The Astros are taking a risk by letting him be a free agent, but if Clemens want to stay in Houston, he will give the Astros a shot to match the offer. Granted, they cannot sign him until May, but the Astros will have a shot at matching it under the tables.
and you honestly believe that roger clemens and the houston astros aren't in contact at all? the man has a personal services agreement with them...but they're not in contact.
Agreed and I want to say that McLane is probably the best owner that the Astros have ever had. Not to say if that necessarily mean a good thing, but I know that the Astros have been under worse management.
That contract begins once his retirement is official. If Clemens and the Astros have any contact right now, the league could impose some heavy penalties. All I am saying, is that Clemens did enough for this city that he deserved better. He didn't deserve to have the rug pulled out like this. Offer the man arbitration and give him the time he needs to decide on his future. Hell, they offered him arbitration last year, and they settled on a contract before arbitration. How is this year any different? Oh yea, because they want to get by on the cheap, that's why.
Could've said the same thing last year about Beltran. We only ended up having the MOST SUCCESSFUL SEASON EVER FOR THIS FRANCHISE. Of course, most of you will never be satisfied. The funny thing is, if we had offered arbitration to Clemens and he came back for $20 million a year, you whiners would be the first one b****ing about that move if Clemens tore his hamstring in your first start. That's OK, it's what you guys do. You're not happy unless you're b****ing about something. None of you, absolutely none of you have any idea what's going on behind closed doors. You do not know what teams they have talked to, what players they have inquired about, or what deals have been on the table. We've made highly competitive offers to one of the best pitchers on the market as well as some guy who, if he wasn't named Garciaparra, most of you would be b****ing about like you are about Rondell White or Juan Encarnacion. Ya'll are doing nothing but ASSuming that the Astros aren't trying to improve this ballclub. You're also ASSuming that all Purpura has to do is snap his fingers and we'll add Manny Ramirez, Carlos Delgado, Brian Giles and Babe Ruth to the NL Champions.
they sure could. i doubt seriously that the astros and clemens don't have some lines of communication open. i doubt even more the notion that roger clemens will be pitching for anyone other than the houston astros next season, if he's pitching at all.
Dude I totally know what you are saying. I hate the b****ing as well - I almost think its the "cool" thing to do. Unfortunately that is the nature of a fair-weather sports city, and its really sad that we cant as a city be better fans of sports. I think its contagious. I remember growing up as a kid and wearing a Houston Oilers shirt to school, only to be ridiculed by other kids because they "sucked". What is that?!??!?
For those of you waiting on the Astros to make a big move, don't hold your breath. There is a fact that I learned last off-season, and that is that Drayton is a penny pincher. Sure its nice to "dream" about making our team better by adding the Tejadas and Mannys of the baseball world, but with Drayton, it's simply not going to happen. Be happy that our team can turn water into wine.
So, do you believe that there has been an offer made to the Astros for these players, but Drayton turned them down because of their salaries? Do you have any evidence whatsoever to back up this accusation? I like how many people can b**** about our penny pitching owner in one breath and then b**** about the Bagwell contract the next. Ah, consistency. I'm pretty sure that offering a player nearly $15 million a year isn't something that a penny pincher does all that often. Somehow him offering that $15 million a year for 7 years led you to the conclusion that Drayton's a penny pincher? Wonderful logic.
Team lead's out of the office and it's a very slow week traditionally. I'm making good use of my free time.
Well, the White Sox GM found a way to improve his team. So did all the GM's taking advantage of the Florida Marlins firesale. This is the second offseason in a row in which Purpura has stood on the sidelines and watched our team atrophy. Last year, we lost Kent and Beltran -- two of our best bats. This season, we decline arbitration to Clemens -- our best pitcher. The entire world agreed that we needed a bat this year and we never got it. Now we still need that bat and may need another starting pitcher to replace a Cy Young award winning caliber pitcher. The Purpura/McLane combo doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me that this will get done. Drayton has seen his revenues skyrocket, with the $15 million in annual incremental revenue from the new tv deal, the boatload of postseason and merchandise revenue from last year, and higher ticket prices. Where is that money going? We know it wasn't offered to Clemens. Other teams are finding ways to improve their team. Why are we not?
Do you disagree that the market gets picked over as the offseason moves forward? We've already missed the boat on Thome, the Marlins players, and others. You probably didn't miss something last year when we failed to add a bat. This season is progressing along similar lines. Other GM's are finding a way to improve their ballclubs. We are doing nothing but lose key pieces. How can you find this to be acceptable?
We made a competitive offer for Burnett and Garciaparra. We weren't going to add Delgado, Konerko or Thome with the Bagwell situation (which has been the main problem, IMO. Ironic that a big contract that Drayton apparently never signs is holding us back from the position that had the biggest names moved). Beckett wasn't an option as the Marlins attached Lowell (3rd baseman with a horrendous salary). Pierre is Willy Taveras reincarnated and Castillo plays a position where we didn't have a need. Who else should we have signed? Giles stayed put for a lot of money. Matt freaking Morris is making $9 million a season. Ramon freaking Hernandez is making $7 million a season. Who else is out there. Instead of b****ing, please offer a solution. You can argue back and forth all day about the Clemens thing, but I don't think you can tie up at least $15 million in a player who won't even give you a starting number and hasn't even committed to coming back.
So you are giving him credit for missing out on players? If we were truly making 'competitive' offers, we'd land a player or two. Remind me again, who has Purpura landed? 'Competitive offer' just means 'not good enough'. How can anyone be satisfied with Purpura's job in the past two offseasons? Please share that with me.
