State Of The Astros

Man the stros really are dumb. I said in the beggining of the year they should re-build, and look now there going to have to anyways, while they could have had a head start. They need to build around players like Pence and Castro. Scary because there really isn't much else down there. But they should deal Ozzy, Lee, and Valverde. If they can get some premium ready-soon prospects for those guys, they could be in a real good position heading into 2010 and beyond.

For what it's worth, there was an Astros scout at Fenway last night to watch the O's- Redsox game.

Idiots.

I'm not the world's biggest Ed Wade fan, but the real culprit here is the Astros' owner, Drayton McLane (that was hit quote above). Everything I have read suggests he's way too hands-on for an owner. Plus, he is always in "win now" mode. While that can be an admirable trait in some circumstances, it is a trait that relies heavily on drafting, scouting, and developing young players - 3 areas where the Astros have been horrible lately. Being in constant win now mode requires both an infusion of young talent on the major league roster, as well as enough young talent to use in trades. The Astros have neither.

As for 2009, I'm guessing they will be big players for Ben Sheets. He's a Louisiana native, so Houston is close to home. Plus they probably don't want to spend the money on Sabathia. Sheets, Oswalt, and Wandy is the start of a solid rotation, but none of those guys is particularly dependable.

To sum up: (1) The only way the Astros consider trading a guy like Oswalt is if a new owner buys the team; (2) the Astros current owner will force the team to try and win, regardless of what common sense tells any knowledgable baseball person; and (3) it will be hard for the Astros to win because they have a poor minor league system and do not show any signs of significant improvement.

I'm so sick of people saying to trade Lee for prospects. First of all, he has a no trade clause and he's in Houston because his ranch is nearby. Even if he did agree to be traded, he'd have pick of the teams. Of those teams he chose, the likelihood that they would give up good or even decent prospects as well as pay the rest of his $85 million dollar contract is probably nonexistent.

There's no reason why the Stros should have a fire sale, for better or worse, they made a commitment to the current roster when they traded away their remaining minor-league talent.

That said, the entire offensive nucleus will be under contract in '09 and they will have a good amount of payroll flexibility if they are willing to go back towards the $100MM dollar mark.

The team doesn't need to be blown up, they have a very capable offense and several useful/effective pitchers. All they need to do is sign a bonafide #2 starter (Lowe, Penny, Garland) or maybe make a splash with Burnett should he opt out.

Throw in another reliable middle reliever (Marte, etc) and you have a substantially improved ballclub.

I don't know much about Texas, and I surely don't intend to mess with it, but does anybody else think that Drayton McLane and W Bush are long lost twins?

Stay the course boys, stay the course. Hopefully a second half surge will successfully allow the Astros to finish in third place and make nobody happy or impressed.

that would mean Ed Wade is Colin Powell - just doing his job while secretly inside, he is horrified.

Anyway, i don't mean to offend people, i just think irony like that is pretty rare and must be pointed out.

Adding Garland and Marte will not make the Astros competitive.

Face it, without the smoke and mirrors that had them off to a brilliant start you would be looking at a bottom 3 team.

They were 30-23 back on May 27th.

Now they are 44-51. They have gone 14-28 since. Sporting a winning % of .333 over that span.

What's truly amazing is that Berkman has been playing out of his freakin mind. Carlos Lee has been spectacular. Tejada has been a disappointment but is still posting respectable numbers. So, even with these outstanding years the team is still awful. That goes to show that no matter how poorly they have played over the past two months there is room for it to get worse.

One more note ... please DO NOT assume that just because someone has a NTC they won't be moved. How many times do we need to see players moved that have these provisions in their contracts before people realize what NTC's really are?

Players put the NTC in their contracts for a couple of reasons. The primary being is that the player wants leverage in controlling his future home. The second being that the player is setting himself up for a financial windfall if a trade does materialize. Options get picked up, bonus are paid, extensions added ... whatever. The point is that NTC's are rarely written in stone. Teams just need to be creative when dealing with them.

Lee is a great example of someone who should be moved. He has played very well this year, is owed a huge pay raise for the next couple of years, and should probably be sitting in a DH role right now or in the near future. What good will he be doing costing the team his salary and playing for last place. The Astros are terrible with or without Carlos Lee.

Trade the guy today, get prospects, and save yourself $20m/year for other upgrades.

Great point about the NTC. It really just means the acquiring team has to pay extra to get the guy to waive it.

Carlos Lee isn't going anywhere - you're all vastly underestimating his desire to stay near his ranch. That is a very big part of his life.

Plus with both Jason Jennings and Mark Prior on the '09 free agent list, I can see the starting rotation getting 'bolstered' by Wade.

The Astros have the bats, no pitching. But if Wade wants to sell, I know a team(Cards) who would like a power hitting SS(Miggy) to protect Albert. What would that take...and don't say Ramus.

The parks could have an impact per certain starting pitcher against a certain team. It could also have a mental effect on the pitcher's performance, maybe they step it up against a division rival or are just at different comfort levels against different teams. I definitely think you have to play matchups sometimes.

now u know the astros arent trading tejada to the cards. they wont trade him anyways. for some reason they think they can compete and they wont sell. roger clemens aint walking through that door fellas. andy petitte aint walkin through that door.

bjsguess, Lee's NTC would be a huge barrier. He'd have to ok the teams, then one of those teams would have to be willing to not only give up good prospects, but also take on the remainder of his huge contract. I don't see all of those components coming together.

Also, like you said, he'd probably DH which cuts the possible teams in half.