only if he rejects arbitration, which, i truly doubt he would have done. once he accepts, he's considered "signed." everyone here assumes he'd receive upwards of $20M in a hearing. the same people are assuming he can be signed for $15M-ish after may 1. maybe they're right. but why take the risk you'd lose him in the interim over what essentially amounts to a $5M difference when you conceed he's easily worth $5M? if you're willing to pay him up to $15M and he wants $20M... isn't that a wash?
You've got to be kidding me. Pupura shows up, inherits a team that took a very strong St. Louis team (that was much stronger than the St Louis team we beat this year) to a Game 7 AND had Andy Pettitte on his way back from injury. All Purpura did was completely BOTCH the Beltran negotiations and let Kent go when he wanted to stay. When the team was desperately in need of a bat ALL SEASON LONG, he wasn't able to add one. Hunsicker put this team together and deserves all the credit. The team won the NL last year not because of Purpura's efforts as GM, but in spite of them.
You can add re-signing Lance Berkman, and Roy Oswalt... the cornerstones of the franchise... to extensions. I don't think that's something that the "Tampa Bay Devil Rays" of the world gets accomplished. Hell, even the Braves, Yankees, and Red Sox don't always get to keep their own free agents.
You might as well become a Devil Ray fan... i hear they just got Hunsicker as an advisor. I expect big things.
You mean prospects like Backe, Burke, Qualls, Lane, Willy T, etc who all were primary reasons we made the World Series last year? Sounds to me like its you who just values having marquee names over building a good team.
Not when the guy you're willing to pay is giving NO indication that he wants to come back. Roger's people said it themselves... they expected this move to be made, based on the fact that Roger himself has no clue whether or not he's coming back. Roger's not stupid... he knows that he'll probably accept arbitration if the club offers it to him... but then he has to worry about getting his body in tip top shape (at age 43) to live up to that $20 million dollar commitment. If he had given ANY sort of indication, or a little willingness, to make a deal... something might have gotten worked out. I don't understand why you don't see that there was TWO sides to this... Roger not wanting to talk about anything, and the Astros having to consider spending money on players who are actually playing next year.
No. PROSPECTS. If the right bat came along, I wouldn't object to the Astros giving up any minor leaguer other than Patton.
Wrong. Again, I showed you a deal he had agreed to at the July 31st trade deadline but one of the players involved exercised his 10/5 rights. Furthermore, how did Purpura botch the Beltran negotiations. He did everything he could with Drayton's approval to pull a deal off. It's not his fault Carlos and Boras were jerks in the process. Also, he let Jeff Kent go because he had Biggio and Burke as alternative options, and that was before Lance got hurt if I remember right. Plus, the bat they needed was because Jeff Bagwell finally succumbed to his shoulder issues. That is not his fault either. And see the Moyer/Winn for Burke/Nieve deal as proof that he had a deal in place to get a bat and another quality veteran SP at the deadline. Then we get to Nomar. Reportedly the team came in second for his services. What more did you want him to do, Nomar decided to stay where he grew up, in LA. Now he is reportedly interested in White, provided his health issues check out. Do you want him to sign him before checking those out, even though there are about 3 other free agent outfielders in a similar talent level/price range that could be considered if White is deemed unhealthy. And Rondell White can swing a good bat, go look at his career numbers season by season if you do not believe me. Hindsight is 20/20 but this is ridiculous.
And do you know of any deals that other teams wanted our minor league prospects? In the trades we know of, the people that have been wanted are our young major leaguers - Willy, Lidge, Burke, Backe, etc.
Umm...yes it is. It's his fault he allowed it go on as long as it did. It was obvious that Beltran wasn't going to resign with us, but alot of people didn't want to believe that was possible.
Revisionism at its finest. Commentators, insiders, the team, fans, everyone thought we had a better than 50% shot at it even going up until the final day when the decision had to be made.
It was? It didn't become obvious until after all the major free agents signed elsewhere and most decent opportunities had already been previously dealt. Even close to the deadline numerous sources thought Beltran was going back to Houston. Furthermore, you would have then b****ed that they didn't do enough to keep Beltran in Houston after his 2004 postseason. It's a never ending cycle with you people. You whined earlier about Troy freakin Glaus. He had nowhere to play at the time, plus you think that either Ensberg or Glaus would be receptive to a sudden positional change. At that time, Bagwell was entrenched at 1B, therefore one of Glaus or Morgan had to move to the outfield, and I don't think either player would have been happy about that. Plus, then what do you do when Lance got healthy. You don't plan on Bagwell's injury, period and then one of them has is out of a starting spot. What a great way to spend 40 million dollars or so.
Again your asking for informatioin that no one here can know. I do know that Lowell and Beckett were had for just minor leaguers. Lowell makes alot but not as much as people think.
Where are you getting this everyone from? Alot of us knew that he didn't want to come back. We were giving him all the love the city had and he never gave any indication that he wanted to sign here. That didn't strike you as odd? Common sense went out the window for of alot you during those negotiations.
See now you guys are trying to revise history. Numerous sources told us that Beltran was looking for the highest bidder. Of course none of you believed that would be possible. Whining? Please. I'm just trying to get you people deal with reality. We likely have a poor GM. Got it? Good.
You're the one who stated that Purpura values his prospects too much - how exactly do you know this? As for Beckett/Lowell - what the hell were we going to do with Lowell? In case you haven't noticed, we already have a 3B, and possibly a 1B in Bagwell. Besides which, which of our prospects are as good as the ones Boston gave up? Remember, our top prospects are the major leaguers are I was referring to.
Please tell me you are joking. Please. Otherwise, you have zero cred. How did Purpura botch the Beltran negotiation? He let Boras bend him over and pound him mercilessly. He failed to control the speed of the negotiations, which effectively tied up Drayton's money until it was too late to do anything. Come on man, surely you know that. It's been discussed ad nauseum. Having a deal in place but not getting it done doesn't help this team. It's an excuse. It's a GM's job to close deals, not get close. Is Brad Lidge paid to get 2 outs in the 9th or 3? Ask Pujols about that one, champ. Kent would have dramatically helped the team down the stretch. They needed him, and he wanted to come back. Faceplant on Purpura's part. The team then desperately needed a bat to fill Berkman's shoes early on, and then to fill other underperformers' shoes later in the season. That bat never came. Purpura did not close a deal. Period. Failure. Think the team could have used a bat in Game 4 of the WS when they were SHUTOUT? What about the close losses in games 1,2? Come on man, face facts. On top of all that, Purpura's moves this offseason have brought us NO ONE and have likely cost us the services of Roger Clemens. This offseason has yielded nothing thus far. No accomplishments. Meanwhile, players are getting picked over and the apologists will fall back on their "no one is out there" excuses. No one is out there because we don't have our act together for the second offseason in a row. It's called dictating the pace of negotiations and Purpura has proven he can't do it.
Once Boras would only let Beltran meet with the NY Mets, and not the Astros, we should have stopped negotiating with Beltran right then. That's when it was obvious that we were only setting the market for what Beltran would get paid by the Mets.
You answered the question there without even realizing it. Backup to Bagwell. Small cost to play for getting a great replacement for Clemens. Edit: On those prospects. Burke, Nieve, Hirsh. If we'd have gotten Beckett the minor league pitchers would have been easier to let go in trade.
So you want to bring in an expensive player who just had, by far, the worst season of his career (an OPS worse than Brad Ausmus), to backup a position where we have Bagwell, Lamb, and want to move Berkman to as-is so we can improve our outfield defense. Brilliant move for a financially conscious organization. No wonder you think our GM sucks.
