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2009 Resolutions: Astros edition

  • To never be ranked dead last in farm system talent again. Baseball Prospectus was more optimistic than most had believed they would be, citing players like Ross Seaton, Drew Sutton and Jordan Lyles as reasons to hope for a solid future. Drayton McLane has in the past not been willing to invest the necessary human and monetary capital into player development, we are now seeing the results of that skimping. When an Aaron Boone/Geoff Blum platoon are your best options at third base, organizational problems are most likely the cause, which brings me to Resolution #2...
  • To spend the necessary money to field a competitive team, Mr. McLane. True, the economy is poor, and yes, there are no sure things in sports. After the Cubs didn't land Jake Peavy, the division was as wide open as it has been in quite some time. With Milwaukee losing at least one of its top two starters, the NL Wild Card winner from 2008 is most likely not going to be the same club in 2009. While some teams go for broke, and are willing to endure losses in terms of dollars to gain wins on the playing field, the Astros do not fall into that category. Drayton says all the right things about wanting his club to be championship contenders, but his actions indicate he'd like the Astros to yield a profit while winning just enough games to leave fans believing a breakthrough is on the horizon.
  • For Michael Bourn to make the Brad Lidge trade seem less lopsided. To start, an OBP of .330 would be superb.
  • From the trio of Chris Johnson, Brian Bogusevic and Drew Sutton: at least one of you needs to take advantage of your time on the major league club and produce like you have at various points in the minor leauges. Sutton seems to be capable of producing an OPS of .700 on the major league level. He'd be a cheap, slightly above replacement level option for the club....
  • Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt to continue on their current career paths. Lance could very well be at 320 home runs at the end of next season. 400 would almost be assured, and 500 would not be out of the realm of possibilities. As for Roy, few pitchers can boast of a statistical line like his. A career 3.61 K/BB ratio, and a 3.31 FIP are at the top of his resume. Another season with numbers like those should cement him a top five starting pitcher from the past decade.
  • For Hunter Pence to learn the plate discipline that seems to be the only thing holding him back from being a very good major league baseball player. He swings at too many pitches outside of the strike zone. If he can manage to reign in his natural aggressiveness and translate it into better ABs, we'll have a very good corner outfielder for years to come.

More resolutions are welcome...this team needs all the advice it can get.

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I won't hold my breath on this one
For Michael Bourn to make the Brad Lidge trade seem less lopsided. To start, an OBP of .330 would be superb

An addendum to your list: For Carlos Lee to lose 15-30lbs.

The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.

by DyingQuail on Dec 29, 2008 12:57 AM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Tejada gets rested up....

and returns to his pre-08 history of .800+ OPS.

Also…Lee and Tejada figure out how to avoid the GIDP.

by clack on Dec 29, 2008 8:36 AM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

The Lidge trade

how is it lopsided when Valverde outpitched our previous closer?

You don’t make judgments on trades after a year, especially when the guy you acquire was a bench player and a rookie.

by goingforthecorner on Dec 29, 2008 11:30 AM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Farm system

Glad to see that at the top of the list. Without fixing that, this team will suck for years and years.

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.

by Caradoc on Dec 29, 2008 1:06 PM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Kind of like the last two

The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.

by DyingQuail on Dec 29, 2008 6:58 PM CST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

the lidge trade is lopsided because you didn’t trade him FOR valverde.

you evaluate a trade based on who you traded FOR. and geary/bourn does not look like a good deal. i fer SHER hope bourn picks it up this year – there is only so long you give a trade to ripen

lee and tejada have always been GIDP machines because they hit so many groundballs to short/second and they can’t run fast enough to make it a FC

but remember that drayton has made a GOOD 75 mill profit over the past 5 years – and is now seeing what happens when you keep all the money for yourself and don’t spend it on player development

Viva El Pest

by lisa gray on Dec 30, 2008 9:32 PM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

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