I keep waiting for something interesting to write about, but no luck.
Hawkins was resigned for 3.5 mill, a perfectly reasonable sum for a setup man. Dear Lord, I hope the intention of the Organization is NOT to trade Valverde for who knows what and let Hawkins close – for the simple reason that he just can’t.
The Astros don’t have anyone the Padres particularly want, I guess, and the Braves and Cubs keep refusing to offer any decent prospects, so I’m not sure that Peavy will be traded at all.
Randy Wolf, so I hear, has a good 6 clubs trying to sign him, and the Astros exclusive deadline is up Friday. He’s NOT this great pitcher, in spite of his short success in an Astros uni.
Today, Justice was writing that the Astros should give Pettitte, who has publically said he wants to pitch in New Yankee Stadium, a call. Just because they haven’t signed him YET doesn’t mean they won’t. As for all the hoohah about his departure after the 06 season, I VERY clearly remember him doing the Roger, hemming and hawing about well, he didn’t know if he wanted to come back or retire blahblahblah and the Carlos the Jackal debacle fresh in everyone’s minds… I would also remind everyone that Pettitte had some significant problems the last 2 months of the season and had to shut it down with shoulder pain at the end of September. Yeahyeahyeah I know all about the supposedly “inferior” league but I SERIOUSLY doubt his ERA is going to drop like a rock here. Plus which, Ausmus is gone and I don’t think Pettitte is going to go for Quintero/Towles/some backup.
I know a whole lot of people are still wanting Ben Sheets, who Tim Marchman thinks is worth 15 mill a year. But ida know bout that – it assumes that he is healthy and I’m not sure that is a particularly sensible assumption to make. There is a significant shortage of starting pitching, especially GOOD starting pitching (as usual) and I seriously doubt he would agree to an incentive contract, especially with the Yankees opening the checkbooks this year – if they DON’T get Sabathia, they gonna try to do their usual and sign everyone possible.
And speaking of everyone possible, what on EARTH is with the obsession with Jon Garland???
Besides him pitching 7 years straight without getting hurt?
Over the past 5 years, he’s thrown at least 32 starts and at least 196 innings. His ERAs were 4.89, 3.50, 4.51, 4.23, 4.90: ERA+ 97, 128, 105, 112, 91. Career 104 ERA+ and a 1.38 WHIP, 6.1 IP/GS;
last year he had a career worst .303 BAA and .815 OPSA – and, mind, that was in the incredibly weak AL West. Garland is a low K (4.5/9), ave BB (3/9), high-ish HR (1.2/9) guy.
I suppose the idea is that his pitch to contact stuff would be great with the Astros great defense (I STILL can’t believe I’m writing that sentence) but I know he will most likely fetch a 5 year 15 mill contract and I find it tough to believe he wouldn’t get hurt. Plus which, he’s a Type A and we’d lose our first round pick next year.
I also SERIOUSLY doubt Drayton is going to raise payroll – after all, he’s decreased it since 05 while raising ticket prices twice.
I have a feeling that most of the FA will be signed later, rather than sooner this year, and that there won’t be many trades involving cheap young guys.
Which makes me say how sorry I am that the Astros were never in the running to get Olsen and Willingham from the Marlins, who dumped them for a utility guy and 2 not highly ranked prospects. Olsen, you see, is a head case who has been declared hopeless at age 24 by just about everyone. On the other hand, he’s a lefty pitcher who was quite good at age 22 and is still pretty cheap, even though not cheap enough for the Marlins, who want players who cost less than a mill each.
Ah well.
Tags: Houston Astros
Lisa, you want something to write about. How Bout congratulating the BBWAA for getting it right, and voting Lincecum as the NL Cy Young. Although Santan and Lidge were probably better choices than Webb for the #1, the writer’s showed they had a brain for once!!!
Anyway, for the second straight year, no pitcher reasonably priced looks interesting, unless we feel like going the incentive laden route with a Hampton. I still would love Peavy, and it doesn’t look like Atlanta and Chicago are giving the right package for the divorcee there in the SD. If I were Wade, I would send Pence and some prospects to SD, try to give Valverde to the Mets and have the Mets send some prospects to the Padres or something of that sort. THe Pads want to dump salary, we and the Mets combined can give them prettty good prospects, and the Mets desperately need a closer. It would be sad to lose Valverde, but he will easily be a 10 mill guy in about a year, and we probably won’t pay him, a la Wagner, then, so I would cut bait now.
Anyway, that’s my pipe dream. Also, how is Garland a type-A. He was average to awful. Who decides the Type-A, type-B thing anyway??
Olsen turned around a dismal 2007 and matured quite a bit. He was downright brilliant the first half of the year, but slid to mediocre after tiring in the second half. Good for the Nats stealing him.
agree completely with the choice of lincecum. he outpitched both santana and webb. i hate seeing closers get a cy young – it IS just 60 something innings after all
but speaking of closers, IF we trade valverde for prospects, we better get SOME guy who can close because hawkins can’t.
and i just do NOT understand the paulino hype – never did.
garland is type-A because of the number of IP and him being ranked in the top 50 of pitchers. elias does the rankings
it is interesting and strange to me how differently many players are viewed by different clubs. one guy’s troublemaker is another guy’s leader.
i think that clubs label guys very early and it is extremely difficult for them to get unabeled.
for example, the Organization had obviously tagged saccomanno as minor league roster filler – slow to promote, refused him so much as a cup of coffee until there were SO many injuries that they HAD to. now they won’t consider him as anything but bench – IF they have to.
why?
The saddest thing about Lincecum getting it is that Webb had to totally collapse at the end of the year for people to realize Lincecum had outpitched him every step of the way. Lincecum had the edge on ERA, WHIP and strikeouts, at times by significant margins. The only places Webb was better was wins (because he didn’t pitch for the PATHETIC Giants) and K:BB ratio, because he doesn’t walk nearly as many batters as Lincecum. However, he also didn’t show Lincecum’s ability to work out of jams all the time. I’m glad they got it right, but they should have known it a lot earlier than they did.
I like the idea to move Valverde. He’s overrated as it is. They could get better than value for him. If they stop being so doggone dumb when it comes to trades. I think they should keep Pence, though. He could be a mainstay in the outfield. Don’t get rid of him. Oh, and Hampton AIN’T coming back to the Astros. He was traded right after being the Cy Young runner-up for some prospects that weren’t even that highly rated because they had to get rid of that douchebag. He can’t get along with anyone.
it is amazing how many think that the number of wins a pitcher has got exactly NOTHING to do with his teammates. think DIPS. and a lot of media are DIPShits you know what i’m sayin. joe morgan believed that Ks and ERA are personal stats and the best pitcher is always the one who wins the most.
i was REAL surprised that russ ortiz didn’t get the CY the year he led the NL in wins
i got NO trouble moving valverde. the trouble is replacing him for cheaper. so we’d use?????
NOT hawkins, please. 2 strikes and he’s out.
pence had a sophomore slump, so we’d be selling low to move him now. his baserunning is lousy, you must admit, and he’s got to improve in the OF – i mean, getting better jumps, taking better routes.
hampton – i remember VERY well basically demanded a trade of the astros – told gerry he would be movin on his FA year. he was traded for roger cedeno (waste of a roster space) and dotel
Hampton was leaving anyway — getting Dotel for him was a very good trade. Beats the hell out of what we got for Lidge.
agree.
unless, of course, bourn turns into kenny lofton. which i am doubting. but youneverknow
Obviously, if we move Valverde we would need to get a quality closer somewhere, and I too hope that Hawkins is not it. However, I feel like the smart thing to do for the club would be to move Valverde. He was actually a trade we may have won, and he is in for a big pay day, whether it be a contract or arbitration next year. McLane will not approve of spending 8-12 mill on a closer, and the Wilpons definitely will. The Mets are desperate for a closer, and Valverde has led the NL in saves for two years, and, except for his bad start this year, has been very good to great for the last two years. I’m not sure how strong the Mets farm is, but they have usually overcompensated in trades in the past (Scott Kazmir?? – although that was a previous GM).
I’m nearly 100% sure Valverde will be in another uniform in ’10, so why not get something for him, and get a closer developed or back in the trade. I’m losing hope for Peavy, as is the rest of the MLB apparently. However, Valverde, our only realistic tradeable commodity since the others have no-trades, should be sold high.
Come on Ed Wade.
daniel,
got no trouble trading valverde. but the mets have a pretty empty farm their own selves. they wouldn’t trade pelfrey or maine and their only really good prospect is fernando martinez, a corner OF. which is something they NEED
but then what are you gonna do about a closer? hawkins can NOT close any more than arthur rhodes could. or dotel could. some guys just can NOT close.
so then who could we get who is cheaper? we don’t have an in-house solution that i can see
You’re absolutely right about the Mets farm. It is pretty bare. I really hope this teaches McLane a lesson about the importance of a good farm. The Peavy trades are falling apart, and he wants to play in Houston, but alas, the MLB’s 30th ranked farm sucks so much it can’t get the job done.
BTW, for a closer possibility. How much would Kerry Wood cost. I have no idea if he would be a type-A or not, or if he would come here, but I think he could be a quality closer. He will probably be alot cheaper than Valverde, considering people may still feel that he is an injury waiting to happen.
kerry wood is a type A and apparently wants a multi year contract, which is why the cubs didn’t re-sign him. and a WHOLE lot of teams want a closer, so i would guess he won’t have real too much trouble finding what he wants
i seriously doubt he’ll be cheaper than valverde EVEN if he only got 1 year. after all, gagME got 10 mill for a single year last year and he wasn’t near as good as wood was last year
as for drayton learning a lesson about the farm – i doubt it. he seems to be fixated on making a splash for the ML team, enough to draw in an average of 30K fans a game. he is NOT going to change a damm thing until he runs into trouble with fan attendance.
there still seems to be a trouble with developing what minor leaguers we DO have. and for a GOOD 4 years, the AAA club has basically operated as an indy team, NOT a farm. now that ryan is busy with the rangers and trying to turn all their pitchers into a carbon copy of himself, hopefully, the other minority owner can be persuaded to do things a little differently
Should we bring back the Big Unit?
We should keep Valverde.
i’d rather have RJ for 1 year than wolf for 3. i do NOT get wade’s obsession with wolf.
as for valverde, unless someone can say who is gonna replace him for cheaper, trading him is not real too smart.
and paulino is NOT major league ready. i don’t get the obsession with him neither