The Astros just signed Dave Borkowski to a 1 year 800K contract which avoids arbitration. Dave is not, um, what all yall might could call an elite pitcher (ahem) but he can throw multiple innings and I would guess he will be used as the mopup guy. Dave is 13-18 over parts of 6 ML seasons and sports a 5.68 ERA (80 ERA+) and a 1.52 WHIP over 310 innings.
With Houston, he has thrown 71 innings each year; he had a 4.69 ERA in 06 (95 ERA+) and a 5.15 ERA (85 ERA+) last year. he gives up 1 HR/9 IP (8 homers each year), has 6.5 – 8 K/9 IP and last year, unfortunately increased his walk rate from 2.9 – 4.3 BB/9 IP. Last year, he was 5-3 with 8 holds, 3 blown saves and 1 save (the last game of the year.)
Ah well, SOMEbody has to mopup.
This now leaves two open pitching spots. We KNOW that one of them HAS to be a lefty and the other will be the 5th starter, who I HOPE is Chris Sampson, with a healthy arm. But with this team, youneverknow…
And last – ahem – the Astros would be more than happy to welcome Roger the roid Dodger to their elite pitching camp. The HUGE crush of media would get the Astros name on national media constantly. I mean, they feel Roger coaching/teaching would be good for the young pitchers in spite of the media.
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s the story.
Tags: Houston Astros, MLB
Hey Lisa, look at it this way: if Miggy is doing a lot of GIDP, that’s good news because it means Bourn and Kaz are gettin’ on base!
And if Lee is also a GIDP machine, that means Miggy and Lance are gettin’ on base!
So it’s not all bad news
Oh, and for why the d-rays dumped Wiggy, it was $$$ pure and simple. They want a minimum payroll so they can make maximum profit. They knew that there was nothing they could do about Wiggy’s salary — in arb, he was gonna get $4M and there was nothing they could do about it. No way were they going to pay $4M to a league average (at best) guy when their ENTIRE PAYROLL is $24M (lessee, that’s less than Roy + Carlos, and they manage to pay an extra 23 guys — but we got 7 more wins for the extra $70M we spent. And you wonder why Drayton’s in a snit)
Anyway, why pay for Wiggy when you can pay for Iwamura and Wheeler for almost the same price. That’s like getting a roster spot for free, and that’s the type of talk that turns the d-rays on.
They may be getting on base, but if they aren’t getting home it doesn’t matter much does it? They get good stats, we pay more cash, and we are stuck with lead foot Lee for what is it 5 more yrs?
Mike Lamb would have been a better option for third and also useful off the bench from the left side.
I dont think DM has to worry about a suspension forTejada, as he has been a good little syncophant to B.Selig
Woody has been getting a lot of bad comments, but I was imressed by an old guy who in shirt sleeves with no batting glove in Wrigley field in Apri. Maybe that shows lack of good sense, or maybe gritty thing going on. Does anyone remember any run support for anyone in our starting lineup last year in April or May or at all?
I hope Lisa is wrong about having another GIDP king on the team. Maybe we get lucky and have the number one and two GIDP hitters in the league. IF so, it really won’t matter how often the rest get on base, and Cooper is going to be the fall guy for the whole mess. IMHO
steve s,
that makes $ense. the drays/pirates/royals have long since figured out that thre is absolutely NO reason to even TRY to put a winning team on the field to make money. It will be interesting to see how much friction this will eventually cause between the owners who MAKE all the money and the ones who COLLECT all the money…
steve,
bud will suspend miggy in a second if he thinks it will get congress off his back. besides, miggy’s problem will be lying to federal investigators…
i’m not wrong about miggy and the GIDPs – he hits into over 20 a year.
as for woody, he IS a tough ol rooster. i always liked the guy and i REALLY hope he turns it around.
of COURSE cooper will be the fall guy. seeing as how this is certainly a 100 win team.
Steve, that was gallows humor. I was just being funny. Lisa’s right — if 1&2 get on base, Miggy is a GIDP machine. Bourn and Kaz are OBP challenged, which will impact Miggy’s drive to win the GIDP title. Also, since Lance get’s on base a lot, el caballo is going to have lots of GIDP opps so it’s going to be tough for Miggy to keep up.
whoops, i meant gets. there’s no such word as get’s. phooey.