Like I said, its a small price to pay to get a pitcher like Beckett to replace Clemens. Question. Beckett salary + Lowell salary is less than or greater than Clemens projected salary?
You are the one needing to deal with reality. Do you seriously want me to go back and find all the experts who believed Beltran preferred Houston over NY? I'll do it if I have to. In fact, VesceySux on this BBS told us the Cubs were the bigger threat than the Mets, from his sources. A lot of people thought Carlos would stay, even as the deadline approached. My gosh, go back and look at the BBS reaction when the announcement was he wouldn't sign. It was anger, disappointment and shock. Furthermore, if you believe what was said before the offseason, Beltran reportedly didn't want to be in the spotlight or play in a big market like New York. But that turned out to be false on January 8th. Again, the city of Houston would have vilified Drayton if he hadn't done everything to try and resign Beltran after his 2004 postseason. Furthermore, the only available FA centerfield options ended up being JD Drew and Finley, who wasn't better than Willy last season. Plus at the time, the team would have looked incredibly dumb for shifting focus from Beltran to Drew, who was a Boras client himself. Ordonez, the other good free agent outfielder, was coming off of an injury plagued year and represented again by Boras. Glaus himself=Boras client. The Astros do not have a poor GM. They have virtually a set team, that went to the WS last year. They do not need radical improvement, which some of you fail to understand. They also have a budget that they are close to already, and a team transitioning from older players to young studs while being extremely competitive now. Therefore Purpura's hands are tied right now, in what he can really do. Plus look at this years free agent contracts. You say we need another pitcher. Morris: 9 mil per, Rogers: 8, Burnett: 11, Millwood: looking at 10-11, Washburn: 9, Byrd: 7, Even Elarton: 4 mil per year. Teams have lost their collective minds in overpaying for pitching this offseason. Do you really want Houston to do the same.
Except that's only a portion of the price. You're also losing one or two top prospects who would likely play for your team fairly cheap in the next year or two. Do you know anything about the prospects Boston gave up? Does that even factor into your thinking?
No, you wanted to trade two prospects for a pitcher + 3rd string 1B and pay about $13MM. Even better.
Purpura did close a deal, but the player in said deal invoked his veto power. Furthermore, I have explained numerous times how thin the July 31st market was last year. Secondly, you seriously are not blaming game 2 in the WS on the offense are you. They scored 6 runs, 2 of which tied the game in the 9th inning. The bullpen let them down in that game. In game 3, Roy's bad inning was the downfall not the offense. Also, every loss in the WS was close. And you talk about the offensive struggle in game one: Morgan Ensberg failed twice with Willy on 3rd base less than 2 outs to get him in. In fact, the Astros offensive struggle in the World Series had a lot to do with Morgan and his wrist injury late last year. Also, at the time Jeff Kent was not needed. The team felt like Lane would be able to fill his lineup spot and they needed the money to help in the Beltran chase. Plus, they had seen enough of Biggio in the outfield and wanted to move him back to 2B, with Burke as an insurance policy. And again, Drayton controlled the Beltran negotiation, like he is doing here with his major trade spiel. Lastly, what free agent or trade has happened that made sense for us besides Nomar. Soriano? He refuses to play the outfield, and we aren't yo-yoing biggio around again. Pierre, we already have a player like him. Delgado: the team intends on giving Lance 1B full time after Bagwell retires. Beckett: At that time he was a luxury, and he came attached with Mike Lowell. Bradley: maybe the team didn't think his clubhouse issues were worth it. Nomar: they tried hard, but he wanted to play at home. Overbay was a guy I liked but again, the Astros desire to play Lance at 1B after Bagwell retires and the fact I doubt Milwaukee would want to trade him to a division rival factored in. Konerko and Giles both preferred to stay where they were comfortable and were expensive. Furcal got 13 mil a year. I'm sorry that the team can't please you all by making a move. But again, a team that makes the WS doesn't need a major overhaul, believe it or not. Last season was not a fluke, and I seriously suggest you go check out the Astros offensive production from June to September(ie when Lance was back and his swing rounded into form). You'll be surprised.
This is getting stupid. Let's agree that there are 2 sides: a) Purpura sucks. He shouldn't get credit for NOT making moves last year, even if those decisions resulted in the young players taking him to a World Series appearance. Those decisions were luck, rather than choice. b) Give him a chance. There's a lot of offseason left. He hasn't made a ridiculous MoTaylor-type signing, at least. And he hasn't given up way too much to get back something small (a "just get SOMEthing done" type deal). The decisions last year had a lot to do with him believing in the young players when given options that weren't worth their price. And he was right.
That pitcher is Beckett and that 3rd baseman still has value. Maybe not 9 mil value, but there are teams that would take a chance at him. If we had a real GM we could probably move him for another overpriced outfielder.
Mike Lowell had negative trade value, and still does. That is the reason the Marlins packaged Beckett with him to start their salary purge.
Of course no one would take him straight up for a player with a lower salary and equal talent. Did you not read what I wrote? Trade him for another overpriced outfielder.
Oh goodie, we acquire Mike Lowell hoping to unload him on a poor sucker after he posts an OPS in the Chris Burke range, with a huge contract as the cherry on top. Who in their right mind would have traded anything useful for Mike Lowell, during or after last season. And you claimed that he had value. No, he seriously has negative value at his age, his contract and his performance last season.
You don't get it. You trade Lowell for an equally overpriced, multi-year-contract-having, injury prone, ineffective veteran. Only this one plays outfield. Brilliant. Just looking at what the Red Sox gave up, a comparable deal would have been Pence, 2 of the following - Hirsh, Barthmeier, Patton, Nieve - plus another low-A ball arm. Is that a good deal for the Astros?
Again, it's not overpaying if everyone's doing it. The new market is being set. Or are you going to be continually content with making "competitive" offers and being outbid? I thought the reason we didnt offer arbitration to Clemens was so we can use the money to focus on other areas of the team? I'm not anyones side and I know the offseason isnt over yet, but the bottom line is that Purpura needs to find a way to improve this team. Right now we're looking at a Oswalt, Pettitte, Backe, Astachio, Rodriguez rotation with the same BBgun offense
You give the Marlins the key to our minor league system for Beckett. He's a 25 year old fireballer with a world series MVP. The RedSox didnt even have a GM to know that was a deal they had to make
Which sources were those? Richard Justice? An Astros bat boy? Go ahead and give me one, because I had just about the closest source you could to Beltran himself and the negotiations. Beltran (and his wife) preferred Houston and backed out at the last second. He told people close to him that he wasn't about the money, as he knew he'd get paid wherever. THE END.
More spoonfeeding... We could probably have gotten the Padres to unload Klesko for Lowell. Klesko has a ridiculous 10 mil left on his contract for 2006, but it is only 1 year. As it turns out we need a left fielder and the Padres would like nothing better than to rid themselves of Klesko.
Xenon, you and TJ both told us how bad this team was going to be LAST season. How Purpura and McLane botched the offseason and we were going to be dead in the water. Instead...you were both dead wrong. The team enjoyed its best season ever. So forgive us if we're not all ready to write them off again before the 2006 season starts..particularly while it still says 2005 on my calendar. You call McLane cheap. You can call Purpura an idiot. Whatever. I don't care. I've resigned myself to the fact that people will b**** no matter what. No matter how much success this team may have on the field, there will be the whiners and moaners.
It is overpaying, and the market will have to correct itself in years to come. That "BB gun offense" averaged 4.5 runs a game from June to September. If they produced at a similar rate in April/May, they score 747 runs. Which places that offense in the top 5 in the league. The offense we have this year is nothing like the one in April and May. Furthermore, any starting rotation with Oswalt and Pettitte on it has a chance, especially with the bullpen the team currently has on the roster.
