it's funny, because i'm actually more optimistic about the 2008 Astros now after their 2-5 start than I was before opening day.
Why? Because their pitching hasn't imploded? I wouldn't get too excited just yet. Offenses around the league are starting off slowly.
Because I saw them string together some nice starts in a row. I'm not telling you they're WS bound!!! The problem with a message board is people typically read in a lot more than is there than you do with face-to-face conversation.
Haha I'm just saying that I don't think the starts you've seen are indicative of how their pitching will be the rest of the season.
Jumping off the bandwagon already? The problem with a message board is people typically read in a lot more than is there than you do with face-to-face conversation.[/QUOTE] Are you calling me STUPID????
Love what Miggy had to say about pitching to Lee........I know myself and the fans I was watching it with were all thinking the same damn thing. "I can't believe we let (Lee) hit in the last at-bat. You shouldn't let him hit in the last at-bat because he's been having a great series from the first game we played. They all can hit a home run, but I think in that situation he's the kind of guy that we have to be careful (with)." A great manager has to think outside the box and I haven't seen that from Cecil yet. Yes, walking the number 3 hitter with only 1 out not the traditional play. But when a guy is locked in like Lee was, it doesn't mater who is pitching or what he is throwing. You just give him the base and take your chances with Ramirez and Fukudome.
not to nitpick, but wandy's start was not good - 4 ER and 9 baserunners in 5 innings is pathetic. i think the best-case scenario is that backe's for real and sampson can pitch against the cubs exclusively. actually, i really like sampson - he battles on the mound. wandy and chacon are, imo, worthless. unfortunately, oswalt scares me to death and i wish they would have dealt him this winter. same for berkman. i fear they're both are the wrong side of it. i hate the construction of this team. hate, hate, hate it. they're operating with their heads in the sand, imo, and i shudder to think where they'll be in 1 or 2 years when oswalt, berkman, lee and tejada are all on the decline and making a quadtriple billion dollars. did i mention i hate the team's construction?
I seriously doubt we're going to see Lee, Berkman and Oswalt drastically decline in the next season or two. It would've been absurd to trade any of those guys this past offseason unless you were just blown away by the proposal. Tejada is in the sixth year of a seven year deal, if I read correctly. And you apparently missed nearly every single one of Wandy's home starts last season.
possibly not lee, who seems remarkably consistent (though i felt/feel the signing was a bad one). but lance and roy have both endured below-average (by their standards) results for prolonged stretches in the past year and are off to horrible starts this year. absurd to trade them if all you could get was $.50 on the dollar. but of the bigger names that were moved this winter (santana, haren, cabrera, willis, swisher - berkman and oswalt belong among that group)) - they all brought back a pretty sizeable bounty of upper-echelon prospects. given that we're going to be paying these guys as they undoubtedly WILL decline and that we have absolutely the worst farm system in major league baseball, i don't think dealing them would have been absurd at all. is this a joke? i don't want to get all huffy and puffy if, as i suspect, you're being sarcastic cause then i look stupid and all.
does his home record last year somehow outweigh his 6.37 away ERA and 3-10 record? you can't build a pitching staff around such wildly inconsistent arms. he's worthless.
I think the only good thing you could say about Wandy is that his home/away splits showed that the problem with him is likely mental. At least that means he potentially has "the stuff" to be successful if the mental thing can be resolved. For performance, I'd rather have consistency. For potential, I'd rather see a mix of brilliance and suckitude. But regardless, even the Wandy of last year would make a functional 5th starter (0.500 type pitcher in your 5 spot is great). The problem is that I think we have a bunch of 4/5 starters. I like Sampson a lot. Backe should be fine - his challenge is staying healthy. I know nothing about Chacon. I've had concerns with Oswalt for a while - something wasn't right with him all last year. The biggest pitching problem is depth. If/when any of these guys gets hurt, we don't have a lot to replace them with. I think the offensive players will be fine for a few more years. Lee may be a problem if his weight balloons (since 1B is taken), but we'll see. Berkman should be good another 5 years. Pudgy sluggers seem to level out and stay pretty good through a chunk of their 30's (the Thomes, Ortizs, Thomases). I'd have more concerns with his ability to play 1B than hit - but even that is still 5-7 years down the road.
i don't share your enthusiasm for berkman. he was well below average for too much of last year for me to just casually dismiss it. his start this year hasn't helped quell any concerns. agree with everything else. my problem with the astros is that they've been working on the belief that the runs in '04 and (especially) '05 were the rule not the exception, and they've burdened their franchise with those expectations. truth is - throw those runs out (again, especially the '05 stretch in which they received historic pitching contributions), and this team has been well below .500 since 2005. the offense was terrible, the staff around oswalt, clemens and pettitte was a crap-shoot (with pettitte and clemens both, more or less, hired guns), and the minor league system was barren. i wish that they had recognized the flukiness and mapped out a strategy accordingly. instead, they sign carlos lee, trade for jason jennings, trade for miguel tejada... they're a bad team today with no hope for tomorrow.
can you (would you) build a pitching staff around a wildly inconsistent 29-year old with some, it would appear, head issues? i mean, he's more or less been a full-time major league for 4 years now and owns a 5+ career ERA. i quess we could quibble what that's worth in today's MLB, but in trying to build a team either to contend today or tomorrow... the wandy rodriguez's of the world figure to be fringe components. ie worthless; a dime a dozen; easily replaceable....
