Of course, he's also one that's never pitched more than 180 innnings can never stay healthy and had never had a record over 0.500 before the last year, and never had an ERA nearly as good as any of our top 3 pitchers last year, but hey, those are just details. Trade away the farm system to get a new #3 starter and a $9MM/yr deadweight contract that can't be moved!
Well I hope you're right. With the current state of our team, I'm not too confident though. You're really stretching when you try to label our offense as top 5 in the league.
beckett is so intensely overrated...only surpassed by kerry wood. guys who everyone thinks are great...then you look at the numbers and realize, eh..maybe not.
I wasn't expecting a career year from Pettitte, Clemens and Ensberg to carry us to to the wildcard. Be real, did you expect Ensberg to be a silver slugger Pettitte to post the best 2nd half of any pitcher in baseball or how about Clemens to post a historic era last season? It was luck, people. We can't count on those career years to carry us again. I want to see this team improve and its not happening. Doesn't that frustrate any of you?
It's more than luck. It was heart, coaching, and clutch execution -> intangibles that can't be bought. It is frustrating, but paying Jarrod Washburn $9 million a year isn't going to solve any problems. Nor is giving 40-year old Kenny Rogers $8 million a year. That is a stupid way to run a team, and you quickly end up like the Mets, who spend for the sake of spending. Houston's had the right blueprint for success over the last decade. I think we should stay the course until the right deal comes along, and not jump at some ridiculous deal for Javier Vasquez or some other trash.
yeah those finger blisters are certaintly damning. Let's just call him Mr Glass. Let's forget that he's younger than Roy Oswalt, almost single-handedly won a world series for the Marlins, and a home town guy to boot. We could only hope that any of our minor league prospect pitchers (some who are just as old as Beckett) pan out to be servicable in the majors and youre hesitant to trade him for this "#3 starter?" I can't even take this seriously. This has got to be a joke right? Any team would love to have Beckett on their team.
How am I stretching: Lets go team by team: NL West 1. San Diego: Giles and what again? I like ours more. 2. Colorado: Ha Ha. The only reason they score so much is Coors Field 3. Los Angeles: I'll give them the edge based on a healthy Nomar, but not by that much. 4. San Francisco: Could go either way, depending on health of Alou, Durham and Barry. 5. Arizona: Glaus, Tracy and Gonzo is not better than Berkman, Ensberg, Lane NL Central: 1. Cards: Pujols/Rolen/Edmonds is better than our 3-4-5, but the loss of walker and sanders closes the gap considerably. 2. Brewers: Nope. 3. Cubs: debatable 4. Reds: i'll give them the edge 5. Pirates: Nope NL East: Braves: they have the edge Phillies: better offense than braves Marlins:nope Mets: see braves/phillies Nats: nope I mean at the very least this team should be middle of the pack in the NL in runs scored, without any other signings or trades, barring injuries. And there really aren't many teams with clearcut better offenses. I could easily see us outscoring the Cubs, Giants and Dodgers as well.
Of course they would. Not every team would have trade 2 top prospects and taken a deadweight 3B, though. Only teams with a lot of financial flexibility can and would do that, which is why Boston did it. The Astros don't have the luxury of taking on $9MM contracts just for the hell of it. You guys would be great at driving this franchise into the ground.
you don't get to the World Series on luck. you don't get to the playoffs in a league that only invites in 8 of its 32 teams after 162 games on luck. i argued all last offseason that having a healthy pettitte would make a world of difference. that teams can win championships with superb pitching and average hitting...but that it couldn't be done the other way around. i don't call it luck. i call it assembling a tremendous pitching staff...and that's what it does for you. as i said earlier, i think the white sox were quite lucky to face oswalt in his worst outing of the year and face a worn-down roger clemens. i didn't know what to expect for sure. but i didn't write them off before the season began. i've heard this year after year from astros "fans." "we're not improving!!! we're not adding anyone!! we're gonna suck." meanwhile, we make the playoffs more years than not and now we've just stepped off a ride that took us to the World Series. we find ourselves in that EXACT SAME SPOT AGAIN THIS YEAR. and again...we see the same people naysaying. the sky is falling. meanwhile, the NL Champs take the field in just about 4 months.
I also like how he almost single-handedly won the Marlins the World Series. He pitched in 2 of the 6 games, one of which the Marlins lost. The Marlins went 3-1 when he wasn't on the mound and 1-1 when he was, but yes, he clearly single-handledly won them that series.
but that's the kind of thing that gets said and then sticks. and drives up value without any base in truth.
We had our best season ever last year because of our pitching. Pitching is much more important than offense. Last offseason we lost a couple of big offensive players but we still had the best pitching in the league. This offseason, we lose the greatest pitcher in the game, someone with an era in the 1.80 range. Even if we add a big bat now, which is unlikely, it will not come close to compensating for what we lost in pitching. 2005 Astros > 2006 Astros Offering Clemens arbitration was a no brainer, and botching that is going to bite the Astros in the ass.
of course all that assumes: 1. roger would pitch again in 2006 as he did in 2005; 2. roger won't be pitching for the astros at all in 2006; and 3. the astros aren't going to make any other moves. which brings us back to the original point. you can't judge a baseball offseason on December 20.
i know..they'll suck. i'm sure they'll be awful. just like you thought they would last year. and probably the season before that.
now that's a great point. i've been thinking about that this winter. i remember thinking it during the playoffs a bit. i'd be curious to know...i bet it's not all that spectacular.
