I suspect the Astros' fear of pitching FA (long term) contracts dates back to Drabek/Swindell. 8mil for Wolf? What am I missing? 100mil for Zito? No thanks. (Of course, 100mil for Lee? Ouch.) I need to be Scott Boros and his lot...
you gotta figure that Roger aint pitching for a dime less than 18 million...and thats being very generous....and only because maybe he will give us one of those hometown discounts...but i doubt it. Any figures to get 12-14 minimum...and would probably sign a 2 year deal with an option for the 2nd...2 yrs/28-30 mil Zito is gonna break the bank....especially if he ends up on NY's radar...he will get approx 4/70 mill imo Schmidt will likely get something along the lines of what the Cubs were rumored to have offered (3/45) I think Schmidt is a lot more likely to be targeted by us than Zito (if either)...but its time to sit down with the Hendricks, Roger and Andy and say...we want you...we need u...we got a nice bat...but we are gonna get shut out if we wait.
You need a team to win. The teams with both hitting and pitching have done much better than the pitching only teams...end of story.
No, that's not the end of the story. The part you're leaving out is how hitting only teams have sucked. So the end of the story is, it's not as simple as some think.
2006 WS Champs weren't exactly loaded with pitching, but they were fortunate to play in a division that couldn't score runs(or prevent runs with the Astros being the notable exception). Also, I'm not a proponent of hitting only. The best chance to win is to be good at both pitching and hitting than be tremendously great at one and horrendous at the other. You have to pitch to win, but if you don't score runs you'll just have another 2006 Astros.
But the 2006 Astros didn't pitch as good as they should have... especially with Pettite's first half, the struggle of all the young kids, and the bullpen issues. If they had pitched as well as they should have, you have the 2005 Astros... a team that goes to the World Series.
I'm too tired to respond to your baseball post there tonight, but I must say that your sig is delightfully funny.
A little love for Stack and Live Sports Cafe: http://houston.astros.mlb.com/NASAp...t_id=1747229&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou Astroline radio show set to begin Weekly program gives fans chance to prepare for '07 season By Alyson Footer / MLB.com HOUSTON -- The Astros are knee-deep in Hot Stove issues this offseason, and beginning Wednesday, they'll give fans the opportunity to ask questions on a variety of topics on a weekly basis throughout the winter. Astroline, the club's popular offseason call-in radio show, will air its first show of the offseason on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT. General manager Tim Purpura will be the first guest, joining host Milo Hamilton at Live Sports Cafe, located at 407 Main Street in downtown Houston. Astroline will air on the club's flagship station, KTRH 740 AM, and on astros.com. Astroline begins its five-month run leading into the 2007 baseball season. Fans can either attend the show in person at Live Sports Cafe or call in to the Astros' flagship station at (713) 212-KTRH, or (713) 212-5874. The show moves to Florida in February when the Astros report to their Spring Training complex in Kissimmee. Astroline features interviews, news, and information on the Houston Astros. Hamilton hosts a different guest each week, including Astros owner Drayton McLane, Purpura, players and front office personnel.
1) A team that got lucky and got to the World Series 2) A team that got swept in the World Series because of their inept offense Pitching is the most important part of a team, but scoring runs is also vital. You don't have to be the Yankees or the Redsox, but you have to have capable hitters. Not 1 or 2 good hitters and then crap hitters.
they didn't get swept because of inept offense. they got swept because the pitching didn't show up nearly as effectively as it had prior to that. Clemens only pitched like 2 innings in game 1 and gave up 2 runs in those innings. Oswalt gave up 5 runs in 6 innings in game 3. And the otherwise steady bullpen became very shaky. Brandon Backe gave you the best performance of any of them.
Their pitching (other than an injured Clemens) ran into an offense that could hit the ball. Their's couldn't keep pace.
I really don't think we should be too concerned with how our pitching or hitting will stand up in the playoff right now. We need to figure out how we are going to have the best opportunity to win two out of every three games (or 3 out of every 5) during the season. Hitting . . . yes. Pitching . . . yes. The reality is we are a bit short on both categories. What a wonderful world it woulb be if Andy and Roger came back and we had productive innings from our young kids AND we got some good outfield play and hitting from some of the other young kids. If all the "if's" and "but's" were candy and nuts . . . what a wonderful life this would be. Day in and day out we need to be able to be competitive with our arms (not stellar, thought that would be nice) and we need to score a few runs. That means we either need to sign some experienced guys or hope to hell that our kids are ready.
The way I saw it was that the Astros leaned on their best pitchers too much to get to the World Series. The Astros No 1 -No 3 starters and the three headed dragon in the pen were exhausted. I think if the Astros hitters had given the pitching a little more rest and a lot less stress throughout the season, the pitching would have been better in the series. The Astros pitching staff in 2005 deserved to win a World Series. The comebacks were great entertainment, but it would have been better to be able to set the rotation for the playoffs and have a rested pen.
Fact is that only the White Sox had top notch pitching AND hitting that year....thats why they won. They were the better team...period. It wasnt our offense that gave up a walkoff HR to a guy who hadnt hit one all year...it was our offense that got us back in the game. If we scored more...yes...we may have won some of those games (if not all)...but we didnt..but it doesnt take away from the fact that we lost to a better all around team.
I dont agree one bit. Yea their offense was better, but our pitching rotation was quite superiour compartively. It just seemed like every break went their way, and they were the hotter team for sure (not counting the fact that if Roy O had pitched gave 1 instead of an injured Clemens if not for the HR by Pujols it might have been a completely different series)....... It was almost like the Rockets vs. Magic in 95, we were on a roll man. We got all the breaks, the mad comebacks, ducking wild 3s at the buzzer, the tip ins, etc. I bet you we dont sweep them again if we play that team, that was a SOLID Magic team. But of course u cant really compare 2 sports, especially when a player like Hakeem can make sooo much difference. But in baseball usually a team thats hot will win regardless of talent sometimes (thus the crappy Cardinals this year). I believe the Stros were a better pitching and defense team, while the Sox were the better hitting team. We didnt lose because we were outmatched is my point. We lost to a better team <b> that week </b>....
I dont have the stats but i have a hard time believing that our pitching stats were superior to theirs....i dont feel like pulling it up on google but id be interested to see the stats for that year. I think the defense was a wash. Their hitting was much better
Um, the Sox were awesome defensively. Joe Crede is a freaking witch (mullet and all) at 3B, and he continued it in the WS. Killed us, and forever cemented my disdain for mulletheads. Also, their pitching staff *was* as good as the Astros staff all year, and that staff was hot going into that series. The White Sox were the class of the AL pretty much all year long that year, while the Astros backed in after an amazing comeback run. Max was right--they were the better team.
