Well, Wade Miller was non-tendered. This means that the Astros did not offer him a decent contract, even one with incentive clauses. I understand refusing to go to arbitration – he earned 3.4 mill last year for a 7 – 7 record and only 15 GS, and he couldn’t be paid less than 20% of that, and probably wouldn’t. And who can be sure that his shoulder will hold up any better this year?
BUT – Miller has been a decent pitcher since he came up in 1999 – 3.87 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP in spite of time off for injuries – the only year he pitched at least 200 innings was 2001, with 212. Do the Astros REALLY think that not a single other team out there will offer him a decent contract? Does Purpura actually think that we have pitchers in the minors who are ready to be major league starters? Does he think that decent starters grow on trees? Or does he REALLY think that Munro, Hernandez, Redding, Buchholz, Duckworthless, etc are just as good but just cheaper?
Well, I sure nuff would worry that Carlos Beltran, who he seems to be waiting for, is gonna take a good look at the team, see that we have only 3 decent (Oswalt, Pettite and Backe) starting pitchers, a bullpen that sucks except for Qualls and Lidge, and 1 decent starting outfielder (Jason Lane, pleeeeeeeease Lord) – I say only 1 because it’s unsure exactly when Lance will be able to start after his offseason knee surgery and there are no obvious replacements waiting in the minors. (Taveras? Puhleeeeeeease!!!)
Anyway, Carlos maybe gonna think that the Mets, whose owner is obviously willing to spend (even if sometimes he doesn’t engage brains before opening wallet or mouth) look awful darn good. Or even (choke, gag, the Yankees). I doubt Cubs because Sammy ain’t budging and the Trib ain’t spending. And the Tigers/ Orioles ain’t winning. So we will have spent these months re-signing Viz and Palmeiro (yawn) and not even bothering to try to improve the glaring holes, let alone plug them.
I know that some of yall are reading this and thinking, that chick crazy, wants us to do SOMETHING, anything. Nope. Not ANY ol thing. BUT – I see an almost empty farm system. I don’t see or hear that Purpura is actually out there trying to find players, even if they’re not Boras clients, to plug the gaping holes in this team. I don’t have the slightest bit of evidence that we even have some plan. And waiting until the last second to plug holes with the rubbish that will be left after all the good stuff is gone isn’t real too swift, unless you don’t particularly care how the team does. And I don’t care if Carlos is great – even Barry Bonds can’t do it alone….
Tags: Houston Astros, MLB
The good news is that Wade says he wants to play for Houston. So maybe they’ll sign him to a lower, incentive-laden contract that wouldn’t've been possible otherwise. At least that’s what I’m hoping is going to happen. Because 80% of $3.4 million is $2.72 million and maybe they think that’s too much if he might not pitch at all because of his choosing not to have surgery and going for the rest & rehab option. (I would tend to agree with that line of thinking, actually–Carlos Hernandez tried the rest & rehab on his shoulder and then had surgery *in February* and ended up missing the season.)
So, anyway, if they bring him back for $1 million plus tons of incentives depending on starts and/or innings pitched that he could easily reach if he were really healthy that would bring it back up to a figure near what they would have had to offer him or maybe higher, then I can’t see him turning that down. Assuming he wasn’t blowing smoke about wanting to stay with the team. He was the last of the ‘Dome pitchers and was probably deeply affected by the Shane Reynolds release and he might be looking to move on.
I had high hopes for Purpura, but bringing back Biggio and non-tendering Miller doesn’t inspire confidence. So far he’s more J.P. Ricciardi than Billy Beane.
Lisa Grey, Astro Annie, and Hirsh at Throws LIke a Girl… what is it about the ‘Stros that inspire so many great women to write about them? And here I was impressed that my girlfriend was even willing to attend a dozen Blue Jay games a year without complaint.