It's one thing to be liberal with someone else's money; it's quite another to be so vocally condemning about it. "He's an idiot." "He royally screwed up." Blah, blah, blah. It's a business, too, you know.
1) Nolan Ryan was a huge mistake, made by different ownership and management. It was more than a mistake, it was an insult to him. They didn't tender him an offer at all, they just told him he was done. 2) Please name others who did not receive competitive offers. Before you do, however, let me take these off your list: --DK signed for under a million more to play in CO, but neither he nor his agent communicated CO's offer to the Astros, leaving them no chance to counter. --Hampton indicated that he would *not* stay in Houston. A couple years of OD was much nicer than the "sandwich" pick they would have gotten had they not traded and let Hampy walk. --RJ was offered an extremely similar deal to AZ's but did not want to remain in Houston.
Exactly....as in his baseball business will go to crap for at least a year or so if he doesn't get this guy. He went after him full blast with no Plan B (at least not one that I have heard of yet) and now he sees a MARKET VALUE OFFER....yes market value...this is not a 10 yr 200 mil offer.....he sees a market value offer and he needs to step up to the plate and sign him. If Carlos leaves because he would rather be elsewhere...then so be it...if he leaves because we didn't have the best offer...its Drayton's fault and he, the Astros and the fans will regret it
LF is a question mark....RF is occupied by an all star recovering from a blown out knee...we lost our biggest RBI threat...and our most consistent pitcher says he will come back if Carlos does...am I missing something?
We have the only offer on the board, and everything else has been rumors or Boras leaks. If this is a legit offer than teams realize that they are not gonna get into ARod type contracts no matter who it is. We have a fair offer on the board, if they chose to go else where then let's move on...
I have no comment on DK, because I just have never heard that, but I do disagree with your other two statements. Hampton definitely wanted to stay here and only left for Colorado because they gave him an insane contract that nobody could have turned down. Do you not remember him crying here in Houston when he came back to town to receive an award? He loved it here and wanted to stay, it's just that the Rockies gave him a contract that only a moron could turn down. With respect to Randy, we were offering only 3 guaranteed years versus 4 years for Arizona. Johnson left because of the extra year, not because he refused to stay.
790 is reporting that Tim Purpura spoke with Scott Boras within the last half-hour and Boras assured Purpura that the Astros are still in the mix for Beltran. Charlie, of course, pointed out that Boras has been known to put out false info, but Charlie also pointed out that it wouldn't make sense to tell a GM he's still in it when a deal was done.
The RJ deal wasn't competitive at all - AZ was willing to guarantee a 3rd (or was it a 4th) year and we weren't. Length of contract was an issue. I still think Unit would have signed with Zona though, since that was his home. Caminiti and Finley were traded away for Derek Bell in a cost-cutting deal. Wagner was let go (we did use the money to sign 2 better free agents). Jeff Kent. Everett was traded away to reduce salary (Adam Everett hasn't been bad in trade). Shane Reynold's loyalty was rewarded by signing him to an incentive-laden deal and then cutting him at the end of spring training. The two top AL Cy Young contenders (Santana, Schilling) were both let go by the Astros, but that was stupidity and not stinginess.
Ummmm, yeah, right.... Hampy flat out stated he would become a free agent. We tried to keep him. He said no. That's why we traded him to the Mets. Johnson left b/c his wife was here for that bad flood in '98. His wife said no to Houston. Johnson dealt with it. Where do you get your information from?
As reported on 790: Tim Purpura told David Dalati that he just talked to Boras, and that Boras told him (Purpura) that "the Astros are still in it." This is crazy.
If you are the Astros you have to overpay for Beltran...go seven years at 16 million per. The biggest weakness for the team in recent years has been outfield defense and team speed. Beltran automatically solved those problems and turned them into team strengths. On those points alone he is worth breaking the bank over- he turns major team problems into strengths. It sucks that so many outfield clients that could have been leverage against Beltran are also represented by Boras, but life isn't fair. The Astros are at a crossroads- Beltran is a franchise level player and I don't think they will have an opportunity to get a 5 tool player like him anytime soon. Cesar Cedeno was the last Astro who had this all-around ability and that was a long, long time ago.
They have to go and make the winning offer to Beltran just for the fact of what it does to the city and how much business it will bring to the Astros as far as marketing and other things that will go on. The years of watching Bagwell and Biggio are almost over and when they are done we have no one to fall back on. THere are no players other than Berkman and Lidge that we will be left with on this team and build around. Beltran is the type of player that needs to be here for the teams sake and Mclane knows it. He will see attendance go up and sales of clothing go up just as soon as he signs with the Astros. Of course they have to see if that is what they reallly want and if they want to give him that money. With Bagwell and Biggio leaving soon that will help his overall payroll with Beltran being on the team and they will still be able to get free agents to help the team. As the days go by and we get closer to the 8th the scarier it gets.
Thanks, you beat me to it. The comments about the RJ fourth year are correct, though; thanks to the other two for the correction.
Wouldn't put it past Boras to leak false info to those Met fan sites to drive Drayton up. I don't see why Beltran would want to play for the Mets - the team is a trainwreck and the taxes are higher. The argument about raising his profile in NYC is nonsense, since anything any Met does will always be second to Jeter, A-Rod, and the Yankee juggernaut.
The offer to RJ was just a courtesy, and done because that is the way the game is played. RJ did not "refuse" to stay, but it seems obvious that everything had been worked out with Arizona before the deal with the Astros went down. That was more of a fait accomplis than the Yankees deal this year.
It was much more than that (albeit one of the stupidest trades in franchise history). The Astros were unloading Nevin's attitude, and were getting bullpen strength. Also, they were excited about the possibility of DB replacing Cammy's RBI. Who knew he would develop that loop in his swing? No, Wagner was traded. Ezequiel Astacio and Taylor Bucholz, two pretty decent pitching prospects, are the result. Not to mention the two great FA's to whom you refer. Jeff Kent was given an offer; he turned it down. ...in order to afford Hampton, who then informed the Astros he would not stay anyway. In addition, Everett was traded to get AE, as management had been going on for two years how there was nothing in the system as far as SS's were concerned. Yes, yes he has. I thought this was a stupid, stupid move by Gerry & Co. when it first went down. Then I saw him pitch. Don't forget Bobby Abreu.
