Life is not fair but the strong keeps moving along in spite of. We have been dealt with a dishearten fate of life without Beltran (and subsequentlt Clemens) and now we must forge ahead. Without wasting your royal times, I see this an a golden opportunity to do something that we could not have done easily hard Beltran signed - get faster and younger (and rebuild fast). How? Simply by changing the team philosophy of reloading aging sluggers for an opportunity to win now at all cost. First it starts will doing whatever it takes to make Willie Taveras the starting everyday center and lead of hitter starting earnestly this April. In keeping with that theme, that will mean starting Chris Burke at 2nd and Jason Lane in the other outfield position. We can then pick up either Alex Cora or Miguel Cairo as backup utility infielders with speed and that way focus most of our money now on pitching (starting and relief). We can also sign Ben Grieve as a backup plan for Berkman. I agree with Charlie P that we do not move our prized prospect "fast" enough for them to assume greater roles. You always want to avoid forcing are young guys into tough situations at the 11th hour but that is too late now - they either put up or get replaced. Had we signed Carlos, we would have likely gotten Clemens back and will be forced to sign other verterans in order to make them happy. The patch work would have likely continued. I cannot really blame them for their decisions (though there is still a 1% chance that the Rocket will be back with us). Yes we are now officially in a quasi-rebuilding mode and we should not kid ourselves. We must now find out if our young studs are now up to snuff and now focus our team on speed on defense and offense. This I believe should be our team's goal. Signing folks like Juan Gonzalez, Ordonez or Burnitz is a step backward. We should be thinking now of the future without Beltran, Clemens, Kent and to a small extent Bagwell and Bggio. We must be savvy because it unlikely that we will entise blue chip free agents in the near future especially with our financial constraints. In all we move forward as one, and be transparent and clear about it as well. Go Astros!!! Go Metz!!!
Without wasting your royal times, I see this an a golden opportunity to do something that we could not have done easily hard Beltran signed - get faster and younger (and rebuild fast). How? Simply by changing the team philosophy of reloading aging sluggers for an opportunity to win now at all cost. Agreed. Time for this tieam to sign and lock up their young talent and take a different approach. Lining up sluggers to take advantage of MMP has not worked
i say we go ahead and bring up Wily Taveras....and platoon him w/ Biggio.....and Biggio can platoon w/ Burke at 2nd too...Since we won't have the kind of power we had in previous seasons, it's time to go back to small ball. Lineup: Taveras/Biggio Burke/Biggio Bagwell Berkman Ensberg Lane Everett Aumus
This is similar to the formular that Minesota and Cleveland Indians used last season - good solid pitch from top to bottom combined with great speed on defense and offense. The formular has worked and it will work this year for Cleveland. We tried to out slug The Cards and Cubs last year it did not really work to be sincere. Now lets focus on out pitching and outplaying them on the field with bugs bunny spead. At least we will be fun to watch and be competitive.
Except we don't have good solid pitching top to bottom. Other than Lidge, our bullpen is a mess. Our rotation isn't looking too good either, I seriously doubt Clemens comes back, Oswalt is outstanding, Pettite is coming off serious arm problems, Backe was great for two months but can he do it an entire season? After that it looks like our #4 and 5 starters will be Carlos Hernandez and Tim Redding, need I say anything about those two? Now I know that we'll probably add a couple of arms to the bullpen, and probably a guy to plug into the #4 spot in the rotation, but our pitching still isn't going to be solid top to bottom.
This is all the more reason that Pupura should have picked up the contracts of both Kent and Miller. Had we signed Beltran and needed the money, both of those guys could have been traded for good prospects. Now, we have nothing to show for letting THREE starters walk.
