A little over a year ago, Evan wrote a piece where he recapped Ed Wade's moves as the General Manager of the Houston Astros and then asked us to grade Ed Wade about we felt about his performance. At the time that Evan wrote the piece, the majority of us saw Wade as a B. A B was not a bad grade for Wade to hang his hat on at all.
However, at the time Evan asked the question, the Astros were in the midst of putting together a nifty little stretch that would find them a half game behind the NL Central leading Cardinals after the All Star Break. Now, the Astros are burried in their division, we are watching with bated breath to see how Jason Castro, Chris Johnson, Bud Norris, and Felipe Paulino finish out 2010 as it will be a harbinger of the Astros' future to come, and Wade has also been tasked with convincing Drayton McLane rollover and sell Brett Myers and Roy Oswalt- if a perfectly matched suitor can be found. Since Evan wrote that piece, the Astros have gone 80-105, which is .432 baseball or a 70-win season. In summation, things have fallen apart.
The Astros have also had a rather exciting draft, seen fruit start to bloom on the farm, and Brandon Lyon and Brett Myers help Ed Wade give a big middle finger to many commentators of Wade's offseason moves (including myself on the Lyon front). Pedro Feliz, however, has struggled, but his struggles have allowed us to take a legitimate look at Chris Johnson, which may never have come to pass were the Astros not out of options. But, the $12.5 million in committed salary has, thus far, provided only $4.5 million in value due to the -$6.4 million that Pedro Feliz has produced, according to FanGraphs. Let us also not forget that Ed Wade pretty much turned nothing into Matt Lindstrom in a winter trade with the Marlins. But then there is also the fact that Ed Wade had to pull the plug on the Kaz Matsui experiment, which was of his own making entirely. The silver lining in that is that Jeff Keppinger has proven to be a rather savvy acquisition from last year's Drew Sutton trade. Heck, Jason Michaels has even had positive value for the Astros in 2010.
The point I am trying to illustrate is that—so far—2010 has been dismal, as was the second half of 2009. But in that time frame, things haven't been all bad for the Astros franchise or even the Astros big league team. The question I am curious to have answered, though, is whether this mixed bag has been mixed enough help to keep our community of fans' faith in Ed Wade? So what say you: