The Rangers

And what have the Stros done?

Oh yeah, got rid of their best hitter, and best 3rd baseman.



DaDakota

 

Having Rocker and Everett is an experiment that is liable to blow up in John Hart's face.

I think that Seattle and Oakland are still the best teams in the West. However, if they get Sele, they will be much better and could compete for a playoff spot. But, I am going to remain skeptical about their chances.

 

Well, Lance Berkman was the Astros best hitter, and Vinny was average at 3B for the Astros.

As for the Rangers :
1) Its Carl Everett people, he's insane - and last year he was atrocious.

2) Its John Rocker, he may the even more hated than Carl Everett. Now you put them in the same locker room? Yikes.

3) Chan Ho Park sucks away from Dodger Stadium(the best pitchers park in the game) - Arlington stadium is a good hitters park, oh, and this deal probably means I-Rod is gone.

4) Sele had a good year last year(in a pitchers park, btw), but its completely inconsistent with the remainder of his career. He could pitch good, but I won't be betting on it.

Oakland will win the depleted AL West this year, I'd wager.

And the Astros will win the Central.

 

1. Park had a 4.82 ERA away from pitcher-friendly Dodger stadium.

2. Castilla was mediocre - .320 as an OBP absolutely sucks. And that's not even counting his even more pathetic #'s when playing with the D-rays. Yeah, he had some power, but had an absolutely horrible eye.

3. Astros lost no key players, and will have some important pitchers back from injury.

 

Alou was a key...but oh well...back to gta3

 

you are right.. just alou.. one of the top 5 hitters in the league.. lol i think he was a KEY player

 

I just heard Everett and A-Rod deferred some money to be able to get Chan Ho Park. A-Rod is smart: He has about 25 mill in the bank from this past season alone, not to mention the millions he's getting from other deals, why not save some of that money until he retires?

Ensberg, unlike Castilla, gets loads of walks, and the Astros organization love his power potential.

The only things I wish the Astros had done this offseason were get a backup 3B for Ensberg, and add a really good lefty setup man. There's still time for the backup 3B. As for the starters, we have Reynolds, Oswalt, and Miller as a trio who are more or less sure things. Hernandez was incredible before injury, and should have the #4 slot. Tim Redding is very high potential, and will battle Mlicki, who was awesome down the stretch, for the #5 slot. That's not a bad group. The Astros should've signed Dennis Cook. Nitkowski may be OK, but not yet the proven guy we should've gotten, maybe those Mike Myers rumors will come back. In a perfect world, Wilfredo Rodriguez harnesses his stuff, and becomes part of a high octane trio in the late innings-Rodriguez, Dotel, Wagner. Mathews, Cruz, and Brocail are solid middle relief guys, that can setup when needed. We have the bullpen depth to trade Wagner if he continues to make free agency threats.

I think the loss of Alou will be frayed by Hidalgo going closer to his 2000 form, and Ward being left handed, and a good hitter in his own right. I think Ward could be good for .280 with 85 RBI and 30 HR, which is good enough to justify not spending 9 mill on Alou.

 

Anybody who believes ALou was a top 5 hitter last year needs to get their heads checked.

Alou had a very high average. Unfortunately, Alou neither takes walks well nor hits for the same kind of power as many other OF's.

His NL OPS rank was #17. Batting Average is a horrible tool to determine player-value because it does not take into account A. walks or B. power. OPS takes both of these into account.

Now, losing the #17 hitter in the NL sucks. But then, you discover that his OPS dips even further if you take his Enron-inflated #'s away. Then he dips to being the #23 hittiner in the National League, behind such stalwarts as Paul LoDuca and Bobby Abreu. All excellent hitters, but not exactly Bagwell-esquian in their talent.

Could we expect Daryle Ward to make up for Alou's contributions? Quite possible. What about Alou's defense? Alou wasn't a good fielder... but Ward is worse, I'll admit.

So we probably do lose a bit of hitting and a bit of fielding. But not as much as you'd think at first glance. And Alou is aging, further reducing his likely production next year. Barry Bonds is an anomaly: the average peak season for MLB players is 28.

Oh, but back to the original assertion that he's a "key" player:

really? How many "key" players can one team have?

Berkman and Bagwell had higher OPSs. Relative to position, Craig Biggio hit better as well. Richard Hidalgo's season the year before is superior to anything Alou has ever done (easily). If he returns to that form, he's a better hitter as well. And he's younger, and hence more likely to improve rather than decline.

Hence, Alou is perhaps the Astros #5 hitter offensively. Nice, but hardly essential.

Then lets get into pitchers. Is Alou as valuable as Oswalt? Nope. Miller? Nope. Wagner? Nope. Dotel? Nope.

Alou was... perhaps our 9th best player. And that figure could be reduced further ,as more pitchers, etc, emerge.

So, was he "key?" I don't think so.

 

Lets get it right...

Alou wasnt a good feilder.


Umm I believe he finished in the top 3 or so in fielding percentage for all NL outfielders. Yes he played timid after his two horrendous injuries, but really who wouldnt.

On the other hand, Ward is likely to be one of the worst fielding regular outfielders in the NL. Like his power potentential, but if you think Alou didnt take walks, what do you think Ward is going to look like wiffing as much as he is bound to do?

Alou didnt walk enough. So what, he tried to put the ball in play. Which is more important. Look at Alou's strikeouts for last year. Without looking Id wager that he had maybe much less than Bagwell, Berkman, Biggio, or any hitter on the Stros squad. Id guess probably 1/2 as much as those players.

Hidalgos season two years ago is much better than any Alou has ever had....

Umm, a few years ago and last year were outstanding offensive seasons. Why would you even compare Hidalgo's one great season with Alous many many fine seasons. As far as we know, Hidalgo is a one year wonder. What has he done outside of that one year...average maybe 280. mayber 20 homers and 80 rbi???

Players hit there peak at 28....

Outside of injury has not Alous effort been tremedous the last few years? Has it not improved greatly? Much much better than any Astro fan could of ever imagined when he was signed.

The best part was he didnt go up there and strikeout every key at bat.

9th best player on the Astros...god

 

A few things.

First off, Fielding percentage is not indicative of how good a fielder someone is for several reasons, first off, it only measures balls you get to, not the ones you are too slow to reach(which would be Alou's greatest vice as a fielder), nor does it take into account friendly scorekeeping, which has the effect of rendering some very curios interpretations of plays that result in hits for players, when an error happened.

Secondly, Moises doesn't walk a lot, so for all his high batting average, his on-base percentage isn't as good as it should be. Also, his power has dropped off steeply from last year, which was probably his best year as a pro. From here, its all downhill, and his injuries are bothersome, because they mean he won't get as much playing time. And his injuries will only get worse.

Thirdly, batting average is nice, but its not that indicative of how well a player hits. Lance Berkman and Moises Alou had identical batting averages last year. Lance Berkmans on-base percentage was about 34 points higher and his sluggin percentage was much higher - which was why his OPS(SLG% + OBP) was over 100 points higher than Alou's.

Richard Hidalgo had a down year last year, in comparison to his fantastic 2000 campaign, but even then the Astros got the second most production from the centerfield position in the league, and Hidalgo was competely average in the field defensively at center. If Hidalgo drops those 20lbs he added last year, there is a good chance he can return to his 2000 form, which was better than anything Moises Alou has ever done. I would wager there's a better chance that Hidalgo returns to 2000 form than Alou plays at the same level he did this year, for over 150 games next year.

Moises Alou is a good hitter, but in one of the finest years of his career, he was only the third best hitter on this team(Berkman, Bagwell), and he has missed an alarming number of games in the past three years. I would've liked to see Moises back, but once it became clear what his asking price was, I knew the Astros wouldn't invest that much money in an aging, injury-prone hitter. It's just not worth the money.

 

Its the same syndrome different league.

Once a Rocket or Astro leave the team they sucked and didnt deserve the money.

Yep fielding percentage is absolutely worthless...what would of happened if Alous percentage would of been the worst. I suppose there would of been everyone claiming how important it was then. Did you watch Alou in the field. Much improvement. Guess you didnt see the dives, the grand slam saving leaps. But hey as long as you dont mind from going from third best who adequately gets to balls, to probably the absolute worst who cant get to anything and call it a fair swap so be it.

I still dont care that Moises doesnt walk alot. Its a worthless stat for a high average hitting, with pretty good power, RBI monster. Why would anyone want him to WALK. Why is this continuously brought up. You want him to swing the bat, which is what he did. AND didnt strike out near as much as Bagwell, Berkman, or Hidalgo. Maybe that explains why he produces RBI at a much higher clip than anyone on the team. To me making it much more important than walking. Again if you think Ward is ever going walk as much as Alou...happy dreaming.

Actually his money wasnt even close to market value. And he was even willing to give a home town discount, liked being in Houston, and spoke well of the Org.

 

dreamshake look at alou this way, hes 35, hes oft injured, and we have daryle ward and lane in triple A next yr who can come close to replacing his bat, ill take my nine mil elsewhere thank you very much

Don't get me wrong i like moises but at age 35 with ward and lane here when we dont have the yanks resources no thank you

 

ok.

First - I did not say Alou sucked. I said he wasn't worth what he was asking, which I believe is true.

Secondly, as far as Alou's fielding goes, it was improved, but to suggest he was even average is a serious stretch of imagination. He is a bad fielder, there's no way around it. I don't mind bad fielders so much, because I personally think defense is really overrated, but to suggest that fielding is one of Alou's strengths is ludicrous, in my opinion. Ward won't be any better in the field, but Ward won't ask for a big contract and isn't old and injury prone.

As far as Alou's walks - A walk is always better than an out. Getting to base safely is always better than an out. Alou hits for a high average - well, the past two years, and in 1994 he hit for a high average - but he's never had great power, and he doesn't walk much.

As far as RBI's go, its not a good statistic because it relies too much on situations a batter is put in(see Sammy Sosa having more RBI's than Barry bonds this year, despite Bonds being a much, much better hitter than Sosa this year.) Moises Alou had the second most At-Bat's with runners in scoring position on the Astros - yet was only the 5th best hitter when runners were in scoring position on the team(behind Bagwell, Biggio, Berkman and Castilla).

Once again, Moises Alou is a good hitter, but not a great one, and has had an injury problem for the past three years. He's not worth the contract the Cubs gave him, in either per-year, or length, and he's not worth what he was asking of the Astros.

 

<B>As far as Alou's walks - A walk is always better than an out. Getting to base safely is always better than an out. </B>

That's not always true -- it really depends on the hitter's job. I'd rather have someone that bats 0.350 and never walks (OBP = 0.350) than someone who never hits but walks 40% of the time (OBP = 0.400).

The latter might be a good leadoff guy, but lower in the order, you're going to need hits to drive in runs. If everyone in your lineup had a 0.500 OBP, all from walks, you're not going to score many runs. Alou's job wasn't to get on base for the bottom crap of our lineup to fail to drive him in. If possible, his job was to swing away and get whomever is on base home. And at that, he was as good as they come.

As for him being a pretty good hitter, players disagree. Every Astros player who was asked consistently listed Alou as the best hitter on the team.

In terms of Lane/Ward/Ensberg coming in to replace him -- it's a bit early to assume any of those will have great rookie seasons. More likely, they'll struggle with breaking stuff and pitchers will find weaknesses (Ward is better off, obviously, having been in the majors for several years). Most rookies don't have great first seasons. In Ensberg's case, he's not even a top rookie, being 26 and never having been up to the majors. None of these rookies are in the Hildago/Ward/Berkman/Oswalt mold where they are were projected to be the future of the organization, and I think the expectations for them are a bit high, unfortunately.