For those who want us to rebuild overnight, it would involve more then trading Berkman/Oswalt at this point in their careers. Getting Texeira, Halladay, & Lee type deals would have meant trading those guys back in 2004/2005. Of course who wanted to trade them then? Larry Andersen for Jeff Bagwell just isn't the norm.
It doesn't matter. At the least it saves salary and shakes things up significantly. They should get what they can while they can. If it's for 2 B+ prospects instead of 1 A+ prospect it doesn't matter.
psh. were they to do it, tons of "cheap" calls, like little moronic uneducated birds, would descend on the astros -- many from the same people who are wringing their hands wanting to trade guys right now.
Hey, They might as well get it over with. The sooner the action, the sooner the recovery. you can only patch a leak so many times before you have to buy a new pipe.
I think the smarter/knowledgeable Stros' fans will understand why it would be done, maybe not agree but understand the reasoning. Uncle D has never been cheap just misguided.
Personally, I don't care so much getting equal value in return, as I do allocating their salary into developing our farm. If dumping Oswalt's salary, for example, means we don't have to a bunch of unsigned player due to asking for too much, or passing on top talent for signability issues, then I'd say mission accomplished. It's not just about who we get back in a trade. But rather who we can draft and sign because there's more money allocated to the minor league system.
You let them expire, and walk after offering arbitration and get 2 draft picks for each. It would be more important in rebuilding.
Are you serious? Wait more years with this underachieving garbage in the Juicebox? By that time most of us will have given up on the franchise.
Yes, but no. If by "given up on this franchise" you mean carry a low opinion of them, predict massive suckage every year, and then not come to games, then that has already begun. If you mean "never come back again", history doesn't bear that out. These Astros simply aren't as inept as Spec Richardson's disasters of the mid 70s. The letdown after '86 was far worse than the letdown after '05, and it was ten years -- TEN! -- before the Astros were relevant again. Well, mebbe 9 as one has to count '94 as a good year. Attendance and public opinion goes up and down with W's and L's. It is to be expected. Meh.
Yeah, except when attendance is really low for 2+years Owners start talking about moving teams. And if I know Uncle D he won't think twice about trying. He already tried before.
Dude signed a 30-year lease. When he "already tried", he was in a cosmic, cat-laden, rat-laden, smelly dump (sorry Astros fans; I loved her as a kid, too). Now he's in a state-of-the-art, relatively young building and a lease which carries significant penalties if they Astros were to leave. As such, I'm not too concerned about them leaving. In 2025, perhaps.
The whole problem the Astros have is the same as Obama had - trying to placate people that will never be placated. The Astros have been doing that for the last few years. So really, if the fans are going to be angry anyway, why not doing what's best for the team and gets them back to winning the fastest? (Not saying that means a particular trade - but what fans think should be irrelevant to the Astros management, given that they are going to be angry no matter what unless and until the Astros start winning)
Sure - you won't get Jeff Bagwell for Larry Anderson. But look what Seattle got for a thought-to-be-at-the-end-of-his-career Randy Johnson? Teams will trade prospects at the deadline if they have that one chance at greatness. Aces are rarely available, so Oswalt could be the best available pitcher at the deadline if he's decent this year. And given that Berkman can play 1B, LF, RF, and DH, a team looking for a slugger can fit him in somewhere pretty well too.
Sorry, but there is no way the team gets moved. What city do you move a team to ? There are no other big market cities that are in need of a team. Even on a down season Houston still brings in more revenue than smaller market teams. If for some reason he did try and move the team, which would be near impossible and a financially idiotic move. Another smart businessman would have a team here within a few years. You don't move a team out of the 4th largest city in the nation to go play baseball in a city with the size of San Antonio or other small markets. It just doesn't make sense. I don't ever see Houston losing it's baseball team.
Never say never. I bet that's how Football fans felt too. Not saying it will happen but to just sit back and wait for contracts to end without getting value now is not a smart move. We need to blow this thing up an call this season a wash so we don't have to live with 2 more seasons of purgatory.
...of course, the **lers ( ) had that same stank dump to contend with... If you can get more than the two draft picks, I certainly agree with you.
Who's Obama trying to "placate"? All I see that <edited> doing is shoving things down our throats that nobody wants in the name of reform that everyone agrees is necessary but that everyone agrees should *not* be done like *that*. Sorry, hit a nerve. That's why I stay out of the D&D.
Zachary Levine is on 1560 the game right now, dam good interview and insight. http://1560thegame.com/
Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt are not at the level of Randy Johnson. And baseball has changed a lot in 10 years. I guess you could always get lucky like the Rays did when they got Kazmir for Zambrano, or when the Rays got Zobrist for Huff.
Sorry - to clarify, during much of the HCR debate, he kept trying to win over GOP votes who were never going to vote for him. In effect, he was alienating his own side to win over the other side for no reason. The correlation here is that the Astros shouldn't do things that aren't in their best interests to try to placate fans that will never be placated.
