Yankees trying to acquire Wandy Rodriguez at deadline

MLBTR:
•Yesterday's push by the Yankees to acquire Astros lefty Wandy Rodriguez came from ownership, not GM Brian Cashman. SI's Jon Heyman wrote yesterday that the Yankees offered to pay $21MM of the $38MM left on Rodriguez's contract, implying they feel that Rodriguez is worth less than $7MM a year. Rosenthal says the Astros were willing to pay $2MM of Rodriguez's salary this year (essentially all of it) "or $5MM if his [player] option for 2014 were exercised." I'm in the minority, but I'm with the Astros in thinking paying Wandy down to the range of Ted Lilly's contract is reasonable. At any rate, Rosenthal says the Astros and Yankees never even got to the point of discussing names.
•Rosenthal says he was unfair to print a rival executive's quote last week about how Astros GM Ed Wade was trying to make a "job-saving" deal for Hunter Pence.

 

Still amazed at how Wandy is viewed nationally and by other clubs. That said, apparently there was a lot of action on him at the deadline so other GMs might have been trying to take advantage of Wade trying to get the payroll down with lowball offers. I wonder if that may change this month once he passes through waivers?

 

Hardly surprising at all, heck it took the Astros fanbase a few seasons of consistent production from Wandy to think he was legit.

 

Well, you can't really blame the Yanks for trying considering we've been throwing cash around this deadline like it's going out of style.

 

I wish Wandy was the youngest of the Pence/Bourn/Wandy triumvirate of actual MLB quality players the Astros had instead of the oldest. Because I have no problem keeping him, he is rock solid.

He could never be "the face of the Astros franchise" because he speaks Spanish and is not conventionally handsome (and is not quite talented to capture the Hispanic populations imagination in a Fernandomania effect)...but he is probably at least as valuable as the other two guys.

 

We have? $2 mil with Pence and < $1 mil with Bourn is somehow equal to another $17 mil?

Everyone loves to blow things out of proportion.

 

¿Cual es la problema con la cara de los Astros hablando el español? Ay pinche gringo, el español es mejor.

 

perhaps he was referring to the $$$ we're paying for Lance and Roy?

 

well he said "this deadline" so I was ignoring those. But yeah, those were certainly more... at the same time, last year's deadline was a different animal

 

“@SI_JonHeyman: #astros just put wandy and myers on waivers”

 

I'm surprised they didn't do that August 1st.

 

someone please take the bait!

 

Wandy pitching a gem, to bad the Giants can't hit for **** regardless of who is pitching.

 

This is so depressing, because last trade deadline I was desperately hoping they'd trade Myers and Wandy back when they had no huge contracts and was at peak value. Of course, the Astros being the Astros. They felt it was better to give them big deals before putting them on waivers hoping someone would bite.

This is why I can live through the Rockets mediocrity, because I can at least see management trying and succeeding despite the trouble. If the team itself doesn't have a clue, why should I as a fan care?

 

They also put Barnes on wavier.

 

That's funny, because I see it as entirely opposite.

Until Yao retired, I think the Rockets fooled themselves into believing they were better than they were....I think they held on to that illusion way too long.

Just like the Astros did.

The difference is, it didn't take the Astros as long to start selling off. They may have made mistakes with Wandy and Myers...just bad gambles. But they traded away Oswalt and Berkman last season; they had no illusions of being competitive without rebuilding...and they started hiring staff to rebuild the farm system a while back, including increased focus on international players.

I think there's far clearer direction coming from the Astros than the Rockets right now. I can at least see the path the Astros are trying to take.

 

Disagree with this post a lot. NBA and MLB are very different. I don't think the Rockets would have done much different if Yao had retired sooner. Battier for draft pick. Brooks for Dragic, draft pick. Traded McGrady for Hill, pick. Landry for Martin. The only thing the Rockets could have done was trade Yao and McGrady before they started to get hurt and sucking.

The NBA doesn't have much of a farm system and the Rockets are probably in the the top 5 in developing talent. The Rockets have a definite path. Get younger while not losing talent/picks. Try to lure star player with S&T or FA to a deep team.

Kevin Martin and Luis Scola are the only guys on the wrong side of their prime. I could definitely see the Rockets trying to package these guys to get a star or younger, but the trade dynamics of the the NBA make it difficult. Teams that could use them generally don't have young talent lying around.

 

Despite Morey not reeling in the big fish like everyone wants him to, I don't get the feeling he's getting bamboozled in his deals, opposite of the feeling I get from Wade's deals. Maybe one of Wade's deals will pan out, but the general consensus is he won't be around to see it anyways.

 

this.

when was the last time you felt morey got took in a deal? now ask yourself the same question about wade.

it's almost laughable.

 

-The Astros last went to the playoffs in 2005 and started rebuilding last year.

-The Rockets last went to the playoffs in 2009 and started rebuilding last year.