Thank God our GM is not Ed Wade. Per the Baltimore Sun, the Astros stripped much of the remains of a bad farm system for Miguel Tejada. They gave up Troy Patton, Michael Costanzo, Matt Albers, Dennis Sarfate and Luke Scott.
Tejada’s power has been in decline, he’s 31 and had an EqA of .288 last season. Costanzo’s peak EqA is .288, and he could’ve provided around that for 6 cheap years. Then you have Troy Patton, who is regarded by many as the # 1 prospect on the Astros. Albers is probably a bottom of the rotation type.
This is a horrible move by the Astros, and I don’t know why they’d trade for Tejada, especially with the rumors about his “B12 shots” and the Mitchell report coming out tomorrow.
While we’re looking at teams within the division, I’m kicking around a series idea of looking at our divisional foes farm systems and seeing how we stack up. Stay tuned.
Filed under: Transactions
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
I am in the exact opposite boat….Astros gave up a 4th OF’er, a Russell Branyan type prospect, a 4th or 5th starter, a mid 20’s relieve with no control and a LH pitching prospect who has showed no signs of being able to adjust to high level of competition
Tejada is in decline, is likely destined for 3B…but his production over the next 2 season should give the Astros more then any of those 5 players could.
Solid move for the Stros….you can just throw pen Tejada’s name in the lineup for 160 games and expect #5 hitter production.
Solid move….O’s got quantity, not quality.
Great Idea of looking into other systems.
I would probably say the Brewers had the strongest system but right now I am not sure, Cubs are still fairly strong. Reds and Pirates I am unsure of either. Would really interesting to see how we rank there.
I also agree with both you and Pickle. The deal was quite a lot for a guy that might not improve their team that much but in the end they gave up very little in terms of grade A talent, it isn’t like it was Hunter Pence instead of Scott. But they still might have been able to do better.
The Reds have the best system—Jay Bruce, Homer Bailey, Joey Votto, Johnny Cueto, Todd Frazier, Devin Mesoraco, Drew Stubb, Nefi Soto…a solid group
Agreed on the Reds…by far the best system in the division. Although MIL has most of their best farm players on the big league team now. That should count for something b/c its not as if they have been in the majors for a long time.
On Tejada…I was an advocate of trading for him, however that is way too many prospects to give up. I don’t care if there is not a lot of grade A prospects in that package. The Cards are attempting to build organizational depth…not trying to win in 2008…trying to win long term. The only way to do so is to hold on to prospects so that gems may be uncovered.
I figure Baltimore is selling high with inside information on Tejada and any potential suspensions that might be forthcoming, but other than that not a bad trade at all for the Astros, who have no one top prospect talent that is a certain major league star and whose major league talent base is better than the Cardinals, which is why it makes more sense for the Astros to push for victories whereas the Cards should be rebuilding.
This move gives the Astros four clear middle of the oder hitters who can make the team competitive (Tejada, Lee, Berkman, and Pence) through 2009. This two year window this gives the ’stros two years to rebuild the far system while keeping the major league team pretty competitive. A decent move given where the club stands.
Care to give comps of the players the Astros have up who are in our system?
I am by far not Erik so take them with a grain of salt but stat wise:
Scott ~ Haerther
Albers ~ Boggs
I was going to look at others but I really got a bit over my head even on those two, but I was going to go with Sarfate ~ Hawksworth as well.
I fail to see how this makes the Astros that much better. If they put him at third, it’s a complete waste. It’s a win now move for a team that isn’t in a position to win. That pitching staff is ugly, and their defense just got worse.
Trading all of your pitching prospects for “names” on the wrong side of 30 isn’t the best strategy.
Does it make them better? A little. Is it worth giving up five players and your best pitching prospect? Certainly not.
Comps?
Probably something like
Luke Scott- Chris Duncan w Defense / Rick Ankiel w OBP/ Ryan Ludwick
Troy Patten- Garcia with injury concerns/ Adam Ottavino
Michael Costanzo- Allen Craig
Albers- Thompson/ Reyes
Sarfate- Hawksworth
Ed Wade is the new Dave Littlefield.
Or was Dave Littlefield the new Ed Wade. . .
Would that make Ed Wade the new Ed Wade?
I won’t do comps, just because it’s sort of straining for something that really isn’t there. Patton was given a B+ by john sickels. that would probably be the highest grade he’ll give any of our pitching prospects, if at all. Costanzo has question marks, but there are a lot of believers in his bat. Patton and Albers are MLB ready pitchers, and while Patton’s results haven’t quite matched up with his scouting reports, he should at least be a middle of the rotation guy.
I just wanna know, who is supposed to pitch for the Astros. Their rotation is–
Oswalt
Backe
Woody Williams
Wandy Rodriguez
After Roy O, that’s dreadful. I don’t care if they score 800 runs with that lineup, they are going to give up like 900…or whatever, you get the idea.
Who’s going to catch the ball behind that awful pitching staff?
And they don’t have a closer.
Towles will catch most likely. They have a closer, Ausmus has a good arm and won’t be catching now…j/k.
the trade makes no sense for the astros, but i don’t think it’s that bad of a trade really. the only one of those prospects that i really like is costanzo. i feel like many of our third tier (after herron on our list) prospects compare favorably to the rest of them, though luke scott is better than our outfield options (but not by much).
Erik wrote: “I just wanna know, who is supposed to pitch for the Astros. Their rotation is–
Oswalt
Backe
Woody Williams
Wandy Rodriguez
After Roy O, that’s dreadful. I don’t care if they score 800 runs with that lineup, they are going to give up like 900…or whatever, you get the idea.”
Guess whose rotation is even worse? The Cardinals! ****.
And Wandy isn’t THAT bad, he would be our #2.
But yeah, bad trade by the Stros, it will be even more funny if Tejada’s name is in the Mitchell report.
I should’ve rephrased. After Roy O and Wandy. Looking at his numbers, he’s a pretty nice arm that i wish the Cards had
What if they sign silva?
With these moves, you have to figure they will take a flier on one of the veteran rehab projects out there like Weaver, Lieber, or Garcia.
if they sign silva…then they have just spent a lot of money for players who will marginally help them now, but would’ve probably got the same production or better by being PATIENT
Right.. but for the this year I’m saying… if they sign silva they have a rotation that reliably eats innings and is better than average.
So they can finish third, with a 120 million dollar payroll and an empty farm system.