Anyone think we can land Carl Crawford? He's a FA and from Houston and most likely wants out of Tampa. He said he won't discuss anything until the season is over, which usually means he's leaving. I read some blogs about it and they were saying Yankees are the most interested which of course sounds like a no brainer. But his buddy Bourn is here and this is his home. I wouldn't mind putting Pence in left and Crawford in Right, keep Bourn in Center. Nothing but ground balls in the outfield next year if we could get that done!
I would like to see Carl Crawford here also but I'll be surprised if they spend that kind of money on a FA while they are rebuilding.
That reminds me of what they were saying when Chicago gave Soriano that huge contract. That his marketability (i.e. name recognition, sales) made up for overpaying him. You can ask any Cubs fan how that one worked out. Hunter is a similar type of player to what Soriano was back then. He's not the type of player to carry a good team, but he can be a good 3rd best player on a contending team (see Werth, Jayson). Speaking of that, does anyone think we could maybe pull a deal off with Tampa Bay this summer like a Hunter and B prospect for Reid Brignac and Wade Davis?
I'm a fan of Hunter Pence but so far he has proven that he can't be that go to guy. I wouldn't give him the title of face of the franchise either, he has a great personality and hard work ethic, but he still needs to greatly improve his play on the field. When he came up in 2007 he looked like he had the potential of a super-star, but since then he has been a mediocre player. If he can ever increase his walks and defense then we might be getting somewhere. But as of now he still has alot to improve. I surely hope this isn't his ceiling.
I would tend to agree on Pence except his play in the 2nd half of the season has given me new hope. His combo of speed and power isn't common and his leadership skills took another step up once Puma and Oz were traded. I wanted him gone this offseason but now would rather see what he could do for another season before making a move either way.
maybe not a huge need, but crawford in left and lee at first is an enormous upgrade over lee in left and wallace at first.
Koby is HORRIBLE in the field. If he was halfway decent at fielding I think he would have had a September callup at least by now.
I believe Carlos can pick a certain number of which teams he would accept a trade to. If he doesn't want to go anywhere, then he just picks a bunch of teams that would obviously have no interest in him (Royals, Pirates, etc.) or teams the Astros are unlikely to trade to.
While of course I agree (I love Crawfords game), it's just not the route we need to take right now. Correct me if I'm wrong folks, but we'll be giving up draft picks to the Rays if we sign Crawford, right? We need to follow the Rays blueprint rather than be pawns in it. Collect draft picks, sign them, and build our team that way. We should not be signing any more 30+ outfielders to 5 and 6 year contracts (which Crawford surely will be demanding). Remember Goliad! Remember Carlos Lee!
I'm fairly certain you didn't watch Hunter Pence after Oswalt and Berkman were traded. I'm not saying he doesn't need to improve. It would be great if he could improve his walk rate. But everything he did with his play and how he conducted himself showed that he knew he was the leader of this team. You could see it very clearly when he was interviewed. He is the face of this franchise right now and I'm perfectly fine with that.
I don't expect much improvement from Pence. Exactly 25HR in 3 consecutive years. I'm thinking he is a 25HR guy. He has back to back seasons of a .282 average. I'm thinking he is probably a .282 type hitter. I hope he learns to take more walks.
I watched Pence play, yes it looked liked he had a new posture about him, but the guy really didn't show anything on the field that we hadn't seen before. He managed to go on a hot streak to finish the season. We've seen him hit these streaks before and then cool down once again. He seems like he's the guy you want in the clubhouse, but i'm just not to confident he will still be an Astro in a few years. I consider a franchise player someone who is an All-Star year in and year out and is head and shoulders above the rest of the team as your best player. Unfortunately with Pence I just don't see that. Hopefully he can improve, but I think if the right deal was offered for him the Astros would pull the trigger easily.
Doubt he ever becomes a big walks guy. He's a hacker, he's definitely more of an aggressive hitter than a patient one.
Just because he isn't taking walks doesn't mean he hasn't become more of a patient hitter. You can't just throw that outside slider and expect him to swing anymore. He's laying off of the bad pitches more and more. But if you throw one over the plate, he's going to swing no matter the count. I don't see that as a bad thing. His OBP went up in the 2nd half even though his walk rate went down.
I don't think that being a patient hitter makes you necessarily a good hitter, nor does being an aggressive hitter make you a bad hitter. Look at 06 Ensberg for a counter-example of the former (patient but bad), and 03-09 Lee and 02-09 Tejada as counter-examples of the latter. I just don't think he's going to start working the count as much as a Bagwell or Berkman would, which leads to more walks. I'm still happy with Pence in right. He's a good player.
Is it worth giving up the #11 pick in next year's draft? Astros pick 11th in 2011 draft Note: Astros will have 9th pick in the rest of the rounds. 2 teams got compensation picks for not signing their 1st round picks from the 2010 draft, pushing the Astros to 11th. Crawford projected as Type A free agent
