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Monday, July 31, 2006

Time to Catch Up

So I just got this new laptop at work, and such, and was sort of away from the Internet for a few days. Then... I went out to the country this weekend and, with everything else going on, managed only to see part of Saturday's game with the D-Backs (and listen to the first half or yesterday's game). So, all I pretty much knew about this weekend was the following:
  1. We won on Saturday. The Mole looked to have turned the corner; he looked awesome!
  2. Our offense got into gear yesterday; Clemens was on his way to another win, and we're going to win a series! Woot!
  3. Purpura's going to make a deal for a middle-of-the-order bat.
Sweet!

So now it's time to check up and see how we did.
  1. *looks at final score of yesterday's game* Oh, well, I guess we didn't win yesterday, after all. Bummer. What happened?
  2. Hmm... so perhaps Lidge hasn't turned the corner. At least we went out and got a bat or something, right?
  3. Oh... we didn't. We tried, though, didn't we?
  4. We offered Roy Oswalt to the Orioles?
So what's the rationale behind trying to trade Roy-O, and yet not ending up with a bat?
Purpura: "In the end we didn’t find anything to help."
Ha, ha. I know you didn't just say that, Timmy, because that was your excuse last year: "uh, there was nobody worth getting." Purpura continues covering his ass explaining:
“You’re never out of it until you’re mathematically eliminated,” Purpura said. “We’re not going to retreat. We’re going to move on. I believe that there’s more talent on this team than what we’ve shown in the won-loss column. I think this team should have played better and will play better. The essential core is the same from last year, and we did win.
Hmm. So, instead we got the ol' "we won with what we got, so we can do it again" routine? If that's the rationale, then why did we make any moves whatsoever? That is... if what we've already got was good enough, why did we go out and get Preston Wilson (a bust, in my opinion) and Aubrey Huff (jury's still out)? Have you note seen all of the details about just how bad this lineup is?

As perplexed as I am about this turn of events, Timmy's next quote is the most baffling of all:
"We still got three dominant starters. We have a lot of ability on our club. We just have to get the best from the talent that we have.”
I'll grant you Roy-O and Fat Rog. Out of pure curiosity, though, exactly who is that third "dominant starter" of whom you're speaking?

Would that be Buchholz? Uh, probably not: he's back at AAA after failing even to underwhelm us. Or was it the guy who gave up five runs in five innings on Friday night? No, wait, is it Pettite?
Left-hander Andy Pettitte is going to need to start wearing a coat of armor if he keeps beating up on himself during postgame interviews.

"It's disgusting."

"It's been terrible."
Please, fill me in, Timmy. Give us some glimmer of hope that the crapbag that is this Astros team has it in them to make it to the Promised Land, with its current incarnation.

Or would I be better off focusing my attention on the Texans' upcoming season? I seem to remember some local excitement about the fact that we had the #1 draft pick, with Reggie Bush and Vince Young available.

How'd that turn out?

Oh.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't forget the other outcome of this: Purpura pissed off Oswalt and now Roy will almost certainly test free agency, meanign the Astros might actually HAVE to trade him, unless they can convince him to sign (Jose de Jesus Ortiz says Roy wants 6-for-~$84 million).

2:19 PM  
Blogger Shafty said...

Given that he hasn't been much of an injury risk (knock on wood), and given his relative youth (29 years old) and dominance since he came into the league in 2002, 6 years @ 84M probably isn't unreasonable.

9:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is sort of a follow-up on the post. What do you think of Purpura's work thus far? I contend he's done a poor job, but I want to acknowledge a lot more of the little things. Everyone wants to jump on the lack of trades. I think that roster management is where Purpura has really f'ed up over the last 6 weeks.

You know, aside from trying to trade the Franchise Pitcher.

11:55 AM  
Blogger Shafty said...

Bouj,

I really agree with you. I still think that the lack of trades is a function of his lack of creativity and complete devotion to the guys he raised in the farm system. He can say, "Well, there was just nobody out there," but Hunsicker almost always found a way to get it done.

But roster management has been his biggest problem recently. The more I thought about your comment to the "Special K" post, the more it made sense; this whole problem was because of poor decision-making in bringing Lane back up to the majors. It's not like his play down at AAA (.261/.327/.370) earned him a promotion!

7:19 PM  

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