition price.
i think you're looking a little to deeply at my comment. i don't necessarily believe either report, it's just that the ESPN one made absolutely no sense whatsoever. although starks is easily my favorite baseball writer. besides, past experience tells us when the astros feel like they need to improve the team at the deadline, they will... and with the way we've been playing you know there at least looking.
At this point, Qualls has the most value (and could get you the most in return). He's young, has a great arm, and hasn't been exposed to failure in the closer's spot yet (despite his affinity for giving up 7th inning grand slams).
I think Nieve has the stuff to be a great closer, as long as the mental makeup is there. I wouldn't hesitate to trade Lidge...maybe a change of scenery will help him. He is nowhere near what he once was...he just can't keep the basepaths empty.
We honestly need a bat and we all know it. So what if we have to give up defense or Lidge. If you we score a lot of runs we can afford a few mishaps on the defensive side or even giving up a run in the 9th. I could care less as long as we put up some runs. I am sick and tired of our pitchers pitching Complete Game and getting a lost (see Roy O) or even better about 15 "0" run games when the Rocket is on the mound. If we can't win games where our pitchers are lights out then what's the point of having great defense. The game is still to score more runs than your opponent no matter how you do it. If we get a hitter that can bat before or after Berkman that will make a huge difference. They can't sit there and pitch around both without putting 2 men on. Right now who the hell do we have other than Berkman that a pitcher is scared to pitch too. Biggio is still putting up numbers but he's lead off so he's going to get pitched to. Once we get to Berkman they can walk him and go after our great hitters after him....give me a break. Make a deal happen, bring in a bat..not just an average upgrade of a bat like HUFF (which i still like) but i mean a monster bat...we need that plain and simple...our lineup is like a AAA team right now...if that.
if you score, you might win if they never score, you'll never lose. defense and pitching are paramount. i'm not willing to put a fantasy team out there. the rangers have tried that for decades and it's never worked.
If they never score, and you never score, you get some boring ass games, and are likely to lose as many as you win. What's more, it's not like the Astros have had the model for success in baseball, well, ever. Sure, they've been a successful regular season team, and now finall yhave 1 pennant to claim, but still no World Series. Pitching, hitting, defense, etc. are all important. The WS winner is usually a very well-balanced squad. The current Astros are anything but.
i agree with you. but i've seen below average offenses make it to the world series and win with great pitching and defense. i don't recall ever seeing a team get to or win a world series with mediocre pitching/defense and great hitting. they weren't balanced last year...and they went to the World Series.
Having a successful regular season team is ALL you can strive for in baseball. After that, the playoffs are simply an utter crapshoot... if your team is hot, you win... but if another team is hotter, you lose... REGARDLESS. For instance, neither of the last two year's Astros teams could ever have matched up in a series against the team we had in 1998... but neither of the last two year's teams ever had to face vintage Kevin Brown either. Same goes for all those teams that lost to Smoltz, Glavine and Maddux while they were all in their primes. You play 162 games for a reason... so that all the stuff that can happen RANDOMLY in a season (ie- Pirates sweeping the Cardinals in St. Louis, Clemens-Pettite-Oswalt all losing consecutively) are eventually balanced out. But, in a 5 or 7 game series... you don't get balance... and the "better" team doesn't always win.
The 1976 Reds (the penultimate "Big Red Machine") led the league in fielding percentage and fewest errors comitted and were 5th in the NL in runs allowed.
From '72 through '76, when they won a division, a pennant and 2 WS (and won 98 games & missed the playoffs), they were 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 3rd, and 5th in runs allowed. They had a huge dropoff in this department (while finishing 2nd in the league in runs/game) in '77-78 and, not surprisingly, missed the playoffs both years. They were also an excellent, excellent defensive team, pretty much across the board but especially up-the-middle (Bench/Morgan/Concepcion/Geronimo).
John Lopez's blog for today Astros trade talks heating up again ... ... but does that mean Miguel Tejada, Alfonso Soriano or Carlos Lee is on the way? Still not likely. The buzz emanating from Union Station today is all the cell phones working overtime. The Astros are determined to find some kind of spark. They're trying to hammer out a deal for more offense. However, it seems there is a growing sense of frustration within the Astros offices on two fronts: One, all of the teams with whom the Astros are talking today are asking too much in the Astros' view. For the likes of a Tejada or Soriano, teams are expecting big-time return. You can probably interpret that as Hunter Pence and Jason Hirsch, neither of whom the Astros want to let go. Willy Taveras and Brad Lidge also have been talked about today. And secondly, ESPN is a four-letter word among front-office types right now. Some of the rumors being talked about -- Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte being on the market, for example -- are viewed as complete fabrications by the Astros braintrust. One baseball executive who called to inquire about a rumor involving the Astros was told, "Where are you hearing this?" When he responded that it was on ESPN, the caller was told, "They've got a lot of time to fill right now. Don't believe it." Still, the likelihood of a deal being swung today or tomorrow has grew exponentially overnight.
The Rangers have never had in their history a top three in the rotation as good as the Astros currently have. Just because you want to upgrade an Adam Everett or a Brad Ausmus doesn't mean that you have to sacrafice a Roger Clemens or a Roy Oswalt to do it. You can have both.
