Busy final day sees Astros sign Pedro Feliz
by David Coleman on Dec 10, 2009 12:35 PM CST
in Hot Stove
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PrintWow, who would have thought Ed Wade could be this busy at the Winter Meetings? One trade, two free agent signings, a host of minor league invites. It's a cornucopia of transactions.
The latest is the first one I can totally get behind. The Astros signed Pedro Feliz to a one-year deal for 4 million. Reasonable price for a good player to fill the hole at third base. Let's all just pretend Ed wasn't serious when he said the Astros could go into the season with Geoff Blum at the hot corner.
What do the Astros get with Feliz? A little power at the corner along with an underrated defensive player. The Phillies had been pushing Feliz as a possible Gold Glover the past few years. Sure, that push didn't gain much traction, but with Feliz and Manzella on the right side of the infield, the Astros defensive range will be greatly improved.
Yes, that defense has deteriorated with his age and yes, he doesn't get on base. But, Feliz is a much better player at this point than Blum and can provide a good stopgap until the club feels Chris Johnson is ready to go.
What else does this team need to do? With Lindstrom making about 2 million (probably closer to 1.5m), Lyon making 5m and Feliz at 4m, the Astros should have about 4 million to kick around now. Wade still needs to find a decent fourth outfielder. Is there anyone out there worth that kind of money? I'm just glad we got at least one glaring hole filled this week.
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The Ed Wade blueprint is becoming more and more clear. His “lengthy” contracts so far have not been longer than 3 years and have been capped at basically $5M. They all could turn out to be overpaying for the production, but none of those contracts individually hamstring the team.
(All?) Trades have basically been guys who were drafted under previous regimes.
Manzella, Matsui, and Bourn will provide plus “defense up the middle”, and when you tag on Berkman and now Feliz, you have a high-quality infield defense. Combine that with sinkerball and groundball pitchers, and you have a recipe for run prevention.
Feliz pushes Blum and Kepp to the bench, which really improves the bench (over Jason Smith types). Kepp kills LHP, Blum has a decent infield glove as a utility guy.
And we’re getting younger.
I’m liking the team’s direction, even if I’m not terribly happy with where they currently stand.
Yes, good overview.
That said, I’m still really irritated about the Brandon Lyon signing.
Chone Figgins is just as good as Feliz defensively at third base, and is much, much better at getting on base and baserunning. Lyon + Feliz = $9.5 million, which is exactly what it would have cost to outbid the M’s. I’d rather have Figgins’ offensive prowess than the marginal upgrade to our bullpen that Lyon provides.
In fact, I’d rather have an MLB minimum rule 5 draftee than Lyon. Lyon will never be a true closer type, but we might have taken the chance to develop a young player from another organization like Eduardo Morlan, who does have closer type stuff.
I have a feeling that Figgins preferred to stay on the West Coast, and it’s possible that he wouldn’t have wanted to come to the Astros. Plus, Figgins wanted years as well (four of them), and that’s not a good idea when it comes to a guy whose value comes mainly from speed and who is entering his age 32 season.
I can’t speak as to Figgins mind on the location, though I don’t remember hearing he wanted to stay on the West Coast. However, I will say that if we’re going to sign a mediocre reliever to a three year/$5 million deal, I’m going to look pretty skeptically on complaints about signing a good third baseman for a little more money/time.
Regarding his coming “mainly” from his speed, I have to respectfully disagree. I think his value comes mainly from his strike zone discipline and baserunning instincts. Patient hitters profile better as they age, and Figgins’ best attribute is his ability to take a walk, which has been steadily improving throughout his career.
I have never liked Figgins at 4 years. At 3 years, maybe so. But given the dollars involved, I hate to see the commitment that far into the future. It’s hard to think of a comparable for Figgins, which makes it difficult to guess how productive he will remain for the next 4 years. Bip Roberts is probably the best comparable from B-Ref. He ended his career as a part time player. Luis Castillo is another player who seems comparable to Figgins, and his OBP has held up well thru age 33, but his defense has declined with a reduction in speed (leading the Mets to wonder how they can trade him). It’s true that Lyons was given too long a contract, but at $5 million per year, the annual dollars at risk aren’t as high and become more manageable in the worst case scenarios.
That's a great recap
Overall, I have to give Wade an A- for the week. He proved me wrong on being able to land a worthwhile stop gap at 3B after Lyon, and there’s still money to spare. If anything we can look forward to another interesting year that could definitely exceed expectations.
Kudos to Ed, I happy to eat crow on this one.
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 Stephen Higdon on Dec 10, 2009 2:17 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
I'm happy to*
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 Stephen Higdon on Dec 10, 2009 2:18 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
Good analysis of Wade
Improving team defense (esp. with the current make-up of the pitching staff), adding picks, and making the bench better are all unsexy things GMs have to do when a team is in this sort of situation…but we still need more offense.
Wade really DOES seem to have a thing for relievers. It’s depressing that almost a decade into the 21st century there could still be GMs who can’t seem to get much past the ERA thang. And if the team D vacuums up more pitches by the starters, is reliever depth QUITE as critical as it has been in recent years? Feliz helps at the plate…but we still need more offense. (Pitching and D in the Astrodome is what first made me an Astro fan, but “more offense” is my mantra for this team/at this time and I’m stickin’ to it.) I just have this gnawing feeling that the older bats in the line-up are heading a bit into their declining years (hope I’m wrong)—that ’09 was a prefiguration rather than an aberration offense-wise.
Want to be depressed?
There’s a realistic chance that nobody batting after the cleanup spot will have over .700 OPS.
1. Michael Bourn
2. Hunter Pence
3. Lance Berkman
4. Carlos Lee
5-8. My head hurts just thinking about it.
There is also a chance that Matsui, Feliz, and Towles exceed the .700 mark. Towles has the ability, as evidenced by his AAA stats, and Feliz and Matsui both exceeded the .700 OPS mark in 2008. If you’re point is that this offense will be scratching for runs without Tejada….yes, you’re probably right. I would have been fine with re-signing Tejada for 3d base, but the extra years on a contract might have been painful.
great signing, if the astros capped themselves at only having 4 to 5 million left to spend, i would go after a starting pitcher like Duch, Myers, Lowry, or john garland
i think that wade would have virtually the perfect offseason so far if he would have offered arb. to hawkins, if he took it, then we didnt need lyon, if not we got the picks, in hindsight it seems like a no brainer
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