Item #1 – GM Tim Purpura has met with Jeff Kent and has offered him a contract, no other details at this time. Kent is described as “a proud and private man” who didn’t have much to do with his teammates and seldom spoke except to chew ass during the playoffs and contributed “intangibles” (even though the magic word “leadership” was not used. ) But he did contribute 107 RBIs…
Item #2 – Purpura has met with Orlando Palmeiro’s agent to discuss Palmeiro returning to the Stros.
Item #3 – NO news about contracts for Oswalt or Berkman or Everett or Ensberg
Item #4 – Roger Clemens has filed for free agency.
Item #5 – We have not, to my knowledge, signed any minor league free agents.
-Remember, we NEED 2 decent OF, 2 starting pitchers and at least 4 decent relievers.
-Remember that we HAVE a decent 3B, a really good SS, a 1B and C who aren’t going anywhere and a young guy who is a ML ready 2B, Chris Burke, and a guy who is probably gonna be a utility infielder, Eric Bruntlett. And Biggio, who I WISH would be a utility guy.

Yesterday, Adam asked me, “Other than the minors, I see two options for your ‘Stros OF problems: You could go after a free agent (J. D. Drew, Magglio Ordonez or even Steve Finley). Or you could trade a prospect for some team’s 4th outfielder and try to improve your other positions to make up for what you’ll be losing in the OF. Which of those things do you think the ‘stros will do, and which would you like to see them do?”

#1 – what do I THINK the Stros will do?
What is really bothering me is that I don’t know what McLane is up to. I have a bad feeling that he wants to go cheap and is gonna pretend that he’s trying hard to get Carlos, etc, but will bring back Kent, who we don’t need, and show that at least we could “afford” Kent. I’m sure he regrets the giant, long, expensive contract he gave to Bagwell (interesting that you NEVER hear his name when all the knowitalls talk about big expensive contracts that hurt the team) and he isn’t gonna try to sign either Berkman or Everett long term. He’ll make the excuse that Berkman’s hurt, so he’ll hafta see, and of course, he CAN get Everett for 3 more years for pretty cheap and non-tender him if he gets too expensive his arb years.

Problem is, this isn’t gonna go over with the fans. Next to Roger, Lance is the most popular player and if the fans think that Mclean doesn’t want the homeboy hero, he’s gonna lose a LOT of fans and a LOT of $$$. I don’t know if Purpura is a yes-man, but Hunsicker sure nuff wasn’t. I know that Hunsicker actually answered questions and was pretty open. I know that Purpura sounds like a politician (and on the scale of humanity, I put ALL politicians just barely above baby rapers) and I don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth. So I don’t know what’s up.

I think McLane doesn’t want a losing team, but he doesn’t trust baseball people enough to let them run things, and he wants enough to end up with records over 500. I haven’t heard a WORD about negotiations with Carlos. Of course, ain’t nobody, even George, gonna give him 10 years, and I disbelieve that anyone will give him over 7. So I THINK that we will resign Kent, (yeccccccccccccccch) waste Burke on the bench or in AAA, keep Lamb, put Biggio back in the outfield (God help us), have Palmeiro play right (God help us) until Lance comes back and have Taveras (God help us) play center. No free agents. Forget Carlos. Forget Roger. (And I haven’t even gotten around to pitching problems, but that’s for another entry.)

#2 – what do I WANT the Stros to do?
-SIGN CARLOS!!!!!
-sign Berkman and Everett
-let Kent go and play Burke
-use Biggio as our Vizcaino utility guy
-keep Lamb for the bench, maybe try Royce Huffman for the bench, relieve at 1B if possible.
-Lane full time in the OF
-bring up either Luke Scott or Todd Self, who look pretty good, because face it, I’ve seen Taveras and he has a bad glove and is NOT a major league hitter and if we’re going to use a AA guy in the OF, why not guys with decent plate discipline? Let these guys play right until Lance comes back (or, I guess, play Palmeiro.)

I DON’T want JD Drew, who has had exactly one year he wasn’t hurt, because we can’t get him for just one year.

I DEFINITELY don’t want Magglio Ordonez, (he’ll be 31 on opening day) who will demand an expensive long term contract, and who refuses to get a physical until after he signs the contract.

I DON’T want to give a multi-year contract to Steve Finley, who will be 40 years old on opening day. Anyway, he wants to go to the west coast.

Trade prospects? There’s NO ONE in AAA, (see yesterday’s entry) except Royce Huffman, who’s “old” and a Mark Grace type guy. We have a few decent looking “old” (25, 26 years old) guys in AA and who can tell who’s gonna be any good in A ball or the rookies? And we can’t afford to give away any pitchers – we need em.

So if there’s gonna be a trade, I hear that the DRays don’t want to keep Aubrey Huff, who’s good, or Jose Cruz Jr (another homeboy) who is a decent hitter and a GREAT glove. I’d LOVE to have either one of those guys. I looked at the FA OF list and absolutely no one except Carlos is anyone I’d want here.

Dan Lucero, who blogs on the Rockies, says he’s heard rumblings that we don’t want Ensberg back. I know that I’ve heard that the Stros organization doesn’t really like him, and I heard that many times when Morgan was in the minors. I’m positive that Jimy Williams didn’t like him, because he kept playing Geoff Blum (WTF???!!!) and Lamb instead. I think it’s a personality thing. I wouldn’t be even a little surprised if we got rid of him and he went somewhere else and turned into Troy Glaus. Then we could play Lamb full time, live with his 50 – 60 errors and missed plays/year, worship his HR and pretend that it doesn’t matter that between him and Biggio, the entire left side of our field is a sieve.

I know I sound like doom and gloom. I hate winter, cold weather and no baseball in sight for too long. And I REALLY hate it when I haven’t heard a single good piece of news about my team and all the rumblings I hear are all bad news. So if yall have ANY good news, let me know…

As you know, Lance Berkman will be out for at least 6 months, and we may not be able to resign Carlos Beltran. The good news is that Jason Lane will finally be freed. The bad news is that not only will we be stuck with Craig Biggio and his horrible defense, we will need a right fielder. I’ve spent the past week looking at our AAA and AA teams to see what we might could have, and believe me, it’s not good news. No glove guys, and definitely, no bat to replace a guy who has been in the top 10 in OPS and RCAA for the past 4 years.

AAA New Orleans is mostly career minor leaguers – only 2 players had an OPS over 750
-Ryan Thompson, OF, age 35, several MLB callups, not very good
-Kyle Logan OF, age 29, career OPS 650
-Phil Hyatt, OF, age 35, career minor leaguer
-Mike Hill, OF, age 28, first year at AAA, OPS 726, no power
-Mike Coolbaugh, age 32, 3B, several brief callups, career minor leaguer
-Emil Brown, age 29, hits well in AAA (940 OPS,) hasn’t hit well in 3 MLB callups (ave .210, with Pitt)
-Alex Eckleman, age 30, 2B but can play 3rd and OF
-Royce Huffman, age 27, 1B – (unfortunately for him) – OPS 843 with a .393 OBP, 32 2B, 10 HR, 71 BB, 94 K – and he’s a Houston boy, too (and we sure do love our homies.) Too bad he can’t play the OF because he’s just had his second year in AAA and he looks decent.

And a couple possibles -
-Jason Alfaro, age 26, IF (bad glove, just what we don’t need) hit .325, 363 OBP, 840 OPS, 32 2B, 13 HR 26 BB, 58 K, 3 SB, 6 CS – don’t know if he can play OF..
-Eric Bruntlett age 26, who already has seen MLB playing time, mostly at SS, good basestealer with an OK glove (maybe he can be a utility guy to replace Vizcaino) and bat kinda the usual for a middle infielder. Don’t know if he can play OF.
-Tommy Whiteman, age 25, who was just called up to AAA this year, had 98 AB and hit .276 – nothing special\

AA Round Rock has a few possibilities -
-Charlton Jimerson (was supposed to be the next great thing 2 years ago) age 25, OF, just finished first year in AA – didn’t do so well – 704 OPS,22 doubles, 18 HR, 31BB, 163 K – so forget it…you can only get away with that many Ks if you hit a LOT of HR. Don’t know about his glove.
-Todd Self, age 25, OF, also first year AA – 880 OPS with a 420 OBP!!!, 89 BB, 95 K, 34 2B and 11 HR- looks as if he already has decent plate discipline, so why do we never hear about THIS guy? I guess he’s too old. or something – wonder how his glove is
-Mike Rodriguez, OF, age 23, was 2nd round in 2001 – was supposed to be another next big thing – he spent some time in the indys this year- don’t know why, but in AA, he had a 728 OPS, 39 BB and 59 K in 250 AB…
-Willy Taveras, OF, age 23,who we got from the Indians for Jeriome Robertson, hit 335 with a 788 OPS, 13 2B, 2 HR, 38 BB and 76 K in 409 AB. From what I’ve seen of him, he definitely needs more time in the minors. Definitely.
-Luke Scott, OF, age 26, first year in AA – got a late start in OB because he didn’t finish college until age 23, and was also out a year with TJ surgery - but he sure is doing well – in 208 AB, he has a 1055 OPS and a 401 OBP.

I don’t have any information about their fielding, but Todd Self and Luke Scott look like they might could be something. They probably won’t get much of a chance because of the age discrimination problems – it’s incredibly hard to get promoted to the majors if you’re over like 26. Why they prefer some guy who is already there who sucks instead of taking a chance on someone “too old” who doesn’t, I don’t know… And I wish I knew exactly why a certain player gets “the next big thing” label when other guys look better…

But this is it. IT. So we have NO major league OF waiting in AAA and who knows if the AA guys could make it. This means either we have to sign some FA to be a 1 year guy while waiting for Lance to be ready, or go with some guy from AA, and if we do, just forget resigning Carlos. Not that anyone except Peter Gammons thinks we have any chance of doing it…..

Oh, forget Alfaro – he just signed with the Blue Jays. They can DH him and his bad glove won’t matter….

Gerry Hunsicker has suddenly resigned as Astros GM. He will be kept on staff as a “special advisor.” Tim Purpura, asst GM in charge of player development has been named as new GM.

Gerry has done an excellent job over the past 9 years, and I am absolutely stunned that he is leaving. This was, to put it mildly, sudden and unexpected. I am very worried about what this means with respect to signing Carlos. I am worried that this means that we won’t sign our core young players to good deals. I am worried that this means that Gerry and Drayton had a strong falling out and the “special advisor” thing is hush money.

So I have decided that it is wiser to not hope for the best next year and get used to the idea that we will have to re-build without Carlos. (I just hope we don’t resign Kent so we will at least have some of our own players to cheer for.) The local media aren’t gonna say anything except the party line, so we’ll have to guess what went down by seeing who Purpura does or does not sign.
As a side note, I will say that both Gerry and Purpura are well thought of by the stat community.

UPDATE 11/2 – I was wrong about the local columnists toeing the party line. Richard Justice doesn’t bother to hide his disgust, says letting Hunsicker go is Bad News.

Been thinking this over. I think this has to do with the question of re-signing Carlos. It was a SERIOUS public relations disaster when the last owner let Nolan Ryan, Local Hero, go because he was “too old.” It will be an even MORE serious disaster if the fans think that we are not making every effort to get Carlos. I’m suspicious that Hunsicker didn’t want to go along with the pretending and just decided **** this. Keeping Biggio and Kent is just plain silly, but I guess it will cost less than Carlos. In the short term. Don’t buy now, pay later.