Scott is not injury prone. Injuries weren't the reason he only got 369 AB's last season. Our stupid ass managers were (both of them). If injuries were keeping Scott out of the lineup why would he be squawking about playing time?
Justice commented briefly on what I referred to in his blog today: http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2007/10/who_wants_luke.html Aces, it wasn't all of the reason, but it was part of it. There were stretches where fans wondered why he wasn't playing (few days here and there), and the real reason was a nagging groin injury. Wasn't enough to prevent him from a pinch-hit AB here or there, but it was enough to prevent him from taking the outfield for nine innings. That said, I think it's somewhat flukish, and I'd want him back in right.
All of this Hunter and Rowand talk is starting to irk me. This team is much farther away from seriously competing for a pennant than even signing both of these guys. This team was 13th in runs scored and 12th in ERA last year. We need a hell of a lot to win next year. Who really thinks signing 30 year plus year old outfielders to mega free agent deals is really the way to build your club? Where is the long term strategy with this club? Hunter or Rowand makes us a little less terrible next year. Then what? Do we just hope Patton turns into Tom Glavine or that some idiot GM will trade us his staff ace for some of our less than stellar prospects? It's obvious we need to start some trade rumors... Carlos Lee to the Dodgers for Chin-Lung Hu and Chad Billingsley. Spread... spread...
The Astros obviously need help at the plate and on the mound...considering the free agent class of pitchers is really thin this year and trading for someone could be a longshot (since pitching is at a premium), it seems to make more sense for the team to go after some bats this offseason, then try and sign a solid number 2 next year if none of the young guys can step into that role. It would be stupid of Wade to at least not put out interest for guys like Rowand or Hunter...but expressing interest and signing someone to a contract, especially a longterm, big dollar one, are two totally different things.
The pitching should be better simply by having full seasons from Backe, Nieve and Patton. Albers hopefully will turn the corner. Paulino and Guitierez could be solid contributors. Add the defense/offense of Rowand and Castillo and this team can compete in a mediocre NL central.
Scott Kazmir may be available: http://www.nypost.com/seven/11052007/sports/scott_stove_league_846843.htm Says the Rays would be looking for multiple high end pitchers in return. Kazmir still has 3 years left but is arbitration eligible and that's one of the reasons the Rays would consider moving him. A 1-2 punch of Oswalt and Kazmir would be amazing, but do we have enough prospects to get it done?
I hate to be so pessimistic..but no way. We just don't have the pitching prospects....at least not any of that caliber.
Love to have him, but there is no way we have enough prospects. The Astros need to be in the game of keeping as many prospects as possible right now.
Lots of interesting tidbits in these articles ... Wade and the White Sox talking trade (Garland???) ... we're contacting every free agent 2b on the market ... contacting an All-Star closer ... Lieber is in the mix ... Linebrink has been contacted ... Wade is very interested in moving Hunter to RF ... he doesn't seem high on Burke's offensive potential ... So far I like that Wade is at least seeing what's out there as opposed to just saying, "we're set at 2b/closer/etc" and not exploring possibilities. Although part of me wonders if this kind of thing (preliminary contact with free agents) is common and we just don't always hear about it. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/5278635.html Trades looking like best option for pitching Astros GM Wade contacts agent for closer Cordero By JOSE DE JESUS ORTIZ Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle ORLANDO, Fla. – An already thin pitching market got even skinnier Tuesday as the Cleveland Indians picked up options on three potential free agents and the Boston Red Sox re-signed Curt Schilling, making it clear that the search for top-end pitching talent will likely mean a trip to the trade market this winter. As is the case every winter, clubs are desperate for pitching, one reason many baseball officials predicted a busy night of talks Tuesday at the general managers meetings. New Astros general manager Ed Wade continues his quest to improve the club. He has made preliminary contact with the agents for All-Star closer Francisco Cordero, starting pitcher Jon Lieber and second basemen Luis Castillo, Tadahito Iguchi and Kaz Matsui. Other Astros employees joining Wade at the meetings are president of baseball operations Tal Smith, assistant general managers David Gottfried and Ricky Bennett, American League scout Paul Ricciarini, and Fred Nelson, the National League scout now in charge of professional scouting. Wade said that as a policy, he doesn't comment on his trade talks, which is why he declined to say what he and the Chicago White Sox discussed Monday. Wade acknowledged visiting with some agents Monday evening, including the representative for Matsui. Teams can have dialogue with free agents from other clubs, but they cannot discuss financial figures or extend offers until next Wednesday, when ends the exclusive bargaining period between clubs and their free agents. Wade has been in contact with Larry Reynolds, the agent for center fielder Torii Hunter, but he had not met with him personally at the GM meetings as of Tuesday afternoon. That also was the case with Sam and Seth Levinson, the agents for Castillo. The Levinsons made contact with the Astros on Monday to let them know they were at the GM meetings, but Wade still hadn't met with them as of Tuesday afternoon. Mets general manager Omar Minaya is hopeful of retaining Castillo. "We're going to do the best we can to sign Castillo," Minaya said. On the pitching front, the Indians picked up a $7.5 million option on starter Paul Byrd and also exercised options on closer Joe Borowski ($4 million) and lefthanded reliever Aaron Fultz ($1.5 million.) Schilling agreed with Boston to an $8 million contract with $3 million in potential performance bonuses. He can make an additional $2 million by meeting weight clauses — $333,333 for each time he passes one of six random monthly weigh-ins. His salary in 2007 was $13 million. Minaya, Wade and most GMs agree that the best avenue for quality pitching this winter may be through the trade market. Philadelphia Phillies general manager Pat Gillick has even described this pitching market as a dangerous one, meaning clubs are in peril of making a big and expensive mistake. "You'll probably put too much money in your mind to somebody who's not worthy of it," Gillick said. Wade understands. "Once you get past two or three guys in this market, all of a sudden you realize there's a couple of guys that are going to become very, very wealthy because the best of the rest moved to the top," Wade said. "When you've got a thin pitching market, that means that that group that I referred to as the best of the rest, not only are the dollars going to be higher, you have to pretty much expect that terms are going to be longer, which increases the risk of not only letdown in the performance, but the health factor comes into play. "It's one of those markets. If you're out there trying to find pitching, the majority of starting pitchers that would be available, there are going to be issues attached to almost all of them. (As for) the ones that don't have issues that may come out on the trade market, the other GMs aren't foolish. The ones that have those guys are going to be asking for a lot of good players in return." http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/...t_id=2294070&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou Astros interested in veteran Lieber Houston GM Wade has contacted right-hander's agent By Jim Molony / MLB.com ORLANDO -- The Astros are interested in free agent right-hander Jon Lieber, Houston general manager Ed Wade confirmed to MLB.com on Tuesday afternoon. "I was excited about him when we signed him the last time [in 2004, when Wade, as GM of the Philadelphia Phillies, signed the then free agent to a three-year, $21 million contract]," Wade said during a break in the GMs meetings at the Grand Cypress Resort. "We have let his agent [Rex Gary] know we are interested, and if he's available, he's definitely someone we'd like at the very least to kick the tires on." Lieber, 37, won 17 games for the Phillies in 2005, before falling to 9-11 in 2006. He finished 3-6 with a 4.73 ERA in 14 games (12 starts) for the National League East champions this year in a season that was cut short by a ruptured tendon in his right foot. Lieber also missed time early in the season due to an oblique strain. "If he's healthy, he could help us," Wade said. "He's a ground-ball pitcher and doesn't give up a lot of walks." Lieber's 1.29 walks per nine innings last season would have ranked No. 1 in the NL had he pitched enough innings to qualify. He led the league in that statistical category in 2004. The Phillies have exclusive negotiating rights with Lieber through Nov. 12, but Philadelphia GM Pat Gillick has already indicated the club will not bring the pitcher back for a fourth season. An All-Star in 2001 with the Cubs, Lieber is 129-121 in a 13-year career with the Pirates, Cubs, Yankees and Phillies. Lieber is on a lengthening list of free agents Wade has contacted recently, joining center fielders Torii Hunter and Aaron Rowand, second baseman Luis Castillo and reliever Scott Linebrink. Hunter's agent, Larry Reynolds, was at the Grand Cypress Hotel on Tuesday, but Wade said he had not spoken with Reynolds on Tuesday. The Astros are looking for pitching first and foremost, but would also like to add offense. "If we get a center fielder, we'll move [Hunter] Pence over [to right field]. We'd like to do that," Wade said. "Everybody in the room is looking for starting pitching. If we can upgrade the bullpen and we can add some offense at another position, we'd like to do that. "There's been some discussion about our second base situation and I've told people that [Chris] Burke's our heir apparent, but we've been in contact with some of the other guys who are out there because it's incumbent upon us to score more runs." The Astros have eight arbitration-eligible players: pitchers Brandon Backe, Dave Borkowski, Chad Qualls and Brad Lidge; and infielders Eric Bruntlett, Adam Everett, Ty Wigginton and Burke. The Astros must also decide on whether to offer arbitration to some of their free agents, including Jason Jennings, and Wade said those decisions were pending. In other news Tuesday, the GMs voted, 25-5, to explore instant replay, and the Astros were among the teams voting against the measure. "The umpires were more right than wrong 99.9 percent of the time," Wade said. "With the increased time of the game, at some point you'll get to a stage where managers are almost compelled to challenge, and that's why I voted against it." Wade wasn't surprised the majority voted for instant replay. "I thought the guys on the committee made some very good points. There's a lot of validity to what they had to say," Wade said. "I just think that if you're going to do something like that on a limited scope, it doesn't stay limited." Jim Molony is a writer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Precisely what my thoughts have been concerning all this noise of late: Well, Huniscker and his boys are officially gone now, because we seem to be talking to the media again.
Also, I wouldn't be shocked if Drayton has asked for the front office to be more transparent since one of the biggest criticisms of Timmy P (fair or unfair) was that he "didn't do anything."
The fact that we are contacting all of these 2Bs doesnt say a whole lot for Burke's future here imo. Perhaps we are going to use Burke as trade bait for a starter...but I guess we'll see. I dont see us ending up with Hunter....he seems like he would command minimum of 12 million per yr...especially after winning ANOTHER gold glove and off a pretty darn good statistical yr at the plate. Interesting that we are supposedly talking to Cordero....maybe Lidge is on the block as well? Given the 2B that are out there...I'd probably rather see us let Loretta play there and spend that money on pitching...but hopefully not on Lieber. Anyone read anything re Pettitte? Is it Yankees or retirement for him? With Roy O and Backe...and I guess you could throw in Albers....we REALLY need a solid #2. Maybe Lidge and Burke for Garland and some minor league guys? Love the hot stove....i hope Wade gets us back and running!
I'm thinking the Garland talks are definitely back on again with Wade dangling Burke pending our signing another 2B.
