Imo, his work with the major league team is below average. He could have gotten more for Brutlett and Lidge than he did, and he didn’t have to give all those guys to Balt. for Tejeda. They were ready to dump him and we were the only takers. It seems in a lot of trades Wade comes out on the short end. I agree with you Andy also on the bench construction. We are really weak there. I give him a few points for cobbling together a pitching staff of cast offs and cast ways to keep us competitive on a budget.
Where he is above average is in the reconstruction of our farm system. Bobby Heck has done a great job getting that back up to speed in a hurry. I don’t really follow all those draft picks before draft day, however with Heck at the helm I feel very confident we are getting the players who will contribute at the Major League level sooner rather than later. If he had a lot of input for Cooper as manager, then I deduct additional points for that as well.

The only rason i like Wade is bcz. i love seeing activity with my team…unfortunatly i dont like much of the activity that he does…was no fan of Hampton coming back…i actually thought ortiz signing was good bcz its possible he could come back…didnt care for pudge signing…didnt like tejada deal (at the time i did)…

i feel like he overpays for players or takes to little in return…

Can’t Morey be GM for the stros too?

Maybe I painted too rosy a picture of Wade’s time here in Houston, but I didn’t want to undersell the fact that he came into a team with an owner who had no clue, and a front office that wasn’t much better. That being said, he hired Heck, improved the farm system in only two seasons, and recently dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s on a new dominican facility. Sure, we gave up too much for Tejada, but none of those players were building blocks. They may have been cheap help for the bullpen, but I think Wade has done well in finding replacements. As AstroAndy noted, Troy Patton, if healthy, may be someone to keep an eye on.

I like Jano4’s point about the starting pitchers, and the job Wade has done. Wolf, Ortiz, Hampton, and Moehler have all contributed a great deal in the past 1.5 seasons. Without them, who would we have turned to? Fernando Nieve…oh, wait, nevermind. Seriously though, this team had nobody in AAA who could was a viable candidate for promotion the past few seasons, until now with Norris and to a lesser extent Bazardo.

However, on my grading scale I consider “C” to be average. Overall, I think Wade has done about as well as the average ML GM would have done. To some that standard may seem better than average because they are judging by the previous GM, Tim Pupura, who was probably over his head in the job. Wade went out and got one of the better up and coming scouting cross checkers to be his director of player personnel, and I think that would be the kind of move an experienced GM would make. I think Wade has the connections within the major league community to identify Heck, and that is a plus for Wade.

Wade has his strengths and weaknesses, like most GMs (well, like most people in general). His two main weaknesses in my view are: (1) overly wedded to traditionalist views of offensive construction (more concerned about contact hitters than OBP); and (2) too much emphasis on acquiring his former players (in fairness, many GMs are like that). Some strengths, though: (1) good at finding cheap players and mining the re-treads; (2) probably has his own good sense of scouting; and (3) he isn’t afraid to make moves (didn’t this seem like a Pupura problem area?).

It’s hard to evaluate Wade’s trades because it’s too early for some (Lidge trade) and others may have been directed by McLane (I get the feeling that McLane wanted to acquire Tejada for a long time). And, actually even though I didn’t like the Tejada trade very well at the time, in retrospect, I don’t think it was a bad trade. The Astros traded one pitcher (Patton), who they knew had significant arm injuries (which were disclosed to the Orioles), two underperforming relievers, and a good 30 year outfielder who had no position to play in Houston as long as Lee is on the team. I like the Pudge signing; I think it was a cheap way to get a catcher who may not be great, but who is still a better offensive player than the Astros have had at the catcher position in 10 years. Wade’s worst move was trading for Villareal and compounding the mistake by giving him a 2 year contract.

no mention of Matsui in this post?

I will admit that I am biased in that I loved Luke Scott but that trade had been for someone other than Miguel Tejada- someone young in their prime and not an alleged cheater- then I would have at least understood why the trade was made.

His main accomplishment has been in getting Drayton to spend in player development. That’s a huge point in his favor, but it’s also something that isn’t too special.
Otherwise, he did well in trading for Hawkins and Wolf, has put together a pretty good bullpen, and probably did the best he could on the rotation with the limited resources he had.

Still, I think Tejada’s impending decline was obvious at the time, especially considering that everyone in baseball probably knew he wasn’t his listed age, given the he used his real age on government stuff (That was some tough investigative reporting, ESPN, btw).
I don’t think the Valverde trade was necessary (as much as I like Papa Grande), given Qualls’ ability. The Lidge trade probably was necessary, and Wade’s faith in Bourn is starting to pay off, but it would have been nice to get something more than Villareal.
The Matsui contract is awful, and everyone knew it was a bad idea at the time.
Moreover, other than the bullpen, Wade just hasn’t done a good job in roster construction. That’s why Darin Erstad is our first pinch-hitter and Jason Smith kept showing up over the past few months.

Overall, I think it kind of balances out. He’s done an okay job.

because Wade has to work in an impossible situation. We are lucky to have someone as good as Wade, when it is known throughout MLB that virtually no one wants to work or be a part of this team because of its overbearing owner.

Well, I was reading one of the Chron blogs the other day about Ed Wade, and they went over all his trades. Everyone’s quick to say we blew the Tejada trade. In all fairness, we didn’t completely blow it: we just gave up way too much.

Revisiting: we got Tejada for
1.) Luke Scott
2.) Matt Albers
3.) Troy Patton
4.) Adam Everett
5.) The minor leaguer from the Lidge/Bourne trade

We should have kept either Matt Albers or Troy Patton and the minor leaguer. Luke Scott wasn’t going to play because of Carlos Lee’s hulking contract in left (why can’t we make HIM our 3rd baseman?) so it comes down to a control specialist lefty who was on the verge of surgery or a righty who would at best be a middle rotation starter or swing reliever (maybe even a Chris Sampson guy).

Other than that, I can’t complain about the trades. No more trades involving our Ben Zobrists of the world.

Oh, where we may have been fleeced: Fernando Nieve.

is that he didn’t get to select his own manager. Most GMs have a hand in selecting a manager, and that becomes a big part of their influence on the team. Cooper was already in place when Wade came on board. It would be interesting to know who he would have picked for manager if he had been given that option.

Wade hired, and then fired, Francona in Philly. I think I have read that Wade admits he may have been mistaken to fire Francona. Francona gave a good recommendation for Wade to the Astros before Wade was hired. Wade then hired Bowa, who turned out to be a not-so-good idea.

Mainly because I think that Wade inherited a deeply flawed organization and was given nearly and impossible mandate. The only thing I can really find fault for him with is the Matsui deal just because Matsui was not only a performance risk, but huge injury risk. I guess I can also fault him for extending Coop’s contract for no real reason.

Outside of that, I think that Wade has done an excellent job of trying to save face at the MLB while doing an outstanding job of ushering in totally different organizational philosophy in the farm system. In the short term, Wade probably won’t accomplish anything of note, but in the long run, I’m pretty sure we’ll all be singing his praises.

Signing villareal.rushing jr towles.picking up cecil’s option early.Matsui deal.Tejada trade. Not resigning wolf or wigginton. Blum at third. josh anderson.
Some may say that he has done all he can with a poor farm system, but when he has gone out for players, no farm system is not an excuse. Michael Bourn’s trade is the only successful he has made because Geoff Geary gave us solid innings last year, and Michael Bourn has seemingly learned how to leadoff. The Matsui deal was terrible. He was injury-prone, and he was coming off of a SURPRISINGLY – good .285 season (.244 away from Coors). Then he sends away Josh Anderson for Oscar Villareal. Horrible trade. Then, the Tejada trade…still hard to come to a verdict. Inability to resign Randy Wolf, and a tough decision to not resign the overpriced Ty Wigginton were hard this offseason. Drew Sutton.