Jason Jennings is done for the year, according to the Astros' offical website. Jennings has sustained damange to his pitching elbow and will undergo surgery in order to repair the damage. He hopes to return sometime next year.
This was a bad trade from the get go and one that the Astros surely regret now.
It's also exposed two things about the Astros, which should have been taken in mind:
The Misguided Concept Of Being In Contention. The Astros fogired that they would be able to contend again this year, after seeing the losses sustained by St. Louis. They did, however, ignore the improvements of both Milwaukee and Chicago and maybe were counting on one last little bit of magic to make the run at the end of the year. They also felt a bit too much faith in their current club, which had holes as of last semester and many of them went untouched in the Astros' attempt to rebuild themselves.
The Misakes In Evaluating Talent And Improvements. The Astros also failed to properly assess their own in house supply of talent. The Astros didn't have the confidence in Andy Pettitte's elbow to hold up and they also didn't value Hirsh highly enough to actually give him a shot in the rotation. They also pinned a great deal of hopes and dreams on Jason Lane and Morgan Ensberg regaining their All-Star forms of 2005, which is rapidly looking to be an anomoly instead of a breakout.
This only adds the icing to the cake of the disaster that is the 2007 Astros season.
The team has virtually self destructed. The bullpen, once a strength, is now visably weakened, despite the re-emergence of Brad Lidge. The lineup, despite the additions of Lee and Pence, hasn't produced much, with Chris Burke's, Brad Ausmus', Adam Everett's and Craig Biggio's amenic bats contributing to a low of the problem.
Hirsh was developed into what Jennings once was, Taveras has established himself as the Rockies' everyday centerfielder and is having a breakout year. Buchholz has been serviceable as a swingman and will likely succeed in that role.
In exchange, the Astros have not only lost a set of valuable players in exchange for a bill of false goods, they've also lost their draft picks thanks to the Lee and Williams signings and weren't even able to sign their top two draft picks. This doesn't supply any talent to an already taxed farm system that is devoid of almost any impact talent whatsoever.
I though that Tim Purpura was a smart man and was willing to give him a shot. Maybe the GM of the team knew more about his own players than I did and he was selling high on a set of questioanble group.
Nearly six months later, this trade stacks up against time.
This rebuilding job is basically blowing up the roster after this year and starting over. It's a tough pill to #### but the sooner it's done the better off the Astros will be. Maybe the Astros can trade off some of their vets for prospects to replenish their depleted farm system.
The Astros have had a horrendous year. You're correct about their offense. It's been sputtering all year. The only chance they had went out the window when Pettitte and Clemens went back to the Yanks. The pitching has gone further south once they realized Clemens was back in pinstripes. Good Evaluation.
You have mail.
Last edited by socratesofswat on August 21st at 10:42 PM.
The Astro;s suck across the board. I live in Troy, NY Home of the Tri-city Valley Cats, Houston's A-ball team. They suck with gusto. It started out bad when the Manager announced in the paper that he did not care about Wins, he was a teacher and if they lost every game, that would be fine with him, so long as they took his instruction. That is a ####-poor attitude to have as a manager, even Little Leaguers try to win every game. How did this franchise go so far downhill over the past few years. Sad.
Aside from being a small market club (although some will argue against that notion), i think a big reason the brewers opted not to give lee his asking price (or simply refuse to budge over the $12 mil/per plateau) was because they realized how much it would hurt them in signing other players, whether it be free agents, their own players in arbitration, or draft picks.
now, the suppan signing hasnt panned out like we had hoped, but we're still sitting pretty good for the next 4-5 years (that i can see, and i have very little knowledge of our farm system beyond a few players i've heard this and that about at the AAA level). prince, braun, hardy, weeks, hart, and hall are all locked up for at least the next 3 years, and with the money we saved on lee, and what will come off the books when jenkins contract is up, we'll have about $12 mil just from those 2 for offseason improvements.
i guess my point is (finally) that sometimes it's better to spend less money on 2 or 3 players with less talent (or hype) than to break the bank for 1 guy. because if he struggles, or the rest of the team is, it completely paralyzes the entire team.
anyway, i'd say its definitely time for the 'stros to rebuild, and hopefully for their sake they can get it going again in 2 or 3 years.
Cuziffer: Great point. Sometimes making the big splash can screw you over in the future. The Astros saw a need for more offense from left field, and instead of attacking the problem subltely, they instead went after it with a grenade.
Aside from being a small market club (although some will argue against that notion), i think a big reason the brewers opted not to give lee his asking price (or simply refuse to budge over the $12 mil/per plateau) was because they realized how much it would hurt them in signing other players, whether it be free agents, their own players in arbitration, or draft picks. Thats fine and dandy if you have a young, cheap team, and only a couple of holes. But Houston, as constructed, was an aging team with a LOT of players entering their decline phases or locked up in long term, expensive deals, and quite frankly, it made no sense to go after Lee, other than to make a splash and give the Rangers the rights to Blake Beaven and Julio Borbon in the draft.
Unfortunately for Houston, the future isn't real bright. While they could sell off a few parts from the bullpen, as they have a assortment of relief arms in Triple and Double A, they only really have two prospects, J.R. Towles, the successor to Brad Ausmus, and Troy Patton, a lefty pitcher that could make the club out of spring training. Other than that, that's it.
Last edited by Morisato on August 22nd at 11:48 AM.
Speaking of Farm Systems, I will be doing farm system previews as well as division previews during the off-season. Just thought it would be fun. I was originally going to do 20 per team (except Texas. They get 40), but after looking over some of the ones so far, I'm beginning to wonder if a mercy rule of 10 should be placed on certain teams (#### Giants!)
haterofallthingssox: h
kalki: If you want to see the city of Houston reupt into a full scale riot, then pray that deal happens.
Last edited by Morisato on August 22nd at 11:50 AM.
First of all, Oswalt for Laird!!?? You must be joking.
Second of all, the Astros are not doomed to repeat this performance next year or thereafter. It is not time to rebuild, Drayton would never do that. What this team needs is for players to perform. This year would not have been so bad if Jennings was what he was supposed to be, lance was lance, Ensberg wasn't a head case, lidge did not struggle, and Woody wasn't completely inept for more than half of the year. If we get solid production from the third base position, a couple of new reliable arms for the rotation, and a legitimate right fielder (if we got a center fielder Pence would move to right, even though he has a minus arm) and this team can be decent. None of the Central teams are going to be great. The brewers have talent but I am not ready to jump on the bandwagon and accept them as legitimate perennial contenders. But... only time will tell.
As for the trade, #### happens. I am surprised that we don't force our players to take physicals before they are acquired. We have been on both sides of one-sided trades - see Jeff Bagwell - so its time to move on and plan accordingly.
Denial!! Nice of you to check in. Thank you for introducing denial to today's blog, Squigee King.
"reliable arms". I yearn for the days were reliable arms were available. They are so hard to spot, aren't they? After all, who would have thought that Jason Marquis would have had a better year than Barry Zito?
BTW, the Astros have had a history of badly evaluating talent. Leaving a young venezuelan lefty unprotected. Trading Ensberg two years too late, among others. Blame the Jennings trade on the humidor. Had it not been for that, maybe Jennings numbers wouldn't have looked so misleading after 06.
I just gotta say that I'm a Rockies fan, and when I heard about this Jennings trade I couldn't believe it. I mean, somebody actually WANTING Jennings? I know Colorado pitchers usually suck here and do better elsewhere, but Jennings? And in exchange we got a centerfielder batting leadoff (and over .300), and a few arms that have been adequate. Not great, but definitely better than Jennings.
I can't tell you how foolish I felt wasting time reading this blog when I reached this "I thought Tim Purpura was a smart man..." Please! Everyone in baseball knows that Purpura is considered one of the biggest joke and chump around. If Drayden is intent on getting his value out of the continued contract he has going with Tim, perhaps he should consider investing in Rodeo Clowns and put Tim in charge of that. Let's just hope Jennings continue to stay out of commission until we can somehow dump him. Drayden, you can't afford any more of this man's mistakes. Eat you loss and let's move on. The Astros are starting to look like rodeo clowns. Tickets are going to be hard to sell with that Bozo in charge.
As far as trading Roy Oswalt for Gerald Laird, you are freaking nuts. As far as the Astros contending anytime soon they need to address their pitching staff. Other than Oswalt and Lidge, the rest of them are pretty much middle of the road pitchers at best. If it takes "rebuilding" the club to get some better pitchers in hear, then that is what they have to do. Whatever they do they can't trade two pitching prospects for one average pitcher. If anything the other way around. When they announced the Jennings trade, I wasn't mad about aquiring Jennings, I was mad about loosing two of our top pitching prospects. Taveras is a decent player, but nothing spactacular. Who ever is making the decisions on evaluating talent needs some more practice. Whether that is Drayton or his puppet Tim Pupura.
NO KIDDING!!! Rebuilding the Astros brings a new meaning to the word rebuilding. Step One: Fire Garner; Step Two: Fire his entire coaching staff (inclusive of the pitching coach,batting instructor, conditioning coach, strength coach.... you get the general idea). Garner has said any of a number of times this season that we had our chances but we just didn't come through. Hire a coach that can teach baseball fundamentals with a staff that can get the players into conditon so that so many pitchers don't end up on the DL for twisted ankles wrists and etc.
As far as the above mentioned trade (Adam Dunn for I think Roy Oswalt)This team is woefully weak in all aspects of the pitching game. I would like to see Adam Dunn in a Houston Uniform (He hails from just outside of Houston) but NOT FOR OSWALD!!Pitching in MLB is so watered down as a whole,if you have to keep the ones that currently contracted perhaps they can be taught how to do more than just pitch 5-6 innings every 5 days; and teach them to start 30-40 games a year and complete 10-15 and throw 250-300 innings With our farm systems so depleted maybe the Gm's head needs to roll as well as their player develope personel,because there doesn't appear to be a lot of help down on the farm so it looks like it's back to cellar dwelling Astros for the near/far future.
I'm a long time Texas Rangers fan who has come to love baseball as a whole. I recently began this blog as a way for me to showcase my opinions, provide some analysis, and hopefully entertain those who happen to stumble upon my little soapbox online. I'll toss in an NFL, College, or NBA nugget every now and then. Enjoy the posts everyone, and yes, getting a little love in a Deadspin post was probably the highlight of the year, blogwise.
Do You Have Comment You Don't Want All To See? Just Want To Talk Baseball? Email Me at morisatos_blo g AT yahoo.com. Email's edited to keep away the Spam.
