With Major League Baseball's trade deadline 10 days away what directions will Gerry and the Astros take? With these names I've compiled I would like to discuss a little word association concerning these players and topics and the team's direction and hear some of your thoughts on what you want to happen or what you think the Astros will do in the immediate (before deadline) or near future (after deadline i.e next year). Brad Ausmus Jeff Bagwell Carlos Beltran Lance Berkman Craig Biggio Taylor Buchholz Chris Burke Raul Chavez Roger Clemens Morgan Ensberg Carlos Hernandez Jeff Kent Mike Lamb Jason Lane Brad Lidge Wade Miller Roy Oswalt Andy Pettitte Tim Redding Willy Tavares David Weathers Tommy Whiteman Drayton Gerry ...or in general team goals and directions (positive and negative) the bullpen starting rotation the defense youth/age of players lineup manager/coaching staff minor league talent pool team speed player personalities (positive and negative)
random thoughts: i don't think anyone would take bagwell or ausmus....neither has performed well...and both have contracts that have them drastically overvalued at this point of their careers. i would say ausmus is my least favorite astro. beltran is an obviously tradeable commodity...and sans some pretty strong indications from him that he wants to stick around, i'd start shopping him right now. kent could be tradeable, i suppose. wonder if he has a no-trade clause, though? not sure he'd be willing to waive that at this point. clemens isn't going anywhere. not sure if he'll play next year, but if he plays baseball at all this year or next, it will only be in an astros jersey. wade miller -- i don't know what to do with this guy! i certainly wouldn't commit big dollars to him. i don't see tavares as an opening day starter next year. the guy is still in AA ball. i'd like to see him on the AAA squad soon, though. lidge remains the closer. burke is your starting 2B next season. i personally don't get real excited about jason lane as a prospect.
I would definitely trade Beltran at this point. Also, I would try to get Kent to waive his no trade and try and trade him. Hopefully you can get a few prospects that may be ready for the majors next year for them because other than Burke, we don't have much down on the farm.
It is definitely time to have the fire sale. Get rid of everyone that you can and get some prospects.
Now that the deadline is less than 48 hours away I thought I would bump this thread to get everyone's thoughts and opinions on what the Astros should do.
The time seems to have come for the Astros to make some tough calls. At this point I am convinced that Beltran and Kent should be moved. I really wish that Miller wasn't injured so we could move him as well. By moving Beltran and Kent, I don't think the Astros would give way to competitive baseball. In all honesty, I believe they could still play competitively, whether that means going for the wild card, now that's a different story. But the Astros desparately need prospects, and if we don't aquire any while we have a chance, our forseeable future does not look bright.
It's too early to say on Richard Hidalgo, however, it was obvious from his post that MadMax was referring to players in the last few years.
i don't care about 9 and 10 years ago. You can make a similar list for every single team. I was referring to guys in the last 4 to 5 years.
every single team in baseball has a list of guys they've given away to get something for immediate impact.
Damn expansion draft. Too bad the front office thought Hildalgo would turn out to be better than Abreu. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
IIRC, the Astros kept Derek Bell also, instead of keeping Abreu. Like the addage goes... Hindsight is 20/20.
That guy was a nutcase. If memory serves though, Bell at that point had had a couple of good years in a row.
