Just look at it this way. Next season we are going to have several tradeable pitching assets in Wandy, Zeke, Backe, and Nieve. If Wandy and Zeke can continue to pitch well to finish the season their value will sky rocket.
I totally agree. We have a much better chance making a trade during the off season for a bat. Our pitchers are gaining value and that's all those bad teams want, young pitching prospects. Plus teams that want to trade someone in the summer, know teams can just sign guys outright instead. I expect thr Reds asking price for Dunn and company to significantly drop. His arbitration won't be adding any value to him either. Dunn should be priority #1 in the off season, next to resigning Roger and Biggio. Then, I still think Huff would be nice addition, and since he's a FA, we won't give anything up, other than Drayton's money. I see the Reds as the biggest losers in the trade deadline. They couldn't get rid of Dunn, Griffey, or Kearns. That's a horrible job by their GM, who is way to greedy, if you can't get rid of one of those guys with probably the most buyers in trading deadline history. He should be embaresed.
The cubs got Lawton for Jody Gerut, yes the same player who was swapped for the Jason Dubois. Its hard to believe that an astros offer could not match that of Gerut. Purpura missed that one b/c IMO, we really need a bat if we want to win the Series. Link for lawton trade http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2121047
I stated the exact same thing in another thread after Kent talked publicly how he loved Houston and was even going to take less than his 9 million option to stay here. Sure, he didn't overpay for anyone at the trading deadline, but what GM did? He still should of been going all out to get a bat before the season even started. Teams like Tampa knew they weren't going to contend then. So if you asked me what has he done? All i could tell you is he ran Jeff Kent out of town.
Our outfield was going to be Lane, Berkman (after a month), and Willy. If we had gotten a bat there, Willy would still be in the minors. Would that have been a good thing? Expectations were high for Lane, so he was finally going to get his opportunity no matter what. 1st base - Bagwell. 2nd - Biggio, SS - Everett, C - Ausmus. These positions were all set and we weren't looking to upgrade any of those. The other concern was 3B. Would you have liked to have gone out and gotten a 3B before the season and benched Ensberg? The only reason we have a corner outfield spot problem is Bagwell had surgery (moving Berkman) and Lane has not performed to expectations. Neither of these were expected before the season started. If anything, we would most likely have moved to get a CF or a 3B, and the result would be no Willy or no Ensberg.
How does that help us this season... The goal is to win this year as it is highly unlikely that if Roger returns next year, he, Andy, and Roy will be this dominant. Considering that the asking price for Jamie freaking Moyer was Nieve, I'm just hoping that the asking price for hitters was way too high. I would hate to think that Purpura is delusional enough to think this lineup as composed will cut it or incompetent enough to not be able to put together a deal. Then again, it scares me that he was willing to deal Nieve for Moyer...we really dodged a bullet there. In the end, while many of you say this lineup is good enough to get it done, well I agree - theoretically anybody can get hot in the playoffs. But it's about giving yourself the BEST shot to win and when you already know that these guys are playing way over their heads combined with the fact that we pretty much have a one year window, well, you need to mask your handicap. This isn't like the St. Louis Cardinals of last year mashing their way to the pennant. Somehow, this offense is getting it done with smoke and mirrors on the backs of possibly the greatest statistical pitching trio in the last decade. In the end, I fear that our recent success has given us a false sense of security. It reminds me of the 1997-1998 Rockets season when, with rumors abound (including Damon Stoudamire), the team went on a winning streak close to the deadline and decided to stand pat. That team, like this one, also had a small window of opportunity.
I would have of gotten an outfielder without blinking. We started the saeson with an entire minor league outfield! When has that been done before on any team? Lane and Taveras could fight for time. It was also pretty obvious bagwell was gonna go down. The team already knew his shoulder was a complete mess. That was a given. So there were more than one reason to go our and get another big bat for the lineup. Especially when it was fresh in everyone's mind we had just lost 2 all stars, kent and Beltran. Seemed obvious too me and the entire sports nation we needed major help.
It seems as though a large % of the board is unwilling to let go of young prospects like Nieve and the like. If everyone's goal is to win a championship, and Roger Clemens could be in his final season, can anyone tell me what we are waiting for? Seems like this is the best time there will ever be to make a deadline deal. No? How often will Roger be pitching this way, if at all? What about Ensberg playing out of his mind, or players like Wheeler, Taveras and heck, even Biggio exceeding expectations. Given the Rocket's short time frame and the chance to see what he and Pettitte can do in the playoffs together, it seems like the iron was hot. Did we strike? Nope.
As a Yankees fan this offends me. Moyer's 3 year splits vs. NYY 6.15ERA 8Starts 48.1IP 56H 34R 33ER 14HR 18BB 29K .286BAA
We didn't strike, because it was a horrible year to make a deadline deal. 1) Too many teams in the race meant a lot of buyers and very few sellers. 2) An underwhelming free agent class meant that there were few rent-a-players, and less pressure on teams to deal players. 3) The prominent involvment of Chuck LaMar and the Reds. LaMar is just horrible to deal with, and was demanding top level prospects for Baez and Julio Lugo, before rendering Lugo off-the-market. The Reds were worse, they couldn't decide who was even on the market - much less what they would like for them. 4) The Manny Ramirez Deal. Which consumed so much attention from so many teams(including teams who had negotiations with New York or Boston to move surpluses/fill holes created by the trade), that smaller deals just didn't even get looked at.
I guess the question I'm asking is which would you prefer: 1) Continued above-average play that will barely get the Astros to the post-season but nothing after that. (What we've seen for the past decade) 2) Take a chance and put a championship contender on the field, perhaps at the peril of future seasons Given the Rocket's status, I opt for 2. Could you imagine how potent out lineup would be if Drayton had used the Beltran money to put Manny Ramirez in our outfield? You can't say the opportunity wasn't there. Boston was desperate to unload him (heck, they waived him last year) and likely would have picked up part of his salary. Putting ManRam in our lineup instantly gives us credibility for a title. Instead, we are messing around with washed-up has beens like Jamie Moyer. Is Purpura even on the same wavelength as anyone else? Jamie Moyer? What, was Rick Sutcliffe not available?
Last year was the best time to do it because had an older team (Bagwell, Kent), and we did. Every year a team can say "this might be the last chance". In reality, it's just the opposite for this team. The core of the team - Willy, Berkman, Ensberg, Everett in the field; Roy, Pettite, Wheeler, Lidge, Qualls, Astacio, Wandy pitching - is young and will be here for a while. The only impact players we'll be losing due to age soon are Ausmus, Biggio and Roger Clemens. Ausmus and Biggio each likely has a few more years, Roger probably the same. If we do lose Roger, that's $18,000,000 to go get impact players to replace him. The team's future is bright, certainly looking towards the next year or two - now is not the time to trade away integral future parts of marginal improvements. Look, we'd all have liked to have added a bat. But the simple fact of the matter is no impact player was available at a reasonable price - every team went through this same problem. I don't see how you can blame a GM for not getting an impact player when NO GM was able to do it. There might have been some minor guys out there like Winn and such, but these guys simply aren't difference makers. It's just not worth risking changing the chemistry and mix on this team, along with giving up future prospects, for an extra 0.050 to 0.100 of OPS.
Who were you going to trade to get Manny? It would have taken Ensberg or Berkman, at the very least, plus prospects. They weren't unloading Manny for prospects - the proposed deal got them Huff and Cameron for him, and even that was deemed not enough. Boston was looking for players that will help them win this year.
First, Kent could have been had this year, and not re-signing him is the biggest blunder to date of Purpura. Second, Pettitte has only one more year on his contract, and Lidge (and Ensberg) is going to be needing a whopper of a contract as well. Remember what happened with Billy Wagner? Hopefully the same fate won't befall Lidge. Wheeler, Astacio, Wandy, Everett, Qualls -- those guys aren't the core of any team. They are easily replaceable filler. Allowing the Rocket to redeem himself after last year's Game 7 would be excellent and a nice reward for him taking Drayton's hometown discount. BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA Kind of like Drayton used the Beltran money to acquire..... oops, to fund another steepled building on the Baylor campus. Seriously, what in the world makes you think Drayton is going to fully allocate those dollars to improving this team. What, is Purpura going to bring in Griffey Jr's 20-year annuity of a contract? Funny.
You are sorely underestimating Roger Clemens. He is 1/3 of the only reason we would have had a realistic shot through the postseason. The rest is not a core - they are along for the ride.
Hmm... Berkman, Bagwell, Biggio, Alou, Kent, Pettite, Clemens, huge offers to Johnson, Beltran, Kile ... What makes you think Drayton won't spend if impact players are available? There's a difference between smart spending and stupid spending.
You don't make the playoffs solely with a guy who plays one out of 5 days. We're 11-10 in the games Clemens has started. We're 46-38 in all the other games. Clearly, plenyty of other people are contributing to our success too. We're in the position we're in because everyone has been contributing key innings, key hits, key defense, etc.
Um, half the players you listed left because Drayton didn't want to spend the money to keep them around. Then you imply that Bagwell's $18,000,000 salary this season is smart spending? CLASSIC
But you win in the playoffs with excellence. Clemens represents that. Again, this isn't about just making the playoffs and calling it a successful season. We're sick of that. We want to be in the CHAMPIONSHIP hunt, not just happy to be in the post-season. And attempting to downplay Clemens W/L record this season is just plain silly. He's the best pitcher in baseball and doesn't have any run support. How you choose to ignore that is mind boggling.
