GM admits to being confused by team results
The headline says it all: Situation perplexes Purpura. The general manager of the Houston Astros cannot understand why his team is playing like it is. Well, Mr. Purpura, even I can tell you what your problem is. Your team is not as talented as most of the others in the baseball right now. I can count on one hand the number of players on the Astros roster that other teams would love to add to theirs; however, three of them are signed to long-term contracts that make trading them difficult at best.
What talent? Outside of Oswalt, Berkman, Lee, Pence, and Lidge right now we do not have much talent that is outstanding. Loretta and Lamb are good role players but are not 600 AB everyday players. Biggio, Williams and Ausmus are getting old. Lane, Scott, Bruntlett and Jennings are average at best, and virtually worthless on the trade market. I could go over the rest of the roster but it would be more of the same."It's totally unexpected," he said while working the phones from Houston. "In some ways, you can't believe that we are where we are given the kind of talent that's on the club."
True. But what are you going to have to do to make up 14 games in the standings, besides sell off half of the farm system to do it? That, and you are not going to get out of it if you keep doing the things that you are doing, like signing free agents that cost us draft picks, and making trades that mortgage the future without finding ways to keep the minor leagues stocked with talent."The fact of the matter is bemoaning our fate right now and wallowing in our misery is useless. We have to find a way to get out of it and not give up hope and continue."
You cannot get younger players that will help this year. What you need to do is look for players who are one or two years away from being in the majors. Get them, and have them in the major league camp next spring and see if they can compete and win jobs."If we're going to get younger players that can help you this year or next year for example, the cost is going to be a little bit higher," Purpura said. "It doesn't make any sense for us at this point to look to next year and make (wholesale) changes on the club. We've certainly got a core of guys, and we have to improve that core."
What you do is admit that this season is a loss, contact the teams in the race and trade those players that have some value, like Loretta, Lamb, Wheeler, Jennings and maybe Bruntlett. Then you release or send Scott, Lane and Ensberg to the minors, and bring up the kids that are in Double A and Triple A, like Troy Patton, Josh Anderson, Juan Gutierrez, and others to play for the rest of the season and see what they can do. The problem is that Purpura does not like to rush the kids in the minors; however, by the time they get to the bigs they have maybe 2 or 3 seasons in them before they get to 30. Statistics show that 90% of all ballplayers' skills start to decline by the age of 30, and most players have their best years between the ages of 25 and 28, with pitchers having a shorter period of peak performance.With the non-waiver trade deadline 11 days away and the Astros 14 games behind first-place Milwaukee, they are in a precarious position. Do they try to make a trade that will help them make what would be a miraculous second-half push, or do they approach the deadline by looking to the future?
Here is another link to a story on what the Astros need to do to get better, and it says the same thing: surrender this year, admit to the fans that you are not doing well, but don't blow up the team. There is a core of players here that can be a winning team; however, we need to stop looking at short-term solutions and give the younger players a chance. You never know -- we could have the next Roy Oswalt down in the minors waiting to show us what he has.
Posted by bweldon @ 07/20/07 10:29 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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