So far, the only thing worth talking about with the Astros pending off-season is a.) will Oswalt get 3, 4, or 5 years on his extention, b.) will the club make the effort to re-sign Pettite... and hence, Clemens, c.) how will they address Brad Lidge's struggles, and d.) addressing ONE of the corner OF spots with free agents, minor leaguers, or trades. Also, the club won't attempt to sign Lee unless he negotiates personally with Drayton... beyond that, Boras will do anything possible to get him the most money from Texas (hell... remember how he had them wrapped around his little finger during the A-Rod negotiations... he had them pay $100 million MORE than the next highest bidder).
hi...poster N here...just curious...how many years in a row have we actually "sucked" (as you put it) with Ausmus/Everett? Let me help you with the tough ones....somewhere between zero and one.....and the one is this year which, while there seems to be a better chance of missing the playoffs than making them, we are still alive. I bet that there are plenty of season ticket holders like myself who are waiting until Aug 31 to send in the money...and if we are within 5 games of the playoffs, wont even hesitate to send in the money because of what this team has overcome in the past.
well, so far, it's been less than a year... the bigger question is when will poster A pull his gelatinous head out of his ass, skip the tiresome faux hubris and start actively trying to engage in legitimate discourse? no one has advocated standing pat. just that you're a moron.
Soriano and Lee look like unlikely offseason acquisitions because McLane likes to spend his money very wisely, and Boras like to tie you up and rob you blind. From everything I've seen (which I admit isn't much) it feels like that if Pettitte does come back, it will be at a very discounted price. My guess is that maybe 28-30 million for a Pettitte/Clemens combo. It is steep, yes, but both bring a lot to the franchise and get a lot from it too. Financially, the clemens factor brings uncle drayton a lot of money, so if they want to come back why the heck not. It isn't as though they suck. Clemens has been ridiculous. Lets prorate the money and let both of them come back a month or two late. Roger's older and Andy is the best 2nd half pitcher of all-time. The market this winter doesn't any good non-boras players, with zito, lee, and soriano all being repped by him. My guess is we will run this same team out there next year with a small change here or there.
28-30 million for a clemens/pettitte combo? how is that discounted for pettitte? you think roger is going to get 24 million? i dont see it also...soriano, if i am not mistaken, is not a boras client...i could be wrong
our offense has been awful last year and this. only san diego, pitt, and washington have scored less runs. is there a reason to think that with the same personell, our offense will be considerably better in 07? in 04 we had bagwell, beltran, and jeff kent. somewhat significant improvements. oh, and everett wasnt even our ss in the final several months and through playoffs. so we only had 2 of the losers in the lineup instead of all 3. and biggio and ausmus were 2 years younger, and slightly less pathetic. kind of alot has changed since then, huh? seriously, have i just entered an alternate universe without knowing? one where everybody else doesn't see how inept at least ausmus is???
dude, i don't why i keep allowing you to suck me back in, but.. who here is arguing that ausmus isn't inept? who? show us! show us or stop cluttering the thread with the intellectual equivalent of anthrax.
um....u mean last year when we made the world series for the first time in franchise history? call last yrs regular season recovery a fluke all you want....but we won 2 playoff series...including a clincher on the road in St Louis. side note....we suck this year because of our bullpen...our hitting has been inconsistant at best...but last nights bullpen collapse was a microcosm of this season
Rocketfat, While you have made some interesting and valid points, your overall argument is flawed, period. You continue to bash anyone that thinks otherwise. Could Ric have argued his points differently, maybe. However, your grammar alone prevents you from being considered anywhere near the top of the food chain in life or in this bbs. You are right...Everett and Ausmus are the offensive equivalent of quicksand. I disagree about Biggio, but that's my perogative. He's 40 and getting closer to 3000 hits by the day. You seriously cannot consider yourself a true Astros fan if you do not want to see Craig Biggio get to 3000 hits in an Astros uniform. The Astros have proven that they could get to the World Series with those 3 playing prominent roles. It hasn't worked out this year. The whole damn thing can certainly not be blamed on them. Clutch hitting in general has been terrible. The bullpen in general has been terrible. Coaching has been questionable. The front office has made some head scratching moves. But to say that they cannot win with Everett, Ausmus, and Biggio is simply wrong....because they've proven it can be done. Absolutely no one would question trying to upgrade at every position. I've said a few times recently that the promotion of JR House could be the beginning of the end for Ausmus as an Astro. How about packaging him with Ensberg to San Diego for Linebrink and someone else? By the way, I think that Roger Clemens has proven that 40+ year olds can play at the major league level...along with Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, and our own Craig Biggio. I guess my point is... Stop being such a jackass. It is possible...you could be wrong.
you've said in 5 different posts in this thread that you have no problem with him still being behind the plate next season. pick a side of the fence and stay there.
no; i've said they can win if he's behind the plate next season; not that he's any good. my proof: 1997, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2005.
Blah blah blah... the offense is lousy. But, that's taking into account a TERRIBLE year from Ensberg (wasn't supposed to happen). Also taking to account a AWFUL year from Lane (wasn't supposed to be a superstar... but wasn't supposed to be a non-major leaguer also). This team was never expected to win a bunch of games by out-slugging everybody, but it wasn't counting on not having virtually ANY production from two guys who were the 2nd and 3rd best hitters on the club last year. I'm all for improving the offense... but not at the expense of neglecting the pitching. If you get that taken care of first (Oswalt extension, Pettite resign, decide what to do with Clemens, maybe get another veteran starter to replace injured Backe, let Lidge heal up mentally/physically)... then by all means try to acquire a corner outfielder. The bottom line is that the offense can be improved all you want... but if we don't get more consistent bullpen pitching, and better than average starting pitching (neither of which happened this year), the club won't be contending.
sure i can. i root for the city. the jersey, as Seinfeld says. all i care about is winning. all my care for player loyalty was ended and numbed the day i watched hakeem olajuwon traded to the toronto ****ing raptors, and finishing his career there. to hell with sentimentality. biggio is limping to the finish line unimpressively, to say the least, for the simple reason being that he lucked into a franchise that lets him decide if and when he's quitting the game. will it be cool to see him get his 3000th hit in an astros uni? eh. sucking his way to it the past 5 years has made it lose its luster quite a bit in my opinion. i'd trade him getting his 3000th hit in an astros uni for the assurance that he is no longer on our roster next season in a heartbeat. what if he says he wants to stick around for another thousand? do we lock him up for another 8 years?
oh, that's just a great point. we can also win with ashby behind the plate. my proof: 1986. why dont we re-sign him. replace biggio with doran while we're at it.
Just introduce him to Posters F-U and ignore the kid. Certainly helps the clutter. I have no idea how you have the stamina to keep 2 discussions on 2 different sites going at the rate you are. Kudos.
And as I recall in '04 with such significant offensive upgrades we LOST in the NLCS...whereas in '05, w/o Beltran, Bagwell and Kent the team went to the WS. So, you were upset when Dream signed with the Raptors toward the tail end of his career, even though, in hindsight he should have just retired because he was a shell of his former self that last year. Yet in Biggio, who continues to produce and is FAR from a blackhole offensively and defensively (yes he lacks range but he's still solid), you want gone yesterday. I would have loved to see Dream end his career here, but if memory serves he was kind of unwilling to accept a lesser role and in fair denial of his dimished abilities, so the Rockets let him go. Biggio has always accepted his role with the team and adapted to the organization's demands. If Bidge was hitting .220-.240 with under 10 hrs and maybe twice as many RBI's I would say he would be "limping to the finish line". But he's hitting .260 (far from impressive but average) with 16 hrs, 44 RBI's and 66 runs scored. I would say he his fulfilling his role quite well with the team and you probably won't get much better production from the man waiting most likely to replace him in Chris Burke, aside from a higher average. And I would say that yes he certainly got lucky to find a franchise that has remained as loyal to him as he is to them; that's a rare thing to find these days and I'm damn proud that the Astros had not one but two players in this past generation to achieve that (Bags and Bidge). For all that the man has done for the organization over the years, he certainly deserves it. I cannot see how any tried and true Astros fan would NOT want to see a lifelong Astro hit a pinnacle point in his career few players have reached. And I wish you would quite lumping Biggio and Ausmus together as if they were both on the same level offensively, because they are not.
i would, but matching wits with massive head wound harry here has made me feel better about myself, you know? what can i say? slow day in big oil...
dude, we went to the WORLD SERIES JUST LAST YEAR. so let's see.... it's been "how many years of us sucking" so far? NONE... especially since we could still technically make the playoffs. hell, i agree that ausmus is practically worthless at this point, but your arguments are ridiculously juvenile. poster SWTsig thinks you're a moron.
while i disagree with alot of this, i applaud your ability to refute my points in a classy manner, devoid of smartass comments and slanderous jabs. you're right....biggio and ausmus arent on the same level. biggio is awful, and ausmus doesn't even show up on the radar. biggio's numbers don't tell the whole story, but they are borderline awful anyway. the guy is hitting under .260, while looking completely lost at the plate, and having the worst ab's of anybody on the team. he fails to deliver in crucial situation after crucial situation. if you think his pop flies that find the first row of the crawford boxes and rarely have any bearing on the outcome of the games make up for the rest of his deficiencies then i guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. also, i dont think that anybody can dispute that he's slowed burke's growth. i hate people's argument that he's accepted whatever role the astros gave him. that makes it sound like he was doing the organization a favor. it's the complete opposite. his time in the outfield was spent as quite possibly the worst defensive outfielder in major league history. easily in astros history. and now he's just about the worst defensive 2nd baseman in the league. like i said, in my eye's (and i realize that means very little, but this is my opinion), biggio's pursuit of 3000 hits has turned unimpressive. feel free to play the "i'm a bigger fan than you game", but that game aint for me. i have lost alot of respect for him the past few years for basically handcuffing the organization into letting him reach 3000 hits here, and playing awful baseball throughout the last 800 agonizing hits of his pursuit. it's sad, but when his caeer is over, all i'll remember is the craig biggio who sucked at the end of his career, and not the hall of famer that was on the field in the prime of it.
