[FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH] We're Trying to Get a Bat

We think Purpura is a poor GM. How does that make us despise the team? Explain that one, please.

 

Now that is a amusing.

 

Okay dude, you made your point. But you need to realize that not everyone gets excited about a "possible historic run". Some people are "glass is 1/2 full" and some are "1/2 empty", and here we have a situation where there's room for both views - a team near a playoff spot, but struggling at the same time.

It's great that you have faith and will root, root, root and all that, but at the same time, it's unfair for you to categorize doubters as jumping for joy each time the team loses. Everyone here wants the team to win every game. So let's talk baseball here and lay off bashing other posters.

 

I think people will stop bashing posters when posters stop bashing the team (GM, players, etc).

 

Trying to get inside the mind of Alou?

 

So far Purpura has done nothing. He did not resign Kent in the offseason, and was unable to pull off a trade at the deadline to bring in another bat. This offseason is going to be a real test for Timmy to get something done.

 

Re-signed Clemens
Extended Oswalt
Extended Berkman

If he gets blamed for not re-signing Kent, he ought to get credit for getting these 3 re-signed or extended. In addition, did you notice that Clemens is talking about coming back another year?

 

It was pretty much a given those 3 were going to resign. Purpura really didn't have nothing to do with that. Man, the Yanks got Matt Lawton from the Cubs for a 21 pitcher in A ball. That pissess me off, why couldn't Purpura do better than that. Lawton is solid OF with good OBP and all he cost was low level prospect. Don't say Cubs wouldn't trade him to the Astros since they are out of the race and they did trade Tom Gordan to us at the same time this year 3 years ago.

 

I'm neither here nor there on how I feel about Purpura, and I tend to agree with Granado when he compares him to a rookie who will get better and may have missed out on some transactions given his rookie mistakes, but we all know that drayton pulled the trigger on the above transactions.

It was one of Hunsickers main complaints as to how involved Drayton would get with signing players.

You can't blame the Beltran debacle in any way shape or form on Purp, as that was Drayton's deal. You also can't blame a lack of adding a big name bat at the deadline on Purpura when the asking price was too high.

This team is at a crossroads of sorts. We have some incredible talent that is aging and some uproven rookie talent that may or may not pan out. Looking to the near future, Biggio will be gone which leaves three holes in the field; Left field, Right field and Second base. Lane may be coming on and proving that he can be a legit Right fielder. As far as I can tell, Burke is still penciled in as Biggio's replacement. This means that any trade involving these players and only getting back one bat (unless it's a whopper) leaves you worse off than when you started. IOW, Purpura has a precarious position with which to work. He needs a good bat, but can only give up marginal talent to get it. i.e. Astacio/Rodriguez/Qualls.

With the implentation of the wild card, more teams were in it than ever and therefore, it was a sellers market. Our combo's to give up without crippling the team, just weren't going to bring back the Porter trash.

IMO, the only chance we would have to add a great bat would be something for Griffey, but then we have to take on the salary and major risk that the guy will get hurt again.

 

Yeah, Purpura sucks. Since Lawton was traded to the Cubs, he has an OPS under 0.600 - worse than Burke's ever has been. He would have turned this team around.

 

I'd like to introduce you to the wonders of too small a statistical sample, but it's probably not worth the effort.

 

If you think Chris Burke is better than Matt Lawton, you must know nothing about baseball. Matt Lawton will get on base at a high level, play solid defense, still bases, rarely strikeout, and is a great hitter with RISP. Thats what this needs, a proven MLB hitter, not a minor league hitter. Yea, Lawton struggled as a Cub but he was great as a Pirate. Burke is a horrible hitter in every aspect this year.

 

Simple question. For the most part, given a player's current performance (let's say since the all star break), who would you rather have playing left field on an every day basis for the Astros?

Chris Burke----------------- .242, .341, .735 ( 99 At Bats) $316,000
Matt Lawton --------------- .252, .333, .642 (139 At Bats) $7,750,000
Orlando Palmeiro------------ .324, .363, .809 ( 74 At Bats) $800,000

 

Why you using only 139 bats to judge someone. Lawton OPS this year .778 while Burke's is .641. Burke hits .250 with RISP and only .135 with RISP and 2 outs. Lawton hits .291 with RISP and .280 with RISP and 2 outs. Lawton has been is the postseason and Burke has not.

 

You didn't answer the question. Which of those 3 players would you rather have in left field for the Astros?

 

So it's Griff?

Where does Griff play? Do you move Willy to Right?