2 responses: First someone named AndyLever wrote a nice response to Joe Sheehan:

The perennial refrain about the Astros is that they don’t have a good farm system and they’re overly fond of veterans. And yet your advice is to trade some of the younger stars under team control (Pence, Castro, Lyles) for veterans and push for a pennant. That’s what got the Astros into the mess they’re in now. Continuing to do so won’t get them out that mess anytime soon. The most conservative thing for them to do at this point, actually, is to not be splashy and pray that Oswalt, Berkman, Wandy, Pence, and Lee still have some juice left in the tank when the fruits of the 2008 draft start filtering into the big club.

Second, the BTB rankings – How much faith can you put in a rankings that puts forth Arizona Diamondbacks as the FIFTH best National League team?

If the Astros could trade some combination of their AAA prospects (say, Norris, Bogusevic, and Towles) for Lee, I would do that. But I wouldn’t trade Lyles, Seaton, Castro, etc. Of course, I realize that the AAA prospects aren’t rated highly enough to acquire a pitcher of that quality. But, I’m just saying I would do it if for some reason the Indians were to bite on that trade (hey, the Indians liked Jeriome Robertson at one time).

It would be nice if the Astros had a AAAA slugger who could bat lefthanded at either 3d base or 1st base, which allow a platoon with Coste or Keppinger while Berkman is out. But I don’t see any possibilities. If Carlos Lee could play 1st base, then putting Bogusevic in LF would be a possibility.

Maybe something will happen right before the deadline, but I doubt it. The brewcrew have lots of “solid” prospects and would do a deal for Lee instantly if they could keep top guys. The Mariners might not want to give anyone up just because of the dynamic of being in a pennant race, but if they did, Jack Z knows the system and could assemble a package for Washburn.

The Astros would be nuts for letting Pence go. I’ll agree with clack, find a AAAA guy who rakes. Cubs are getting use out of Jake Fox, Reds have Gomes (expletive!) – I’d think one would be available somewhere.

Is Buerhle a pitcher who beats DIPS? And does it mean anything? Baseball Prospectus has projected in the past that Buerhle would fall off a cliff. The player forecasting systems generally tend to be wrong in their predictions for him. He has a 4.21 FIP this year, vs. an actual 3.75 ERA. ZIPS projected his ERA at 4.50. His FIP seems to consistently be higher than his ERA each year.

We’ve been hearing ever since he was drafted year before last that Wallace is the best pure bat in the minor leagues, even if he may be defensively challenged. They’re going to let him go along w/ two other minor leaguers for Matt Holliday?

I’m guess Holliday will be a Type A, so if they offer him arb they get another draft pick back, but the deal still doesn’t make sense to me.

I guess they think that Holliday puts them over the top in the NL Central (and he probably does, but not for sure) and then hope to go for broke in the playoffs.

link to ESPN story on possible trade