Well I was watching the NLCS when I heard about Cliff Lee being a free agent after this season is over. The announcers also talked about how the Yankees have a legit shot at landing him. Brett Myers is a great pitcher, don't get me wrong, but I don't quite feel he's an "ace" type of pitcher. It would be great if they could add Cliff Lee next year, and I think they could. Why do I think they can? I don't think their payroll will be considerably large since they traded Oswalt and Berkman and have a bunch of newbies. What do you guys think?
We don't need an aging pitcher who is going to command 15M+ a season while we are still rebuilding. Our rotation is fine right now. Give Lyles sometime in AAA then lets see what we are working with. Enough with handing out the big contracts, that's how we got in this problem in the first place.
I wouldn't go for Lee. Astros aren't really close to winning and Lee is going get somewhere around 6 years, $140 million if I had to guess. Since he hasn't got that big payday yet I think he goes to the highest bidder and that will be either than Yankees or Rangers. He is 32 years old and giving a 6 year deal to someone that age isn't good business but some team will pay him all thay money and it won't be the Astros.
waiting for the boo birds to come out. (you know, the ones who always say "cheap cheap cheap cheap!")
The problem is we paid for the majority of Oswalt's contract for next season by giving the Phils cash to take him. I'm not sure how they handle that when it comes to the accounting, but surely it will affect spending in FA.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Stros should be bargain hunting not spending on prized FAgents, YET. If we didn't have Carlos Lee's big ass weighing us down then maybe consider signing a FAgent a bit higher up the pecking order but Lee is at the VERY top and that wouldn't make much sense, at this time.
Would be nice, but it's not the right time. Go with the youth and a lower payroll. Leave flexibility to add later if they're in contention in July. I think most fans are still in the mode of not expecting much next season except for seeing the rebuilding continue.
First off they're estimating Lee might get $25mil over 6 years. That's way beyond anything the Astros can afford. 2nd, even with Lee we're not even a sure bet for the playoffs so why risk spending that much money. A big splash free agent is an 'over the top' player for a franchise like the Astros. You only go after him if you think he'll propel you to a championship. Carlos Lee was supposed to be that kind of player when we signed him 1 year after we went to the series. The rest of the team fell to **** and caballo's contributions were rendered moot until he finally stopped contributing himself. A team like the Yankees can afford to spend the money to bust on FA's or suffer through a down year after a big FA signing, the Astros can not.
We're already overpaying for a C. Lee (and I don't mean Courtney) on this roster. There isn't room for another one.
It would be nice if they could, but they can't realistically make a run at Cliff Lee. McLane isn't going to want to add 15 million dollars or more to the payroll, and quite frankly, I agree with him. We probably agree for a different reason though. He wants to keep the payroll at a certain level whereas I want to complete rebuilding. They just got Oswalt and Berkman off the books. If Lee were to not work out for some reason, we would be stuck with his salary long-term. I'm also not convinced that adding Cliff Lee makes them contenders.
You add players like Lee as the final piece to a contender...this team ain't that. What they need to be doing is figuring out how to get under their current Lee's contract.
