Not Hungry For The Wolf
Ed Wade tried to get Randy Wolf to sign with Houston as a FA this past winter, but he didn’t want to come here at all and took much less money to go to San Diego. But he forgot to keep Houston off of his not acceptable list and he found himself traded for a AAA guy named Reinecke who the Astros had no intention of ever using - it doesn’t matter what his stats were because no matter WHAT they were, the Astros preferred to use Runs Elvys to him and that tells you all you need to know, doesn’t it? Ah well, maybe the Padres will turn Reinecke into Scott Linebrink - youneverknow.
Ed Wade, of course, had Wolf in Philly, where he had his last league average year in 2004. He had TJ surgery in 05, missed that year, part of 06, the last half of last year, but Ed has been assured by the Padres trainers that Wolf is completely healthy. Like Purpura was assured by the Rockies trainers that Jennings was completely healthy????? And Wade hopes to sign Wolf to a long term contract.
Wade insisted to the media that the Astros are a MUCH better team than our record shows and we fully expect to win and we are NOT sellers. I am not making this up. I don’t know if this is his idea or he is getting his marching orders from Drayton/Tal, but I don’t see that anything is better getting a lousy, washed up lefty.
Let’s take a look: His last full, uninjured year was 2004, but he was an All-Star (like that means something) in 03, so let’s start there:
(03 - 06 with Philly: 07 with LA, 08 with SD - both extreme pitchers’ parks)
2003: 2oo IP, 33 GS: 27 HR, 78 BB, 78 K: 4.23 ERA (94 ERA+) 1.27 WHIP
2004: 136.2 IP, 23 GS: 20 HR, 36 BB, 89 K: 4.28 ERA (105 ERA+) 1.32 WHIP
2005: 80 IP, 13 GS: 14 HR, 26 BB, 61 K: 4.40 ERA (100 ERA+) 1.41 WHIP
2006: 56.2 IP, 12 GS: 13 HR, 33 BB, 44 K: 5.56 ERA (84 ERA+) 1.69 WHIP
2007 102.2 IP, 18 GS: 10 HR, 39 BB, 94 K: 4.73 ERA (97 ERA+) 1.45 WHIP
home: 62.2 IP - 11 games - 5 HR, 20 BB, 60 K: 4.60 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, .262 BAA
away: 40 IP - 7 games - 5 HR, 19 BB, 34 K: 4.95 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, .290 BAA
2008 119.2 IP, 21 GS: 14 HR, 47 BB, 105 K: 4.74 ERA (82 ERA+) 1.42 WHIP
home: 65.1 IP over 11 GS - 6 HR, 23 BB, 62 K: 3.17 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, .243 BAA
away: 54.1 IP over 10 GS - 8 HR, 24 BB, 43 K: 6.63 ERA, 1.62 WHIP, .296 BAA
vs Cubs: 72.1 IP - 11 HR, 35 BB, 67 K: 4.98 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, .259 BAA
vs Cards: 52.1 IP - 6 HR, 14 BB, 52 K: 3.96 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, .244 BAA
vs Brewers: never faced, but the Crew is 23-7 against lefty pitchers this year
vs Pirates: 52.1 IP - 3 HR, 13 BB, 59 K: 3.61 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, .217 BAA
vs Reds: 84 IP - 7 HR, 16 BB, 97 K: 3.20 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, .218 BAA
@ The Box: 22.2 IP - 5 HR, 7 BB, 12 K: 4.76 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, .271 BAA
To put it quite mildly, I am NOT happy. I don’t like this idiotic pretending this is a good team and the absolute refusal to fix the problem at its roots - the execrable farm system, the terrible manager and coaches AND the owner playing like he’s Kevin Bacon directing traffic during the riot at the end of Animal House. Either that or being that guy in the commercial who is inspecting a dam, finds a leak and patches it with chewing gum.
Getting Randy Wolf is a bad BAD sign that this team is headed straight for the bottom of the NL, where it is going to stay for a long LONG time.
To quote Richard Justice,
“The Astros aren’t good enough to compete this year. Whether they admit that or not is another story. What they need now is a plan. Nothing else is important. It comes down to two choices: to keep pushing forward, spending on free agency while developing the farm system. Or they need to decide to show every veteran and load up on kids. Jose Valverde would fetch a young player or two. I think Oswalt would accept a trade elsewhere, but he needs to show he’s healthy. I don’t think Carlos Lee would. Not sure about Berkman. Bottom line is they’re in a mess. All these years, we’ve criticized Drayton for not spending enough money. In the end, he spent too much money. He should have spent less on the big league roster and more on player development. It feels like they’re going to keep kidding themselves, going to keep delaying the inevitable.”
You tell em Richard. Yeah, Drayton is NOT gonna be real too happy you got the cojones to actually write that.
And let’s be real - Drayton is NOT going to do anything different until the fans stop coming to the park and Drayton stops making money. Or he REALLY gets booed. Whichever comes first…
Oh yeah,
and the Astros had their butts handed to them by the Pirates - they managed 6 singles against 5 time Cy Young winner and MVP Paul Maholm. As usual, Tejada did zero with MOB and Lance managed only a single and a run scored while stranding 4 guys on base. Wiggy and Pence, for once, managed to drive in a run. Bourn went 2 fer 4 - and yeah, he’s hitting singles, but hey, that’s what he does when he hits.
sigh
This team NEEDS to be selling of the parts it can, not acquiring crummy 5th starters - AND they should have spent that 2.5 mill on something worth while - like signing better prospects who want more money, like Latin players, like a better manager, like better teachers for the minors.
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23 Responses to “Not Hungry For The Wolf”
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 pm
at least Wolf will get us a draft pick when he leaves us at the end of the year. although his stats against the NL central make me happy, plenty of those games will be at Minute Maid. we really a starter to eat up innings for our 7-run bullpen though, but he’s not going to go 6 innings every game with Minute Maid’s dimensions. oh well, he may have some good games left in him this year.
poor McLane, how about we give up on Valverde?
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I was saying before the season started that I didn’t like Wade’s plan. We’ve all seen a lot of teams get dismantled to bring in a bunch of “established” veterans, like Tejada, Matsui, and now, Wolf. It rareley works. It hasn’t worked this time.
I don’t expect Drayton to fire Wade and/or Cooper because he’s still paying Purpura and Garner.
The Astros won’t be better any time soon. There are too many holes to fill, and nothing in the minor leagues to fill them with. I just wonder how long it has to go on before they finally rebuild.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I want to believe that Wade is just toying with the Houston media. I hope this means that, at the deadline, he’s going to be selling off one of the other three league-average pitchers. At this point, we’ve got Moehler, Backe, Wandy, and now Wolf following an injured Oswalt in the rotation.
Wandy could net the Stros some talent. Backe could get us something, maybe.
But we have three players who could command some decent prospects: Tejada, Wigginton, and (most importantly) Valverde. The Dodgers need a shortstop. The BoSox want both a reliever and shortstop. Wigginton could be used by many teams. Why isn’t Wade trading them? Oh, right. Uncle Drayton wants us to be competitors this year.
And we should at least be trying to get Lee to agree to a trade. The Rays need a right handed power hitter; they’re loaded with good prospects; Lee’s a born DH, it seems pretty simple.
This organization has been run into the ground for the last four years. McLane has no business owning a baseball team, let alone having such a major front-office presence. All we can hope for is the old geezer to die or get bored and sell the team to someone who nows how to stay out of the team’s business.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:49 am
zomgMatt–
I agree that the team has been poorly managed at the front office level since Gerry Hunsicker left at the end of 2004. Purpura and Wade aren’t the right guys to run a baseball team, and Tal Smith just needs to retire.
I don’t agree about McLane. I don’t know how long you’ve been an Astros fan, but you need to remember how horrible the Astros were when he bought the team. He has been the most successful owner that the Astros have had. No one else has been close. Gene Elston gave McLane credit for saving the franchise.
What McLane needs to do is find another good baseball man and let him run the team without any interference.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:35 am
Great point mark about McLane saving the franchise. I agree that he did. The problem is that McLane seems incapable of allowing a good baseball man to run the team without interfering.
I’m really starting to think that Drayton sees himself as a low-rent Steinbrenner. Forget about development, just trade away the prospects for has-beens and soon to be forgotten aging spare parts. Doesn’t exactly look like a winning formula to me…….
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:27 am
philip,
wolf will only net us a draft pick IF we offer him arb - which he might could just take. remember he just got a 1 year deal this year.
mark,
agree that wolf is not exactly gonna spare the bullpen. agree that getting a bunch of vets and winning seldom works. yes it worked for the marlins in 07, but the quality of guys they got were significantly beter than wiggy/tejada etc
zomgmatt,
best i understand, clank has refused to be traded to anyone. and seeing as how he’s drayton’s favorite layer…
and the thing about baseball owners everyone keeps forgetting -
they are not in this business to “win” but are in this business to MAKE MONEY and even though they are all worth kabillions, they won’t spend their own money to have a winning team.
and most of them WANT to play GM. drayton is not exactly the only one. it just took 5 years for it to seriously bite him in the ass. i don’t know how much worse this team has to get before he realizes his foolishness, or even if he will care, but until he decides to hire someone GOOD - not ed freaking wade - and let the person run the team, all we will get is more of the same - namely the insistence that fans want to see name veterans instead of young players learning.
me i think billy beane goes too faar theother way, like i said, but somewhere in between, that’s where succes is.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:38 am
I also think what sets this team back are the miracle runs in ‘04, ‘05, and ‘06. Those probably got McLane thinking that this team is never truly out of it. The one problem is that those three Astros teams, especially the ‘04 and ‘05 teams, were so much better than this club, especially pitching wise. McLane may have been the owner during the period of time with the most success in the club’s history, so for that he deserves some credit, but he has to stop believing the miracle run will come every year.
The Astros have to do what the Diamondbacks did. They were a great team at the turn of the century, built with veteran stars, and little youth. When the stars got old, the got bad, real bad. They rebuilt the farm, and now they are leading the NL West, and they ARE a better team than their record. Rebuilding a team can be done, but everyone has to be patient, and I just don’t think McLane can be patient.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:45 am
Once again, as with this year’s draft debacle, the Astros have everyone in baseball wondering whether the ownership/management is just plain insane, stupid as a rock, or high on drugs. What the hell is going on down there?
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I doubt they’re insane, and they’re not stupid. They’re not baseball smart, however. And they definitely need better drugs.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I’m so ticked at this team, I can’t put it into words. I’ve ranted on the Chronicle comments section so much I don’t feel like repeating. This team is going nowhere and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I thought I’d post a link to Paul DePodesta’s blog (currently part of the Padres front office) where he discusses the trade.
http://itmightbedangerous.blog.....stros.html
He says in response to a commenter that they figured they’d save up to $5mil by trading Wolf (IF Wolf pitches well enough to be a Type B free agent… chances aren’t good in Minute Maid). We probably won’t spend that much since we’ll just pick a guy we can’t possibly sign.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
If they actually sign the guy - and they’ll have to overpay for him - the move could be decent, as they do need another starter next year. But if he doesn’t sign, the Astros pretty much just gave away one of their only minor leaguers for nothing. I beg to differ with you Steve… it would appear that Drayton is in fact an idiot.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:54 pm
as i said before, if he doesn’t sign, and if i recall correctly he greatly dislikes Houston, he’ll probably try to sign with a west coast team. which nets us a supplementary draft pick, the front office isn’t that dumb. (alright, they’re still pretty dumb)
it’ll be a big gamble though, wolf wouldn’t have to perform well to sign with a teams he wants next year, San Diego may want him back if their staff doesn’t improve.
what is dumb is that the Astros didn’t even bother to see if Reinke could perform at Minute Maid, and if Wolf signs with us next year (which he won’t) we’ve got a guy with a 4.7 ERA pitching for us at Minute Maid. however, he’s done well in the park so maybe his stats are all there is
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
sorry for the poor grammar. I’ll look into this proofreading stuff
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
steve,
yeh, wade needs a new drug
one that won’t make him nervous
wondering what to do
and IF we offer wolf arb AND he can’t get a job on the went coast, he might could accept it. just what we need, another limp woody
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:46 pm
I had a dream. Here’s how it went….
Setting: Ed Wade’s bedroom. 3am. The phone rings.
Drayton McLane: “Hello, Ed? This is Drayton. I’ve been thinkin’ and we’ve got to do somethin’ here to make the Astros champions. You’re not ready to give up are you?”
Ed Wade: “Uh,…no, of course not, Drayton. Ummm, do you know what time it is?”
DM: “It’s time to do something, Ed. That’s what time it is. The press is all over me again.”
EW: “O.K., Drayton. What do you wanna do?”
DM: “That why I hired YOU, Ed. You should go get somebody to make the Astros champions.”
EW: “What’s Tal think?”
DM: “Who?..Oh, Tal. He don’t do nothin’ I just pay him to look good. Who are YOU going to get?”
EW: “Oh, I don’t know. How about Pujols and A Rod and Lincecum and Webb, and that Hamilton kid from Texas?”
DM: “Sounds great; just don’t pay too much…”
———————————
July 24th, 2008 at 12:34 am
I know y’all are having fun with this, and yeah, I think the approach mgmt took was pretty dumb. However, no one expected the offense to be this bad: 22nd in runs scored and OBP, 21st in slugging percentage.
Pitching has been about what was expected, except Moehler and Oswalt traded places in some alien body switching ritual. Otherwise, it’s been pretty much what we thought.
With better hitting, we’d be around .500. Oh well, mediocrity sucks, no matter how you get there.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:16 am
And while we’re looking at stats, it’s interesting that the top two saves leaders in the NL belong to two of the worst teams in baseball (Giants, Astros). How important is a closer, anyway? I agree we should trade Valverde next week for 2-3 strong prospects.
Another entertaining stat: the home run leader, Adam Dunn, has 312 official ABs and 104(!) strikeouts. K or HR. He’s Rob Deer incarnate.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Adam Dunn is just a flat-out better version of Carlos Lee - fantastic hitter, but a statue in the outfield. And the Reds’ management seems to hate him, even though he hits a lot of home runs (fun fact: he’s last in singles. He either walks, strikes out, or gets extra bases in every PA).
Wasn’t there a trade rumor in 2005 about Dunn and Houston? That would have been awesome.
And he’s from Houston, so that’s a plus.
If El Burro didn’t have such an ungodly contract, I’d say we should pick up Dunn as an FA this offseason. But we already have one butcher in the outfield.
July 24th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
That is, only if Drayton really wants to pursue this whole “win now” thing.
July 24th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Adam Dunn would drive me even more crazy than El Burro. No way I want to watch Dunn striking out 200 times per years.
July 24th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
He’s got a better on base average and a better slugging percentage than Lee. Strikeouts are no better or worse than grounding out, and Dunn hits more home runs.
In the end, it’s a moot point. We can’t get rid of Lee, and the Astros shouldn’t be signing free agents right now, anyways.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
yes, there was a rumor about adam dunn and houston. he WANTED to come here, asked to be traded here. but the Organization didn’t want him - didn’t like the strikeouts and noticed that he was a lousy fielder. Yes he most certainly DOES produce more runs than Clank Lee with about the same glove, but the Organization had a problems with the Ks and the low-ish BA. They prefer more GIDPs and a higher BA and fewer Ks.
and it is the reds broadcasters, particularly marty brennaman, who absolutely hate dunn. marty doesn’t like ballplayers who walk if there are men on base. they prefer groundouts or GIDP rather than walks.
whatever
and also, they have insisted for years that if dunn would just swing at pitches outside the strike zone, he would have fewer Ks and more hits and a higher BA, even though this has like zero basis in fact and is actually the exact opposite of correct.
and as for trades, all i can say is that i hope that roy looks great in his next start so he can be traded with valverde for a whole lot of good prospects. not that i think drayton will allow that. and not that i trust fightin eddie to make any good trade
July 25th, 2008 at 1:26 am
I agree, Lisa. The problem with trading for prospects is you have to get the right prospects, and enough of them, to make it worthwhile. I don’t believe Ed Wade can do that. And so, we’re left with a pathetically mediocre club; one that will win a few, and lose a few, and win a few, and lose a few more, and be a few games under .500, and drive us crazy.
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