Here are the lists – from Cot’s Baseball Contracts – which, by the way, is a great site. Check it out.
Arbitration eligible players:
Brandon Backe, age 29 – 5th year, finished 535K contract
Dave Borkowski, age 30 – 4th year, finished 535K contract
Eric Bruntlett, age 29 – 4th year, finished 525 K contract
Chris Burke, age 27 – 4th year, finished 415 K contract
Adam Everett, age 30 – 6th year. just finished 2.8 mill contract
Brad Lidge, age 30 – 6th year. last contract 5.35 mill
Eric Munson, age 30 – 5th year, just finished 425K contract
Chad Qualls, age 29 – 4th year, last contract 411K
Ty Wigginton, age 30 – 5th year, just finished 2.7 mill contract
Everyone on the list would receive a LOT more money if re-signed and of course, they could be traded. I would guess that if Brad Ausmus does agree to sign the one year contract, then Munson will not be offered arb, but he will be offered another minor league contract. I would guess that he won’t have a problem finding a job as a backup catcher with some other ML team, however. I suppose the team could go cheap and DFA Bruntlett and substitute Cody Ransom, age 32 or Brooks Conrad, age 28, to save a million or so, but Ransom has already proven that he can’t hit ML pitching and Bruntlett can play the OF, which neither of the minor leaguers can do.
Free agents:
Brad Ausmus, age 38 – has just been offered a 1 year contract
Craig Biggio, age 42 (if he files)
Jason Jennings, age 29 – just finished his 5.5 million contract
Mike Lamb, age 32 – finished 1 year 2.7 mill contract
Mark Loretta, age 36 – finished 1 year 2.5 mill contract
Trever Miller, age 34 – finished 1 year 1.3 mill contract
Brian Moehler, age 35 – finished 1 year 500K contract
Orlando Palmeiro, age 38 – finished 2 year 1.9 mill contract
Well, I would guess they’ll offer arb to Jennings, who will be looking for (and getting) a multi year contract. And I guess they will offer arb to Loretta, because they want him back anyway (and they can work out a contract). I would be stunned if they offer arb to Lamb, because they are practically riding him out of town on a rail as it is and what if he actually accepted??? At this particular minute, I’m not sure if they will want Miller or Moehler, neither of whom had a particularly good year, back, especially as Ed Wade can surely find more expensive available middle relievers out there…
And in the news,
Milo Hamilton had a mild heart attack over the weekend and is now doing fine.
And other news, I wrote a column for The Hardball Times and will be writing a column regularly for them every other Tuesday. Check it out.
Tags: Houston Astros
How about an offical “Luke Scott your worth less” statement.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071010&content_id=2260288&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou&partnered=rss_hou
Even with the raises I get the feeling that Wade is going to be given plenty of money to spend.
gee what a surprise
luke is just “in the mix”
NOT my imagination that the Organization does not like him.
and it sure can’t be either his production or his glove.
idiots
hope that they get something good for him in trade is all i can say
Lisa,
Very good article, well done …
makes me wish YOU could report for the Astros … instead of … well you know who …
Keep up the good work !
It is hard to figure the Luke Scott-Astros situation. It is real that the organization does not like him. Hard to figure why.
I heard Wade on the radio say they were looking for an OF.
The part that bothers me most about the Scott situation is that the Astros have fed the media a lot of misinformation and inuendo. Garner and Purpura flat out fed the media with information that almost everyone knew was untrue. Things that were potentially damaging to Scott’s MLB future. Unfortunately, it seems that much of the media cannot think for themselves. Thank goodness for blobs.
In case anyone missed it, I heard Wade on the radio say they were looking for an OF. They wanted speed and someone who could play CF and the corner spots. I cannot see anything that would be much of an upgrade over Scott. I believe Wade will attempt to get Rowand. Rowand will seek a no-trade contract.
If we get him, we will have four no-trades and a lot of payroll money in a very small basket.
Notice that it is FOOTER’S comment on Scott, not a direct quote from Wade – she says Scott “could be in the mix, but does not appear to have the inside track on a starting job” But NO real news there huh ?? I expected as much …
Way to value your # 3 producer, Mr. Wade -
Footer has reported the same negative way about Scott all year. So we don’t really know IF Wade said anything positive about Scott or not …
The OF is NOT a problem – except for Lee !! Looks like Wade is no more aware of real needs than TP. He is full of STUPID if he trades /loses both Scott & Lamb – meanwhile keeping guys like Loretta, Burke & Everett ?? And if they think Pence is the answer for RF – he has less arm than Scott and that’s where you need your BEST arm ! Pence may improve on that but he may not & he had a hard enough time throwing in from CF !
And yeah, let’s go pay $ MILLIONS for Rowand or someone who may have a LITTLE better defense in CF but WON’T be an upgrade in offense over Scott.
I guess I’m going to throw in the towel now and hope that Scott & Lamb DO go to other teams – somewhere they can really PLAY & be appreciated !! Too much talent there to sit the bench …
dumbfounded,
i will actually get around to doing actual numbers, but when you count money, length of contract, offense, defense, there is absolutely ZERO reason to choose aaron rowand over luke scott.
talk about wasting money – and IF anderson did in fact improve, we would be stuck with rowand for the next 4 years and with him in his 30s too.
this is the same old and i mean OLD stupid crap that wade pulled in philly
sigh
well, here is to more years of suckage
thank you kris!!!
i do my best
The Astros have apparently solved their outfield problems by claiming Reggie Abercrombie off waivers from the Marlins. In 331 major league AB’s he has 100 K’s. With a .208 BA, .263 OBP, and .329 SLG, I’ll sleep well knowing that he is on Astros’ 40-man.
Dang if I understand why an offensively challenged team wants to get rid of Mike Lamb and Luke Scott. I’m an Astros fan, but if Lamb and Scott are playing against the Astros next season, I’ll be pulling for ‘em. Idiots like this need to be taught a lesson.
Speaking of idiots, who decided that Adam Everett was worth $2.8 million? Maybe the same one who decided that Brad Lidge was worth $5.35 million and that Russ Springer wasn’t worth keeping.
I’ve been watching the Astros since the 60′s, and I always thought that Spec Richardson had to be the worst GM off all time. Now I’m not so sure. Tim Purpura may have been even worse. The damage he did is incredible, and it doesn’t seem like the organization has anyone with enough sense to fix it.
Mark,
WHEREVER they play next year … ditching both of those guys is incomprehensible, meanwhile keeping Burke, maybe Loretta, Everett & Ausmus does NADA to help this team next season …
DITTO – I’m still shaking my head over this Abercrombie move, WOW …. could they have chosen anyone LESS impressive ?? They must have searched awful hard to find him ha ha
We’ll be following Lamb (& maybe Scott as well)
if Lisa wrote for the astros then she’d have to bite her tongue. you wouldn’t want that, would you?
Wow. I wouldn’t offer a deal to any of those FAs – except Ausmus, I guess. Let the rest of them go. Please let the rest of them go!
See Willy T. the last couple of games? He good.
Did anyone notice the horrible use of a loogey last night in the Redsox-Indians game?
Eric Gagne came in in the 11th and struck out the first batter he faced before giving up a single and a walk. And up comes lefthander Trot Nixon, so Terry Francona pulls Gagne (who is statistically better against left handers than right handers) to put in a left handed pitcher, Javier L
willy made a great catch in game 1, no question – reminded me of jim edmonds robbing brad ausmus back in 04 – same game ender.
however, let’s not get all excited – he’s 2 fer 15 with 2 walks and 4 Ks and he’s left 4 MOB, scored a run and driven in one for a sparkling OPS of .464
jack,
i read about the LOOGY thingy in the paper – i had LONG since gone to sleep – 5 freaking hours and 15 minutes for an 11 inning game is like over 2 hours too long.
they stretch out postseason games to make them as boring as possible
WHERE WILL DAVE BORKOWSKI END UP. WILL HE BE RESIGNED, TRADED, OR SIGNED BY ANOTHER TEAM. WHERE ARE HIS MOST LIKELY DESTINATIONS FOR THE 2008 SEASON BE??
[...] contract. And I guess they will offer arb to Loretta, because they want him back anyway source: Astros Arb Eligible Players And Free Agents of…, Most Valuable Network | Independent sports [...]