Thanks Drayton and Gerry for building a team that should win the WS!!! You are a great front office. Too bad the players FREAKING SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In now way should this team be where its at right now, but it is...the season is over for all intensive purposes because our rich, selfish, lazy ass players couldnt actually TRY TO PLAY A ****ING GAME. Instead they lollygagged and dreamwalked like the horrible players they are and ruined their entire season. Great job HOUSTON ASTROS PLAYERS...you are a class act.
To their credit, this was not a bunch of ballplayers in their primes.... everybody was just hoping that the starting pitching would be able to mask the lineup's old age, defensive holes, and the departure of Wagner in the bullpen. Unfortunately, consistent starting pitching is the HARDEST thing to get in this game, the lineup got MUCH OLDER, much faster, than anybody ever expected (Kent and Bagwell deserve all the blam here)... so old, in fact, that we had to trade one of our only two decent bullpen pitchers to get Beltran. But, I would also like to thank Drayton and Gerry for putting together, thus far, their best pre-season attempt to winning a championship. In the past, it was always "if we're good, we might add on," approach... this time, they knew this club didn't have much life left after last year, and they went for it. The rebuilding process could have easilly started after last season's debacle to the Brewers. They had already traded Wagner, they could have also packaged Kent and Hidalgo for some prospects, and they could have found a way to buy out Biggio's contract. But, they thought these guys deserved one last shot, and I commend them for that... too bad they turned out to be too old and too snakebit to come thru.
I agree...there can't (or at least there shouldn't) be an Astro fan on this board who can be upset with the effort of the front office. I was SO looking forward to moving here and going to pennant race games in Spetember and playoff games in October. Nick does have a point...we have a lot of guys way past their prime and unfortunately (or fortunately ...whichever way you look at it), Rocket is the only one playing like he is still 28. I am very bummed out about this season. It's sad that T Mac coming to Houston is the silver lining of a bad baseball season. Oh well. One more thing...I hope, if it hasn't happened already, that Drayton has called Roger into his office and given him the option of whether or not he wants to go to a contender....even if that contender is St Louis at this point. I think we, as fans, and Drayton owe Roger that.
Thanks for pointing that out. It grates on me when I see that, but I was keeping my mouth shut because I always seem to be the one who's a jerk about grammar and stuff.
I have to agree, Drayton and Gerry put together a great team on paper, but the players have absolutely come up freakin' short... There is no excuse and like Gerry said, they get paid to perform, and right now, there not...Heck, even Carlos Beltran isn't doing crap...
No they didn't. They knew that they needed a reliever after they acquired Beltran, and they have yet to make a move.
but would you at this point?? you're right, they need to fill a hole there with a setup man. but the key was to get the offense going. it hasn't worked. this team had the makings of, at the very least, a contender for a division crown. they haven't performed.
This may go down in the MLB record books as the team that was supposed to contend for the World Series but ended up actually placing last in the division and/or having a losing record. This has to be some kind of record or something. All those baseball analysts who predicted we would win the division or compete for a World Series must be taken back by this lousy team. I guess every player on this team is just way overrated and nobody could see it. Everyone overrated the quality of our bullpen which has been absolutely disgusting. In fact, the only two people who have performed at a high level is Biggio(on offense only; defense sucks) and Clemens. I can't believe how many people we have on our team who excel in being average or, worse, choke artists. I think this is another case of where everyone puts expectations on the ballclub in advance. The ballclub kind of takes it at face value that they will be in the playoffs but there is this pressure lurking over their shoulders knowing these high expectations. They then go out...start losing some games while remaining optimistic that..."oh...we are so good that we will definitely bounce back"...and then they get caught up in losing all these games/series....the pressure intensifies to Mount Everest levels...and then they can't get out of the chokie chicken routine if their lives depended on it. So, this is no different than any other season when the Astros choke when it counts other than they imploded so early. End of story. LOL.
honestly, the cubs aren't that far ahead of this...and i think most national pundits expected them to do better than the 'stros.
njrocket.. with roger owning part of our minor league team and having what a 10 year astros personal service contract? is that even an option.. might be kind of strange to trade someone and then in two months they are back with the team..
I too would like to thank drayton and gerry... i've been critical at times in past years of money spent etc.. but this year they spent the money.. and even added the top mid season guy to trade for...
I couldn't disagree more! We went into the season knowing we had a very good starting staff. We also went into the season thinking that we had a team that could hit homeruns. But, we all knew that the trade of Wagner left us vulnerable. We did not and still do not have an everyday left-handed stick. We do have two switch hitters but when we face lefties, they bat right. I believe pitchers get in "the zone" easier when they face teams that don't give them a diferent look. That is why we have problems with the Glavines of the world. Pitchers like Glavine dominate teams like ours because they can focus on the outside portion of the plate without ever having to change. They just hit their spots and we end up reaching. Left-handed sticks sprinkled throughout the lineup would force pitchers out of their comfort zone. Also, I can't BELIEVE Gerry was stupid enough to think that our team was good enough to win it all with the defense that we put out there everyday. (He should lose his job just for being STUPID enough to believe that!) Sure he addressed some of our defensive issues when he acquired Carlos, but he robbed Peter to pay Paul (I think that is how the saying goes). He weakened our relievers further by trading Dotel when he should of had another move planned! I know some of you guys are going to defend him by saying he was going to address our relievers but I think the dumbarse didn't plan for the worst case scenario. He thought we were going to go on a winning streak and when we did that, he could go out and get another reliever. Well guess what? Our pen has been terrible. OK, the players have to perform... But, we have the worst core of relievers in the league! Hidalgo for Weathers? Miceli our setup man? Weathers, Miceli, and Lidge is absolutely ridiculous!!!! C'mon how stupid can a GM be when he knows that he has a manager that is the quickest in the league when it comes to yanking the starters??? NO excuse fot that. ..... there are so many other problems with this team but I do not have the time to discuss them right now. I just want to say that I can't stand that snake oil salesman again. I could go on and on about Drayton but it does no good. I can't wait for him to cash out. WE WONT HAVE A CHAMPION HERE UNTIL WE HAVE A NEW OWNER!!! Here comes the clique!!!
i don't understand that bigboy...everyone and their dog thought the astros were legit contenders. they are clearly not playing up to their potential. when players don't live up to potential, it's on them.
I understand what you have been saying. I like the Pettitte and Clemens moves. But, we make moves for PR purposes. They look good on paper. I think our record shows that the moves didn't work!
but they're good moves, bigboy are you seriously saying that adding pettitte and clemens and beltran were only PR moves?? those are 3 damn good baseball players. and kent was too, from the year before..hardly a PR move as it displaced one of the city's favorite all time baseball players. again...what did you know at the beginning of the season that no one else knew? when all the sports writers were saying, "damn, this is going to be a pretty good team," were you actually saying, "no...they're gonna fight with pittsburgh for last place." the team put out on the field SHOULD BE winning. they're not playing up to their own level...the level they've created an expectation of through past performance. and at this point, that even includes beltran. i don't see how you can put that on the owner who spent the money to bring guys like that in?
I already said the Pettitte and Clemens moves were good moves!!! You want to talk numbers, we can!!! I can justify every move with bottom line numbers. I just don't have the time right now. EVERY MOVE DRAYTON MAKES, IS CALCULATED USING A MODEL! When the numbers work.... the trades are consummated. Anything else that comes out of Drayton's mouth is BS!!!
They were good moves.. did they probably help drayton as well? Probably so.. but he does have the right to make a profit.. losing wagner contract about cancels out adding andy... rogers contract probably pays for itself with all the extra attendance etc... not sure how much they actualy took off the books by getting rid of hidalgo since they did pay the mets some money... plus they then added beltran... I don't think drayton lost money by adding these players this year.. probably made more than in years past... but they are still good baseball moves.. would we have spent 11 mil or whatever we spent on andy if he wasn't a local guy who would sell tickets? I dont know.. I don't think we added that much salary this year since much of it is backloaded and we did get rid of wagner.. but they did get the job done and whether he made money or not.. this team should be a contender..
