Peter Gammons just said on Baseball Tonight that Millar asked the Red Sox to trade him and Houston is a place he wants to go. He lives in Beaumont and is a pretty good hitter who gets on base at a p good rate. He can play first base or the corner outfield postions.
That would be one hell up a line up. By the way, Fernando Nieve threw a complete game shutout today for the Express in Iowa versus the Iowa Cubs.
He is a poor defensive player though. Still, if the price is right, then there is no reason not to trade for him.
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/team/player.jsp?player_id=132788 33 years old, 34 in September. This season: .273 avg 4 hr 30 rbi .352 obp .380 slg Not too bad, but I wouldn't give up a whole lot for him. Nothing more than one decent prospect and maybe some change. Anyone know what his contract is like?
Yeah thats a World Series contender lineup. The defense may suck but we would just beat everybody's brains out. That Nieve guy sounds like a stud in the making.
Wow... complete game shutout! He's been stellar at every level of the minors now... and if Pettite were to unfortunately miss time due to this "tightness" (knock on wood), I wouldn't mind seeing what Fernando could do (rather than witnessing some Astacio bombs again).
Millar is in the last year of his 3.5 Million Dollar deal. He would have been a F.A. at the end of 2004 but he reached a certain amount of at bats and the Red Sox had to pick up his option
This guy is terrible! I'd rather have Lane, Burke, or just about anyone else out there than Kevin Millar. In full time play, he has 4 HRs? He doesn't hit for average or power and he's not good defensively. Why would we want him?
I agree wholeheartedly. What could he offer us that we don't already have? I'd take Burke over Millar.
Eh I don't think adding Millar is necessary. Unless we are getting for basically nothing than I see no point of adding him. He is a very poor defensive player and just an avg hitter.
It's good to see that no one's overreacting to one-half of one season. Millar's career is defined by streaks - he's prone to having long dry spells like the one he's had so far this season - but there's no evidence to suggest he can't turn it around. His OPS has been at .820 or above for the last five seasons... I think I'm going to wait a little longer before I consider him washed up. Whether or not he turns it around (my guess is he will), he at least gives you the potential for a power bat in left, which you don't have with Burke. By all accounts, he's a great clubhouse influence as well. His defensive shortcomings (which aren't much besides range, he's not totally uncoordinated) would be minimized to an extent based on the short left-field at MMP. Furthermore, Millar is a major pull hitter, so the Crawford Boxes could help him. With all that said, he is 33 years old and on the last year of his contract. I'm not willing to give up very much for him - a mid-level prospect or two at best. But, if the cost is minimal, I'd be more than willing to take the shot... anyone who has followed him in Boston knows that he's due for one or two major hot stretches during the season where he can absolutely carry an offense.
I don't see this one happening. Millar really doesn't add that much. Yes, he might be due for a hot streak. What if that streak comes to an end around Sept. 1? If the Astros are to make the playoffs this season, it will most likely come down to the last days as it did last year. We don't need another Richard Hidalgo w/ less defense.
I'm from Houston and would love to play for the Astros too. Doesn't mean it's going to happen and I sure as hell hope that it doesnt for Millar as well. Millar = SCRUB
What if Lance Berkman tears his ACL again? There are always ifs with anything, but the odds are high that he's going to end up with the OPS of a very good player. Millar entered last All-Star break with a comparable .762 OPS to what he has now... he finished with a .857. Scrub? If scrubs have an average OPS of around .850 or so for their last five years, I'll take an entire lineup of scrubs. A lot of you guys have cringed at giving up our better prospects in deals involving Dunn, Winn, White/Monroe and a number of other guys. That's fine. But if you don't want to give up top prospects but still want to win, there is another philosophy. You need to go out and find bargains. Buy low, sell high. When you have a player like Millar whose career performance shows that his season so far is likely to improve, it gives you an opportunity to acquire a solid bat without giving up much of your future. Sometimes you have to take risks to be great. Most of these other hitters we're discussed in this forum would require a combination of Backe, Burke, Astacio, Nieve, Buchholz and some more of our better prospects. This wouldn't, and Millar has the chance to be better than any of these hitters (except for Dunn obviously). If you don't want to give up many prospects and you still want to contend, you're going to have to take a risk... I don't see many better choices than this.
Why not just take a risk on Burke and Lane? The reason our offensive prospects never get anywhere is because this team is always contending and we never give these guys a chance to play a full year. Why not just let these guys actually go out and play? They've been winning and playing well for more than a month now. All you do by getting a Millar-type is stunt the growth of your youth movement again, and then we're in the same position next year. We went through this for years with Lane, Ensberg, Ward, etc. Now we're dealing with it with Burke. This is the first year in a long, long time that we've had the opporunity to let these guys played extended time. I say just let these guys play. If you have chance at a super-star caliber player, go for it - because you know they'll make a difference. But if you're taking a chance on a guy, I'd rather take a chance on Burke or Lane improving than Millar improving. If things don't work out, at least they'll have a chance to develop for next year.
