Is Ed Wade inept with free agency?

But I’m with you. I believe Drayton is at the root of this. He needs to sell the team. He is not making decisions that an owner makes that “wants to be a champion.”

I did some non-savvy internet research… looking for big free agent signings that Wade made during his tenure with the Phillies. Here are the ones I could find.

Nov 2002 – David Bell, 4 years, $17 million.
Dec 2002 – Jim Thome – 6 years, $85 million. Thome was 32 years old when he signed
12/9/03 – Signed RHP Tim Worrell to a multiyear contract.
12/8/03 – Signed catcher Todd Pratt to a one-year contract.

He also kept Placido Polanco and Kevin Millwood on the club through arbitration for a few years.

Another notable addition was Shane Victorino in the Rule 5 Draft.

Alright, now I have to get some work done.

First, I’ll say that I don’t think trading is Wade’s best skill-set. (As I have said before, a good idea might be to get Tal Smith to retire, Wade to move in as team president, and hire a GM who is better at trading, like Kevin Towers.) However, I think that your third bullet point is the most likely explanation.

I would also point out that I can’t criticize all of Wade’s free agent signings as Astros GM. In most cases, Wade is forced into a corner with a meager discretionary budget and too many holes to fill. One could argue that his trade for Tejada put him in that position, I suppose. Since I beat the drum at TCB for signing Chacon (and was surprised when they actually did it as spring training began), I would be a hypocrite to criticize it. Going into 2008, all of us knew that the Astros were desperate for a starting pitcher, but Wade had only about $1 – $2 million to spend. Chacon was the best risk at the time (particularly since we didn’t know if Woody Williams would be capable of returning as a competent pitcher). And it requires hindsight to say that one could have predicted the combustible mix of Chacon and Cooper. In case anyone forgot, Chacon was a bright spot in the rotation for 2 months before Chacon and Cooper had their problems. (When he was pitching well for the Astros, I recall vivaelbirdos saying that Chacon was the type of low cost rotation signing that the Cardinals should follow.) Unlike most people, I don’t mind the Lyon signing; I think the signing was for too many years, but otherwise I think it is a good signing, and showed some foresight after Arias went down with injury, Gervacio was injured, and Fulchino returned to his Royals’ form. I don’t think the Russ Ortiz and Hampton signings were bad, given the money involved. They both had obvious risks, but it’s hard to criticize Ortiz as a NRI or Hamton at $2.5 million. Dave Cameron at fangraphs even liked the Hampton signing as a good low cost risk. I think the mistake was expecting Hampton to be more than a No. 5 pitcher.
 
Faced with too little budgetary working room, Wade’s approach is to rely heavily on looking for “good clubhouse guys” and veterans with character. For all I know this may be an overreaction to the way that the Chacon signing turned out. He also relies too much on perceived clutch hitting skills. I don’t agree with the weight he puts on those things, but I think it is the way he responds to pulling guys off the scrap heap when the available dollars are too small.

Drayton’s influence is an unknown. I think it’s fair to assume that McLane was pushing the Tejada trade, based on the fact that McLane had been chasing him for several years, like Captain Ahab. Maybe Wade has to go to McLane to approve each incremental dollar for free agent trades, and he can only get approval if it is a veteran whom McLane has heard of or whom McLane perceives to be a “champion.”

Back to your point about a potential trade for Oswalt…. As I realized in making a comment on another TCB thread, you may not like what you see when you look at the most comparable trade that Wade has made (Schilling to the D-Backs). Schillings is comparable as an all star pitcher traded because of his cost and his stated desire to go to a contender. Wade did not receive one minor league prospect in return. He received two well regarded young major league players (Padilla and Travis Lee) with 2 or 3 years ML experience. He also picked up a 27 year old pitcher with minimal ML experience plus a 10 year veteran pitcher (Dahl). Four for one looked good, but Wade obviously leaned heavily on acquiring guys with major league experience by which to judge them. As a result, he got some competence (Dahl and Padilla), some bust (Lee), and little in the way of high ceiling. I’m not sure that is comforting in the Oswalt trade scenario.

Still dont understand the Feliz signing. Tejada only got 1.5 million more from Baltimore what did he want from the Astros? He is a much better hitter and fielder than Feliz. He would have had alot more value at the trade deadline and he was the most productive hitter last year how much better would we be with his bat in the line up this year?

I think the astros need to start sending some guys up and down personally. See if they can get someone that wants to step up and swing the bat or Mills needs to start playing for one run every inning to get some sort of spark.

I am all about sticking with guys to give them a chance to get rolling. I was always a slow starter for the first couple of games but some of these guys have a 100 AB’s and are still not showing signs of improvement. Just disgusted when I watch the quality of at bats of most of the guys.

Are these guys reading the scouting reports are they watching film? I mean they wont even choke and poke. Did anyone see the two games against the Giants in the last inning? The third game bases loaded 3-2 count 1out and Hunter swung so hard a cement mixer slider that he almost fell down. The ball didnt even move a bit it just came straight in and just spun. Who is the hitting coach?