It is indeed a sad day. It was one we saw coming. Berkman immediately expressed a desire to return, but once Wallace came into the fold, it became a very unlikely scenario. The organization made the right move, but it is one I could not have made. I look down the lineup now, and wonder who are these guys. I first started watching baseball with Biggio and Bagwell already all-stars. Every opening day the Astros have fielded two superstars that had never known another team. We don't have any now.
I would like to see him come back but I knew they wouldn't bring him back the moment Berkman said he would come back when the trade happened. I just knew there was no way in hell the Astros would sign him back no matter what. I don't like this at all and I think Wallace started okay but was pretty bad. I hope we have someone better than that to play first base.
They'll win your heart again. I could never imagine watching the Astros without Cruz, Puhl, Ryan, Sambito, Niekro, et. al. (then Doran, Hatcher, Davis...)... heck: Ashby, Reynolds, Wallygarner, Tony Scott , Ruhle, Thon, Knepper, Scottie... ...but some of those new faces will endear themselves to the city. It comes in cycles.
Sadly, the only time the new cycle can begin is when Uncle Drayton is finally gone... which can't come soon enough for Astros fans.
None of them. I just want an owner who will hire a great GM, and let the GM run the freaking team... not some baseball equivalent of Jerry Jones. Drayton's problem was he thought he could evaluate talent, so after the clashed with Hunsicker he put empty suits in the GM role.
Lance is definitely one of my all time favorites ... That said, it's probably best for everyone that he finish playing somewhere else so we can develop these young kids at the big league level. Hope he can come back at some point and be involved in the organization.
Tim Purpura was Hunsicker's handpicked guy, and the guy that everyone thought was the genius behind our farm system's success all through the 90's. Just because it turned out that he sucked doesn't mean he was an empty suit that Drayton was trying to control. That's just revisionist history - Purpura was the one everyone wanted here.
This. Not to mention, Drayton hired Hunsicker in the first place. He had his warts for sure, but comparisons to Jerry Jones are absolutely laughable.
It's to be expected. There really isn't any spot for him here except a bench/platoon player, and he's still better than that. At least he won't be back with the Yankees. **** the Yankees.
What if Wallace is a bust though? I agree they need to figure it out and let him play, but I don't think he's a sure thing by any means (referring to your "there really isn't a spot fo rhim here."). There's obviously something that teams don't "love" about Wallace as he's now been traded 3 times and he's only 24 with less than 1 year of MLB service time. Granted, some of those times, he was merely an expendable valuable chip to get a valuable player in return... but you don't usually trade guys that you think are due for "greatness". That being said, even if Wallace doesn't end up being "great", the Stros can build a winner with him if he lives up to his minor league (and college) numbers.
Doesn't really matter. They have to play Wallace to find out if he's a bust. And if he IS a bust, they need to find a young replacement for him and play that guy. No matter what the result, Berkman should not be playing. Berkman could help the team this year, but rebuilding isn't about this year. It's about finding pieces for future years.
I agree... just wanted to remind everybody that Wallace is by no means a sure thing... even though he was the net reward (and most MLB-ready player) of the Oswalt trade.
So if you grew up a Yankees fan, you would be saying you wouldn't be happy with George Stinbrenner on all those WS titles that along with his Jerry Jones style of running the team.
Steinbrenner's WS teams were built on Jeter, Rivera, Posada, B. Williams, and Pettite... all homegrown players. When he started taking matters into his own hands, as the FA era bloomed, he got diminishing returns. Same goes for Jones when he had Aikman, Irvin, and Smith. You can be all hands on (or off) all you want... but if you don't have young projectable talent, none of it matters.
Drayton and Tal drove our farm system into the ground. I know that Hunsicker traded a lot of it off in a push at the playoffs over several years, but our farm system was deemed one of the most successful in baseball during his tenure. Meanwhile Drayton and his cronies have done nothing but make bad deals, bad coaching moves and bad decisions all around since Hunsicker left in 2004. Our team has gotten progressively worse the past five seasons, even though it is clearly very profitable.
