Not really. After all these years with Wade, we still don't have that grade A, Tim Lincecum-Jason Heyward prospect. Hopefully with a deep draft, they will finally get one.
The Astros acquired left-hander Sergio Escalona from the Phillies for minor league second baseman Albert Cartwright
You talking about that 16 year old kid? Yikes, knowing the Sros, he probably won't make it to the big leauges until 9 more years. They won't let a kid play until they are 25 or 26. Thats been their mo.
That was Hunsicker and Poopura's MO. Wade's been moving anyone with a pulse through the minors pretty quickly. There's no way that Castro, Johnson, or Wallace would've played in the bigs last year if Poopura was on watch. Of course, if Poopura was on watch, we wouldn't have drafted Castro or traded for Wallace in the first place.
Found this on the Astros Message Boards. "Ariel profiles as a middle of the order power hitter with excellent defensive skills,” GM Ed Wade said. “He profiles as a front line major league right fielder and should move quickly through the minor league system." "Executives in the Astros' system compared Ovando to players such as Darryl Strawberry, Domonic Brown Jason Heyward, Fred McGriff, Carlos Delgado and Cliff Floyd. That's an impressive group of players, and it's not just the Astros building hype. Two scouts who chatted to MLBTR contributor Blake Bentley compared Ovando to Strawberry earlier in the season." Everyone else seems to be high on this kid, so I'll listen to the experts. Have fun being Mr. Cynical.
I stop reading when it said executives in the Astros system. But anyways even if he does fast track it to the bigs it won't be until he's 19 or 20 which is still 3-4 years way. Wade have had 3 drafts under his belt and all we have to show for it are a handful of grade B prospects. What did you expect when he drafted a catcher, a short stop and a 2nd baseman projected to be singles hitters in the first round.
Can we cut the "Poopura" schtick? Yes, he failed as the GM. Let us not forget, however, that he was the architect of what was the best minor league system in all of MLB for many years. That's besides the fact that it just isn't funny...
Then you should've continued reading where it said That's an impressive group of players, and it's not just the Astros building hype. Two scouts who chatted to MLBTR contributor Blake Bentley compared Ovando to Strawberry earlier in the season." You've been going through this shtick for awhile now. If you hate the team so much, why don't you just leave?
Why don't you just ignore me if you don't like what I say. I'm just understand why they can't do anything right.
It was pretty well documented that Hunsicker and Timmy slow tracked the youngsters, if you notice all those names were late 90s/early 2000s. Wade is fast tracking those who deserve it, simple example was Ben Heath. Heath was drafted in the 2010 draft 6th rd I believe and ended the season at AA Corpus.
People that say that Wade is doing a better job of fast tracking players, its not really a big deal since we had a bad farm system when he took over anyways.
Maybe so, you can see that last year was the first year in a while that we had the depth to move up some people pretty fast and still have something at the lower levels to re-stock. I'll still give Wade credit, if for nothing else then, for not staying pat and challenging some of the young guys.
The Astros were successful enough from 1994 - 2005 that there was no need to fast track very many players. For the most part they had well established and successful players throughout the lineup.
I agree, didn't mean to say it was necessarily a bad thing. During rebuilding periods it is more important and I think that is what will see in 2012 when we see the first waive of Heck/Wade draftees get to AAA.
No it's not - it's just conjecture from fans. As it turns out, the youngsters that were "slow-tracked" (Jason Lane, Daryle Ward, Chris Burke) turned out to be pretty crappy players. Maybe instead of being slowtracked, they were just held back because the team realized they didn't translate very well at the MLB level. Can you name a player that, after seeing their performance, the Astros should have brought up more quickly?
