Well, at least he didn't go after Ed Wade....Backe was a member of a Galveston wedding party, and was arrested over the weekend after a fight broke out. Minor injuries were sustained by the hometown boy. Specifically, he was charged with resisting arrest and interfering with a police officer. These are only misdemeanor charges which is too bad, since Backe won't have to miss any future games for court appearances or proceedings of that nature. If I was Backe, and I just came off one of the worst seasons of any pitcher this year, I'd spend less time tusslin' and more time clearing my mind of any memories of his 2008 season.
The Chronicle had an article today about Ed Wade's initial thoughts on the free agent market/trade possibilities. Here it is, for your reading pleasure. Basically, Drayton and Ed know the Yankees are going after some top notch free agent starters, which will probably place the Astros far below the bidding war which will occur for the Sabathias, Garlands and Dempsters of the world. Randy Wolf will be given every opportunity to return to the Astros next year, which, depending on your viewpoint could either be a good or bad thing. It seems like he had a relatively lucky 2008 season. Wolf was in a situation where the Astros defense was superb, and his FIP, as a result, was .33 runs higher than his ERA as an Astro (3.90 to 3.57). Much of this had to do with a more than three percent decrease in his LD% from when he was a Padre, which tells me that since he (like most pitchers) can't control their LD% at all, he is prone to the effects of the luck-pendulum and its swings back and forth. A really high LOB% of .754 makes me hope that Drayton and Ed think twice about bringing Wolf back. Remember there is a compensation pick hanging in the balance if Wolf is offered arbitration and decides to sign elsewhere. We have all winter to discuss this, but I just wanted to get the ball rolling a little.
A list of free agents can be found here.
All statistics used are courtesy of harballtimes.com