that pitching would be great but the ? of hitting and defence would come about can biggio handle center and can the bench if there is really one produce.
When are Oswalt and Wade free agents? I was looking at their saleries and they are making at least 11 mil less, how will they respound to the attention that Andy is getting?
Oh man, Kip Wells would be farking awesome. Adding another Houston native with talent would be a great move. Having Roger come aboard would be nice, but they need to focus on Wells who is in his prime. Wells has a live arm too and he has a better groundball/flyball ratio than Oswalt, who is the master of MMP.
It's nice to see the Astros trying to strengthen their pitching staff. It's a formula that's worked wonders for low budget teams like the A's who sadly are in the same position as us as far as getting past the 1st round are concerned. (Worked wonders for the Marlins though ) But we do have better hitting than them and if we can continue to strengthen our pitching staff not just for this year but for years down the road than I'm happy. I would like to see more speed on the bases though. I think we have too many power hitters and not enough guys who could raise hell on base against opposing pitchers. These past two World Series have proven that a balanced team with loads of speed, solid defense, solid pitching, and a share of timely power hitting are better than just a bunch of guys that can hit the long ball. Having speedy guys on base makes it easier to manufacture runs in crunch time than hoping for a long ball to come to the rescue.
Kip Wells is a great pitcher and another local Houston product. I remember seeing him dominate at Baylor and he has really performed well in Pittsburgh. His era of 3.28 would have led the Astros staff last year. He's only 26 years old and still has his prime in front of him. He would be another HUGE pickup for Houston. In my opinion he has more upside than Pettite and Clemens do for Houston.
As for the hitting- how bad can a lineup featuring Berkman, Bagwell, and Kent be? Plus you still have a pair of good bats in Hidalgo and Ensberg, and an improving Everett. Ausmus can't be expected to do much, but Biggio should still bat .270-.280+ with a decent OBP. Didn't Biggio just play center for a whole season? This defense is not going to hurt us IMO. Ausmus is a gold glove winner, Everett may join him in a few years, Hidalgo should have been, Ensberg can be spectacular at times, and Bagwell can dig balls out of the dirt with the best of them. Kent is average at 2nd, but Berkman's learned to play the MMP LF pretty well. Biggio isn't going to wow with his range, but I see no problems in the defense. The bench is a weakness right now, but Lane is a good start. Jimy seemed to get good use out of Bruntlett and Matranga, so we'll see about them. I would bet we pick someone up via trade or free agency. Vizcaino is a versatile guy who can backup the middle infielders, and we still have Colin Porter around. From the Chronicle Luring Clemens won't be easy, so Hunsicker remains focused on the plan he carried to the winter meetings -- trying to improve the team. "There still are needs," Hunsicker said. "Just because we acquired Andy Pettitte doesn't mean our needs change. We'd still like to strengthen the bullpen with another arm, if possible, to give the young relief pitchers some support. "If there's a center field-leadoff type, preferably a lefthanded hitter, I could see adding as an extra outfielder and an experienced bat off the bench, preferably lefthanded." Considering we have Pettitte-Roy-Wade-Redding-Duckworth-Robertson-Carlos-Dotel-Lidge-Miceli-Stone-Saarloos, that's 12 pitchers, plus Mike Gallo and Nate Bland and enough to make a staff, let alone we sign Clemens. Seeing as Miceli is the only pitcher that could be considered a real "veteran" in the pen, I suspect we'll see a couple of these pitchers moved for bench help. Here's something crazy- Dotel, Pettitte, and Miceli are our only pitchers 30+. Miceli's the only one over 31.
