I got more emails on last Friday’s column than any other one I’ve ever written. Mostly telling me I am stupid (sorry, I am trying to keep this site clean so I have edited out the bad words. ALL of them…)
So let’s get these little, uh, misunderstandings straight: (especially for yall who couldn’t tell a sarcastic remark if it was written in flashing lights)
I DO NOT WANT TO TRADE ADAM EVERETT FOR ANYONE!!! (well, OK, unless it’s straight up for Johan Santana.) He is by FAR the best fielding shortstop in baseball and last year, he was the best defensive player in the entire major leagues by every defensive evaluation system out there (except Baseball Prospectus – I don’t subscribe to them and I have no idea what they say.) He saved this team 30 runs. And he drove in more runs than anyone else in the lineup except Lance Berkman, seeing as how so many people are so into RBIs. He’s the freaking #8 hitter. It is beyond stupid to trade the #8 hitter, who is the best fielder at the toughest position in the major leagues, because he is not a good enough hitter.
I DO NOT WANT TO TRADE OR DFA MORGAN ENSBERG!!! He is head and shoulders better than Aubrey Huff with both bat and glove. I am tired of hearing how terrible it is that he walks instead of swinging at pitches out of the strike zone. I am tired of hearing about how he strikes out looking, like grounding out like Carlos Lee does is such a much better way to make an out. This Organization and the local media have been hating on him since the day he almost got killed in that holdup back in 2000. I do NOT get it and I never have. I think all that “he needs to be more aggressive at the plate” complaining is a stinking, rotting sack of horse poopoo.
I DO NOT WANT TO GET RID OF ALMOST EVERY PLAYER WE HAVE WHO IS YOUNG AND ARB ELIGIBLE OR PRE ARB OR OUR ONLY 2 GOOD PROSPECTS WE HAVE IN THE MINOR LEAGUES!!! Especially not for Vernon Wells, who will be a one year rental because he is a FA next year and his agent is NOT stupid. Wells will be 28, is a GG CF and Soriano, 2 years older who has never played CF just got 8 YEARS, 136 mill.
CARLOS LEE DOES NOT WEIGH 235 OR EVEN 240 POUNDS!!! He weighs at LEAST 275 – and it is NOT muscle, it is FAT. I am not saying that Carlos won’t help with the bat next year. I AM saying that for reasons I can NOT understand, seems almost everybody conveniently is forgetting that he will be on the team for at LEAST 3 years more. This is like being glad you are having a baby, somehow forgetting that after age 1, they are not a baby, they are a child and they will be with you for the next 17 years. At LEAST.
I do NOT understand why anyone could possibly think that Lee will maintain his 2006 hitting stats for an entire SIX years. He is not now and never was a Manny Ramirez or even a Jeff Bagwell quality hitter. Carlos has 78 RCAA (thank you Lee Sinins) over the entire 6 years he has played in the major leagues. Albert Pujols had that many this YEAR alone. Or if you would prefer another LF – this year Manny Ramirez had 60 – but of course he’s already 34. Looks like he had 80 RCAA his age 30 season. (In case you are curious, Lee had 23 RCAA this year. The much maligned Mo Ensberg had 19.)
I STILL do not understand why you think that Carlos Lee will give better production over the next 6 years than Luke Scott will – and Luke Scott will cost around 90 mill less. I would like even ONE of yall telling me what a dumb **** I am to point out ANY left fielder who weighs 275 pounds at age 31 who maintained his age 30 hitting production for the next 6 years of his life – and he has to have only played either right of left field – no 1B, no DH. Or even the next four. (OK, Babe Ruth. But ain’t none of yall gonna try to convince me that Carlos is in his class.)
Remember you always have to weigh the runs he costs us against the runs he creats. They BOTH matter, even if you want to ignore the one.
I do not understand WHY on earth you think Gerry Hunsicker would be stupid enough to trade Carl Crawford to us for the few cheap young pitchers we have. Gerry Hunsicker is a LOT smarter about player evaluation and value than Drayton is, which is why Drayton got rid of him. He’s still laughing about stealing Benny Zobrist and Mitch Talbot for 2 months of Aubrey Huff.
And please, let’s get real – there is like NO way that Purpura is making ANY decisions about the roster of this ballclub. Like I told one guy – Purpura is the yessest yes man I’ve ever seen. It is why Drayton threw Gerry out on his ass and replaced him with the Puppet.
I do not understand WHY on earth we should trade the few cheap young players we actually have for Miguel Cabrera – that is, even if Loria WOULD trade him to us. He’s already grossly obese and he simply can’t play third – he makes Mike Lamb look like Scott Rolen. We can’t stick him at first or in left. He’s going to be a FA in 2 years. You wanna make a guess how much $$$ he’s going to be getting at age 27, even if he can only DH by then?
I do not understand why so many of yall honestly think that defense means basically nothing. You want hitters who are terrible fielders. WHY can’t yall seem to understand that bad fielders give up runs – allow runs to score for the other team – because they don’t get to the ball or can’t throw the ball? Why do you think that allowing hits and runs doesn’t matter?
I do not understand why so many of yall want to play Yankees and get rid of all our good young players (except Willy Taveras, because he steals, I guess) for old aging sluggers. Exactly WHERE has this gotten the Yankees? First place in the division and nothing to show for it since 2000. Big freaking deal.
This is not fantasy baseball where you get points just for RBIs, BA, HR and SB. This is not a hitting only world. Who here HONESTLY thinks that the Tigers’ horrible fielding had nothing to do with them losing the WS and it was all because of the suberb St. Louis pitchers and the overpowering St. Louis bats of So Taguchi and WS MVP David Eckstein and their unending torrents of XBH?
And last – can we PLEASE stop talking about Roger and Andy? It sounds just like people talking about their exes. It is time to move on. Because they obviously have moved on too. (Also, because unless Purpura is flat out lying about this year’s payroll, we got no more money to spend…)
Tags: Houston Astros, MLB
So I came here to see what you thought of the Lee and Williams deals. Now I’ll respond.
I am sastisfied with the Lee signing. No, I’m not ecstatic. We are overpaying him. He won’t be good for 6 years. I do think, though; that he will be good for 4 years. Then we can quickly trade him.
We needed this offensive jolt desperatly. While we might allow more runs this way, I believe that we will score more than we will allow because of Lee’s signing. A Berkman-Lee punch in the lineup will make everybody better, I think; not to mention Berkman.
And I wouldn’t advocate taking Luke Scott out of the order. Just because he was primarily a LF doesn’t mean he can’t come in and play RF, which is what I think should happen. He has 17 career games in right field without any errors. It will take some adjustments, I am sure; but he is certainly young enough to do it; and willing, too- I am sure.
I also think that Willy should continue in Center. And I think, unfortunatly, that this is another year for Burke to be uber-utility man. He can play in center when Willy isn’t doing well, take some days in left and right, some days in 2nd. I’m not sure where that leaves us for a quality leadoff man, though; unless we put Burke over Willy full time in Center and have Burke lead us off, which I don’t think I would be completely opposed to.
Ok, now for my opinions on the rest of the offseason. We need to re-sign Russ Springer. We also, of course, need to try and get an answer from Pettite and Clemens. If we can’t get anything out of Pettite and Clemens (or if we get a no), I would look into Gil Meche and Ted Lilly.
I think we should let Huff go, unless he can come cheap and doesn’t expect to start. He just isn’t worth it. An Ensberg/Lamb platoon should be suitable, I think.
Besides that I think we need to look into upgrading at Catcher. Bengie Molina is a free agent, and I thnk he would be a good fit. We could look into Rod Barajas, too. We won’t be able to trade for a marquee name unless we gave a lot, but there are some less known names that I think could blossom if given the amount of playing time Brad got last year, or even most of that. Gerald Laird, Josh Bard, and Chris Coste could all be looked into. There are a lot of options out there; and I don’t think Ausumus would complain too much about a lesser role; we could keep him pitching 1 of five pitchers or 2 of 5. There are just so many other catchers available that are better offensively – we can look into which of those are also available and goo with pitchers, and then make a move.
The Lee signing is incredibly stupid, for the reasons you said. The pain is only slightly lessened by my expecting not only stupidity, but this particular stupidity. $6M/year for a 40 year old SP is a lot, too, but annoys me less because of a decent track record of innings-eating and the recent track record of 40 year old starters. Either way, I’m looking forward to another decade of 74-88 win seasons!
Hi Michael!!!
I am sastisfied with the Lee signing. No, I’m not ecstatic. We are overpaying him. He won’t be good for 6 years. I do think, though; that he will be good for 4 years. Then we can quickly trade him.
- so have you found a SINGLE full time LF who is at LEAST 50 pounds overfat who maintained even 75% of his age 29 production for the next 4 years? Because I haven’t and neither have 3 expert baseball historians I’ve asked. How are you gonna trade an old, fat broke DH who is gonna cost 18 mill a year – that is without eating most of that contract?
We needed this offensive jolt desperatly. While we might allow more runs this way, I believe that we will score more than we will allow because of Lee’s signing. A Berkman-Lee punch in the lineup will make everybody better, I think; not to mention Berkman.
- do you remember Mike Lamb and Craig Biggio in left? And Berkman had the best stats with NO protection that he’s had in 3 years.
And I wouldn’t advocate taking Luke Scott out of the order. Just because he was primarily a LF doesn’t mean he can’t come in and play RF, which is what I think should happen. He has 17 career games in right field without any errors. It will take some adjustments, I am sure; but he is certainly young enough to do it; and willing, too- I am sure.
- have you ever seen Luke in right? he didn’t get to most of the few balls that were hit his way. I actually think it would be better to put Carlos Lard in right – it is a LOT easier to play here than left.
I also think that Willy should continue in Center. And I think, unfortunatly, that this is another year for Burke to be uber-utility man. He can play in center when Willy isn’t doing well, take some days in left and right, some days in 2nd. I’m not sure where that leaves us for a quality leadoff man, though; unless we put Burke over Willy full time in Center and have Burke lead us off, which I don’t think I would be completely opposed to.
- well, Willy had a VERY low OPS last year – he was down near everett and ausmus. I’d rather see Burke.
Ok, now for my opinions on the rest of the offseason. We need to re-sign Russ Springer.
- agree. he was worth every penny we paid him.
We also, of course, need to try and get an answer from Pettite and Clemens.
- you been getting your phone calls to jessica alba returned lately? cuz i think the andy/roger stuff is just as big a fantasy.
If we can’t get anything out of Pettite and Clemens (or if we get a no), I would look into Gil Meche and Ted Lilly.
- not gil meche. he simply is suckulous. every seattle fan i’ve ever talked to agrees with me. Lilly i’d rather have, even though he’s no #2.
I think we should let Huff go, unless he can come cheap and doesn’t expect to start. He just isn’t worth it. An Ensberg/Lamb platoon should be suitable, I think.
- agree with letting huff go – we don’t need another spare RF and i’d rather have lamb and mo
Besides that I think we need to look into upgrading at Catcher. Bengie Molina is a free agent, and I thnk he would be a good fit. We could look into Rod Barajas, too. We won’t be able to trade for a marquee name unless we gave a lot, but there are some less known names that I think could blossom if given the amount of playing time Brad got last year, or even most of that. Gerald Laird, Josh Bard, and Chris Coste could all be looked into.
- of all of those i’d rather have laird. Bengie Molasses is a GIDP machine without much power. In fact, he looks too much like estrada. i don’t think we’re gonna be able to pry bard from the pads without some SERIOUS hurt.
There are a lot of options out there; and I don’t think Ausumus would complain too much about a lesser role; we could keep him pitching 1 of five pitchers or 2 of 5. There are just so many other catchers available that are better offensively – we can look into which of those are also available and goo with pitchers, and then make a move.
- well, it is true that brad is not no batsman. and with willy t in the lineup too – and everybody forgetting what an offensive sinkhole HE is, we really need to see if we can upgrade at catcher. and i suspect we really only re-signed ausmus last year because no ausmus, no roger. it would have been a LOT smarter to have signed ramon hernandez.
lisa