Astros Not Signing Ivan Rodriguez

I'd actually like to see the Pirates take a shot at signing Pudge, if they could get him that cheap...move Doumit back out to a corner outfield spot. If for no other reason than it might help keep Doumit healthy for a full year - which I'm afraid he can't do behind the plate.

This just in...the Astros sign no one!

I'm interested in seeing how the usual baseball pundits who frequent this site and love to hate on the Astros will some how find a way to relate this post to the Astros "needing to rebuild" and "what a horrible owner" Drayton McClane is.

They'll find a way.

The Astros seemed to do pretty well after the break last seaason. Seemed like everyone wrote them off as well. Seems to me like it is a little to early to "write" any team off really.....well except the Yankees.OHH BURN

lol Scribbletone, you are hating on the Astros all the time. Its sickening to think that you actually believe that you dont hate them. Say something nice or nothing at all. Its easy.

So I should never look at teams objectively? I should just pretend like the Astros don't have major holes all over their pitching staff, and their farm system is horrible with the exception of their 2008 draftees?

I'm sorry that rather than just being a fan of one team, I'm a fan of baseball. I love every team, and judge every team the same, because I'm not some dumb homer that gets defensive when someone makes a comment about my team.

Grow up.

Outstanding!!! Let's just let Ed Wade catch and pay nobody to play one of the most important positions on the field. The Astros deciding to cheap out all of a sudden is getting ridiculous, why don't they just let the fans play so they can save more money.

Hahaha! Yes! Did I call it, or did I call it?!

I knew someone wouldn't be able to resist the ubiquitous "the Astros have a horrible farm system" jab. It's a scientific law at this point. Love it.

Seriously though, let Q start (calls a good game, has a great arm, plays solid D), and Towles/Palmisano fight it out for the back-up role. I know neither one of those two options are enticing, but if the Astros are as broke as they say they are, and extra ca$h isn't a luxury this season; I don't see many viable alternatives. And I gotta' agree with Ed Wade on this one, in that any extra money will be better spent on pitching.

I'm going to try to mediate between scribbletone and some others.

First off, I'm an Astros fan, but like scribbletone, I too am a fan of baseball.

Are the Astros built to contend? No.

Is their farm system hurting for previous poor drafts and Type A free agent signings? Yes.

Here though is where it gets tricky and where many non-Astros fans don't think about. The Astros have an owner that refuses to rebuild. It just isn't in his makeup. He wants to try to win every year. What is costing him is that he tried to cut corners with costs in the draft. You can't skimp on the draft and sign type A's at the same time.

Another problem is that the Astros have gone on insane 2nd half runs the past several years. So when the Astros have the best 2nd half record last season, you can see where McLane can justify to himself that replacing Wolf with Hampton and Wigginton with a platoon doesn't impact his team all that much. (Keep in mind that they went on this run without Carlos Lee for a significant amount of time)

Now, is this the best thinking? We'll soon find out. Personally, I don't think they'll be that good. Now, I refuse to bash the owner for not signing a guy like Pudge and I won't say that the guy is cheap. He gets this reputation somehow but come on, the Astros are consistantly in the top third of payrolls. Again, what is hurting this team is their lack of young, up and coming talent because of poor drafts and not signing picks from 04, 05, 06 and 07.

The team though has started to correct this by bringing in Bobby Heck (who drafted all of the Brewers' young players) and Ed Wade (who doesn't necessarily make the best GM moves but did oversee the Phillies drafting of most of thier top players).

What people need to stop doing is going on and on about rebuilding though because even if we disagree with the thinking, the man responsible just isn't going to do it. And to me, if he's the one shelling out the $100+ million per year, he can run his team as he sees fit. I didn't become an Astros fan because of the owner anyway.

Just my 2 cents fellas.

and scribbletone, if you seriously think Towles has any "upside" at all you don't know a thing about baseball or you haven't watched him enough. the guy can't hit his way out of a paper bag and that's not changing. he's like Ausmus only not as good of a defender, so that makes him almost completely worthless

"and scribbletone, if you seriously think Towles has any "upside" at all you don't know a thing about baseball or you haven't watched him enough. the guy can't hit his way out of a paper bag and that's not changing. he's like Ausmus only not as good of a defender, so that makes him almost completely worthless"

Towles did look just horrid at the ML level last season, but you simply can't write this guy off yet.

He posted an .870 OPS in AAA last year, and has hit at every level of the minors. He's only 25, so I see little reason why you wouldn't give Towles another decent shot this year to emerge as a quality player.

See, I don't just sit on this site and bash the Astros. Jeez.

"Would you prefer people lie to themselves and say that Houston doesn't have an awful farm system?"
-scribbletone

No, that's not what I'm getting at. I just don't see what the 'Stros minor league system has to do with them not signing Ivan Rodriguez, but had a feeling someone would relate the two.

New game on MLBTR: 6 degrees from the Astros minor league system. Go...

mets rotation:

1 - Santana
2 - Pelfrey
3 - Perez
4 - Maine
5 - Garcia

Bullpen:

cl - K-rod

su - Putz

mr - Parnell
mr - feliciano
mr - niese
mr - Sanchez

lr - hernandez (platooning with garcia)
lr - redding (platooning with garcia)

Lineup:

1 - Castillo 2B
2 - Church RF
3 - Reyes SS
4 - Wright 3B
5 - Delgado 1B
6 - Beltran CF
7 - Murphy/Tatis
8 - Schnieder/Cancel/Castro/ pudge?
9 - pitcher