We need a 2nd and 3rd starter, (2nd at the very least), Please don't resign Jennings. Dump the old trash, dump Lidge, keep Qualls. Find a leadoff hitter, use Hunter 2nd or 5th, Euthanize Adam Everett. Go Wade Go.
PLAYOFFS?!?! Are you kidding me?! So, there's nobody in the rotation besides Oswalt that's any good and Gutierrez and Paulino stunk it up. I say Cooper should go old school and bring back the three man rotation... Roy Oswalt next season: 32-10 with 315 strikeouts!
You know what's funny? I forgot Jennings was actually on our roster for the last month of the season. It was such a refreshing change to see other rookies give up runs that I was elated . Please don't resign Jennings. Then again, who else is there at the #2 spot in the free agent market?
Morgy and Lane are gone, now hopefully we can get rid of Everett's sorry ass. Or at least if we refuse to let him go, have enough offensive power to make up for his shortcomings. But really, he needs to get the **** out of Houston.
Well, if Loretta is at 2nd and Wiggy is at 3rd, I'm pretty damn sure we're going to need Everett's defense. With Towels getting a majority of the starts (ideally), that takes one more bad bat out of the lineup. As it stands now, I think we're looking at... Anderson or Pence CF Burke or Loretta 2B Berkman 1B Lee LF Pence or Scott RF Wigginton 3B Towels C Everett SS
So a 3.05 ERA reliever (by far a career best, likely a fluke) needs to be kept, but a 3.36 guy needs to be dumped? Can you please tell me where the line is?
Lots of tradeable pieces.......we need pitching...pitching, and more pitching... Also, if Luke is not going to start in RF, trade him somewhere for some....uh...pitching. I liked the way Backe bounced back, but am leary of leaning on him for a whole year due to his always getting injured. I would love it if he was the number 4 or 5 pitcher at the beginning of spring training in Feb. DD
Qualls is cheap and he has good stuff, Jennings is garbage and in the crazy world of baseball will cost even more this season. Cat, repeat this 10 times to yourself "Jason Jennings sucks, he has below average stuff and he is out of shape. The Astros made a terrible trade and it's time to move on without Jason Jennings because he is not very good"
This team's offense is fine as is. If the team can potentially acquire a 2B with speed and leadoff skills and doesn't trust Burke, I'd consider that. But by and large, an offense of 2B/Pence/Berkman/Lee/Scott/Wigginton/Towles/Everett is perfectly fine and probably above average. The problem is in the pitching. Right now, in both the rotation and bullpen, there are three proven plus arms: Oswalt, Qualls and Lidge. Potentially, Sarfate and Patton could fit that bill, but there's a lot to be determined there. This team badly needs depth in both areas, and unfortunately, the SP market isn't strong. This team needs to take chances on bargain bin, reclamation projects (see Cardinals), sign at least one quality reliever (Linebrink?) and explore what the trade market (Scott?) can bring in terms of starters.
When did I even mention or discuss Jennings in this thread? You have a weird obsession with the guy...
Starting pitching: 1: Roy Oswalt 2. ? 3. Brandon Backe 4. ? 5: Wandy Rodriguez, Chris Sampson, Woody Williams, Matt Albers, Fernando Nieve? Astros need one or two upgrades at starting pitchers. Jennings I suspect will not be resigned and maybe not even be offered a contract. Backe needs to show he can stay healthy, or maybe moved to the bully where he can pitch fewer innings. Troy Patton I bet starts the season in AAA. Bullpen: 1. Brad Lidge 2. Chad Qualls 3. Dennis Sarfate Mark McLemore Juan Gutierrez plus the above starters who don't win a job Sarfate showed great promise. I would not be surprise if Lidge is moved, if Sarfate continues to deliver. Lidge as an almost-good-enough-to-be-a-closer would thrive as a setup man, methinks, but he is getting paid to close and more will be expected. Position players: 1. Lance Berkman (not known for either speed or defense) 2. ? SS. Adam Everett (great speed and great defense) 3. ? C. J.R. Towles (good speed and unknown defense) RF. ? CF. Hunter Pence (great speed and good defense) LF. Carlos Lee (not known for either speed or defense) Chris Burke should be in his prime and sucks. The old Astros management arguably hung onto failed players too long, hoping a "return to form" (think Lane and Ensberg). I hope that the Astros move Burke or make him a nonstarter infielder (and then let Eric Bruntlett beat him out for that roster spot). Ty Wigginton and Luke Scott and the words speed and defense are rarely in the same sentence. I will be surprise if either on the roster in two years. Josh Anderson is a dark horse to make the team next year in CF, moving Pence to RF. Anderson struggled in AAA but performed well after the September callup. He has been groomed in the minors to be a MLB lead off hitter and defensive stand out CF. His OBP for his career is lacking. A return to form in spring training will see Anderson spending the next year in AAA. The Astros minors are not breaming with unexploited talent, especially the pitching. The best the Astros can hope for is some of their minors to catch fire and develop into bona fide MLB talent. FA and trades will be the tools the Astros use to rebuild the next few years. Top flight FAs might not be attracted to the Astros, since they will not be contenders in the next few years. Mid level talent on a 73 -89 team may not bring immediate help or anything more than good-not-great AA prospects.
How many extra innings games did we fail to score a single run? I see our offense as inconsistent. And we had three starters who barely hit their weight (Ausmus, Burke, and Everett). Burke and Everett are certainly penciled in as next year's starters. Ausmus, if he returns, will likely start more often than most people think (40% of the time is my bet) and maybe more if Towles slumps.
24th out of 30 teams in runs scored tell me that the offense is not fine in a sport in which only 8 teams make the playoffs of course the NL and the central division is horrible so you never know right. just my .02
Injuries and inexplicable slumps. Pence missed two months (April, August). Berkman's power was nonexistent for April and May. 3B was a problem with the Ensberg/Loretta platoon of sorts. Scott's playing time was far too sporadic, and the Astros knowingly sacrificed offense in September (Scott) to give playing time to younger guys for evaluation purposes (Anderson). When Pence, Berkman, Lee, Scott and Wigginton are in the lineup and producing like they should, this offense will be fine.
so disgusting. i'm guessing that would be the worst lineup in baseball. burke has no business on the team, but of course, they need to "find out about him". he's only played in 400 games in his career. too small of a sample size to reach and judgment on him. congrats to everett on earning his starting job for 2008 by getting knocked out for the season 4 months ago. gotta find out about everett. he'll most likely develop into a great hitter over the offseason, but even if he doesn't, it doesn't matter because it is imperative that you have a great defensive ss on this team. i mean, a huge reason of us losing almost 90 games this year were all those balls being booted and kicked around the infield by everett's replacements. and we all know that everett is the ONLY ss in the game who is capable of fielding ground balls well. can't put a price on that! congrats to josh anderson on winning the starting cf job for 08 by hitting .350 over 15 games as a september callup. as for our rotation, they won't change a thing, and, heck, can you blame them? i mean, you've got to give guitterrez, paulino, albers, sampson, whatever other stiffs i cant think of right now, at LEAST a full season in the rotation to find out about these guys. gotta find out about em. lidge will get his **** together, dont worry. just gotta work his kinks out. we gotta find out about randolph. you cant really make too much of getting demolished every outing this year. let's give him all of 08 to see what he can do. also, congrats to borkowski for securing his spot in the bullpen through '09 with his striking out the side in the 9th inning of the final game the other night. congrats to cecil cooper getting the full time job without a single other candidate even being considered purely based on the color of his skin. congrats to the worst owner in professional sports for finding a way to rid himself of that stigma in the cheapest and easiest way possible. this team is a disaster folks. no reason for optimism. i'm pretty much guaranteeing a zero of an offseason. we never have to watch craig biggio again...that's going to be the best thing to happen between now and april. the ONLY chance that this team has going forward is mclane passing away in the offseason.
blah, blah, blah, blah. what if? what if? what if? what if? 1-Anderson-CF not proven so a what if 2-Pence-RF good potential to be very good 3-Berkman-1st very good 4-Lee-LF very good 5-Wiggington-3rd average at best 6-Burke-below average 7-Ausmus-below average Towles not proven so a what if 8-Everett-below average Astros need to either retain Mark L and Lamb or bring in more guy to compete because I don't trust what if's. Scott is a good guy to have if Anderson does not work out imo. Lineup seems average at best (not fine at all atleast not with a staff with so many question marks) Starting rotation Roy O and then a bunch of what of's or question marks Bullpen should be ok but we don't have a closer we can count on In the field we are average if guys play their natural positions. It's maybe a 500 team
