"I had offered the Astros $14 million and an option," Randy Hendricks said. "But they wouldn't take it. Both teams know that if Andy gets hurt, he won't take the option. The Astros flat turned me down."

Jose De Jesus Ortiz' story

It Would Be By The End of The Week

I know that the system is geared for the players to maximize income through relatively free movement from team to team.

For the most part I do not hold it against players when they are honest about taking the highest bid.  I had a problem with Mike Hampton, sure, but that was only because he claimed he signed with Colorado because of the Denver school system or some shit.

If you are honest, and tell us it's all about the money, no-one is going to blame you for taking the best offer.  That's called free enterprise, and us Americans, we think that's good.

But us Americans also hate hypocrisy.  

Pettitte and his Tom Joad fambly shit is now exposed as simply a card he successfully played to get what he wanted.  When that card no longer meshed well with his desires v. 2007, he simply dropped it.

He pitched some great games for us, but it's hard for me right now to keep from calling him a hypocrite, pure and simple.

is that a week ago he wasn't even sure he wanted to play baseball anymore...yeah, right?  

I'm with you, Rastro, I'll refrain from calling him any name (for now) but I must admit that I feel gutted.  

Not saying I wouldn't have been happy if he signed with the Astros, but all of this talk about not sure if he's going to pitch and about his family and all of this was just to get a bigger contract. Pettitte isn't worth 16 million or 14 million. There's no telling what he'll do next year. Will he be the sub 3.00 era post all star break or the 5.00+ era from before the All-Star break.

I wouldn't be surprised if in the AL east his ERA sky rockets even more.

I never actually thought Andy would sign with the Yankees. Still, I'm not going to wish ill on him. Have fun in the AL with the DH and the insane NY media, Andy. He probably isn't worth the contract he got, but who is this offseason?

http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/12/08/ap3241093.html

I kinda figured Russ would retire, but if he did decide to play, I was hoping he'd go to anyone besides the Cards.

how this is being spun. ESPN says Astros decided to let Pettitte walk over $2 million, but the reverse is also true: Pettitte decided to walk over $2 million.

I might feel different if $12 million wasn't a fair offer for a pitcher with a history of injury who's going to be 35 next year.

Pettite's contract with the Astros paid him $31,5000,000 over the past three years. It was backloaded, but that works out to $10.5M annually. The Astros look at his 5.28 first-half 2006 ERA, remember his washed-out 2004 season, watch the guy jerk us around a la Carlo$ Beltran for two months, then offer him a 14% raise to stay home.

For THIS, the Astros are getting called cheap?

Well, while Andy is wondering next summer how much of that extra dough he's getting from the Yankees is gonna be eaten up by state and city taxes, he might also take some time to consider that when the Astros contacted the Sox about Garland, they were looking to acquire a pitcher who not only has a better upside in 2007 and beyond, but also had hefty leads in 2006 in significant stats from differing quarters like WHIP, WPA, Expected Win Percentage, Runs Saved Above Average, and Pitchers VORP.

Don't get me wrong. Just based on what he did in his three short years in Houston, Pettitte is the second best left-handed starter in team history. No sweat, I will give him that. But in an environment where you need to watch the money you throw around after overspending for Lee, it just didn't make sense to pay Pettitte for 2005 production when he wasn't likely to come near it for 2007.

The Astros weren't cheap, they were careful.

weren't willing to give Pettitte 14 mil as per your 2nd reply to yourself Rastro.  YAY FOR THE STROS!!  Assuming the Astros are able to acquire atleast 1 more good arm for the rotation I will totally give the 'stros props for how they handled this situation.  Over pay when you need to overpay, and don't when you don't.  If the Astros didn't get Carlos Lee who could they have aquired that could possibly make as big of an impact?  Probably no one, so you spend the extra cash.  Who can the 'stros get that can take the place of Pettitte?  Well hopefully we'll see in the next couple of days.