Not sure when it became kewl for (some) male sportswriters to sound bitchier than any female in her worst throes of PMS, but what can I say? Besides thank gawd for Joe Posnaski, that is?
Check out Larry Dubrow’s latest column on cbs sportsline.com – “Astros In Despair, Beyond Repair!!!!!”
My goodness gracious – and some of yall thought I was a, shall we say, bit glooomy about this team’s immediate and distant future. Larry predicts that this team has turned into the Baltimore Orioles, thanks to Drayton McLane and his refusal to either rebuild (which, by the way, Angelos actually DID try to do about 5 years ago – unsuccessfully, but at least he actually TRIED) or to step back and hire a competent GM and let him do his or her job. Yeah, you’ve heard stuff like this from me for HOW long now?
Check this:
“But the Astros are the proverbial tree rotting from the inside. They gave away the few half-OK kids in their system for closer Jose Valverde and shortstop-under-siege Miguel Tejada, and now face the prospect of careening toward the next decade with only two young players of note — Hunter Pence and J.R. Towles — in their entire organization.”
Well, that is the major league Organization – and it assumes that they will neither develop nor play any other young players – not the worst assumption, given the fact that both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus think that the Astros have the very worst minor league system in Organized Baseball. And by the way, Astros fan Michael Nash, who watches the Hooks games, has a different thought about the minor league system and its possibilities – click here to read.
Now, back to Larry and his snark:
“The Astros do, however, have a bunch of names on their roster. Lance Berkman! Miguel Tejada! Carlos Lee! You recognize these guys and you love them. Unfortunately, all three are statue-esque in the field, and not in the legs-up-to-her-neck Selita Ebanks way. Along those lines, the defensive downgrade at short from Adam Everett to Tejada will cost the team plenty of runs and possibly send Oswalt into a murderous rage. As potent as the aforementioned bats may be, (they won’t score enough runs to compensate for lousy starting pitching). The two top spots in the lineup will be occupied by untested speed merchant Michael Bourn (no relation to Jason) and Matsui — who, it should be noted, probably earned himself an extra two years and $10 million with his high-profile dinger against the Sillies during the playoffs. Neither of these guys have shown much inclination in the past to accept a walk. Sure, they’ll scurry around the bags with abandon, but like dad always said: You can’t steal first base. “
Sound familiar? Well, except for the Ebanks part. And HOW many times have Cooper and Wade and a lot of Astros fans moaned with ecstasy about the speed at the top of the lineup and all the runs that will score with the potent lineup because of the unwarrented assumption that both Bourn and Matsui will have OBP of .350?
And Larry concludes:
“Everyone outside Drayton McLane’s living room sees the Astros as a house practically begging to be razed. McLane, however, won’t buy into this line of thinking and, this offseason, sat back as flunky GM Ed Wade attempted to cover a nine-inch gash with a Band-Aid.
Some overly simplistic math, then: the 2008 Houston Astros = the 1998 Baltimore Orioles. Those Orioles, despite frontline talent like Rafael Palmeiro, Roberto Alomar and the resurgent Eric Davis, dipped to 79 wins from 98 the season before. With a decrepit minor-league system and an owner who couldn’t or wouldn’t stop meddling in baseball decisions, the O’s haven’t won more than 78 games since.
Any of that sound familiar? A prediction: 79 wins for the ‘Stros in 2008, then no more than 75 until 2011 at the earliest. Yeah, it’s that bad. Brace yourself, Astros fans, because things are going to get much, much worse before they get better.”
Well, I hope HOPE I don’t sound that bitchy, but honestly, I think ol Lar is being a bit generous with the wins because I seriously doubt we’ll win THAT many. As for me, unlike a lot of other fans, I don’t necessarily want a DIFFERENT owner – we might could get stuck with Loria/Glass/Pohlad/McClatchy (terrified shudder) but I sure would like Unca Drayton to please hire someone competent and let the guy/girl DO HIS/HER JOB!!!! And yes, I DO know that there are a WHOLE lot of fans who are absolutely delighted with Wade and his moves this year. Me, I think the optimism is sort of like being on that Thai beach before the tsunami hit, saying – isn’t it WONderful how much more beach there is today?
UPDATE: According to the Las Vegas Sports Consultants (gamblers advisors) the Astros have 40:1 odds to win the Series this year. The good news is that 11 other teams have lower odds. So we aren’t the worst team. Isn’t that WONderful???
Tags: Houston Astros, MLB
I read it early. I thought about posting a link here but it was just terrible. I did post a thread in another forum.
I thought the artivle was about saving the Astros not just pointing out all they’re faults. Made me want to stay in bed all day.
and look made be have a bunch of typos
“despite frontline talent like Rafael Palmeiro, Roberto Alomar and the resurgent Eric Davis, dipped to 79 wins from 98 the season before.”
I like our frontline talent better. We just need some pitchers to step up.
joel
actually, i posted it because i wanted you to know that compared to ol larry boy, i’m positively cheerful.
and yeh, the article sure as HECK wasn’t exactly about SAVING the astros. lar might could have had to say something useful and he’d lose the opportunity to be bitchy as perez hilton on a bad hair day.
bruce,
there’s only so much you can ask a pitcher to do and pitching way above his talent level – well, that’s luck, really, not effort.
sigh
remember when most of use pretty sure that palmeiro or alomar or davis was headed for the hall of fame?
well, goes to show that the one thing in baseball you can fer SHER know is youneverknow
I think there’s a chance Tejada rebounds away from the Orioles and motivated to prove how good he is ‘without’ steriods. Lee was a horrendous signing, and wasn’t your new GM’s fault, but you can’t compete for the playoffs with 1 good starter, even in the ‘weakest division in baseball’.
tejada will be playing for his reputation AND his next contract and dear LORD i hope we don’t give a guy that old an extension. will be interesting to see if he CAN hit worth spit off roids – that is IF he’s off roids. who knows what he got hold of playing winter ball down there where the stuff is easy to get…
lee wasn’t the old GM’s fault neither – he was drayton’s signing, let’s get real here. purpura did a LOT wrong, but lee wasn’t his fault
Tejada:
Slg. OPS+
2004 .534 131
2005 .515 128
2006 .498 126
2007 .442 109
I see a trendline there, and it’s not a positive one. Granted, a clear improvement over Everett with the bat, but I’m still not hoping for much.
“compared to ol larry boy, i
If Carlos Lee played for a contender, he might be worth what he is getting paid.
Also, the trend of Tejada’s numbers isn’t so stark until last year, and Tejada was returning from a fractured wrist.
Finally, I’d say that in general I agree with the guy who you referred to about the farm system. I think Juan Gutierrez projects well (not yet, but hopefully soon), Sergio Perez, Max Sapp and Josh Flores both look like they could be pretty good players. The reason the Astros system sucks is because they have no elite or good players. Sapp, Perez and Flores could all play ball and are probably good enough to start, but not good enough to add a lot of marginal wins, which are really important.
Plus, it is 4 years until Tejada, Lee and Berkman and 6 until Oswalt turn 35. Pence and Towles are OK. Bourn could be pretty good. Woody Williams is out of contract next year. Ed Wade may be bad at lots of things, but he’s not bad at identifying talent. 2009 is going to be a very good class of free agent pitchers: some top names being C.C. Sabathia and Ben Sheets.
I don’t know, one could remain optimistic. The road doesn’t look that bad.
The reason the Astros system sucks is because they have no elite or good players.
Actually I think the reason is because Drayton wont sign the good talent they do draft
glennbo is correctamundo
besides the fact that basically no one thought much of any of our top draftees the past 3 years except for sergio perez
i wonder about the quality of teaching in the minors, too
If you have a mlb video game, cue up the Astros current lineup and play a few games with them. They are REALLY FUN to play because of the murderer’s row they throw up there at the competition:
Bourn, Matsui
then
Berkman, Tejada, Lee, Pence, Wigginton and Towles.
Having said that, I suspect that this is how McLane and Wade constructed this awesome lineup – by testing it out on their PS3.
Forgive me if this is too obvious to say, but REAL baseball is not video game baseball, nor is it fantasy baseball. This is a lesson that every owner and GM really should know. Apparently these two clowns don’t.
JD
i think that they just wanted to sell tickets and got rid of all the players the fans didn’t like and went and got a speed guy to replace the deeply mourned willy taveras and got tejada, who the fans wanted. they got rid of qualls and lidge and got a new closer.
i think it IS that simple.
unfortunately
why do i think that? because last year the season was basically thrown away to sell tickets to biggio’s last hurrah – that worked, didn’t it? you don’t have to be a great winning team to sell tickets
Lisa,
If “no one” thought much of the top draft picks over the last three years, why have Bogusevic, Iorg, Flores, Sapp and Patton all been on national top 10 lists (while Perez has not)?
Also, for glennbo, too, who have the Astros not signed in the last three years who would be an elite prospect in the Astro system right now?
Ever heard of Robert Sobolewski? He was a 20th round pick Houston could not sign out of HS who now plays for U of Miami. When he turns 21 he’s likely to be a top pick. Other than that, I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head – and I don’t wanna hear about Drew Stubbs. I’m a UT homer but that kid is not an elite prospect and I said so at the time. Elite athlete, yes, but not an elite baseball player. He still struggles with Ks, punching out 142 times in 497 ABs as a 22-year old in low-A ball, and despite his elite speed he got nailed 15 times in 38 attempts at stealing bases.
Allison Hannigan
Allison Hannigan…
The pen is really mightier than the sword, as you have proven here….