Sports10

I don't totally disagree, but that was 20 homers each year in around 400 at bats in Atlanta. Moving to Houston and playing a full seasons worth of games and he could hit 30 or more. While I do agree that they gave up too much. It's really only 2 upper prospects not 3. Thurman so far has been pretty bad. Of those 2 Ruiz is the one I expect to hurt the most, but unless he taps into some power he won't be a huge loss. Folty has had plenty of time to develop and so far hasn't added a third quality pitch or learned to control his fastball. Odds are he will become a hard throwing reliever, which has plenty of value, but it's not like they gave up the farm. Now there is obviously a chance they all figure it out, but they gave up a little potential to get some proven talent. But I do think it was a little steep of a price, just not terrible.

He did it on national tv, yes HE made it a BIG DEAL.

By the way my original comment was in the response to the post saying they felt bad for him. How can you feel bad for someone who brought the circus on themselves?

If you want people to not make a big deal out of your sexual orientation then why would you make a big deal out of it. It was/is IMO stupid to feel the need to tell the world.

No need to feel bad for the guy, he is the one who chose to make an issue out of his sexual orientation. All he had to do was show up and play ball, but decided the media circus was the better route. I still have no idea why it is necessary for anyone of any sexual orientation to broadcast it to the world. It his business, keep it that way.

Oh geez, seriously? Do you really think the cop just thought oh your up to no good so I'm gonna kill you? Was the shooting warranted? We don't know yet. Give them a chance to investigate it, it doesn't happen overnight. Do you really think a cop just shoots people for the fun of it? It ruins their lives as well. Do you think this cops life will ever be the same, reguardless of the outcome?

I hope I'm right too, and I'm not trying to be a jackass, it just gets old listening to people bash them when they truly have no idea what is going on. Thank you for at least listening to the points I brought up and here's to hoping they hit on some really good players and make it back to being fun to watch. I don't even have to have a championship, I'll just take the late 90's success back.

Oh and about your batting average comment go check out the Oakland Athletics batting averages. They currently have the best record in baseball and have won the American League west the last 2 seasons. I love a high batting average as much as anyone, but there are many more facets of the game other than batting average. If you will notice the guys who build these teams for a living care much more about your OPS, which is on base percentage plus slugging percentage, than they do about you batting average. As well as you defense and other things as well. Sure everyone would love to have 9 guys batting .300 with a .400 on base percentage and 35 home runs, but it just isn't gonna happen.

Also I don't know if you care or not, but following the minor leagues is a good way to feel good about what is happening. There are several websites that you can keep up with them on my favorite being the crawfishboxes, if your interested you can follow the development of these guys there. I want a winner as much as anyone, but baseball is different than any other sport in that most guys are drafted and developed over 4-5 years before they are ready for the major leagues. When you draft once a year and most of the impact players are all gone in the first round it's hard to fix a baseball team quickly. This is why they had to trade every available asset they had to turn into 2 or 3 guys who may be decent players. That's done, now it's time to sit back and wait on them to develop and hope more succeed than fail.

I believe I'm a realist as well. I'm not saying that this rebuilding effort is going to work, but the had no other choice with the shape they were in. I also believe they will supplement the holes they have after the bulk of the talent has arrived with the free agents that are available and not extremely over priced. As far as the 3-100 loss seasons, you are correct it hasn't been done before because most teams take the stay reasonably competitive approach to rebuilding and it takes 10 years, or more in the case of the Pirates to get back to winning. Houston took the fire sale approach and have rebuilt the minor leagues which is the foundation of a good Major League baseball team in 3 years. You also cannot compare all teams the same in the sense that the Astros were in probably the worst shape any franchise had ever been in when they were sold. They were literally barren in the minor and major leagues. I for one totally agree with the approach they took, suck it up for a few years and be terrible but come back with a totally rebuilt system in just a matter of a few years. Only time will tell if it results in a championship caliber team, but reguardless I believe they will be in better shape than they were when they took over the team. If you want to place blame, place it on the previous owner who got them to that point and let this leadership group finish their plan before you give them an "F".

Also Oldtimer George Springer value is and always has been in his power and on base percentage, he was never expected to hit for a high average. However what he has done in his first 60 or so games has very little inclination to what he will do over his career. Lots of very good hitter started out slowly to their careers until they adjusted to major league pitching.

Actually since the beginning of May when they started bringing players up and getting them accustomed to the big leagues they have played pretty close to .500 ball. That's a pretty good job with as young of a team as they have.

Well being that they have only been under the current management team during this rebuilding phase, I have no idea how anyone could make the assumption that current management will not spend money when the time is right. When your organization is as bad top to bottom as it was left by Drayton Mclane there is only one "quick" fix, and that is a TOTAL rebuild. They were horrible at the major and minor league level and had to completely start over. As far as having to hit on all their first round draft picks, that tells me you do not follow their minor league system at all, so you may want to look into it before making bold claims such as that. They are doing the only thing they could do and as long as the majority of their top prospects don't bust, they will be a good team soon enough. If you don't think a team can make and win World Series without relying on the free agent maket, see the St Louis Cardinals and San Fransico Giants who have both won multiple championships recently with mostly home grown players. Everyone bashed the Cardinals for letting Pujols walk and they got the last laugh. If you guys truly think championships are bought you do not watch much baseball. The only teams with that kind of money are the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers, and only the Red Sox and Yankees were successful at it and even their cores were homegrown players.

Yes, Port Neches.

Kyle just missed having 2 on the night, he hit one just a couple feet foul in his first AB.

Sam's sexual orientation is not even in the same class as not being allowed to play because of race. He is not the first gay football player and as far as first openly gay football player, who cares. I don't want to know, the other draft picks didn't announce that they were straight. If he's gay, he's gay, no need to tell the world, quit making such a big deal about your personal life. My beliefs don't agree with it nor do I chastise him for it, I'm just sick of having it shoved in my face everywhere you turn.

I agree completely, somewhere between 65 and 70 sounds about right.

Agree 100%