Ed Wade has said that the Astros are looking for outfielders and that Luke Scott is “in the mix” and that he supposedly has had problems with his Achilles’ tendon so who knows if he could really be a full time fielder blahblahblah. Which is why, of course, he is going to play winter ball on that bad tendon that is hurting him so much, I guess.
Of course, I’ve been hearing all this goop about how terrible it was that we no longer have Willy Taveras, the second coming of Willie Mays – or at least Kenny Lofton. Oh yeah, sooooo terrible. All those bunt hits make a world of difference, I guess. Color me unimpressed. Yeah, I know he made a great catch in Game 1 of the NLCS to rob Eric Byrnes of a sure 2 RBI single/double and preserve the W for the Rockies and yeah, it sure looked exactly like Jim Edmonds catch of Brad Ausmus’ sure 2 RBI double in game 7 of the 2004 NLCS to preserve the W for the Cards. Shrug. At least Edmonds can hit the cutoff man.
Anyway, seeing as how Willy will stay in Colorado, at least until Ryan Spilborghs takes his job next year, let’s look at the OF already on our roster as well as the available FA. (Stats from ESPN, The Hardball Times, baseball-reference.com)
First, as to FA center fielders: – age as of Opening Day
- Milton Bradley, age 30 (on DL with ACL tear, and anyhow, he’s an uppity N-word) – great hitter and fielder when healthy, but unfortunately, seldom healthy – he’s had exactly one full, uninjured season, back in 04, then he played in 75, 96 and 61 games in each subsequent year. He has a lifetime 110 OPS+ and can play right and center and has an above league average RF and ZR
- Mike Cameron, age 35 (lots of Ks, frequently injured, looks like a N-word) has played approximately 140 games a year, except in 05 when he was injured in an OF collision with Carlos The Jackal. Has a lifetime 107 OPS+ (actually 109 over the past 7 years) has averaged 22 homers, 32 doubles and 156 K (!!!) over an average season and also has a .251 BA, which will NOT fly with a whole lot of Astros fans, who value a singles hitter who hits .300 over a guy who hits for power whose average is only .250. He has won 3 GG and unlike Derek Jeter, actually deserved them as his RF, ZR and UZR have greatly exceeded league average. However, he WILL be 35 years old and for a guy who has a lot of leg problems, I can’t see a multi year contract as he will surely get a GOOD 8 mill a a year, at least.
- Darin Erstad, age 34 – gritty white boy who makes Jason Lane’s hitting look like Barry Lamar 2001 – White Sox have a 3.5 mill option. Erstad is a great fielder the few days a year he’s not hurt. Not even worth wasting time discussing.
- Torii Hunter, age 32 (a FINE lookin brotha if I say so myself and I do say so myself) who will very likely get a Vernon Wells sort of payday. Well, maybe for fewer years as he IS 32. Naturally he’s had a career year in his walk year, but he’s good for around 35 doubles and 25 homers a year, 114 K and 78 BB, 15-20 SB with 7 CS a year and also, don’t let me forget, 15 – 20 GIDP a year. Of course he’s famous for his fielding but he has lost some range since his ankle injury e years back, but he still is above league average in range factor and waaaayyy above league average in balls out of zone.
- Andruw Jones, age 31 (Boras client AND he doesn’t know how to ride a horse, so honestly, since heck will freeze over before he comes here, no point in discussing him.)
- Kenny Lofton, age 41 – yet ANOTHER brotha, and originally an Astro, who was traded for being uppity, for some crummy someone who wasn’t near as valuable. Good thing is that he can be signed to a 1 year contract.
- Corey Patterson, age 28 (Boras client AND Black. also ex-Cub. We all remember him – he was forced to hit leadoff by Dusty Baker, and did worse and worse until finally he was practically run out of town on a rail. He can’t/won’t walk, had some power and is a decent OF, but really isn’t worth much, especially as we ALREADY have Josh Anderson, who is younger, cheaper, and better)
- Aaron Rowand, age 30 – FINALLY a white boy. High Grit Factor. AND no Boras, neither. Beloved of sportswriters because he does stuff like smash his face into brick walls to catch a ball, then miss 60 games healing. It’s what too many males proudly refer to as “testicular fortitude” and females contemptuously refer to as “testicular stupidity.” Anyway, of course he’s having a career year in his walk year, but on average, he is ..286/.343/.462, an 805 OPS or 106 OPS+ and it is interesting to note that he gets HBP a little more often than he GIDP – over the past 3 years, he’s 58:48. That just might could get him some of that “gritty” Biggio luuuuvvv. He’s basically a league average CF for RF and ZR, but he seldom makes errors, which means a lot to the Astros community.
So, to summarize, the only guy listed who isn’t Black might could look good on a horse, is Mr. Grit #2, who will probably get a GOOD 12 mill a year for 5 years, if even that low…
Part 2 will look at available free agent RF as well as the OF we currently have on the 40 man.
- And to change the subject for a minute, speaking of the 40 man, Eric Munson was put on waivers and claimed by Milwaukee, so it DOES look like a battery of Justin Towles and Brad Ausmus next year, as I thought. Hopefully, Quintero will not be back either. Also, Steve Randolph and Cody Ransom were outrighted to AAA – so hopefully, I won’t have to be hearing nonsense about how Ransom should replace Adam Everett
Tags: Houston Astros, MLB
It doesn’t look like any of the FACF’s are worth the kind of money that they’ll be making on the open market. With as many holes as the Astros have, it would be dumb to spend that kind of money on one guy.
Seems to me that there are always journeymen OF’s or reclaimation projects that can fill a gap if Lee-Scott-Pence-Anderson can’t get it done.
And no, Ransom is not the answer at short. He doesn’t hit major league pitching any better than Everett, and he his defense isn’t anywhere close. That said, I lived through the Roger Metzger era, and I sure would like to have a SS who could hit a little.
Everett at SS wouldn’t be so bad if you had Loretta to his left and Lamb to his right, but I don’t have any confidence that Astros management has enough sense to get that done.
well, i don’t see that ANY FA + Pence is better than Pence + Scott.
IF i was going to go get a journeyman OF i would get geoff jenkins, hopefully cheap. of course he can’t hit leftys…
lamb is long gone – i can see the bootprint on his butt and loretta is just NOT a full time player. If burke recovers his swing, it will be OK. but his shoulder might could be permanently messed up – not sure.
thing is i just don’t really see any FA i would want to spend $$$ on
If you actually had the need, you wouldn’t spend the money on Tori Hunter?
I would, but I don’t think the paycheck would come cheap enough to justify replacing Scott.
I wouldn’t have minded if they’d kept Ransom. He could serve as a decent backup. But, someone has to explain to me why we’re still bothering with Randolph. He totally sucks, and he’s too old to be taking up a spot in AAA. It’s time to trade some veterans for some prospects, restock our minor league system and get rid of some of these 28-and-up career minor leaguers. Round Rock has become a total joke.
i would want to spend the $$$ on torii hunter if we weren’t stuck with carlos lard in left…
also, they DFAd randolph. thank goodness.
Randolph didn’t perform well, no doubt. I was rooting for him though because he’s a UT guy.
I guess it goes the other way too. If you don’t ride horse you don’t want to wear a cowboy hat.
“Ladson learned that Hunter is interested in playing for the Nationals or Braves because of the large African American populations in D.C. and Atlanta. ”
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/rss.xml
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071017&content_id=2270739&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb&partnered
So no Torii in Houston, too many cowboys.
Finally figured out the Astros-Scott situation. The Astros are going for Total Fan Alienation. Probably won’t be total, there are a few Scott detractors out there.
dumbfounded,
well, i know what you are saying. except for biggio, they sure aren’t listening to fans about who is liked (scott) and who isn’t (lane, ausmus, mo)
and joel, i got NO idea why your comment won’t show up, but i read what torii hunter said about hoping to play in atlanta or washington where there is a large Black population and try to rekindle the interest of Black fans.
too bad drayton doesn’t know that about 1/3 of the houston population is Black. or he doesn’t care, now that he has cecil cooper, which shows how he got Black friends too
Help me understand the need for the race to be included. It distracted from what was other wise decent analysis.
With the signing of Reggie Abercrombie, it looks like they are trying to see if they can put their money in pitching and assemble some parts otherwise. I would be very surprised if the the Astros make a big splash with a OF FA.
hi steve,
appreciate your input.
i really didn’t comment on race much until carl crawford publically said that he had wanted to be drafted by the astros but he couldn’t even get phone calls returned. at that time, it started coming out that the astros were not talking to ANY of the local Black HS or college stars, let alone drafting any. (except michael bourne)
it’s tough for me sometimes to watch the other teams drafting brothas and signing them as FA and the astros don’t think they fit the “good guys” stereotype.
and it is even tougher that my kids look at the brewers and see rickie weeks, prince fielder and billy hall and want to root for the brewers instead of the astros. or that they rooted for the tigers during last years WS because of curtis granderson and marcus thames. and when they ask me why there are no brothas on OUR team, i don’t really know what to say.
i personally believe that the astros have preferred to pick guys who are college seniors who have a jason lane personality and that they are simply terrified that young brotha = elijah dukes.
signing a 55 year old guy with a long track record to manage is just not the same as signing an 18-22 year old possible problem.
it is all very well and good to say that your team should sign the best possible players, but when they are never Black, you start to wonder why.
hope this answers your question
Ms. Gray,
Just to set the record straight, you claimed that 1/3 of Houston is African-American. Houston’s population is ~22% African-American according to the 2006 numbers published by the US census and expanded out to Harris County, less that 17% of the population is African-American. Texas overall is about 12%.
Ms. Gray,
What’s with all the racial stuff? “Brothas” and “white boys”–your focus on this as a reason a team should or should not consider a player is a little strange.
andy,
i was going on what i remembered was in the paper a few years back which was that houston (NOT harris county and the white burbs) was roughly divided equally between blacks, whites and mexicans with vietnamese/asians making up less than 1%
actually i had thought that was based on the 2000 census. i will have to check.
bob,
please read what i said to steve about that a couple comments above
thanks
Ransom can play. anyone who thinks he cannot does not watch games.
your racial comments are offensive
no one should take this place seriously as a place to discuss baseball.
[b]i really didn
jimR,
ransom has a glove that is decent and has been a good AAA player but has not done anything in the majors. the giants fans were not exactly enamored. to put it mildly.
you want to go to where Negroes don’t talk about how they wish they had Negroes on their hometown team, be my guest.
astros pancho,
carl crawford most certainly DID say exactly that (chris young was not the only one) and i don’t remember jose ortiz saying it – i read it in a Black Athlete publication.
except for michael bourne, the astros have shown no interest in local Black guys. and as i’ve said before, yes I know we couldn’t draft guys such as loney who were taken in the first round. but i have heard (personal communication) that they were never even approached by astros scouts…
and from wikipedia -
“According to the U.S. Census 2000, the racial makeup of the city was 49.27 percent White, 25.31 percent Black or African American, 0.44 percent Native American, 5.31 percent Asian, 0.06 percent Pacific Islander, 16.46 percent from other races, and 3.15 percent from two or more races. Thirty-seven percent of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.”
- i am still trying to locate my source of the racial breakdown of houston into approximately 1/3 Black, 1/3 White and 1/3 Hispanic
“The Astros have shown no interest in local Black guys”.
You don’t know what you’re talking about if this is your position on Carl Crawford. Read this from JockBio.com (http://www.jockbio.com/Bios/Crawford/Crawford_bio.html):
==========================================
By Carl
pancho,
appreciate your post
however,
carl was the first pick of the second round. this means that SOMEone was scouting him, that SOMEone bothered to actually talk to the guy to see if he, uh, could be persuaded to not go to nebraska. the astros didn’t TALK to the guy at all.
teams aren’t going to pick a guy in the second round who they haven’t even approached about signing. this means that tampa bay actually talked to him.
so why didn’t the astros? not a word.
we chose mike rosamund in the first round, who washed out in AA and james perez in the second, who didn’t make it past rookie ball.
- smile
i am not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. carl isn’t the only guy. but you know, it seems there is always some reason that we don’t pick african-american prospects.
it is hard sometimes to look at something from someone else’s perspective. it is true that all actions in which a black person is not selected is not always motivated by deliberate racism/act of hate and unfortunately, some people always look for the worst motive possible in people.
it is also true that people tend to feel most comfortable with people who are just like themselves and those in charge tend to select people who are the most similar. if in fact, there is an unconscious – shall we say – selection bias – well, then, perhaps the question should be asked if it is in fact a selection bias.
smile
- i remember al campanis talking about “lacking some of the necessities…” – we actually really owe al campanis BIG time. he inadvertently brought about some changes that i doubt would have come about had he not said The Wrong Thing at The Wrong Time.
it is hard to look at an event from someone else’s perspective. but we have to try
“teams aren
“if in fact, there is an unconscious – shall we say – selection bias – well, then, perhaps the question should be asked if it is in fact a selection bias.”
There is the problem, you have not presented facts, only innuendo.
“teams aren
i SHOULD have said,
teams are not going to pick a guy in the second round without talking to him if there is ANY question about signability.
lets be real – lance could sign in the first round or go back to his 4th year of college. he did not HAVE the option of playing football or basketball as carl crawford did
and you best believe the astros had scouted lance even if they didn’t think they had to talk to him to make sure he was signable. he had his daddy for an agent, not boras. then again, drayton wasn’t into all that slot stuff back then
Let’s see what Ms. Gray has to say after the Bourn deal.
A local, African-American player than Tim Purpura, Tal Smith, and Ed Wade all pursued.
Tell us more about this “selection bias”.
well michael s,
how about this – no way in HECK is michael bourn + hunter pence better than hunter pence + luke scott.
not in ANY way i can calculate.
not that i don’t like seeing michael bourn, mind.
but michael is not an improvement over josh anderson and lidge was a VERY valuable trading chip and we got nothing for him except another copy of anderson, a crappy middle reliever and an AA guy who hit at the best hitters park on the east coast and can’t field.
too bad it wasn’t carl crawford instead
- the astros were not real too interested in michael – he went in the 4th round