Trade for Peavy? “We talked early on, and (Padres GM Kevin Towers) was candid in looking at our situation and our system that we probably don’t have the pieces to make it work,” Wade said.
Before Wade shot down the Peavy rumors for perhaps the final time later Friday afternoon, club owner Drayton McLane, while attending a luncheon where Commissioner Bud Selig was the keynote speaker, also dispelled the notion that the Astros were legitimate players in the Peavy sweepstakes.
(Footer) Hunter Pence likely would have been in any package the Astros could send to San Diego, along with one or more components of a trio of young pitchers …Link
the progress so far,
Wade has stated he wants to sign Randy Wolf, LaTroy Hawkins and Doug Brocail.
On Friday, Hawkins signed a one-year deal worth $3.5 million plus incentives
Wade says “Brocail wants to be here. The only stumbling block is how much do we pay…”
And Footer reports Wolf is expected to test the free-agent market before making a decision about his immediate future.
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On Friday, 22-year-old right-hander Chia-Jen Lo signed a Minor League contract with the Astros worth $250,000.
“He’s two or three years away,” Barker said. “It depends on how he adjusts to playing in America.”
Barker said that Lo could begin next season as high as Double-A, but Wade indicated that might be reaching too high.
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Not much news regarding Ben Sheets. Footer reminds us that, (S)hould the Astros sign him, they’ll be faced with the possibility of Sheets needing surgery at some point during the length of his contract.
Wade would rather add pitching through free agents and things will get going at the Winter Meetings
“…(Footer)… the Winter Meetings, set to take place in Las Vegas in early December, are going to be busy.”
“(Wade)…I’ll continue these trade talks. (which?) But I’d really rather do it through free agency and try to string the trade stuff along and hope those things don’t deteriorate in the meantime while I’m still chasing my primary objective.”
“That said, I do think that Vegas has the potential for a lot of things, whether it’s a lot of free-agent signings which will then cause a domino effect of trades or just the trades ending up themselves. I think there will be more of them than there has been the last couple of years.”
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Free agents? Aren’t they expensive
(Footer) When the Astros announced last week that they were freezing ticket prices, I called Ed Wade and asked him if this meant they were slashing the payroll. He said, “We’re raising the payroll.” I waited in silence for a few seconds, waiting for the punch line.
But, Wade was serious. He wants to try to keep the team that ended the 2008 season together, and that’s going to cost a bundle. Wolf will command a high salary, and arbitration-eligible players such as Jose Valverde and Ty Wigginton are due significant raises. If they are serious about retaining most of these players, it’s highly unlikely they’ll be pursuing an expensive free agent from the outside. ”
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Ortiz coaxed this out of the GM“To keep this club together, it would be a real challenge from a payroll standpoint ,” Wade said. “We would like to keep this club together, but we might have to get creative to do certain things, which might entail us having to move one or two pieces off this club.”
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The two statements are not contradictory.