If the Astros land Prior...they have their potential #2 starter. the only thing is his injury record. I hope that the contract is incentive based or cheap or both. Prior is WELL worth the risk considering who's available.
Everett signed with the Twins. I hadn't heard this. Astros should take a shot on Prior after Dr. Andrews has treated him. The guy was on track to be a major star. It would be fun to let Nolan work with him. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5377893.html
The thought of the "old" Prior is nice and all...but do you really think the Cubs would have non tendered him if he had even an inkling of getting back to his old form?
Prior was way overused and abused with the Cubs. With the right conditioning, trainers, and manager he'll be able to become a good pitcher again.
Take a look at this... It's not just about Baker, his conditioning, or anything other than the fact that he needs to change the way he pitches.
U forget we have something the cubs don't have: Miguel Tejada. He'll get prior on a strict B-12 regime and he'll be back to his old self in no time.
Seems like we ought to sign him for some ridiculously low amount of money and give him another shot to prove the trade wasn't a total bust...especially since he was pitching injured and we need pitching. Get him and Prior into spring training...maybe they will surprise us.
Has Keith Law said "the Astros aren't contenders" after every freaking trade they've made this offseason? It's like he's stuck in a loop.
The astros were one of the very worst teams in baseball last year. They have certainly improved for 2008 but enough for the ~18 win improvement it will take to compete? For every addition this offseason, holes have been created also. They add bourne for defense and speed but lose offense (scott) and 75 innings of good relief pitching. They add Tejada, but will he bounce back from a mediocre year? They lose a lot of defense/speed and rotation depth in the trade. They add Valverde, but they lose their best relief pitcher and rotation depth. Are they improved? in the short run, yes. Enough to contend? I just don't see it right now. Get back to me at the end of the offseason.
If the astros don't contend in the weak central who are the contenders? The other teams haven't done much to improve themselves. I think the astros have a legitimate shot to win the central the way the team is now and if they make it to the playoffs anything can happen.
The cubs and the brewer entering the offseason clearly were the prohibitive favorites in the division. CHN won 85 games and had 87 pythagorean projection wins last year. the brewers had 83 win and py wins. I think both team will be improved next year. The cubs obviously had the big news of the offseason signing fukudome. Pecota projects a 280/401/504, (303EQA) If he he comes anywhere close to those projections he represents a significant addition to what was already a very good offense. Zambrano/Lilly/Hill is the best top 3 in the division if not the NL. The brewers had a mini meltdown at the end of last year, but from strictly a talent perspective they're a top 3 team in the NL,imo. All their significant piece are young player who can largely be expected to maintain or increase their performance. Fulls years from Braun and Gallardo should go a ways to their improvement. But largely the question of if they're a 82-86 win team or a 90 + win team will be the years they get from Sheets and Weeks. Just because a division is down doesn't mean it will stay that way. In 1997 only the astros, with 84 wins, won over 79 games in the central. They next year the central had 3 team over .500, including 2 teams at 90+ wins and a 103 win houston squad. If you're expect 85 wins to capture the division again i think you'll be severely disappointed.
That doesn't mean anything. I bet going into last season the defending champion cardinals were the favorites and look at what happened there. I think Tejada will have a bigger impact replacing everett than fukudome will have over jones. We have young players too who should increase their performances. Pence, Towles, Bourne, Paulino, etc. People have been waiting for sheets to stay healthy since he came to the majors following his time in the olympics. Hasn't happened. The past two seasons no team from the central has won more than 90 games. Will some team win 90 games in 2008? Maybe, maybe not. I just don't see why the brewers and cubs should be favored ahead of the astros.
Going into last year Vegas had lines set at Cubs 84.5 win (won 85), Brewers 83 wins (won 83) Cardinals 86 wins (won 78). This was before Carpenter was listed out of the season BTW. I don't think it was far off from what actually happened. Not sure about that. Jones was pretty bad last year at 285/330/400. I would guess that Tejada will be a bigger offensive upgrade, but when you consider defense I imagine a strong argument could be made that fukudome would be the stronger all around upgrade. Obviously there are a lot of question marks in both Fukudome's and Tejada's 2008. We are a much older team that Milwaukee. With the exception of Pence (who at 25 isn't exactly young young) virtually all of our key players are 30+ yrs old s. Consider Fielder-24, Weeks-25, Braun-24, Hardy-24, Hart-26, Bush-28, Sheets-29, Capuano-29, Gallardo-22 VS. Pence-25, Berkman-32, Lee-32, Matsui-33, Wigginton-30, Oswalt -30, Williams-41, Rodriguez-29. Sheets i agree to a certain extend. But consider that he has pitched over 200 innings in 3 of his 6 years. From 2002-2004 he pitched a lot more innings(and was healthier) than Oswalt. He's only average about 130 innings per year the last 3 year, but when he has pitched he has been one of the best in the league. Because both of them last year were double digit wins better than Houston. Both of them are improved this year. Both of them have good offenses and much better pitching staffs than houston. As of right now, i just don't see the astros as 20 wins better than last year.
No doubt Houston played bad last year. But we also lost 23 games vs the pirates and brewers alone. If the situation would have been reversed Houston would have won the Central Division with 96 wins. I can't imagine Houston playing as badly this upcoming season vs these two ballclubs as they did in the past. Say what you want but I believe in the astros and think they will win the central next seasonl. Go Houston Astros!
