It's easy for me to say I'd trade them but in reality it would probably just raised my expecations and make it frustrating to lose in the future.. there is something about not expecting to win that makes it less dissapointing.. this year if we don't win will be the most dissapointing because the other years besides when we got randy.. I didn't think we'd win much.. by the way.. this is the most excited i've been for a championship and I like our chances..
The deferred salaries are nothing like what the D'Backs did. They really overdid it. I don't know what Drayton's plans are. It could well be that he expects to make some of the money up when players like Bagwell and Biggio, etc. retire and go off the books. And then have a couple of years of lower payroll while younger, cheaper players make up more of the roster. Or he may well be planning on selling the team before then and figure it to be someone else's problem. It's hard to tell, but it's nowhere near as dire as what the Diamondbacks have done.
mrpaige.. I admittedly haven't looked at the diamondbacks salaries very closely.. didnt realize they were in as bad of shape as they are
looking back at the last 10 years.. hindsight I think I'd trade a few division titles to have a ring. And I'd absolutely have dreaded each of those 10 years that we lost but when it was all over I'd look more fondly on the team than I do now because they won something... Of course, since baseball has a great deal of luck involved, what happens if something goes wrong that 1 year? Now you have no rings, 1 decent season and 9 sucky seasons. I'd rather take my chances with 10 good seasons and hope one of them becomes great. In case people have already forgotten, we had that "team with everything" in 1998. We gave up several prospects to get it. We still lost in the first round.
major -- what an excellent point. even when you have that great team put together, in baseball there are no guarantees. much more is put to chance in baseball than the other big sports. the 98 astros are a freaking testament to that. oh..and by the way...i keep hearing the astros are some team that can't expect to sign good players without a hometown discount. that's just patently false...just off the top of my head, this team added Moises Alou and Randy Johnson through trade, and picked up Jeff Kent as a free agent. The Astros are fortunate to play in a town where discounts by players seem to be more common than in many other markets (remember, Biggio took less to stay here his first go-around with free agency in the early-90's...Caminiti came back at a serious discount, etc.) the astros would be foolish not to utilize that factor...but they didn't get much of a discount on Pettite, if any, frankly.
major.. absolutely.. no way i'd want to spend a lot and risk it all for one year.. i was going by hindsight and the fact that I'd rather have one champ and a few less division titles as I looked back on the team... madmax.. true.. although I think the main reason kent came here is because of the "texas" thing.. and his ranch... it's not that hard to trade for a player like randy if you have prospects. but we were unable to keep him.
it isn't so much the discount thing as it is the whole thing about being from texas.. discount or not we got andy and roger because they were from texas.. I dont know any other place where people would leave the team that is usually atop baseball just so they can go to it. andy, roger, and kent would not be astros except for the fact that it's in texas..
Billy Wagner sure is high on himself, considering he has been a playoff choker for the most part. good riddance.
mrpaige. true.. I was just making the point of I don't remember the last time we were able to sign a big name guy who wasn't coming "because he wants to go back to texas"... the names alou and randy were thrown out but those were trades and not a matter of a guy flat out coming to sign with us.. who is the last decent guy who came here as a free agent who wasn't coming "back to texas"
It's not a knock against the organization, if anything its a tribute to our strong system that we don't have to get too many people through free agency... I just think there are some teams that are attractive to players to go to, and others that arent' so much. The astros just do not have the stories history that even teams like the cubs seem to have.. that's not draytons fault and that's not gerrys fault.. a world series ring would help that somewhat since the one criticism I always heard of roger and andy were .. "they are going to a team that has never even won a playoff series".. a lot of people grow up dreaming to be a dodger, yankee, cub, redsox, even cardinal in some places.. I don't know that many non houstonians dream of being an astro
August 23-25, BABY! Bring it on, Billy. You have layed down the challenge and Drayton has a lot more to lose/gain than you do. Let's see what Drayton and Dotel have up their sleeves for you and the Phillies, "skidmark". This is what MLB is all about. Get your tickets now. Those games will sell out even if we did not have "Clemitte" pitching for us.
I can see the 'Stros actually making a trade for a position player by August. Maybe Bags gets his trade to Boston for an outfielder, like Damon or to KC for Beltran. Berkman goes to first and Biggio/Lane to left. Would be a first for us to make a line-up chanje in mid season, but I don't see us needing to even think about adding pitching B4 the trade deadline. I can see alot of guys wanting make a move here now and over the next few years. There are a lot of Texas boys in the bigs who would presumably want to come home. Rangers are going nowhere soon.
