- To never be ranked dead last in farm system talent again. Baseball Prospectus was more optimistic than most had believed they would be, citing players like Ross Seaton, Drew Sutton and Jordan Lyles as reasons to hope for a solid future. Drayton McLane has in the past not been willing to invest the necessary human and monetary capital into player development, we are now seeing the results of that skimping. When an Aaron Boone/Geoff Blum platoon are your best options at third base, organizational problems are most likely the cause, which brings me to Resolution #2...
- To spend the necessary money to field a competitive team, Mr. McLane. True, the economy is poor, and yes, there are no sure things in sports. After the Cubs didn't land Jake Peavy, the division was as wide open as it has been in quite some time. With Milwaukee losing at least one of its top two starters, the NL Wild Card winner from 2008 is most likely not going to be the same club in 2009. While some teams go for broke, and are willing to endure losses in terms of dollars to gain wins on the playing field, the Astros do not fall into that category. Drayton says all the right things about wanting his club to be championship contenders, but his actions indicate he'd like the Astros to yield a profit while winning just enough games to leave fans believing a breakthrough is on the horizon.
- For Michael Bourn to make the Brad Lidge trade seem less lopsided. To start, an OBP of .330 would be superb.
- From the trio of Chris Johnson, Brian Bogusevic and Drew Sutton: at least one of you needs to take advantage of your time on the major league club and produce like you have at various points in the minor leauges. Sutton seems to be capable of producing an OPS of .700 on the major league level. He'd be a cheap, slightly above replacement level option for the club....
- Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt to continue on their current career paths. Lance could very well be at 320 home runs at the end of next season. 400 would almost be assured, and 500 would not be out of the realm of possibilities. As for Roy, few pitchers can boast of a statistical line like his. A career 3.61 K/BB ratio, and a 3.31 FIP are at the top of his resume. Another season with numbers like those should cement him a top five starting pitcher from the past decade.
- For Hunter Pence to learn the plate discipline that seems to be the only thing holding him back from being a very good major league baseball player. He swings at too many pitches outside of the strike zone. If he can manage to reign in his natural aggressiveness and translate it into better ABs, we'll have a very good corner outfielder for years to come.
More resolutions are welcome...this team needs all the advice it can get.