One of the by-products of a fairly obvious bad baseball stretch by the local nine is the equally fair amount of hand wringing and doom and gloom about the future that comes from all fronts in terms of the organization as a whole. Is it fair? I dunno, I'm not the person to say whether it is or not, but it is pretty much SOP when it comes to bad baseball by the Houston Astros. Heck, even in their best years, including 1998, I'm sure there were days of saying that the team was doomed and would never recover. Or at least take a very long time to recover from bad baseball.
Want an example?
In 1999 Mike Hampton made it clear that he was not going to be long as an Astro. He made some odd comments about reasons he wanted to leave, so the rumors started to fly. What happened after Hampton left was the Houston Astros went into a tailspin of a season in 2000, followed by the appearance of said Mr. Hampton in the World Series. Doom and gloom prognostication happened soon afterwards. I remember 2000, the Lima meltdowns, the injuries to key players, the signs of Dierker starting to lose his mind and the constant appearances of Joe Slusarski, that year's best and only pitcher it seemed. The Astros are old. The Astros have nothing in the farm system. The Astros are cheap that they can't keep a guy like Hampton around. Hey, let's look at that last statement for a second. Didn't Hampton sign for over 100 million dollars in Colorado and for something like eight years? Sound investment, huh Mr. Barry Zito? We'll come back to this point in a minute. I remember the drones about the bad Astros organization, the first time someone called the owner "Uncle Drayton" and how bad the Houston minor league system was. That last part came by way of Mike Hampton who said he liked the Colorado organization because they had better prospects coming up than anybody else. A radio talk show personality at the time said that Hampton was right. I called to challenge said personality (who now speaks of fringe prospects as those who the Astros should call up immediately because they are far better than any major league veteran on the team). "Have you seen Roy Oswalt pitch yet?" was my lead in, to which he replied "He's an A-Ball pitcher who lucked into getting a AA gig and he's at least five years away from being a help to this team!". That year Oswalt pitched in the Olympics and the following year spent two months in AAA before being called up by Dierker and Hunsicker. Then came others and finally an award for the team for having the best minor league system in the majors. This was the systems that was supposedly inferior to Colorado because Mike Hampton said so. Go figure.
Be that as it may, the whole idea of walking through this tough time is that it is never as bad as it looks (and it looks real bad, trust me) and of course conversely when the team is going well, it probably is never as great as it looks. See: Rockies, Colorado 2007 and now in 2008 as an example of "not looking as great". But that is just what happens though, the doom and gloom and all the bad vibes started to mount up and *boom*, someone gets fired or booed and then fired. Good times!
So what is the way to look at this whole thing with the Houston organization? Well, for one, it's baseball... plain and simple. Do you like watching baseball? Even when it's something that resembles a pee-wee team versus a Major League juggernaut? Come on, you didn't enjoy the New York Yankees coming into town and blasting the locals to bits and pieces on the last day of the series? I'll tell Pam Gardner you disapprove, that should make her day. So any way, it is indeed baseball and for that, I am grateful and feel very blessed that I can follow a team that I personally like. "Loser!", I'm sure that crossed the mind of a few reading this. So be it, call me whatever your little black heart desires, that is your paradigm to live by, not mine. I take comfort in knowing that perhaps being a winner is probably a foreign concept to you as well if you think it's all about W/L, nay... all about winning the World Series else the whole season is a bust.
I was asked though in the Spikes and Stars radio segment a few weeks back if any fan or media had *anything* to look forward to in terms of the improvement in the near future. Or at least, was there a semblance of hope we'd be watching more competitive baseball in the future? I gave my answer but realized it may of sounded a bit too simplistic and somewhat negative and that was not my intention. So here I sit and ponder that what really is it we're looking at when it comes to a Drayton McLane house of fun and winning? Well, I think that the reality is that first Houston fans and media need to grow up a little bit. Perhaps more than a little bit, perhaps like... ahum... a lot! So is that on the Astros or McLane to provide, some sort of "grow me up" pill? I. Don't. Think. So. So what does it mean to grow up in terms of baseball? Go ask a Boston RedSox fan or a Cub fan or even any other fan of baseball that lives (and also dies) with the team but comes back for more simply because 1) it's baseball and 2) it's my team. So you hand over the bills to McLane in an ignorant manner and let him Snidely Whiplash his way to the bank with your hard earned cayshe? Well, is McLane really Snidely Whiplash? I don't think so either. Far from it. And therein lies your hope, if you dare to see it.
"Players, Young Ones, How much?"
First and foremost the big mantra right now is the lack of a minor league system that is producing competent major leaguers. There is some fault to be placed on the head of McLane and his directions to the baseball people. But also one has to remember that McLane was trying to build a World Series winner with the likes of well loved and admired players such as Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio, two veteran leaders. Is he at fault for trying to build around those two with other veteran acquires and perhaps losing out in terms of prospects because of it? I say no, he's not at fault. Freddy Garcia, Guillen, Halama, Henriquez, Castro were just a few of the names of prospects used to acquires the likes of Randy Johnson, Jay Powell and Moises Alou early on. Hunsicker decried having to take his farm system to such thinning lengths and warned he could not keep doing this for the team, so he tried to fill some of the needs on the team using fringe acquires like Carl Everett, Jose Lima and others to fill out the team and build around Bagwell/Biggio. Still the whole idea for McLane is to build the team that would win centered around Bagwell/Biggio and make this city proud. And he was villanized for it? He later spent the money for Jeff Kent, Carlos Lee, tried to spend on Carlos Beltran, Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens while still trying to get that ring on his team's fingers that included the now aging duo of superstars. They got close.
Hunsicker in the mean time scurried to keep a semblance of good young talent to keep coming through the pipeline and he struck gold with a couple of them: Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt, go ahead and throw in Brad Lidge while you're at it too. Nicely done, eh? Of course, Hunsicker is also the one who tried to wedge in Wade Miller, Mitch Melusky, Tim Redding, Daryle Ward, Carlos Hernandez, Wilfredo Rodriquez, Kirk Saarloos, Chad Qualls (the inconsistent one) and others but did not realize the same results. Does anyone remember when the team was supposed to have a rotation manned by the likes of Miller, Oswalt, Redding, Hernandez and Rodriquez? We all thought they were set for the next decade with such talented young arms, eh? Also Hunsicker was also responsible for the failed drafting of such guys as Derrick Grisby and Robert Stiehl. But you know, at least Hunsicker produced Berkman and Oswalt! Oh yeah, and Morgan Ensberg, Jason Lane and Chris Burke too! Guys who should be major league starters now and young veterans, except they forgot to do one thing: perform at the major league level.
See here is the rub, had Ensberg performed at his potential dicated, would the Astros need to trade for Ty Wiggington? Had Chris Burke done the job a #10 draft pick will usually do, would we be talking about McLane spending money on Kaz Matsui right now? Had Jason Lane been the player they thought he'd be, would Carlos Lee had been a spend for McLane, perhaps opting instead to spend on a top of the line pitcher? So just because you have good young talent, they have to perform consistently in the major leagues and Houston had just some guys who plain failed (and they were Hunsicker's group too!). So do I blame McLane for wanting to continue to spend money on players that are veterans to keep the turnstiles turning? No, he knows if he plugs some holes with some nice players, he has a chance. But when it backfires on you, it really can get ugly quick... see today's version of the Houston Astros. The neglect of the farm system has left McLane no choice but to continue to search for the player or pitchers he needs to be a competitive team and key the attendance going upwards. See, the Astros media and fans are not sophisticated enough to know differently so they'll buy it until it goes south quickly, at which point you get what you get now... a ton of bitching and moaning about the lack of a minor league system and of course McLane did not spend *enough*! Yeah, like had he spent a ton of cayshe for Barry Zito the Astros would be.... oh wait, we're not allowed to name FA mega-dollar bust! We're only allowed to talk about successful FA or successful minor leaguers who developed, like Ryan Braun! (Nevermind Houston developed a much greater player in Lance Berkman than Braun will ever be!).
So where are we? Dead in the water? No, not necessarily. McLane will have to spend money this off season and I would bet that pitching will be on the list of things needed. Pinwheel is already opining to the masses that the name should be Andy Pettitte that is targetted and I say Pettitte is a Yankee, will remain a Yankee and will retire a Yankee... so don't bother. Go for the pitcher that makes the most sense to the team, a top of the rotation guy. Next you hope that next year you also get a second top of the line pitcher right from your own core group. You've already spent the money on him, all that is needed is a turnaround by said pitcher. Front and center Roy Oswalt, I'm talking about you. One more decent young arm to break loose and you've got yourself a contender of sorts next season and of course more time to build the system back up so you're not having to constantly spend dollars in the FA overblown market and save some to lock up the young guys you're counting on like Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn and JR Towles. Anybody notice that all three have regressed and make us feel a little bit like we might be witness to the next set of Ensberg, Lane and Burke? Gee I hope not!
