uhm… our GM, the guy we placed in charge of player evaluation, thinks a market that will include sheets, sabathia, dempster; plus garland, martinez, pettitte, mussina; not to mention there’s a good chance burnett will opt out, is “pretty thin”? i mean, am i just reading that wrong or should we all pick a partner and start practicing murder/suicides?
The Astros front office reminds me of the Bush administration. They prescribe an official reality that is independent of actual goings-on and follow their plan independent of results.
how did we get to this point in only 2 years? It all just happened so fast. One day we're fighting the cardinals for the division, the next we're trading all of our bull pen for crap. Training camps begins tomorrow! ( i will still watch the games)
Where did you find that quote? The only article I found ended with "...extend the contract". Perhaps the "thin pitching market" is attributable to someone else.
Better yet, we were apparently willing to paying a below-average pitcher $7MM to pitch for us this year, because he's a "competitor". http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/...t_id=3174246&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou Wolf has had some struggles in the past couple of seasons both with performance and health, but after talking to Wolf's doctors, Wade is confident the veteran is healthy. "We had the discussion during the offseason with regards to how healthy he was," Wade said. "We thought he was healthy enough for us to offer about $7 million for him to come pitch for us, but unfortunately, we couldn't get the deal done. From the trainer discussions that we had today, he's 100 percent healthy. He struggled at times over the course of this season, but again, he's a competitor. Hopefully, we'll provide him enough support to where he can get deep enough into the games and help us win."
Thanks... Interesting that astros.mlb.com removed the part about the "thin pitching market".... " ... This gives us a short-term help that we need; it gives us an opportunity to get our foot in the door with Randy if he pitches well enough that we want to extend the contract." http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/...t_id=3174246&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou
Drayton's decision to let Hunsicker go and promote Purpura was pure foolishness. Ed Wade doesn't seem to be helping things.
I miss gerry hunsicker soooooo much. In a few years The Rays go from pretender to contender and the Astros go down the drain.... Freaking Drayton.
Jason Freaking Jennings and Woody WWWWilliams, baby. And this year, to ice the cake, we added Shawn Chacon.
Really? Who could have known that Jennings, Williams, and Chacon wouldn't be able to fill the void left by Clemens and Pettite? I don't think anyone could have forseen any dropoff.
How many of those pitchers do you think (a) will fail to sign with their current club before really testing the FA waters, and (b) that the Astros have a legitimate shot at outbidding the larger market clubs for however many of those guys did not re-sign? My guess...not many. We would be lucky if talks even get past the "get to know you" stage with any of them.
Certainly Sabathia - the Brewers didn't make the trade intending to re-sign him (that may change if they win a WS or something). Not sure if Harden is a free agent, but if so, he probably will test free agency. The White Sox don't intend to keep Garland. Not sure about the others. But if that's your standard - that the Astros can't afford any premier pitching, then *every* year is a thin pitching market. Nevertheless, this year is a *less thin* market because the 2nd tier guys will be in less demand since there's so many premier guys out there. Regardless, would it be better for the Astros to pay an ace type pitcher $16 MM /yr or a Randy Wolf type below-average MLB pitcher $7 MM? Randy Wolf is no different than Woody Williams - a scrap-heap type pitcher.
