It should look like this IMO. 1. Wandy RodrÃguez 2. Roy Oswalt 3. Bud Norris 4. Brett Myers 5. Felipe Paulino I think this is going be the year Felipe Paulino takes a huge step. He has over 100 innings pitched in the big leagues and he has been working his tail off this offseason according to Ed Wade. I think his career could take off like how Edwin Jackson did this past year. The bullpen should be solid. LR-Brian Moehler LP-Tim Byrdak RP-Jeff Fulchino RP-Alberto Arias RP-Matt Lindstrom RP-Samuel Gervacio CL-Brandon Lyon
Perhaps, the D part is true but the latter part of that statement is completely false. Not only has he had an extremely horrible OBP for his career (and every season within his career), he has practically no pop whatsoever, and he's getting older, meaning the little pop he has is getting worse. You can't just look at HRs. Isolated power is a better indication of his "pop." In that respect, Feliz is about as bad as it gets: ISO among NL 3rd baseman last season (you need to sort it by ISO): http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=3b&stats=bat&lg=nl&qual=y&type=1&season=2009&month=0 Even if you want to focus on HRs, he hit just 12 last season in a hitter-friendly park. He also had 625 plate appearances (2nd most in his career) so he got his cuts in.
The statement I made was in regards to my previous post were I was being optimistic about the team so Feliz giving us "POP" to make up for his crappy OBP was also being optimistic. Saying that the guy did drive in 82 runs, 30 doubles and 154 hits while only striking out 68 times in 625 PAs. Another key stat IMO was that when he put the ball in play his avg went up to .281 so is this guy Great or even Good no but he is better then Blum both offensively and defensively along with allowing Blum to be used as a super utility guy where he belongs. Another thing is I doubt he will be used so regularly so his numbers HOPEFULLY will be maximized with more rest because while Blum is great in his proper role, I doubt the Stros can or will count on him being an everyday guy and that has it's reasons.
Chances are that he will have a worse season next year, not better. As Brooks pointed out, he has no pop. He had virtually the same slugging % last year as Michael Bourn. As bad as he was offensively, his batting average was higher than it has been in 5 years. He's been a .250 hitter since then, so he'll likely regress even further, particularly when you consider he's moving from an extreme hitter-friendly stadium to a more neutral environment. 30 doubles in 625 AB does not qualify as pop, and certainly not enough to offset his turrible on-base numbers. He also spent the entire season batting behind Utley (OBP .397), Howard (OBP .360), Ibanez (OBP .347) and Werth (OBP .373). The fact that he only had 82 RBI behind those guys is a testament to how productive he wasn't. You are right that he is an outstanding defensive player, but at 3B my opinion is that the value of his great defense doesn't equal the value he gives up with his awful hitting.
That is terrible. Sort by BABIP. He was even worse in this category than ISO. In this case, he was dead last. Hammer covered the rest.
Not sure why everyone is freaking out over Pedro Feliz. For Godsake we signed him for a ONE year contract, not 4 years 20 million or something ridiculous like that. The difference between him and anyone else on our roster is marginal and starting him over Blum might make a +/- 1 win differential...... Both players are very similar. Not to mention we could always ship him off at the trade deadline to a competitive team looking for an experienced player for the post-season.
I'll go one step further...I'm not sure why people EVER freak out about contracts...I'm more concerned with wether or not the player(s) do their freaking jobs and produce. I think that we can agree that they're ALL overpaid.
It's because this team tends to spend money on below average players at the expense of everything else (i.e drafting and development)
I love the Myers signing. I'm really hoping Moehler ends up in the bullpen and we see Paulino/Chacin take the 5th spot in the rotation. Moehler would be more effective out of the pen, and we will need a 6th starter on this club.
Sorry guys but on this one i'll stay optimistic and hope he puts up DECENT numbers for an ASTRO 3rd baseman and help the team win. Hopefully he will come through this season with similar production in less playing time while continuing to play above avg "D"....If he puts up these numbers i'd be a happy guy. 260 avg 12 hrs 70 RBIs 25-30 doubles 130-150 hits .380 slugging %...not going into OPS because we all can agree his OBP is crappy. Would we like better, YES but the reality is he was going to be the best out there for the money available and if he bombs oh well plug in Blum or Johnson and see what they can do. I just refuse to crush him by saying he is a horrible offensive player when we've seen horrible offensive players in Astros uniforms before and he just doesn't strike me as such.
Pedro Feliz is certainly not the problem. The problem is that Wade is practically wasting $5 million dollars on a player who is a slight upgrade, if at all, over players already in the Houston system. In this financial environment, where most teams in the leagues are cutting back significantly, spending money, even a relatively minor amount, on players that will have little to no impact, will handcuff the entire organization.
For a comparison here, we got Brett Myers for $5MM. Would people rather have two Geoff Blums (Blum and Feliz, one being benched) or two Brett Myers (one replacing Moehler or a rookie pitcher)?
"Handcuff the organization" has usually been reserved for contracts like Griffey in Cinci or Carlos Lee here. Now we are using that phrase to discuss a ONE year $5M contract. This is sad.
Well one day after we make a move to improve our rotation so do the reds. They won the bidding war for Aroldis Chapman. They're going to pay him 30 million Link: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_y...lug=jp-chapmansigns011010&prov=yhoo&type=lgns 30 million seems like a bit to much for Chapman.
They add up and stack on top of the other bad deals. Lee's salary = $19MM Feliz + Lyon + Myers = $15MM That's a lot of money tied up in players that a.) don't deserve that much or b.) shouldn't have been signed in the first place.
Feliz I will concede as a very questionable deal. If we thought that the market for Tejada would have fallen this far, we probably would have tried to sign him. Hindsight being 20/20 and all. Lyon fills a need and it is unclear what numbers he will put up. It was clear that we were not going to pay $10M for a closer, so that pretty much took us out of the Valverde running with the declination of arb. Most people think that Myers will prove to be a solid signing that will help the ballclub. To talk of the Feliz signing as handcuffing the franchise is just silly though. If it does not work out, we can let him walk next year and it does not hurt us making deals going forward. A contract that "handcuffs" you is one that keeps you from making deals later to help the club. There is an ocean of difference there.
We might have overpaid for Lyon but we still saved a HUGE amount of money by not resigning Valverde....not to mention we are going to get draft picks once he signs with another team. So we saved money and received draft picks something we drastically need. Seems like a positive for me.... Meyers seems like an alright signing, although I would rather them have gone for Jon Garland who has proven to be a 3/4 starter who will give you 200 quality innings on a yearly basis. Once again Feliz was not a bad signing...5 million dollars does not make or break this club. Feliz will not be with us after this next season, and could be traded at the break.....
I agree with almost everything you said here. I think it is important to note that Garland has a career ERA of 4.42. Myers has a career ERA of 4.40. They are very similar pitchers and Garland stands to get a more expensive contract.
Is there some sort of limit on the draft picks? For example if Valverde didn't sign with a team until Spring Training, would we still get draft picks?
