Drayton McLane, Gerry Hunsicker and the rest of the Astros front office weren’t exactly met with holiday cheer after the announcement of the Mike Hampton trade two days before Christmas. The Astros were blasted by radio callers and the local newspaper alike. Houston Chronicle columnist John P. Lopez carped, like he did when Carl Everett was traded a couple of weeks earlier, that the Astros have become a farm system for big-market teams.
