Astros Interested In Bartolo Colon
According to Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes, the Astros will have two scouts watching Bartolo Colon pitch Wednesday in the Dominican Republic. Astros GM Ed Wade said he's not at the point of talking contract yet, which makes sense. A factor determining Wade's budget will be the arbitration hearings of Mark Loretta and Jose Valverde.
Colon indicated a preference to pitch in the National League, and expects to sign next week.
The Astros could really use an innings eater. He had a good 2005 season, that wasnt too many hamburgers ago, mamybe hes still a viable starter
Posted by: Moonmaster | February 03, 2008 at 11:11 AM
Not only are the Astros apparently interested in Bartolo, but it seems to me that they are also interested in sucking the biggest suck in all of suckitude.
Posted by: Matt Birt | February 03, 2008 at 11:39 AM
A month or 2 in the minors let him work out his problems and maybe...TRADE VALVERDE!
Posted by: raider8284 | February 03, 2008 at 12:19 PM
I think Freddy Garcia would be a much better option.
Posted by: Mike Simms | February 03, 2008 at 01:09 PM
Colon would be a nice high reward/ low risk kind of player, as long as they bought low. The thing that scares me about Colon is his velocity is in the mid 80's. He is a pitcher that needs that speed. Mids 80's wont cut in in the upper part of the zone..... Freddy Garcia is out for the entire year....and why trade Valverde?
Posted by: kaiserbyers | February 03, 2008 at 02:00 PM
Colon would be a nice high reward/ low risk kind of player, as long as they bought low. The thing that scares me about Colon is his velocity is in the mid 80's. He is a pitcher that needs that speed. Mids 80's wont cut in in the upper part of the zone..... Freddy Garcia is out for the entire year....and why trade Valverde?
Posted by: kaiserbyers | February 03, 2008 at 02:02 PM
"A month or 2 in the minors let him work out his problems and maybe...TRADE VALVERDE!"
You're out of your mind. As if Bartolo Colon would accept any work in the minors.
Posted by: ksesxe | February 03, 2008 at 08:05 PM
Could it hurt? If this was pre-Jennings trade then he'd be blocking some talented youngsters that should be given a shot but now, the Astro's have no highly thought of future front of the rotation guy ready to pitch in the majors that he'd be blocking.
Posted by: Droptop | February 03, 2008 at 09:54 PM
HAHAHAHAHAHA. I love the stros.
Posted by: msk86 | February 03, 2008 at 10:40 PM
Did the Astros need TWO scouts to watch Bartolo Colon because of his size?
Posted by: Devlsh | February 03, 2008 at 10:56 PM
This really goes to show how desperate the Astros are for starting pitching... After Oswalt, there isn't much at all. If they could somehow get Colon to sign a minor league deal, this would be an amazing deal.. but with Colon reportedly throwing in the 80's, he probably won't be able to provide anything useful until he gets himself back in "shape".
Posted by: GoTribe | February 03, 2008 at 11:06 PM
Yeesh. The Cubs fans on here are running rampant on this one.
This is no big deal, unless Wade hands out a multi-year contract to Colon (which I don't think is past that idiot). If it's a 1 year guaranteed contract for around $5M or less, who cares? It's not like the Astros are poor. They can afford to make a few low cost mistakes (like Matsui). Drayton McLane's one of the richest owners in baseball.
I'm not an Ed Wade fan, but it's easy to see what he's doing. Stockpiling as many arms as possible and see what sticks. Tim Purpura and Gerry Hunsicker had left the minors in shambles with no high ceiling guys to talk of. Ed Wade then went out and traded all the low ceiling guys for some major league help. If you don't have minor league arms that can immediately help, you have to get some guys from somewhere. And this free agent class is rediculous.
btw, Backe and Sampson are decent arms, if they can stay healthy. If they do stay healthy, the Astros will be ok.
Posted by: Darin | February 04, 2008 at 10:12 AM
Well, most of the Cubs fans here are hateful dopes. ANYTHING the Astros even consider is hilarious. Honesty, I'd rather be funny than pathetic.
Posted by: WHIPit | February 05, 2008 at 01:46 AM
I'm not going to touch on the Astro bashing.
But I'd hope Wade would go after Livan Hernandez than Fat Bartolo if he truly wants a steady but unspectacular starter to eat innings and fill the rotation.
Sure Livan costs a lot more, but he's more of a proven commodity than Colon who likely will be more spectacular than Hernandez.
Colon can be spectacularly good or much more likely spectacularly bad.
Posted by: astrosfan | February 05, 2008 at 01:25 PM