Schadenfreude Time: The Astros!

by Charlie on Jan 24, 2009 5:53 PM EST Comment 10 comments

Pirates fans certainly have it bad now, but I'm not sure the situation in Houston is much better overall. Astros GM Ed Wade:

"Otherwise, we're not talking to anybody else. If things fall in our lap we have to think about — it's got to be something of a front-line nature — but I think we're covered with regard to competition at positions.

"In the existing player payroll budget, there is no more to cover anything of significance."

Wait... that's it? The Astros' 2008-2009 offseason:

Re-signed LaTroy Hawkins to a one-year deal worth $3.5 million.

Signed Aaron Boone to a one-year deal worth $750,000.

Signed Jason Michaels to a one-year deal worth $750,000.

Non-tendered Ty Wigginton and Reggie Abercrombie.

Picked pitcher Gilbert de la Vara from the Royals in the Rule 5 draft and traded cash to the Royals for catcher and Rule 5 pick Lou Palmisano.

Signed Mike Hampton to a one-year, $2 million deal.

Signed Doug Brocail to a one-year, $2.75 million deal with an option for 2010.

Near the end of August, the Astros also signed Brian Moehler and Darin Erstad to one-year extensions worth a total of $4.05 million.

This is just a bonanza of mediocrity. The number of worthless players who will start the season on the Astros' 40-man roster is staggering, particularly for a team with a $103,000,000 payroll. The Astros currently have Geoff Blum (one season since 2003 with an OBP over .296) penciled in as the starter at third, Michael Bourn (who posted a .588 OPS in 2008) in center, a catching tandem of Humberto Quintero (.568) and J.R. Towles (.503; although, to the Astros' credit, they finally managed to get rid of Brad Ausmus), and Moehler and Hampton in their rotation. If any of their key players get injured, then it could get hilarious, because that's when Erstad, Boone or Michaels will join the lineup on a daily basis. I never thought I'd say this about any team, but the loss of Wigginton has the potential to be devastating; the step backward from Wigginton to Blum and Boone is enormous. The farm sy stem, too, is a mess, and despite a decent 2008 draft, it'll be a while before that gets fixed.

As bad as the Pirates will apparently be in 2009, they have a shot at catching the Astros if anything goes wrong for them. If I were an Astros fan, I'd be terrified about the lack of depth.

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Allusion Alert!

Anybody remember the part in Ball Four where George Brunet realizes Mickey Lolich is fatter than he is and starts taunting him accordingly? “One man to a pair of pants out there!”

by KPatrick on Jan 24, 2009 11:32 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I LOVE BALL FOUR.

Possibly favorite baseball book of all time.

by EmmaOMG on Jan 25, 2009 10:21 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

One of my favorite parts of writing about the NL Central for FanHouse right now is reading what Ed Wade’s up to this week, then remembering that Dave Littefield is no longer our GM.

http://www.whygavs.com
http://mlb.fanhouse.com

by whygavs on Jan 25, 2009 12:18 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Wade

Wade’s a terrible GM without a plan – he traded a big chunk of his farm system for Valverde after trading a better closer for Bourne. Then he got royally screwed by Baltimore in the Tejada trade. This being said, he is still a much better GM than Littlefield ever was. His drafts have been consistantly good. He drafted the core of the world champs with Utley, Howard, Victorino, Hamels, Rollins, Madson, and Dobbs. Gavin Floyd and Marlon Byrd, also Wade draftees, were big contributers on major league rosters last year, as well. So, I guess what GM NH needs to do is to scam Wade out of his ’08 draftees before they are contributing major leaguers.

by uneasy rider on Jan 25, 2009 1:14 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I semi-disagree with him getting "royally screwed" on Tejada.

Only in that he didn’t really give up much of substance to get him. Scott hurts, sure, but the rest of the package is mostly filler. Costanzo is a AAAA player, Albers and Sarfate are maybe bullpen arms, and while Patton had shown some promise, he was also known to be dealing with an arm injury at the time of the trade.

Wade also got nailed a little bit by circumstance, in that the deal went down both before Tejada’s true age was known and before the release of the Mitchell Report.

It’s still a net negative for the team, but it’s also significantly less damaging than a lot of other things that Wade did (for which he mostly escapes blame).

by Vlad on Jan 28, 2009 8:45 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

the Problem with Astros fans is....

they are mentally retarded, Being stuck in Texas the consistently tell me how the Pirates suck and how the Astros are winning it all. they could be 20 games back in September and think they are going to pull it off. They still think this is a winning team……they wasted so much money on Carlos Lee who can drive in runs but he has the range of my dead grandmother in the outfield…..a left field that is the smallest in the NL….

Astros Fans are so aggrivating..AGGGGGGGGGGG

10 Quality Starts in a row/Aug. 08 - BUT now we can't hit:(

by .500 Please on Jan 25, 2009 2:10 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Give me a break! The Pirates are on the verge of 17 straight losing seasons and you talk smack about another team . No matter how many mediocre players the Astros have , they will still finish ahead of the Pirates. Berkman, Oswalt and Lee is better than anything the Pirates have had in the last 15 years. Maybe let the Pirates have a winning season before you talk trash about another team.

by Bucssuck on Jan 26, 2009 12:17 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

You miss the point,

buddy. Nobody here is saying the Pirates are any good, and we know they will very probably have a 17th straight losing season.

The point I think Charlie is trying to make is that quite a number of the decisions Ed Wade has come up with in Houston are eerily reminiscent of the logic-challenged ones Dave Littlefied so often made as the PBC GM in our annual “Drive For 75” seasons.

Ed Wade has spent about $10 million so far this offseason on guys who won’t make the team better.

Please stop by again when Ed Wade is fired.

by patthatt on Jan 26, 2009 1:40 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I’m not a big Wade supporter but I think he needs to be given more of a chance.It is really hard to judge Ed Wade by his decisions so far. Lidge had to go. He was mentally shot in Houston and needed a change of scenery. I admit that Houston should have gotten more for him but he was coming off of a season in which he blew 8 games. As for the Valverde trade, the Astros gave up nothing of value. It was basically Valverde-for-Qualls.

The Astros had been trying to trade for Tejada for a couple of seasons. When Tim Purpura was GM they tried trading for Tejada. But again they gave up nothing of real significance. Drayton Mclane engineered that deal. That is another problem with Houston is that the owner will not allow his GM to do his job.

Wade did draft the core of the Phillies and he did trade For Randy Wolf and Latroy Hawkins who were big contributors down the stretch when the Astros finished 3.5 games out of the wild card. Pretty much everybody left them for dead before those trades.

As for this offseason Wade had only so little in resources with so many holes to fill. The problem is 4 players making up about 60% of the payroll. Again not Wades fault. He didn’t sign Carlos Lee to an outrageous contract.

I’m not a huge Ed Wade fan but it is sickening to read different blogs and message boards with Pirate fans blasting other teams. Until the Pirates become competitive again , we(fans) need to keep our mouths shut. Let’s have a winning season before we worry about how many worthless players are on another team. Lord knows they still probably don’t have as many as the Pirates.

by Bucssuck on Jan 26, 2009 8:26 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

As I’ve said before, I don’t understand this sort of logic. Why should I have to keep quiet just because I write about the Pirates? I’ve chronicled the Pirates’ poor decisions for years, and have been critical of them, too. I don’t make the decisions, or write the checks. I don’t represent the team. I’m a fan.

by Charlie on Jan 26, 2009 9:21 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs