Uncle Drayton has said the 'stros will be reloading this winter, not rebuilding. I, for one, am not sold on his definition. So, I was wondering what it would be worth to the Astros, to us 'stro fans, to get in return for either Lance or Roy O?
IMO its what can you get for Carlos Lee? When McLane says "not rebuilding" I hope he still remembers to draft well and rebuild the farm system. No quick fixes will get this team back as a big time contender for a pennant.
He'll do what he can to field a competitive team next season. Label it whatever you want. He's a businessman...a P.R. guy.
I hope McLane is thinking rebuilding instead. The Astros were barely a 500 team last year with Andy and Rocket, and this year were not even close to a 500 team. Astros needs three starting pitching #2-#4, seeing that we have 5 or so pitchers who are #5s. C, 2nd, 3rd, and RF need upgrades. Some would argue SS as well. Berkman, realistically, may have peaked and thus is overpaid, but still has great trade value. Maybe a Glenn Davis like trade is in order. McLane would never do this though.
You can't techinically be "rebuilding" if you're sticking with paying three guys more than $14 million dollars per year. If you want to rebuild, you might as well trade all of those three for primo prospects... there will be no other way to get cheap/young players otherwise (unless you're developing your own), and additionally, there will be no way in hell other marquee free agents will ever sign here if we get into a habit of trading them just one year after signing.
Exactly. You rebuild a team if you have a bunch of old veterans who are at the end of their careers and need a fresh start to remain competitive in the long-term. But the best players on this team are young/in their prime - Oswalt, Berkman, Lee, Pence, maybe Lidge. You can continue to build around those pieces.
Isn't not paying our own free agents (or trading them for cheap young players) what people criticized Drayton as being "cheap" for all these years? Really, part of what made the Astros successful/flexible all these years is limiting their "big money" contracts to one or two guys, and trading or letting go of all the rest (Hampton, Kile, Randy, Beltran, etc.) You can't have it both ways...
OK, how does the new GM (aka Uncle D) fill the large starting pitching hole, the infield, RF or CF and catcher positions? I want Roy O and LB to be 'stros for life, World Series heroes, icons. Only the first part seems realistic.
come on..this is baseball. no one saw the white sox coming in '05. few if any would have thought that pujols would win his first title in '06. who saw the marlins coming in '03?
they can trade anyone not named Roy Oswalt for all i care. I'd pay to go see Roy. Everyone else is expendable. oops, i forgot about Hunter pence. yea, that guy is a keeper.
You want all stars at every position? There's nothing wrong with Pence in CF, or Scott in RF... they're good enough to be pieces on a winning baseball team. Sure, if you can upgrade and pay big money for a 5-tool CF, go for it... but not at the expense of more pressing needs (ie - PITCHING). IMO, that's where all the resources are going to have to go towards (thus, its a good thing they didn't sign Jennings to an extention, like every armchair GM here was saying was the "obvious" thing to do at the time of the trade). The bullpen is salvageable with Qualls/Lidge... not as stellar as it has been in the past, but with better starting pitching, its definitely manageable. They'll look for some veterans to round out the infield... likely give Burke his first (and maybe last) shot to be an everyday 2b, and give Everett his job back (which will also help the pitching). Catcher will likely be Munson/Towles and perhaps Ausmus as Roy's personal catcher to spell one of them.
Why do we need to rebuild? We have a core of good players and we're missing a large chunk in the starting pitching rotation. For the off-season we need to get: - 2 quality starting pitchers - 1 decent lead-off hitter to replace the Biggio/former Tavaras role - Either an established manager, or a fiery upstart one. We shouldn't keep Cecil Cooper. We should keep Lidge.
Starting pitching: Roy, Wandy, Backe, Williams, Patton, NEED (Legit #2) Relief: Lidge, Qualls, NEED Lots of Pitchers C: Towles, Munson, Ausmus 1B: Berkman, Munson 2B: Nothing, Burke (Either/or but not on the field at the same time) SS: Nothing, Bruntlett... Need (Anything, Speed Preferebly probally Everett) 3B: Anything, Probally Wiggington. To be honest i dont have a problem with him, we just need another really good offensive infielder to balance him out. If only we could get Luke Scott or Lee to play Third Base, that would be much better. But i dont know if they's got the skills. RF: Pence, Scott CF: Buy one this summer. Aaron Rowand Aaron Rowand Aaron Rowand LF: Lee (They seriously would be better off trading either him or trade berkman and moving lee to 1st base. They are too similar and they could replenish their farm system really well with 3 good prospects that they can get for either one of them) Prognosis Is Pretty Bleak. We have plenty of heavy swinging position players, we just need more players with emphasis on on base percentage, hitting with risp and basestealing. Our offense is decent enough, if we get another 2 decent hitting players its gonna be good enough for us to keep everett, especially if Towles can produce. Pitching is what we need the most. I have no problems with the inconsistent Wandy and Woody being your 4 and 5 guys (They is no way we are gonna not start Williams unfortunately). If only we could make a system where wandy only pitches at home and woody only pitches away. Roy is such a stud i hope we never trade him away. All you need is two more horses to carry the load with him. If brandon backe could be one of those horses that would be such a relief and we would only have to find one more starter. I think we should keep Patton in the Minor Leagues next year so he can develop more and take woody's spot next year. Juan Gutierrez i think could be a decent reliever, a one or two inning guy. We need to Sign a Free Agent Reliever Badly. And i am not a lidge hater, but i think we need to trade him this winter while his value high before he has another meltdown. I just hope backe can do what he did before and towles is as good as he looks in the minors. We can sign Rowand, Resign Everett, Sign a #2 Starter, and get a relief pitcher. Oh yeah and offer arbitration to Lamb, Loretta and actually have a 1st round pick next year.
I just want solid major league talent. Luke, ideally, is the 4th outfielder. The young arms have not been the CWS of the WS year, nor reliable or too hope offering. Catching is so shallow at the MLB level, that I presume focus needs to be to add two reliable starters, a good starting OFer, and probably a good IFer. Now, how do they 'reload' with a minimum of that many needs? If it takes Oswald or Berkman to plug multiple holes solidly then, who/what must be the names requisite to give up that level of talent? And is that opening up too many other holes?
Honestly i dont think we can afford to trade a stud pitcher. But we can sure as hell afford to trade a stud first baseman.
IMO I'd trade Lee before I trade Berkman. Lee was paid a big contract to give us that slugger we needed the year before to put us over the top. It doesn't look like we'll be there for at least a season or two. A slugger like Lee could net you quite a bit. The most tradeable player we have is Oswalt, but I wouldn't trade him because all you're doing is making your most glaring weakness even weaker. The other reason is that Oswalt is a badass plain and simple and one of the few reasons I still watch the Astros since they've been out of it. Build around Pence, Oswalt and Berkman. You still have some servicable players on this team that will do in the mean time. Upgrade where you can, draft well and develop the younger players in the minors. I'd rather the Astros be down a season or two and then start making a run for contention again than to see them overpay for players and "compete" for the NL Central. Lets strive to be one of the best teams in the major leagues.
