Just wanted to take a moment to welcome Houston Astros outfielder Hunter Pence to the b5media sports channel. He will be blogging for us at Inside the Ballpark, offering a first-person view of the big-league baseball experience.

I’m looking forward to following Hunter throughout the 2008 season, and I’ve even resolved to cheer for the Astros when they’re not playing my Padres. Anyway, be sure to stop by Hunter’s digs and say hello. Should be fun…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Prospects for Haren

In the first, they sent a boatload of minor leaguers to Oakland for right-hander Dan Haren and change.

The linked article provides detailed information on the prospects involved. Suffice to say, they aren’t scrubs. Arizona has a very deep farm system and some terrific young talent at the big-league level. When you’re in that position, you can go out and get a guy like Haren.

Outfielder Carlos Gonzalez is the centerpiece of the package headed to the A’s. First baseman Chris Carter, acquired a couple weeks ago from the White Sox in the Carlos Quentin deal, is another potential impact player, and I kind of like left-hander Dana Eveland, who is putting up some nice numbers in the Mexican Pacific League this winter.

For the second straight off-season, Arizona has gone out and improved its rotation. On the A’s side, they’re perpetually reshaping the squad, and they’ve come away with a nice haul for an established pitcher (whom they acquired in a similar deal involving Mark Mulder back in December 2004). Seems to me both teams accomplished their objective here.

Valverde for Three

The Diamondbacks also have traded closer Jose Valverde to Houston for right-handers Chad Qualls and Juan Gutierrez, and infielder/outfielder Chris Burke. At first blush, I find it surprising that Arizona would move Valverde, who led the world in saves last year. Qualls certainly isn’t in the same class, but he’s been consistently effective since coming up with the Astros in ‘04 and is an asset to any bullpen.

Burke is a utility guy, handy to have around but not offering much upside. The potential gem here is Gutierrez, who was ranked #5 among Astros prospects by Baseball America headed into the 2007 season. The Diamondbacks appear to be stockpiling good, young starting pitching. Houston, meanwhile, has moved three of its top pitching prospects this week (two others being sent to Baltimore in the Miguel Tejada deal). Presumably the Astros see themselves as contenders in a weak NL Central starting now.

Other Voices

• Beyond the Boxscore
• Bugs & Cranks
• Baseball Musings

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Headed to Houston

Tejada is coming off a .296/.357/.442 campaign, which is low by his standards but still pretty darned good. The downside is that he turns 32 in May and, thanks to that whole consecutive-games streak thing, has a lot of wear-and-tear on his 5′10″, 170-lb frame. Also, the Astros have an otherworldly defender at short in Adam Everett, so if Tejada moves to third base, how will that affect his value? For a guy that’s due $26 million over the next two seasons, those are a lot of questions. Then again, no-one is out of contention in the NL Central, so why not take a shot…

Headed to Baltimore

Scott is a solid fourth-outfield type who might be capable of a full-time gig. He’s a left-handed batter with a nice mix of power and plate discipline — think Brad Wilkerson.

Albers, a right-hander, had a horrendous (4-11, 5.86 ERA) rookie campaign with the Astros. He was hittable, had a poor strikeout-to-walk ratio, and gave up too many homers. Coming into 2007, Baseball America had rated Albers as Houston’s #3 prospect, so maybe he just needs to make some adjustments at the big-league level.

Patton, a left-hander, was the Astros’ #2 prospect according to BA, which projected him as a potential front-end guy. Patton posted decent numbers at Double- and Triple-A in 2007, although the strikeout rate (5.53) could have been higher.

Sarfate, a right-hander, has spent his entire career in the Milwaukee organization. Prior to ‘07, BA had him ranked as the Brewers’ #22 prospect. Previously a starter, Sarfate moved to the ‘pen last year, with mixed results at Triple-A Nashville. He struck out a lot of batters, but also walked a lot. The Astros acquired Sarfate from Milwaukee in a September deal for the ever-popular “cash considerations.”

Costanzo is a left-handed hitting third baseman with loads of power and questionable ability to make contact. Not quite as whifftastic as Russell Branyan; more like Dallas McPherson.

There aren’t really any impact players in this bunch. Scott is a decent player, chances are that one of Patton or Albers will pan out, Costanzo is intriguing, and Sarfate is roster fill (on the bright side, he is cheaper than Danys Baez).

I know Tejada is expensive and entering the decline phase of his career, but I’m not sure the Orioles got enough in terms of quality. It’s like the kid who trades his dollar bill for two quarters because two is more than one, two quarters for three dimes… Eventually he has five cents in his pocket.

Other Voices

• Mr. Irrelevant
• Oriole Post
• Baseball Musings

Post from: Knuckle Curve

In his four-year career, the 32-year-old Matsui owns a .272/.325/.387 batting line. He also has never played more than 114 games in a season, so the question remains, why did the Astros feel compelled to lock him up to a long-term deal?

Pros:

• Good defender
• Great in postseason (too bad the Astros went 73-89 last year and don’t figure to improve by a lot)

Cons:

• On the wrong side of 30
• Not much of a hitter

If I were the Astros, I’d have given Chris Burke the job. I know, Burke can’t hit either, but at least he’s cheap.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Here is the best part of the press release:

He recorded his 100th career stolen base on July 27th, becoming the 21st catcher all-time to reach the 100-steal plateau.

Also, Ausmus is 24 home runs shy of 100. At his current pace, he’ll reach that milestone in 2013, at age 44. I look forward to it…

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Post from: Knuckle Curve

• Chicago White Sox – These guys won the World Series in 2005 and 90 games last year; now they’ve fallen behind perennial cellar dweller Kansas City in the AL Central and are fighting the Devil Rays for worst record in all of baseball. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has taken to critiquing Miguel Cabrera’s physique (Cabrera, it should be noted, doesn’t play for Guillen’s team) and accusing his players of mass murder. Really, who could have seen this coming?
• Houston Astros – This is the team that lost to the White Sox in the ‘05 World Series. At least Guillen and his boss, Kenny Williams, have survived the season. Phil Garner and Tim Purpura weren’t so lucky. The Astros won just 82 games last year, so their fall hasn’t been quite as precipitous as that of the White Sox, but still, this is a franchise that has grown accustomed to winning. I’m not sure that anyone expected Houston to be a serious playoff contender, but I’m also not sure they expected to see the Astros struggling to stay ahead of Pittsburgh in the NL Central.
• Washington Nationals – Yeah, they’re on pace to lose 89 games, but several experts thought the Nats would threaten the ‘62 New York Mets all-time record of 120 losses in a season. The team is unbelievably anonymous outside of Ryan Zimmerman and maybe Chad Cordero. But Manny Acta has gotten a terrific performance from a resurgent Dmitri Young, and his young pitching staff has shown improvement in the second half of the season. I don’t think most pundits had this team coming anywhere near 70 wins; that a team with such a lack of identifiable talent should remain reasonably competitive into September (or at least as competitive as a certain team from San Francisco that shelled out $126 million for a mid-rotation starter) is enough to get Acta consideration for Manager of the Year in my book.
• Magglio Ordonez – He’s having a career year at age 33. After a brilliant run from 2000 to 2003, Ordonez saw his game deteriorate due to injuries. He signed a big contract with Detroit that smelled “like summer armpits” and got into just 82 games in his first season with the Tigers. Last year Ordonez remained healthy but didn’t perform at his previous levels. No surprise, really; the guy was 32 years old and coming off two injury-marred seasons. So the natural next step is, what, MVP candidate? Go figure.
• Carlos Pena – We’ve already talked about him. Pena is up to 37 homers with 22 games remaining. He has an outside shot to finish the season with more home runs than he hit in the big leagues from 2004 to 2006 combined (46). I would say that Pena just needed the opportunity, but he’d had plenty of ‘em and done nothing to suggest that this was possible.
• Jack Cust – Fun story. The former first-round pick had sipped cups of coffee in Arizona, Colorado, Baltimore, and San Diego before finding himself in Oakland. Again. Cust actually spent the 2005 season playing for Oakland’s Triple-A affiliate but at age 26, never reached the big leagues that year. This season, when Mike Piazza landed on the DL, the A’s needed a guy with Cust’s skills — the ability to mash a baseball — and acquired him from the Padres for next to nothing. Cust, whose defensive shortcomings make him a liability in the National League, responded to the opportunity and became Oakland’s most productive player.
• Fausto Carmona – Nothing says “Cy Young candidate” like a 1-10 record and 5.42 ERA. That’s what Carmona did in 2006 at age 22, and now he is one of the best starting pitchers in the American League. His strikeout totals are a tad low, but with the number of ground balls he serves up, it may not matter.
• Josh Hamilton – Taken as a Rule V pick this winter despite having played just 15 games over the previous three seasons, Hamilton stuck with the big club in Cincinnati and is hitting .288/.367/.547 for the Reds in just over 300 plate appearances. The kid still has work to do, but given where he’s been and how far the former #1 pick overall has come to get back to this point in his career, I have a feeling that won’t be a problem.
• Rick Ankiel – Brian Gunn has written a nice article about Ankiel’s success over at Hardball Times (disclosure: I contribute to THT). The Ankiel story truly is amazing. As Brian wrote when Ankiel converted to the outfield, “It’s best to consider Rick Ankiel retired from baseball.” It was very difficult, at the time, to imagine any other outcome. Unless, of course, you were Ankiel, in which case you went out and did the impossible.

That’s the great thing about baseball. No matter what you might have seen, you can be sure you haven’t seen it all…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

A reader points out that Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle has mentioned Padres GM Kevin Towers as a possible replacement. Although I have no doubt that Towers would do a world of good in Houston, I’m not sure what the incentive would be for him to leave San Diego and an organization that is on the rise.

Whatever the Astros end up doing, they’d better hope it works. Their winning percentage has dipped every year since 2004 — from .568, to .549 (mitigated by an NL championship, of course), to .506, to .443 through Monday. We’re talking about a franchise that had experienced just one losing season since 1992 before this year.

I dunno, maybe they should try to talk Casey Candaele out of retirement. Probably wouldn’t help, but at least it would be different.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Biggio hasn’t been an elite player since the late-’90s, but there’s no denying he’s had a brilliant career. It’s easy to forget that he first reached the big leagues as a catcher and in fact became an All-Star at that position.

Biggio’s stretch from 1993 to 1998 was just sick. Over a stretch of 894 games, he hit .304/.399/.476 and stole 209 bases at a 79% success rate. He also won four Gold Glove awards at second base.

The best part of Biggio’s story? He did it all for one team, the Houston Astros. I love that…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Wheeler has been one of the better relievers in the National League the past couple years, and I’m sure he’ll do a fine job closing games for Houston. That said, folks who are writing off Lidge might want to bear this quote from Garner in mind:

Two games in this season is not a sample to say he’s done as the closer. I don’t feel like that at all. What I feel like is that there’s a little bit of a carryover from last year. I think he’s not been as sharp as he should be. I want to give him, first and foremost, more consistent work. And secondly what I’m looking for out of this is that he again approaches where I think he feels like when he comes out of the bullpen that the game is done.

What happens in the first week of April does not necessarily represent how things are going to be all season long. Garner knows this, as do Lidge and Wheeler. Conditions constantly change. People adapt to these changes.

Wheeler is the closer in Houston right now. Good for him; I hope he excels in the role. But don’t think we’ve heard the last from Lidge.

Post from: Knuckle Curve