No more Cardinals for Uncle, no sirree. He’s just signed up to play in the AL West with the Angels for the next 10 years at 25 mill a year (and Lance Berkman gets to go back to first base) and he gets to learn how to hit at Safeco and the Coliseum, the only 2 places he hasn’t hit well (yeah, small sample size, I know…) He’s only hit .311/.387/.569/.956 here. I went looking for places where he didn’t hit well and I couldn’t find any.
Not surprisingly..
It’s going to be strange to not see him wending his menacing way to the plate any more.
No question, the best ballplayer next to Barry Lamar Bonds I have seen play – The Rickey comes in 3rd. I’m really glad I got to watch Uncle, in spite of his killing my ballclub, up close for 10 years.
I guess clubs had to give him 10 years, in spite of the fact that he’ll be 42 at the end of the contract and he’s not going to hit like Uncle for 10 years. I guess he’ll be a HR draw, or something. I’m not surprised he left Saint Looey if they were offering him 50 mill less. I wonder if they really wanted him to stay at all because they could and should have been working on an extension several years ago. I have this feeling that once Jocketty left, that Mozeliak had no intention of making Uncle a lifetime Cardinal.
And speaking of Saint Looey, Jeff Luhnow is our new GM – he worked with the Cards for 7 years.
He’s supposed to be a guy who can help build up the farm (here and I thought Ed Wade was the guy who was supposed to do that) and extend the Astros presence in Latin America (here and I thought that is what Ed Wade had already done).
He joined the Cards as a business buddy of the owner, a guy who knew nothing whatsoever about baseball (another Postolos?)- I heard that it was he who forced the exit of Walt Jocketty – heard it from a number of sources. I also heard that Luhnow was on the way out, anyway, as he was no longer farm director or even in charge of the draft. He was in charge from 05 to 09 – and let’s see who he managed to draft that was any good for the Cards, either playing FOR them, or used as trade bait for something good.
2005: a good year: Colby Rasmus 1st round, Tyler Greene (SS who makes Adam Everett look like Pujols) 2nd round, Mitchell Boggs 5th round and Jaime Garcia, 22nd round. I haven’t forgotten Nick Stravinoha, but he was awful.
2006: 1st pick a bust. Chris Perez, also 1st round – pitched decently for 1 1/2 years, had a hard time closing, disliked by TLR, traded for Mark DeRosa, who was gone at the end of the year and didn’t help them win. 2nd rounder Jon Jay, who replaced Colby Rasmus and his daddy. 8th round – Allen Craig, who made the team this year at age 26 and hit in the playoffs when he needed to. 12th rounder David Carpenter, traded to the Stros for the corpse of Pedro Feliz, who did nothing for his new team neither. 28th rounder Luke Gregerson, a good reliever traded to the Pads in 08 for the corpse of Khalil Greene (remember when he was good, cuz I sure do…)
total of 2 draftees who help/helped the club – CF Jay and utility guy Craig. A couple of other guys had cups of coffee, but didn’t succeed.
2007: 1st pick bust – a HS SS with a minor league .653 OPS; 2nd pick Clayton Mortenson, traded with Brett Wallace for Matt Holliday – DEFINITELY a win there. When is the last time Billy Beane made a GOOD trade, let alone a effing A trade? 3rd rounder Daniel Descalso – a good infielder. A couple of other guys with cups of coffee and no obvious future in MLB.
So we have a good utility guy who can play a solid 3rd base and a crappy pitcher traded for a GOOD outfielder who re-signed as an expensive FA, but helped them get a WS victory.
2008: first rounders Brett Wallace (well, he hit like a machine until he started facing ML pitchers) and Lance Lynn, a decent enough middle reliever. That is IT and no one else looks as if he’s going anywhere near the majors.
lousy – I’m seeing a downward trend.
2009: 1st rounder Shelby Miller, who has been a decent to good SP through AA, and is 20 years old. No one else looks like awesomeness. Of course I know that some guys take more than 2 years to develop and some guys, like Allen Craig, get a late start in the majors.
Fernando Salas was also signed out of the mexican league in 07 – if Luhnow was responsible for that, that’s a plum, but that is all on the ML roster for all the supposed Latin talent he is supposed to have captured.
I got an email from a reader with this link from Beyond The Boxscore, an interview with Luhnow a couple of years ago – click HERE to read.
Tags: Angels, Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals
I know this gonna be painful to watch, I know the ‘Stros are doomed to be the worst team in baseball for the next decade, I know Selig just made it worse by sending us to the ALW… But I’ll stick to this team even in the AL, because the ‘Stros are the first team I fell in love with and I’ll keep rooting for them even if it truly is hard to. I respect your guys’ decision, but there isn’t simply any other team I could cheer for at this moment, although the Marlins are definitely going to be a refreshment in the upcoming season.
I’m not 30 yet, so maybe I have enough years left to live to see Crane’s bankruptcy, then we’ll get a new owner…
And Lisa, even if you’ve made your mind to pick another team, maybe you could at least keep this blog alive so some of us always could come by and relive the better and partly glorious days by reading the older entries.
Dont like this “Luhs-Now’ guy at all,,,looks like a jerk with an EGO, oh, okay, now I see why they hired him,,,I was looking at a Ballbug report or hard ball times, about him gettting Allen, Jay , and craig into the mix with STL in all the years there,, not impressive enough for me,,,I recall a time when I was fired up about the winter meetings, it used to be a special time, these meeting s were the pits for the Stros,, nothing really happened..
Exactly. If this guy’s such a scouting guru, shouldn’t he have signed more than Craig, Jay, Salas, and a couple others in EIGHT YEARS on the job? At that rate, the Astros will be good in about … never.
I didn’t think Logan White or Bill Geivett were overly inspiring choices, but they blow Luhnow out of the water when it comes to actual baseball knowledge.
Bet Astros wish they had Shelby, Rasmus, Salas, Gregerson, Edouardo Sanchez, to name a few.
Elmer,
well, I’m only 31. and the Pirates fans in their 50s are getting to where they barely remember the barry bonds days. even last year, it looked as if maybe they were finally going somewheres and then the owner got rid of their best pitcher and isn’t re-signing their best hitter and went and did his usual signing of bottom of the barrel FA. The Astros are the only team i’ve eer loved – but sometimes, well, divorce happens. you can only make excuses for so long…
i intend to keep the blog alive.
ann,
logan white must be too, um, strong willed for someone like crane. or else he didn’t want to answer to some basketball guy. sort of like tal smith. but yeah – much better reputation than luhnow. this is basically exactly what happened when ed wade was signed. i am not expecting miracles. i am expecting no more bobby heck, who was no better than his predecessors.
bruce,
bet the astros wish they had SOME major leaguers, fer SHER…
“Bet Astros wish they had Shelby, Rasmus, Salas, Gregerson, Edouardo Sanchez, to name a few.”
– Sure, and the Astros could have had similar players if Uncle D didn’t go cheap on scouting and development about six years ago.
I’ll repeat what I said above: If Luhnow was some scouting guru, he would have signed a hell of a lot more than four mediocre major leaguers in EIGHT YEARS on the job. This clown only got hired in St. Louis because he’s close personal friends with the owners, and then he managed to run off anyone with any real baseball knowledge.
It’s looking more and more like Crane and Postolos are in WAY over their heads. It’s like they had no Plan B behind Friedman. Sad.
crane/postolos thinking that friedman was plan A already shows they were over their head. if they SERIOUSLY thought that friedman wouldcome here and work for them, they are seriously lacking any common sense
drayton decided he wanted to decrease spending after the signing of derek gregsby, who got a big bonus and developed mental illness that drove him from baseball. for whatever reason, he suddenly didn’t think a farm was worth anything, which was strange because at the time, most of the astros were home grown.
ah well
John Sickels: “(Shelby) Miller is rated by many as one of, if not the, best pitching prospect in the game. Jason Parks from Baseball Prospectus ranked him as his #1 pitching prospect in the game”
Thanks Lisa, that’s a real good news. This blog deserves to be maintained as a symbol of fondly remembered time of Killer B’s era.
As for Drayton, well I guess he got impatient because of his age or of the long wait for the first title. He thought the line-up at that time with the help of some big names like Clemens, Pettitte, Carlos Lee and Tejada were good enough to win the WCS and he failed in the end due to lack of baseball knowledge. But Crane already fails at the beginning due to debt load and the hiring of Luhnow.
i’m happy for shelby – but i have learned that a whole WHOLE lot of top rated prospects can’t do spit in the majors – think brett wallace – so until he actually DOES something, i am not going to count this for/against luhnow
elmer
drayton ALSO thought that paying customers would prefer to see established major league STAHS!!! and wouldn’t stand for any young guy learning. and any guy who didn’t come up and pitch/hit like an all-star after about 2000 really didn’t get much of a chance
and yeah, crane fails at the beginning. i have gotten a whole lot of – i’m sorry gf – emails from some baseball people and saint looey fans i know and can’t quote.
BUT a lot may depend on who they hire as director of scouting and director of player development – seeing as how we haven’t had anyone useful at either position. and yes, it is true that if you pick guys who will sign as opposed to talent, well, then every now and then you’ll get a surprise like JD martinez or roy oswalt or jaime garcia…
the story of jason lane should ALSO remind us that ballplayers have an expiration date and IF they are ready for the bigs, they should be either promoted or traded for something you NEED. keeping a useful piece of your team rotting at AAA is simply foolish – especially if you are a team that prefers to trade for someone else’s major leaguer instead of using your own guys.
I didn’t want to believe it at first, but I’m really starting to believe that losing is part of Crane’s business plan. As Lisa has been saying for months, even if the Astros lose 100 games for the next 4 or 5 years, they’ll make huge money from TV, etc. Three or four years of low-payroll, losing teams could actually put $100 million back into Crane’s and his partners’ pockets. Sad.
Huge TV money is somewhat dependent on ratings, and a losing team is no guarantee that people will watch, AL fans or not.
That said, I’m for giving Luhnow a chance. He’s got basically a blank slate to work with, a lot fewer fans watching his every move, and a team in baseball hell.
But most of all, I’d hope someone with Crane’s ear convinces him to change the name of the Astros when they move to the AL.
ann,
the yankees fans have been screaming about this for years – but i’ve always said they are paying to have washington generals teams to beat up ON. why on earth crane would stop at 3 or 4 years i do not get. less $$$ for him if he ups the payroll. the probability he is going to have a winning team or fans is incredibly small and everyone knows it – especially after this new CBA, which effectively ends compensation in the draft and overpaying for signability good prospects.
pam gardner gonna have her work cut out for her getting people into the stadium.
wags,
the ORIGINAL deal might could be based on numbers of viewers, but the yearly contract is not dependent on it – far as i know – unless it is a subscription channel. as i understand it, the teams insist that the RSN is added to the overall cable package. the ad revenue to the cable company depends on numbers of viewers. if no one watches the astros/rockets channel, the commercials will start to be for someone’s hair salon instead of chevy.
i have NO idea how the RSN intends to fill up programming for the hours in which the game is not happening. maybe they just re-broadcast it over and over. it’s not like boston/ny where people will listen to anyone talk on and on about any microscopic aspect of the team.
You guys never cease to amaze me with your dribble. You have no real idea what Crane or anybody else is thinking or planning to do.With all of your petty talk you are just farting in the wind.
sceptor,
i most definitely know what he is planning to do with the 2012 season – it’s not a secret. as for the future, well, there’s a good reason forbes biz of baseball writer maury brown says he feels really sorry for astros fans, and not just because we’ve been thrown under the AL bus.
i can read the writing on the wall. if you have some reason to think i’m wrong about the astros taking revenue sharing money to be a whipping boy, or turning into the Athletics, i’m all ears.