because he's one of baseball's three best closers, still under club control and cheap. we don't get to the playoffs the past two years w/o lidge. i doubt you could say that about... mike lamb (who had 322 ABs last season).
You know I've never said that not offering arbitration was a bad move. What i've been saying is that improving this team after losing him for at least part of the season will be a problem. If you had actually read my post I said to replace Clemens Expected W/L with the actual ERA of Clemens likely replacement. That was the stellar ERA of 5.53 (Wandy) and 5.67 (Zeke).
From July to September, Zeke was a 4 era pitcher or so. Just wanted to point that out. July he had 3 starts and a 3.00 era. August: 5 starts one relief appearance, and a 4.32 era September: 5 relief appearances 2 starts and a 4.42 era. His era is so high because May was so horrible(due to a 5 inning 8 run game at ATL, and 1 2/3 innings 9 earned runs at Texas). After he came back the second time he started working with Ausmus and his numbers were those above. In fact his starts from July on: July 2nd: 6 innings 3 earned runs(though I believe it was his error that led to him allowing 7 runs)-at Cin July 19: 6 innings 2 earned-at PIT July 28: 6 innings 1 earned-vs NYM August 3: 5 innings no earned-at Ari August 9: 4 innings 5 earned-vs WAS Aug 14: 6 innings 4 earned-vs PIT Aug 19: 5.1 innings 1 earned-vs MIL Aug 24: 3.2 innings 2 earned-at SD Sept 2nd: 5.1 innings 3 earned vs STL September 24: 6 innings 3 earned-at CHI I'm not suggesting he is anything more than a back of the rotation starter at this point, but people need to look past his May to see that the guy started to emerge as a productive pitcher after the all star break.
Yep. Not sure if he'll hack it as a starter, but if not there's definitely a place in the bullpen. Great arm, great splitter. Also, it wouldn't shock me at all if Hirsh is in the rotation early (right out of ST is pushing it though) and Buchholz is in the bullpen. I don't understand all the wailing & gnashing of teeth. They're going to be pretty damn good this year.
Yes, silly you. I said to use the 5era stats instead of that in my last post. Guess you didn't read that part.
Sadly, it's because all they hear from media types is the Astros offense sucked last year, and look how many wins the offense cost Roger, etc. Then when they start to see the offense producing, Morgan Ensberg goes into a slump due to his wrist injury-all the way through the World Series and the we need offense bandwagon goes right on trucking into the offseason. They don't take the time to realize that a team without their best hitter in Berkman, and another important bat in Bagwell was going to struggle early on offensively. Not to mention Jason Lane had to adjust to being a full time regular and Morgan Ensberg had to get accustomed to being expected to drive in runs. Like I have tried to point out a few times recently, the offense was not as bad as the 11th place standing would suggest. From June to September they scored 4.5 runs a game. That is more than solid. However, you try to point out a healthy Rondell White signing would greatly help the LF solution and they want a bigger name. If bagwell can't go, a Lamb/White batting platoon would be fine offensively in my opinion at minimum. What bugs me the most is people seem to judge an offseason on how many moves you make. When your team makes the WS the year before, you are doing something right and you don't need major changes to your roster.
Given what happened with our offense pre season and all through the regular season what makes you so confident that this team can find anyone to improve its roster. We've lost our best pitcher for at least part of the season and even if he does come back he is a year older. He isn't going to last forever. What if comes back and gives us only 3 good months this time before breaking down? We need to account for that. Look people. This team won 89 games last season. Most seasons that doesn't sniff the playoffs. We were lucky as hell that there wasn't a weak team in the NL East to inflate the other teams records. I doubt 89 wins is going to cut it this season. That is why this team needs to improve. If you guys can understand the problems it will make this a whole lot easier. See you folks later.
Does the media rile up the talk radio/internet/letters-to-the-chron crowd, or do the unwashed masses shape the coverage by the media?
You wouldn't trade him for a really good every day player? You could make an argument that the Astros don't make the playoffs in 2004 without Lamb. Last year he was horrible, but he was pretty good in 2004.
Cards got a steal.....regardless of what you think of Ponson, 1yr/1 million is a steal for any starter. How about this.... Red Sox need a CF...we trade Willie and Lidge for Manny...and we move Burke to CF
Sidney Ponson is a bargain in this market, but he doesn't change their team at all. In fact, unless they are trading Marquis or Suppan for a stick, all they are doing is blocking Anthony Reyes(who could easily be better than ponson) for no reason. They have to still find replacements for Walker, Sanders, and Grudzielanek offensively. They need a healthy Rolen offensively to be the kind of team they have been the last few years. However, maybe this means the Astros can sign a decent veteran option to compete for a rotation spot, like a Jason Johnson, if they so desire.
From Jayson Stark: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2261063 From Bilal Iftikhar of Houston -- Astros trade Brad Lidge and Adam Everett to Baltimore for Tejada Would either side consider this trade? Well, the key word there is "consider." Would they consider it? Yep. Make it? Dubious. The Orioles do need a closer. And if they do trade Tejada, according to one team that has window-shopped for him, they want "a marquee name" back. Lidge qualifies, even if he's a ninth-inning marquee name, as opposed to a cleanup-hitter marquee name. But an official of another club said there's only one kind of star Baltimore would take for Tejada -- and that's another big bat, period. They want "the same type of player back." Otherwise, they can't justify it -- no matter how much Lidge might turn their heads. OK, so how about Houston's end? The Astros have actually told teams they would be "open-minded" about dealing Lidge, even if they'd enjoy it as much as they liked making about 200 consecutive outs with men on base in the World Series. But if they do trade Lidge, it would have to be for offense -- and, according to one NL executive, "a bona-fide star" who plays every day. We'd say Tejada fits that definition. Wouldn't you? The Astros, in general, are reluctant to take the defensive hit they would inflict on themselves by moving Everett for just about anybody. But if the new shortstop were named Tejada, that wouldn't involve much suffering. So now that we've gotten you interested, here's the biggest reason this deal will never happen: Ever-frugal Astros owner Drayton McLane would be a good bet to land in intensive care after he peruses Tejada's contract ($48 million owed in salary for the next four years, plus a sizable remaining chunk of a $12-million signing bonus).
it would be difficult... lidge slams the door on 30-35 wins every year; he shortens the game by an entire inning; his presence is a goose to an offense that knows if it can just squeeze one more run than their opponent... when you don't have that dominant closer in your pen, the entire team gets rattled. look at the astros the year wagner went down ('99? '00?). people overpay for bullpen help every year because pens can make or break entire seasons. unfortunately, it's also one of the hardest parts of the game to predict. who knew wheeler and qualls would emerge this year the way they did? who knew lidge would surpass dotel? so when you have "sure things" that are cheap and in your control.... man, i have a difficult time dealing them. sure, maybe wheeler could replace lidge... but you're going to have to find out the hard way. and if he can't, then your everyday player better be on his game, cause you're going to have a shaky pen and are going to need big leads.
On the first part, I disagree. I'd bet the top 2 or 3 pitchers in St. Louis' farm system could go out and there and produce an ERA of 6+ at less than $1M / yr. On the second, I think that would be a good trade for both teams. But I'm curious if the Sox could stomach losing both Damon and Manny at this point without getting another big bat somewhere.
