Of course, had we not gone after Beltran, people would be b****ing about that. I've never seen a team that's more damned if you do, damned if you don't than the Astros. Bottom line is they have a great shot in signing the best free agent available this off-season. There's not much else that comes close. You have to take this chance when you can.
To tell you the truth, if we had never even gone after him, I'd be pretty upset...but that would also mean we explored other avenues. My problem , if we don;t get him, will be that we put all of our eggs in one basket and then when it came time to ante up, we ran out of eggs.
But you have no idea whether or not that's the case. I haven't heard any Astros official say that if they don't get Beltran, then they're staying put with the current roster.
true...i cant argue with that...but unless we choose to go with 2 OF's with bum legs (ordonez and berkman), there doesn't seem to be much on the market and I guess its hard to see any other teams frothing over tradable guys on our roster. But, like u said, we never know
If that is the final offer, then we should win out...When you take into consideration no state taxes, its a no brainer...Also, he has a better chance of winning with the Stros' than the Mets...
Under that hypothetical (we don't get Beltran and don't sign anyone to replace him) you're crazy if you think that people wouldn't have a legitimate gripe about the offseason. There were a slew of good-to-great outfielders available on the market to pick from. Finley, Drew, Alou, Dye, Hidalgo, Ordonez (still available). They could have chosen to resign their All-Star 2B, or offered arbitration, but chose not to. There were FA pitchers like Woody Williams available to fill the void left by the injured Miller and the possibly retired Clemens. I'm not casting aspersions at these decisions for the most part, I'm just mentioning other options the Stros had. The Astros could have done alot of things to help the ballclub next season, but they've chosen to swing for the fences by placing all their eggs in the Beltran basket. If they hit a home run, the fans will love them. If they strike out, they'll get boos. That's the way things go, like it or not. That's just reality and yes, it's very fair.
They offered Kent $7million with a PLAYER option for a 2nd year at $7 million. If that ain't fair, I don't know what is.
None of those outfielders are worth risking a chance at far and away the best free agent out there this offseason. Had we signed any of those players, except for possibly Kent, instead of going after Beltran, people would be going after Drayton's head. Woody Williams had nothing to do with going after Beltran. And, unless you have a very close inside source at the Astros, you have no way of knowing whether or not we're going to do anything else to our roster if we don't get Beltran.
Sam -- come on. no one here would be happy with any of those guys as replacements for beltran. no one would. if the astros had said, "ok..we're not gonna go after beltran...we're gonna play it safe and sign from this pool of players," there would have been a huge group of people who would have criticized the hell out of them for it. particularly after the season beltran had in an astros uniform last year. again...damned if you do...damned if you don't.
Are you kidding me? Of course he did. The Stros have demonstrated no interest in any other free agents, despite the fact that they have needs. Clearly they've decided that their payroll won't afford two signings this winter. You think if Beltran wasn't a FA they would have taken a different tact on this offseason? Granted. Which is why I stated that it was a hypothetical. My guess is they do nothing, or sign a lesser FA like Gonzales or Lankford. We'll see what happens.
You really think the only reason the Astros didn't go after Woody Williams was because they needed to save that extra $3.5 million for Beltran? It probably had more to do with his mediocre season last year and his age. Hell, they offered Kent $7 million for this year.
Astros upped the offer to show Beltran how bad they really want him. Its time for Beltran to step up & take the 'Stros offer if he realy wants to be a winner!
And that is simply disingenuous. Make any argument you want, but don't play with the facts. The offer was $7m with a player option for 2006 that vested IF he got 538 plate appearances in 05. Any injury that kept him out of the lineup for as little as a month would have prevented him from meeting that. 538 PA is no sure thing with an older player. Would you choose $7m guaranteed over the Dodgers' $17m offer?
i agree. i don't think i'd pay woody williams anything above about $1.5/season at this point of his career. maybe i'm wrong, but i can't imagine the guy is actually going to get better at this point.
On 610 this morning they said the offer is $105 for 7 years rather than just $100. I thought id just add that in.
