...so, anyone else feel like the Void has already been going for a couple months? Not even in 2000 did I feel like baseball was just *over* back in late July/early August. What a lousy, lousy freaking year. Dear Astros: don't ever freaking EVER do that again. Never. Again.
agreed entirely. at the end of 2000 you could see them putting it together and playing some good baseball.
Hope Crane takes over soon and makes some changes to the front office just to make the offseason interesting. I think Wandy is done and I get the feeling Barmes will get paid somewhere else.
While I cant argue when it comes to wins and loses (it being a very bad year), I feel better about this year than 2010 + 2009 primarily because they finally did what they had to do. Finally did what they should have done in 2007 or 2008. That is, finally went into rebuild mode entirely. Now, the bottom has been reached. Unlike 2007-2010 when you just knew things were going to get worse before they get better, now I can honestly say that is no longer the case. I believe the momentum is turning the other way. Slowly mind you, but things are to improve from here. The trend is set in the right direction.
Hopefully the kids will be improved next year (Paredes is the only one I really expect to go backwards next year). Hopefully we can also see the minor league talent continue to improve. Wandy may bring in some prospects over the winter. I don't think we manage to move Lee or Myers. If we do, than great, if we can't, hopefully Myers bounces back and Lee continues where he left off this season.
Dear Jim Crane, Please fire Ed Wade and hire your friend Andrew Freidman as GM before the Cubs do. While you are at it remove Tal Smith and his stupid hill. Thanks, xx
Hate to say it, but it doesn't look too promising for the Crane Group these days. Not sure who to believe as far as what the reasoning is...but the common consensus among the media is he won't be taking over any time soon....if at all. We might just be stuck with Drayton for a while longer.
Yes this season was a debacle, the Astros were the worst they have ever been in their 49 year history. However, this past season also served as a turning point for the franchise. No need for a history lesson, but after the appearance in the World Series and the bad signings of Carlos Lee, Woody Wiliiams and the trade for Jason Jennings, what little depth in the minors was lost and the horrible drafting finally caught up with the Astros. The Astros finally traded away players in their prime (Pence and Bourn) and netted a decent return to restock the farm system as well as forcing the Astros hand to promote prospects to the majors. The Astros finally started rebuilding, which Drayton and Co. never wanted to do in the past. That's the silver lining to this horrible season, the Astros will get better, the trades brought some talent that the franchise severely lacked (high upside talent) as well as drafted some players in this past draft that have the ability to be upper echelon players. I remain hopeful the franchise will compete again and despite how hard it is to watch a bad team, knowing it will be all the more sweeter when they do get back to prominence.
Gotta be bad to get good. Unless you are the Yankees or Red Sox and can use the rest of MLB as your de facto farm system. Oswalt never captured my imagination in interviews and such, but besides his incredible work on the mound for us he deserves our thanks for telling Drayton he wanted out. That one act tipped the bucket over and Drayton could no longer pretend we were contenders that were "a piece away". So the rebuilding project began, we refused Berkman's offer to return...."tough love?"...probably but it turned out to be good for us and good for him. Losing 106 games shouldn't be a "We did it!" moment...but we decided to go with young guys, box office be damned.....and it will pay dividends...eventually. For now we will be bad for a while, before we can be really good. Better than wasting prime Pence trying to win 71 games instead of 67.
Which got them Phil Nevin last time they picked first, yikes. I'm not so confident in our management and scouts as say devil rays or cardinals
Whats wrong with Phil Nevin? I blame management for not introducing him to the roids. Once he got those, he was fine.
He did have a couple of nice seasons, but baseball drafts aren't like basketball and football. There really isn't sure things in baseball, or at least very rare. Really the only two I can think of are Ken Griffey, Jr. and Alex Rodriguez
There are no sure things in any draft, e.g. Jamarcus Russell and Kwame Brown, but baseball is more of a gamble, your right. That said, I am almost as excited about picking 1st IN EVERY ROUND then have the 1st overall pick. Baseball is also the most likely of all the drafts of picking an impact player later on in the draft...e.g. Matt Moore 8th round and Roy Oswalt 23rd Round.
