I don't want Tejada now. He's in a slump for one thing and I worry about what baggage he brings because this slump started with the Grimsley thing and it happend last year when Palmeroid brought his name up. I'm all for getting a deal done for some offense or bullpen help, but I don't want to see Hirsh or Pence go, in fact, I want both of them up in the majors right now. I think Purpura needs to be fired because he's way to cautious with the prospects. Jason Lane was left in the oven for far too long and you see what happened. Teams all over the league are always bringing in young exciting talent and they are becoming stars. In the last few years you saw young studs like Cabrerra, Willis, Pujols, Liriano, K-Rod, etc enter the league at the same age or younger than Hirsh and Pence and have done excellent jobs. Give the young guys a chance already.
Huff + Lidge + Hirsh for Arod. Why not? Imagine this lineup for a minute. 2B Biggio CF Burke RF Berkman SS Arod 3B Ensberg LF Wilson 1B Lamb C Ausmus I'd prefer dropping biggio down to 7th but you know that wouldn't fly, but still isn't that a hell of a lineup if Ensberg gets healthy?
Thats what they said last time around and apparently they would have taken the Everett, Lidge, Willie package ..or whatever it was....but I dont recall there being a top of the line starter in the deal that almost went thru.
1) Hirsh is hurt. With Clemens, Oswalt, Pettitte, Backe, & Buchholz in the rotation, where exactly would you like to put him? He is not a reliever. Albers has ben projected as a reliever, hence his callup. Oh, did I mention that Hirsh is hurt? 2) I believe it was Hun that left Lane in the minors. It was Purp that gave him the everyday chance last year. I'm still just amazed at some of the opinions I see on here about prospects. We have a team in contention and that has been in contention for the better part of 10 years. Playing a bunch of rookies isn't the way to do it. Forcing kids up to the majors when they aren't ready can be devastating to their careers. Not everyone should make it to the majors by the time they're 20. Look at Scott Podsednik. He didn't make it up until his late 20's. He wasn't ready before then. Cabrerra, Willis, Pujols, Liriano, & K-Rod are special talents. Sometimes you get lucky. Most of the time, you get Tim Redding.
Yup - the funny thing is that last year when we were losing, everyone was b****ing about Purpura relying on all these rookies (Lane, Willy T, Luke Scott, Burke, Astacio, Wandy) instead of making trades.
yeah...and they were b****ing because we didn't trade for guys like huff and wilson. now we have both, and we didn't have to give up the guys you listed above to get them. and the b****ing never ceases!
More often than not, you get Tim Redding. Or Carlos Hernandez. Or Kirk Saaaarlooooooos. Or Wade Miller. Or Prior or Wood. But never mind that, let's rush Hirsch and his arleady-ailing shoulder up here.
so even if the Astros add Alex Rodriguez to the team, you think the lineup still sucks. frankly, that's pretty telling.
Those were top prospects that ended up being good. Speaking of top prospects, how well acquainted are you to these names? Prince Fielder (major slump right now), Rickie Weeks, JJ Hardy, Jeff Mathis, Carlos Quentin, Jhonny Peralta, Andy LaRoche, Cole Hamels (so far), Boonser, etc etc etc? Prospects are chances that you take when you need help. There's nothing worse than to kill a prospect by bringing him on too soon. The thing is, you're speculating that Lane is who he is because we brought him up late? He's not old, he should be hitting his prime right around now. I would've have started Lane over the OF we've had over the years. He just wasn't ready and still isn't. Then, you neglected over the prospects that we HAVE brought through the minors early. They have Liriano, K-Rod, etc. We brought up Oswalt before he even got to START for AAA, Berkman ran through the system. Lidge was groomed to come up before injury. Taveras jumped from AA. The Astros has been contenders for the past 7 or so years minus a year or so in the middle. When you have contenders, you have to start the people that you can count on. For every Oswalt there are about 5-7 Tim Reddings. What's worse is people with that kind of good stuff loses confidence if they get knocked around early and often. If and when that happens, their trade value goes down and you're left with liabilities instead of assets.
What about Pence/Hirsch, Everett, and Ensberg? I think thats a pretty solid offer. They get a great prospect, one of the best defensive SS's in the game, and a MVP runner-up from last year.
as long as craig biggio and brad ausmus are on the team, the lineup will suck. look at the yanks lineup with arod. does that not absolutely demolish the lineup that he just listed for us with arod? and that's assuming based on nothing that ensberg comes back healthy and knocking the cover off the ball.
ok, great. i'll agree the yankees have a fantastic lineup. that doesn't mean the astros' lineup with A-Rod would suck. this isn't fantasy baseball. the yankees had that same lineup last year and it didnt mean jack in the end. the rangers have put together some killer lineups over the course of the past 10 years, and they've yet to win a playoff series. the astros best lineup ever, in my mind, was 1998...they won 103 games and were knocked out of the first round of the playoffs.
losing ensberg's bat has been the critical blow. btw, i never advocated trading for wilson - was he dealt last year? ugh. i like the addition of huff, but i don't remember him being available last year, either. i have no allegiance to kids; i'd trade every prospect in the system if i got a solid, worthwhile return - they're always unpredictable crapshoots. it just seems the astros sat on their hands too long this year. did they really need 81 games to determine lane needed to be demoted? why was there no urgency with ensberg? he was granted five weeks to determine his wasn’t healthly when he already had a track of underperforming while hurt? i maintain they should have entered the year with plan Bs in place - they relied on a lot of first-year players and a career year from ensberg - all were suspect to fall off... but the team, i don't think, ever considered the possibility. whoooo..... excellent topic. i think 04's line-up was far and away their best: biggio, beltran, bagwell, berkman and kent were as tough a 1-5 as anything baseball's seen in a long time.
yeah, for us. baltimore has tejada signed to a pretty reasonable contract for another three years; he's 29 and still obviously very productive - he's not the reason the team is losing; it's the lack of support around him. so aside from him demanding a trade, they have no reason to deal tejada. therefore, if you want him, you're going to have to blow them away with an offer that'll actually improve their team. think: pence, patton/albers, buccholz/nieve + AE to take tejada's place. and i don't know if that's good enough. there's certainly no reason for them to settle for anything less.
ummm, yes, i agree with every last word you said. so, you are agreeing with me i guess? i have no clue what point you are trying to make. you are saying arod will improve our lineup, but it still would pail in comparison to most other teams, and even if it made our lineup amazing, it still probably doesn't mean jack at the end? lol. weird. i dont even understand if you are arguing for or against acquiring arod (not that there is a snowballs chance in hell of that happening anyway). take a xanax or something bro. you are all over the place.
I forgot who should be Example A: Ryan Wagner This kid was great coming out of college and a top pick by the Reds. They thought, "Hey, why wait. Let's go ahead and bring him up just one month out of college." Boy has that worked out well. He was recently traded to the Nationals as a throw-in. He had a 7+ era while with the Reds AAA team this season.
