Archive for the ‘Miguel Tejada’ Category

11/20/08: Trade Wiggy, Valverde Or Tejada?

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

I keep hoping for SOME sort of new news, but no such luck. The only lip flapping has been some of the writers horrified that other writers do not think that Ryan Howard was MVP ONLY because he hit more RBIs than anyone else and he had an .893 OPS on the pennant winning team only in September because the rest of the season doesn’t matter – he absolutely sucked the other 5 months, but hey, like, so? Why not rename the MVP – the guy the writers think makes the best story for “player of the month in September on one of the 4 winning teams.” Good grief. And, by the way, Andre Ethier AND MannyBManny seriously outplayed Howard in September – but hey, not as many RBIs because of teammate suckage, but teammates don’t matter.

But I digress.

Looks as if we are headed down a very very slippery slope into a severe recession/depression and McLane, as usual, is not raising the payroll. Oh yeah, there is some sort of the usual bull about how the payroll is really more like 100 mill instead of 90 mill, but some of us can add. Trouble is that the Astros are already starting with Berkman at 14.5 mill + Oswalt at 14 mill + Clank at 18.5 mill + Tejada at 13 mill + Kaz Matsui at 5.3 mill + Geoff Blum at 1.3 mill + Hawkins at 3.5 mill + Erstad at 1.75 mill = 71.85 mill and that means they have to have 17 more players for 20-30 mill.

If they do not trade Wiggy and Valverde, together earming about 10 mill this year, who will certainly earn raises of a good 3-4 mill each, it will mean needing 16 players for 10-12 mill. And let’s not forget Wandy, who is arb eligible for the first time and will earn at LEAST 3 mill. So that will be 15 guys for 10 mill. Oh yeah – Geoff Geary already has a guaranteed contract for 1.125 mill. So make that 14 guys for less than 10 mill.

And unless Drayton ups the payroll (yeah, surrrrrre) then SOMEone has got to go.

Tejada is the most expensive guy here. I know he hit .283, but unlike a whole lot of other Astros fans, I think that it is important to understand that he made very little of his opportunities to drive in runners – he came to bat with (if I am counting correctly) 704 men on base and he drove in only 57 of them (not counting 9 solo homers) AND he grounded into 32 DPs and and (if I went back and counted) I would bet twice that many FC. I keep reminding everyone that in 666 PA, he got on base with 6 HBP, 20 BB, 4 IBB, 125 singles, 38 doubles, 3 triples, 13 homers and 1 ROE. I might could add that he also got caught stealing 7 times with 7 SB, and complied a magnificient (-)27 RCAA, second last only to Michael Bourn. I will finally add that batting from the 3 hole (mostly) and the 5 hole, he created only 63 runs, 1 more than Adam Everett in 06 batting from the 8 hole behind Brad Ausmus.

It would be cheaper to keep Wiggy and play Tommy Manzella (just placed on the 40 man), an Adam Everett clone in AAA who will instantly earn the enmity of Astros fans by hitting like Michael Bourn. Because BA is all that matters. I should add, by the way, that Everett’s BA with RISP was around .280 his last 2 full years with the Astros, and Tejada’s last year was .237. I can’t think of any reason to keep Tejada instead of Wiggy, who created more runs and has more power and GIDP significantly less.

You might could talk about trade value – well, let’s be real, we certainly wouldn’t get much for Tejada, but even if we got a sack of baseballs, it would still provide 13 mill worth of salary relief, 7 or 8 of which could be spent on Wiggy and another 5 toward something we NEED, like a starter.

Wiggy would be more expensive per year than FA Casey Blake, but then again, it would only be for 1 year.

The most recent “rules” according to economics seem to be that (usually) the team who takes on salary doesn’t give up real too much in the way of top prospects. The other teams are NOT gonna give up cheap young major leaguers OR cheap young top prospects. Then again, the Astros really don’t have any, so any decent prospects would be good.

As for homegrown options for third? Well, there is Mark Saccomanno, but Ricky Bennett has made it plain that they would consider him ONLY in a pinch hitting role IF they even want him on the ML team. Guess his glove is on par with Mike Lamb. Or worse.

There is Chris Johnson, age 24, picked in the 4th round of the 06 draft whose minor league numbers are not exactly Evan Longoria/Ryan Braun – 517 OPS in Rookie Ball, 712 OPS at low A in 225 AB, then a .695 OPS at high A in 224 AB. Amazingly enough, he was promoted to AA (doesn’t say much for whoever’s place he took there in Corpus, does it) where he pounded the ball – .870 OPS in 330 AB, then back down to a .539 OPS in 101 AB at AAA. He doesn’t walk much (approximately 39 BB/500 AB) and he strikes out around 90 times/500 AB. He only hit for power in AA, not in the low minors or AAA. He made 23 errors in 84 games at AA. He sure nuff doesn’t seem ready for the majors to me.

Oh yeah. And please, Blum can NOT play full time.

As for trading Valverde, well, BEFORE we do, might could I ask

- to who? And seriously, what could we get for him? Please don’t waste your time explaining how the Mariners are gonna WANT to trade Beltre (not cheap) and King Felix for him – or something equally stupid.

- and speaking of who, WHO is then gonna close? There is NOBODY on the major league club or at AAA or at AA who is closer material. NOBODY.

This means that we would have to get someone in trade for Tejada or Wiggy who would be good enough to close. Unless we got lucky, no club is going to trade a good, top notch cheap young reliever for salary dumps. So as for me, I say NO to trading an essential top player who we can’t replace.

I know lots of Astros fans want Wandy off the team – and think he wouldn’t bring much because he’s terrible and sucks and has emotion or something. You would replace him with WHO?

Remembering, of course, that Drayton is NOT gonna sign Garland, Lowe, Burnett, Sabathia, Sheets (unless he signs a very low incentive type deal) because he doesn’t want to raise payroll – except for top ace Randy Wolf. And he isn’t gonna sign any other expensive FA or any Boras client.

Oh yeah – and please, Michael Bourn has like NO trade value, so let’s not talk about trading him for anything of value, let alone playing Pence in center and Bogusevic in right. And apparently, the Organization is in love with Pence and he isn’t up for trade.

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Posted in Miguel Tejada, Ty Wigginton, Valverde | 15 Comments »

9/24/08: Miguel Tejada Ties Brad Ausmus For The NL GIDP Record

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Gotta give discredit where discredit’s due.

Thirty GIDP is a career record for Miggy, too.
Yeh, I know he has a .284 BA, but he’s second to last on the team with RCAA at (-)24, just in front of Michael Bourn with (-)26.

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Posted in Miguel Tejada, Randy Wolf | 1 Comment »

7/20/08: Wandy Outpitches Zambrano: Cubs Fans Unhappy

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

ah, I definitely believe I need to rub it in to all the Cubs fan in our House. Looked as if there weren’t quite as many tonight – sort of surprising because you’d think they’d be there expecting big Z to win, as usual. Not sure why I think he’s like 30-0 at the Box when he’s really 11-7. Maybe because he’s hit 5 homers here???

But the story is the Wand Man – 6 2/3 IP – think he got a little tired when he had to throw 8 pitches to start the inning to get Fukudome out. He scattered 9 hits, Kd 7 and didn’t walk anyone. He DID give up a homer to the Cubs best hitter, Zambrano, who hit a hanging curve juuuuuust over the RF wall – about 350′ – at least it wasn’t one of those 400′ into the RF bullpen jobs. But except for that hanger, Wandy had the curve working great and he didn’t get upset because the ump wouldn’t call any pitches at the knees. AND he hit a single to right center and scored a run.

Miggy has stayed hot – went 2fer 4 with an RBI and he made a great leaping catch for the last out. Erstad and Pence were both ofer but they both knocked in a run with a groundout. Matsui had 3 of the 6 Astros walks (yes, you read that right, the Astros, the worst team in the NL at drawing walks, had SIX walks) but got caught stealing and didn’t get driven in the other 2 times. The hitters hit 5 singles and PH Newhan hit a triple on the Hill. But it was enough, given Wandy’s ability to shut down the opposition.

Brocail and Valverde each pitched a scoreless inning and Chris Sampson got out the one hitter he faced, stranding the runner.

This afternoon, it’s Ryan Dempster: he’s started 20 games over 124.2 IP: 97 H, 11 HR, 50 BB, 104 K: 3.25 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and a .212 BAA. He hasn’t historically done well at the Box: over 55.1 IP – 8 HR, 32 BB, 39 K: 4.55 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, .262 BAA. So be it and shall it remain.

Brandon this year has been like that little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead – when he’s good, he’s very very good and when he’s bad he’s horrid. Last 2 outings, he was very very good, hope he keeps it down (hahahaha). He gave up 2 ER/6 IP in his last start against the Cubs.
Roy Oswalt was finally put on the DL – and they are hoping he can come back and pitch a few days before the trade deadline.

They are trying to decide who to call up from Round Rock – they could call up Jack Cassel, who won last night giving up 2 ER over 5 IP, needing only 52 pitches – and, in fact, hasn’t lost since April, has a 1.95 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP over 65.2 IP.

or

Runs Elvys, who pitched 2 innings to start the game yesterday, giving up 1 ER over 2 IP, needing 33 pitches. And he’s 6-4 over 17 GS – 90.2 IP -76 H, 13 HR, 27 BB, 65 K: 4.07 ERA, 1.15 WHIP.
Jack gives just under a hit/IP, but hardly walks anyone and has only given up 4 homers, and pitches very efficiently.

Cecil is determined to leave poor Sampson in the bullpen, so it will be interesting to see how badly Runs Elvys has to pitch before Cooper gives in…

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Posted in Miguel Tejada, Wandy Rodriguez | 2 Comments »

7/18/08: Hunter Pence Hits Walk Off Double To Beat Cubs

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Doesn’t it seem like the Astros haven’t had a walkoff victory since, like April?

Mama called me at 4 to tell me that her friend wouldn’t be able to go with her to the game and wanted to know if I wanted to go. Well, of COURSE I wanted to go – the trick would be to not let the kids find out I was going because of course they would want to go tooooo and there would be a WHOLE lot of crying which their daddy would have to deal with, which wouldn’t make him the happiest man, you know what I’m saying. Which gave me about an hour to get kids to WANT to go over to my cousin’s to play and to think it was their idea in the first place and talk me into it.
So I told Husband he could pick up kids when he got home and, oh yeah – pick up a few chickens from Kroger and fortunately, I had already cooked apple cobbler – it’s medicine to decrease male-type grumbling.

So I met Mama in front of the Box at about 5:45 – the place was positively swarming with Cubs fans. Cub weekends are always bad – I mean, too many Cub fans. Usually, there are a good 5000 (seriously) at Friday and Saturday summer games, but tonight I swear there were twice that many.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

And it was a great game.

Moehler was really nails – ran into a bit of trouble in the 5th with location. Edmonds hit a CBox cheapie on a fastball up and in and after getting DeRosa out, he gave up a double off the top of the scoreboard to Fontenot. And get this – Carlos MAKES A GREAT PLAY!!!! He grabs the ball the second it bounces and is perfectly positioned to make a strong accurate throw to second. Moehler was still having trouble keeping the ball down and one of the few times he got the ball down, he got the ball too far down in the dirt and Fontenot advanced to third on a WP. He then K’d Lilly – finally, after walking The Riot, he got Fukudome to popup. Fuku at the plate doesn’t look anything like the player I saw earlier this year although he still looks great in the field – he made 2 great catches.

But then Moehler came back to pitch a nails 6th and 7th and he could have most likely pitched a CG if he hadn’t been pulled for a PH in the bottom of the 7th. He only gave up 4 hits, 1 walk and 3 Ks with 1 HR.

Geary pitched the 8th and 9th – 6 up 6 down for the W.

Lilly was also excellent – FB was biting and his curve was curving. Through 6 innings, he gave up 2 singles, a walk and a triple and no runs. In the 7th, he started Carlos out with a high FB and Carlos sent it into Pujols territory – bounced off the glass onto the tracks. Then Miggy and Pence hit consecutive singles. And here is the usual Astros problem – 2 on, no out. Wiggy Ks in a 9 pitch AB, then Loretta pinch hits for Towles and FO. Then Blum PH for Moehler and walks on 4 straight pitches. Lou walks out to the mound. Lilly looks almost too tired to lift his arm, but somehow he gets Kaz to GO, leaving bases loaded.

But in the 9th, Miggy doubles to right and the very next pitch Hunter Pence sends a FB into center. Miggy takes off with the crack of the bat and Edmonds weak arm can’t get the ball to the plate in time to get a sliding Miggy. The other guys all came up and pounded on Pence – Lance picked up Miggy and hugged him.

Looks as if the ASG revitalized Miggy, who handled a very tricky 1 hopper. So be it and shall it remain. Lance looked sorry with the bat, but made an awesome catch of a popup near the dugout in the second.

Several things – if the Astros aren’t going to play Bourn, wouldn’t it make more sense to send the guy down to AAA to, like, you know, HIT??? Call up Reggie if you want a guy for DR/PR. Same with Towles – at least they let him start today, even if he can’t hit the curve – and Lilly got hisself a filthy hammer.

And last – Cooper needs to quit sending Pence and Wiggy with lefty pitchers/good catchers. Lou isn’t stoopid – and Lilly had Pence easily picked off.

The fireworks were just an added celebration to tell all those &*(%*&#%@! Cub fans that they can’t come into our House and take ovah.
Let’s hope Backe can keep it down tomorrow.

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Posted in Brian Moehler, Carlos Lee, Hunter Pence, Miguel Tejada | 3 Comments »

7/5/08: Maybe Chris Sampson Should Go Back In The Rotation

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

Chris Sampson needed to throw 55 pitches to last 5 innings – he made exactly one bad pitch and Brian McCann hit it out. He didn’t walk anyone and he struck out 2. I guess he DID decide to pretend he was facing the Cubs. With Roy Oswalt still hurting to much to make his next start, hopefully, Chris will get another start.

Cooper made an interesting move – he decided to have Wiggy hit leadoff, as it looks like Bourn has been relegated to the bench. Wiggy is not exactly what you might could think of as your usual leadoff guy, as your average pregnant girl can probably outrun him, but he actually is hitting .318/.385/.584/.949 with bases empty and .180/.320/.246/.566 with runners on and he has fewer RBIs than Matsui and only one more than Michael Bourn. He had Mark Loretta hitting second. This is what you might could call contrary to the usual have the 2 fastest guys at the top of your lineup idea, but I always thought the idea of a lineup was to have the guys who get on base the most on base the most for the best hitters to drive in.

I’m sure there is grumbling about how this increases the probability of a DP, but Mark Loretta hits into a lot of DPs anyhow, no matter WHO is on base in front of him.

But it worked out decently, as Wiggy got on base 2 of 5 PA and scored a run. Loretta went 3/4 with a walk and drove in 4 of the 6 runs. Neither Pence nor Abercrombie got anywhere near a ball and Pence really is looking terrible at the plate. I hope he doesn’t turn into Francoeur. I do remember that he did strike out an awful lot in the minors, and he still is having trouble with pitches low and away. Of course, the fans adore Pence and they have long since given up on Bourn, so Pence won’t be sitting much. Interesting – they both have 70 Ks with approximately 320 AB each.

Tejada went 1 fer 4 with a RBI and no DP!!!!! And Carlos went 1/4 with a RBI and no DP!!! Actually, I yell a lot about Carlos’ terrible fielding and complete absence of hustle when he wears a glove, but with the bat, he was one of the Astros few bright spots in June – he hit .301, slugged .591, and drove in 16 runs.

Tomorrow, it’s the Wand-Man, who has one decent start and 1 terrible start vs the Braves – he’s given up 13R/12 ER in 10.2 IP.

He’s facing Charlie Morton, a 24 year old LHP who was the Braves 3rd round pick in 03. The Braves have got the home-grown part down, they’ve got the don’t trade good young players for tored worn out old guys – part down, but they have basically no money allocated for the FA parts the need to complement their young guys. It’s modern NL ball – spend just enough to go over .500, but why bother to be really good?

sigh

Where was I? Oh yeah. This year, he’s 1-2 in 4 GS – 19 IP – 25 H, 15R/13 ER, 2 HR, 7 BB, 12 K.
We NEED to beat this guy.

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Posted in Chris Sampson, Hunter Pence, Miguel Tejada, Ty Wigginton, Wandy Rodriguez | 6 Comments »

12/12/07: Astros Trade For Tejada – So Much For Pitching And Defense

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

Well, if Miguel wanted to be traded to a winning team, I can’t imagine why he agreed to come to Houston. I guess anywhere but Baltimore. I would also guess McLane asked Bud if Tejada, who has been fingered in steroid RUMORS, was on Mitchell’s poopoo list, the names of which haven’t been released, and the answer was no. Remember? Goody 2 Shoes guys???

McLane has been drolling over Miggy since the 2004 Home Run Derby, remember?

Here’s the trade:
Luke Scott (who might could be re-traded) who became persona non grata for reasons I STILL don’t know. I hope he wins the AL MVP.

Troy Patton, LHP, 1st year, who pitched only 12.2 innings in the majors, but was our #3 prospect this year, and projected to be a #3 or 4 starter

Matt Albers, RHP, second year – 5.87 ERA, .292 BAA and 1.60 WHIP over 125 IP

Dennis Sarfate, RHP, reliever, 1st year, who gave up only 1 ER over 14 IP in Sept, with 1 BB and 14 K. Had a serious problem with wildness in the Brewers minor league system.

Mike Costanzo, minor league 3B who we just got from Philly for Brad Lidge. Every projection system I checked had him as a AAAA type guy…

AND THE ASTROS PICK UP EVERY PENNY OF TEJADA’S CONTRACT!!!

Well, unless Albers really turns it around in Baltimore against the Yanks and Red Sox, Patton turns into Eric Bedard and Sarfate ROOLZ, the Orioles got rid of an aging lead glove 14 mill a year SS who had been, um, making it clear for 2 years (yeah, I’m not allowed to say complaining, am I, now that he’s a “good guy”) that he did not want to stay with the Orioles for 2 young pitchers and a GOOD lefty OF with a good glove for a grand total of a little over 1.5 mill. Pretty good, I would say.

As for Tejada, for some reason, everyone thinks this guy hits like A-Rod. He doesn’t. Sure I remember him winning the HR derby in 04 – I was there. But when guys start just aiming for that fence, well, unless they are Biggio, they run into trouble…

And let’s not forget that Orioles Park is a MUCH better home run park than the Box – they were 3rd in the majors with a HR Park factor of 1.228 and the Box was 14th with a HR factor of 1.049. And yes, that DOES keep in mind that the better pitchers are in the AL.

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Posted in Luke Scott, Matt Albers, Miguel Tejada, Sarfate | 36 Comments »

Astros Make No (Stupid) Moves At 2006 Trade Deadline

Tuesday, August 1st, 2006

Well,
no Big Bat.

And no throwing out our best pitcher for a 2 month (yeah, maybe more, who knows, rental.)
Fact is, that really, the only Big Bats available were Carlos Lee (2 month rental from division rival) and Bobby Abreu – 15 mill a year for 2, maybe 3 more years – it’s obvious the Phils didn’t care who they got in return, they just wanted to get rid of the salary. And him. Kinda a lot of $$$ – and I also wonder why they so eager to get rid of one of their best players.

But actually, they DID make a bad move, and that was offering Roy Oswalt in trade for Miguel Tejada. BAD move – it upset Roy. Unless Drayton has NO intention of resigning him ANYhow, offering him PLUS Ensberg PLUS Everett PLUS Taveras for a good hitting bad fielding shortstop, well, honestly, it’s an insult.

You can trade Roy for
1 – Uncle
2 – David Wright
3 – Johan Santana
or
or
well, you see what I’m saying.

Roy told Jose Ortiz of the Chronicle that he, um, wasn’t real too happy to hear his name in trade talks. (Said it “left a bad taste in his mouth.) It’s gonna take a LOTTA talktalktalk to soothe all them ruffled feathers, if they CAN be soothed. And it was idiotic to put his name out there anyway – and WHO was gonna take his place in the rotation????? Yeah, I know the Yankees have one good pitcher (Mussina) and a lot of league-average or worse junk, but they can get away with it because of their lineup. Miguel Tejada alone would not have turned our lineup into the Yankees, duh.

Lidge and Ensberg were happy and relieved not to be traded (so they said) – and I understand – who would want to go to Baltimore with their nutty owner? And let’s be real here – unless your team has the top 5 starters in either league, turning down Roy is just crazy (this morning, the story is that it was Roy, Everett and Taveras for Tejada – yesterday it was Roy, Ensberg and Everett – anyone besides Roy is a gift anyhow.)

Mo is hitting like crazy in AAA and hopefully, he will be his old self when he comes back here.
McLane denied that he told Purpura specifically to trade Lidge because he lost Roger’s last game. Well, mmmmmmKay. But you betcha that McLane told Purpua to feel free to see what he could get, and if they coulda gotten a decent bat for him, they would have.

And remember that Benny Zobrist was traded to the Rays for Aubrey Huff? Well, they traded Lugo to the Dodgers and Benny is getting called up. (Didn’t I tell yall there was NO freaking way Mr. Domestic Violence would be back here?) So I’m gonna be very interested to see how he does – he’ll be playing SS and BJ Upton will be at third.

So personally, I hope that we will be playing Luke Scott and Chris Burke, not Preston, who can STILL be traded on waivers before August 31, you know – not that anyone would pick him up, but hey, he’s a sunk cost anyhow. And that Lance will let his groin heal and not rush back up for meaningless games – and yeah, I know Lamb is a bad fielder.

And speaking of fielders, Yall know that Luke Scott has been a left fielder – sometimes, OF just can’t play both sides because they can’t judge the ball off the bat as well – I remember Larry Walker saying that he was useless in left. So as for me, I would put Luke in left, Burke in center, and Huff in right (where he’s played when he wasn’t at third) and put Mo back at thrd and not platoon him. Once Lance is healed, we can start all the platoon stuff – especially making sure Biggio has days off. We’re not going anywhee this year, might as well use the 2 months left to see what we’re gonna do about next year. Oh yeah – Palmeiro has sucked Big Time as the lefty off the bench – time to put an end to that one, too.

And on a personal note – this month is gonna be crazy for me, because we are moving out of this house, then having to wait a few weeks before we can move into our new one AND I am get.ting the kidsss ready for school, so for the next 6 weeks, I will be posting a LOT less. I will still answer all comments and emails, but it just might could take me a while longer.

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Posted in Astros baseball, Miguel Tejada, Roy Oswalt | 3 Comments »