Does this bother anyone else?

What Justice failed to state was that for 2007 and 2008 the Astros drew over 3 million fans. When the team has a chance the people come out. I agree that the fans are more loyal to the Yankees. But there’s a history there that we don’t have. There has never been a reason for there to be a loyal fan base in Houston because we’ve been a roller coaster franchise. We’ve been almost great 3 times in 45 years, good 6 times and rotten the rest. We have absolutely ZERO to hang our hats on with this franchise. We have won a grand total of TWO playoff series in our teams 45 year history. So show me the pride? What’s the selling point for this team? This franchise has never been built for success. The Biggio/Bagwell era was tremendous…..but Drayton never would put the players around them to win. Geez!! At one time Shane Reynolds was our best pitcher. #2 maybe; but he was our “ace”. The Texans are going to feel the same pinch very soon if they don’t make the palyoffs. This city is hungry for a champion and it doesn’t matter which sport. Whichever team brings a title here will rule this city and be given 5 years of sellouts. (See Rockets back to back). I promise you it will not support losing franchises. Drayton is going to have to show an effort to improve this team or Minute Maid will be empty again and again until he either buys talent or sales the team to someone who will. I’m not saying it’s right….I’m saying it’s fact.

I intended to encompass the YES money when I mentioned that the Yankees had the biggest media market. A media market of that size makes a team owned network the preferred course. McLane considered creating an Astros-owned network, but apparently just used the threat of doing so to get more money out of Fox Southwest.

And it puts in them in a position to build that upward spiral of spending and revenue that leads to a model that depends on continual on-field success.

I never talk about the RSN here, but it’s something that always stews in my mind as a no brainer for the Astros.

The inefficiency of the Astros payroll mostly derives from the fixed costs, i.e., “sunk costs,” which are multi-year contracts. Given a fixed budget, these fixed costs combine with expected pay increases for arb eligible players to leave less and less each year to spend on a large number of positions. A team like the Yankees is able to simply throw away sunk costs and move on (like Pavano’s contract, for instance), raising the budget in the process.

It’s not that Drayton won’t spend it’s that as an organization they spend foolishly. If you’re going to tie up the majority of your “planned” payroll into 4 players you’re not going to be able to field a solid team. This would require you to spend a lot more money. I know this is heresy in Astros circles but I think in some ways it would be best to trade Berkman, Lee and Oswalt to contenders (providing they would accept the trade in their no-trade clause) and get kids to build around. Our good young players will be here for a while and can wait 3-4 years to be on a good team. The vets don’t have that much time. I’m not knocking those guys, I think it would be a courtesy to them to at least offer them an opportunity to win a championship somewhere else. What would the Rangers give to have Berkman at first and Lee DH-ing? What would the Red Sox give for Oswalt?? One things for sure….we’re not going to be a contender with the current group any time soon.

Subnote, the teams in the bluish color won the WS and the teams in red won their pennant.

What’s the point of that? If you’re comparing the payroll to other teams, wouldn’t you have to take out their overpriced players too?