This site was updated on January 26, and this is what I had to say at that time:
So Tejada is no longer our shortstop, having signed a one-year with the Orioles.
I was appalled when he came here, so I should be overjoyed that he's leaving, right?
Well, actually, yes, I should. And I am. Of course Clemens and Pettitte got there first (and don't forget Ken Caminiti and Chris Donnels and Jason Grimsley and Stephen Randolph and Adam Seuss and Lou Santangelo and Carlos Lazu), but Tejada brought shame upon the organization when he brought his bat to Houston.
We have photocopies of Tejada's signed checks to Kurt Radomski; in fact we had them, I am sure, before the deal was even made.
That's of course why I hate Tejada the most--he presented a test of faith to management, one which they failed miserably. Wade and McLane KNEW Miggy was a cheat, and they went and got him anyway.
Sonofabitch. My fandom may never be the same, but at least the chapter is now over, and I can see about moving on. ******** *******
It's impossible to suggest that Tejada wasn't an upgrade over Adam Everett offensively, but it's also very easy to overstate what Tejada did as an Astro. Yes, Miggy played 158 games a year, and hit .300 in 2009. But he also OBPed .314 in '08. Adam Everett posted a better number twice, and the Astros have seen nine seasons in which a shortstop played 100 games and OBPed better than that .314. Players having accomplished this include Andujar Cedeño and Ricky Gutierrez.
Getting 4 or 5 PA's a night, Tejada walked once every 7-1/2 games. Think about that, and then think about the 13 or 14 home runs he hit each year. Did you know that Adam Everett's home run high as an Astro was 11? Normalized stats suggest that both of Tejada's seasons rank among the top six ever posted by an Astros shortstop, solidly behind Dickie Thon's 1983 season, and behind two that Denis Menke posted when Harry Walker was still managing.
'Course, Menke and Thon never GIDPed 30 times in a season, either. Tejada was a double play machine, let us remember, and he now holds down slots # 1 and # 3 on the all-time seasonal list, with only Brad Ausmus preventing from achieving the quiniella.
Yes, I guess he played hard, and I hear he was a "good teammate," if it can be that good teammates lie about their drug use, and about their age, until they're caught, at which point they apologize. So, hardworking and "a good teammate" and a liar and overrated and basically just not the fuck worth it, not worth the money, not worth Luke Scott, and not worth the shitty reputation for the franchise that he helped cement. Goodbye Miggy.
******** *******
Valverde's now with the Tigers of course, and it made me think that we're unsettled at the closer position as we enter the season, as unsettled as we've been for a very long time.
Closer Situation As We've Entered the Season Since Terry Collins Took Over
| As the Astros Entered the Season . . . | Projected Guy's Numbers The Year Before
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| Year | Projected Closer | Saves | Blown Saves | Save % | ERA | Other Notes
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| 1994 | Mitch Williams | 43 | 6 | 88% | 3.34 | |
| 1995 | John Hudek | 16 | 2 | 89% | 2.97 | All-Star |
| 1996 | Todd Jones | 15 | 5 | 75% | 3.07 | |
| 1997 | Billy Wagner | 17 | 6 | 74% | 2.44 | |
| 1998 | Billy Wagner | 23 | 6 | 79% | 2.85 | |
| 1999 | Billy Wagner | 30 | 5 | 86% | 2.70 | |
| 2000 | Billy Wagner | 39 | 3 | 93% | 1.57 | All-Star, 4th in NL Cy Young |
| 2001 | Billy Wagner | 16 | 7 | 70% | 6.18 | |
| 2002 | Billy Wagner | 39 | 2 | 95% | 2.73 | All-Star |
| 2003 | Billy Wagner | 35 | 6 | 85% | 2.52 | |
| 2004 | Brad Lidge | 1 | 5 | 17% | 3.60 | 5th in NL ROY |
| OR | |
| | Octavio Dotel | 4 | 2 | 67% | 2.48 | |
| 2005 | Brad Lidge | 29 | 4 | 88% | 1.90 | |
| 2006 | Brad Lidge | 42 | 4 | 91% | 2.29 | All-Star |
| 2007 | Brad Lidge | 32 | 6 | 84% | 5.28 | |
| 2008 | Jose Valverde | 19 | 8 | 70% | 2.66 | |
| 2009 | Jose Valverde | 44 | 7 | 86% | 3.38 | Led League in Saves |
| 2010 | Matt Lindstrom | 15 | 2 | 86% | 5.89 | |
| OR | |
| Brandon Lyon | 3 | 3 | 50% | 2.86 | |
You never know what's gonna happen in a season. You can't guess at this stuff. Even those savvy few who lacked faith in Wild Thing back in 1994 could not have guessed that his replacement would be a journeyman called up from the minors for the job, nor could they have dreamed that he would make the All-Star team. And then, when Astro fans thought they'd be set for a while at the closer position after John Hudek's 1994 season, Hudek didn't make it out of May in '95, and it was Todd Jones who had to hold down the position, which he did, more or less satisfactorily. And of course, who would have thought that Billy Wagner's 2000 season would get so wrecked? But the idea I'm trying to convey here is that each year since 1994, the team at the least appeared set at closer as it entered the season. Even in 2004, after Wags had been traded, though the club didn't know whether it would be Dotel or Lidge closing games, they knew that one of them would surely be able to do the job as the two vying for it had made up the front part of the best 7-8-9 punch in all of baseball the year before. In other words, the job was unsettled, but the team was set.
I think that this year, the job is unsettled AND the team is unset. Not offering Valverde arbitration was a mistake. Throwing money at the middle reliever Lyon the way we did was stupid. And I think Lindstrom is another Kyle Farnsworth.
But, shit, anything can happen. the fact that Lyon and Lindstrom are probably unsuited for the closer's role doesn't even have to matter. For all I know, Atlanta releases Wagner at the end of ST, the Astros pick him up for nostalgia, and he pitches lights out and saves 30 games. Or maybe Paulino becomes the closer, and the 100 mile an hour fastball finally pays dividends. Or maybe something else happens. Who knows? But for the first time in a long while, we Astro fans can't even pretend we know what's gonna happen at the closer position as we contemplate the new season.
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The Cards
(updated February 8th) |
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Won auctions for the three cards in the 2009 Ultimate /599 base teamset last week, and got two of them in today, the Roy Oswalt # 23 and the Bud Norris # 82. I seem to remember going off about how with Upper Deck's loss of the MLB license, and with their refusal to gracefully concede defeat on the matter, we were doomed to a slew of airbrushed junk.
Well, imagine my surprise when I found out that the cards looked quite good.
In fact, in the case of the Norris # 82, the card looks better than Bud does.
'Course, the reason that's so is because the cards have NOT had the proprietary MLB logos airbrushed out, which the MLB and Topps and their corps of crack property lawyers say they should have been. So, yes indeed, the cards look good in my Ultra Pro pages, but only, it seems, because Upper Deck is in violation of the law in producing them the way that they did.
When you get down to it, that's why I bought the cards (and 14 other non-Astros to use as Beckett trade bait) in the first place. I've never gone hard after Ultimate base cards (never mind the /35 Ultimate patches or other such nonsense) before, and have acquired what I do have of Ultimate from prior years either through trades, or with after the sale eBay shopping cart stuffing to ameliorate the freight on a single card purchase. But with all the noise the legal types were making recently, I thought it might be wise to go out and actively get a few of them this year before the product was pulled off the market.
Well, I'm not sure how well my plan is gonna work. It seems kind of late in the game for any massive recall, even if Upper Deck does lose a lawsuit or two. And I'm pretty sure public opinion--misguided though it may be--is solidly with Upper Deck, meaning dealers won't be kowtowed.
When push comes to shove, I guess if the integrity of my collection can stand a 1993 Cardtoons of "Money Bagswell," I'm sure it can handle '09 Ultimate. And I'm sure I'll be able to trade those 14, just as I've moved out much of my other non-Astro material since I've set up my doubles for trade on Beckett's site. It'll all pass, recall or no recall, and whatever the, um, ultimate, fate of the Upper Deck Company ends up being.
But Upper Deck is wrong on this, they really are. They lost the license, for good or ill. They should have had the grace to get out when told.
And this lack of grace makes their company really hard to root for in the coming battles.
(Held over--update January 27th) | |
While I guess it was not exactly unknown upon his hiring that new manager Brad Mills was Nolan Ryan's 3509th strikeout victim, and thus the necessary hapless co-actor as Nolan broke Walter Johnson's career strikeout record, I, personally, just became aware of it the other day, as I was perusing the 1991 Pacific Texas Express # 49 Milestone Strikeouts I received as part of my end of a trade on Beckett.com.
Also, I've gone ahead and placed a couple newly acquired cards at the Six Pitcher No-Hitter page, but the Triple Threads I picked up is so cool that it deserves a page of its own, that and the javascript I dropped.
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What I Said Last Time.
But What Else Is New?
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WHIFF KING
icon,
Minor-league veteran lefty spent '85 and '86 with Tucson 
1 - 0 with a 1.59 in 10 games for the 2004 inaugural Greeneville Astros 
Set a minor-league record for catchers in 1964 with the AA San Antonio Bullets by catching an incredible 130 straight games. Caught Wilson's no -hitter 6/18/67 
99 Texas League Top Prospect 
'74 at Cedar Rapids and '75 at Dubuque, and as such, twice a teammate of household name Paulo De Leon. Despite the long shadow of DeLeon, Alfaro has a bit of renown himself, in that he pitched a 5 - 0 no-hitter vs. Cedar Rapids while pitching for the Packers in '75. 
Click here for a cool story
Housepainter in the offseason
Flakiest Astro ever? 
One-time Cuban defector 
Most home runs at Colt Field; Most Grand Slams by an Astro 
