I can handle this fine as long as he’s not penciled in as the #2 guy. I don’t know if this means that Drayton has decided on a cheaper, shorter (hahaha) version of Randy Wolf or not. I am assuming he is going to replace Brandon Backe as the #5 guy.

Backe was barely sustainable as a #5 guy until mid-August, when he clearly just pooped out and flat out sucked.

Now watch – he’ll sign with some other team and throw 200 innings of 120 ERA+ ball or something…

Anyway, Hampton hasn’t pitched much over the past 3 or so years – he tore his elbow in mid 05, had TJ surgery, spent 06 recovering, then tore an oblique in his chest in 07, then tore another piece of his elbow. Then in 08, he tore his pectoral muscle and missed half the season, then came back and threw 78 innings of 88 ERA+ ball.

He’s a GB pitcher, who strikes out few batters and except in Colorado, gave up very few hits/HR/9 IP, but had ERAs around 1.35 because of his walks.

I’d actually be happy to see him return to his 04 performance of 100 ERA+ 170 IP. He’s gonna be 36, Moehler is gonna be 38 and I just hope that Fast Eddie’s plans don’t include getting rid of the 1 “young” guy on the staff, Wandy, age 30.

But who knows, he might, for some reason, prefer veteran Wolf who will be significantly more expensive over the next few years.

Youneverknow.

Tags: Houston Astros

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 5:50 am and is filed under Astros baseball, Mike Hampton. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.