Wolf is likely to earn some incentives in his contract, and I have seen it reported that the Padres will save $2.5 million with the trade. I don’t have a problem with the trade. Reineke isn’t a prospect, and doesn’t appear to have a future with the Astros’ ML club. He has pitched well in Round Rock this year, and the Padres might be gambling that he will be an OK role pitcher in Petco Park, which will afford him some margin for error. The Padres are particularly fond of converting sub-par starting pitchers to relievers. Wolf will fill a spot in the rotation, which doesn’t hurt.

The immediate reaction of several executives to the Astros’ pursuit of Padres left-hander Randy Wolf, which was first reported by ESPN.com: Why? Wolf is 1-6 with a 6.63 ERA in 10 starts away from Petco Park. He has not made more than 23 starts in a season since 2003. And, oh yeah, the Astros are 10 games out in the wild-card race. ...

even though Wolf was floated out there, his average performance meant that no one was overpaying for him w/ young players as might have happened in the past.

can’t say why the Astros apparently miniscule offer was the one they picked, but paul de podesta is in the mgmt in SD and as a Billy Beane-ish guy, he probably has some specific criteria he was looking for that Reinke fit, so they made the deal.

In other forums, and in the Ken Rosenthal quote above, I’ve been seeing people deriding the trade, saying not-nice things about Randy Wolf’s pitching ability, but in the same breath dogging the Astros for “thinking they’re still in the race”. Make up your mind, folks. A team that thinks it’s going to the playoffs probably isn’t going to be trading for Randy Wolf.

So what I’m saying Crawfish Boxers is thanks for being smarter than the rest of the internet.

Although some people have been interpreting this as a “Win Now” move, I think most of us here realize it’s not. Wade wasn’t hired just to handle the big club…he’s got a bigger picture to think about.

The way I’ve been looking at it is not that Ed Wade is playing to win, but that he’s playing not to lose. He has a rotation that hasn’t been very healthy this season, and a bullpen that he’s worried about overusing. Despite his oft-mentioned love for middle relievers, I’d bet that Wade is planning on keeping the bullpen largely intact over the offseason (my thinking is that since the bullpen is made up mostly of guys he acquired, getting rid of them soon wouldn’t be a good signal to send). But in the meantime, he’d like to keep from overusing the ‘pen so that their arms don’t fall off next May.

Pulling in Randy Wolf improves the ‘Stros odds of making it past six innings with their starter than they do with Runelvys, relieving the bullpen just a bit. And not only that, but it reduces the temptation to spot-start Sampson, and he can spend the rest of the season adjusting to his new life as a long reliever.

Trading away Reineke possibly helps solve some roster management issues for Wade. Before Reineke got traded, the Round Rock roster had 15 pitchers. The Fresno Grizzlies, who RR is playing tonight, have 13. Now I’m not sure how many pitchers is typical for a AAA roster, but there are some guys we’ve got down in AA who will probably be moved up a level by the end of the season, and we need to make room for them.

And who knows, maybe Wade just got tired of sending pitchers down, only to have to call them back up again two weeks later.

“Who cares”

I don’t see Wolf doing much for us and he’s not a difference maker.. he’s another bottom of the rotation guy to go in with all of our other bottom of the rotation guys.

We traded away a minor leaguer who has been pretty good so far in his career, but not outstanding… He may turn out to be pretty good but who knows.. that’s why they are called prospects.

Wolf will be a free agent next season and probably back in San Diego(where he signed because it was close to home over the off season).

http://itmightbedangerous.blogspot.com/2008/07/wolf-to-astros.html