Something for the future

[redsrbetter]

A month ago, the mini-train rail over the left-field wall at Minute Maid Park might as well have been the fast track to nowhere.
The Astros were losing games, losing ground in the wild-card race and losing touch with their formula to a decade's worth of success.

The losing was often inexplicable, often frustrating, but hey, even in an atrocious National League, it happens. Even with the best 1-2-3 starting pitching combo in club history, sometimes the games and breaks don't fall as planned.
And who could have predicted an offense that would be this bad or the closing troubles?
But in their state of angst and ambition to shake things up, the Astros did something so un-Astros. So un-Drayton McLane.
They dangled Roy Oswalt as bait before the July 31 trade deadline, stunning their best pitcher and threatening to alienate a player no less important at this point in franchise history than Jeff Bagwell or Craig Biggio was five or eight years ago.

A ray of light

It went against everything that earned this organization a fine reputation: being true to homegrown talent, offering security to the cornerstone pieces and making fans happy by keeping the most popular players in town.

Worse, there were uncertainties surrounding Roger Clemens' and Andy Pettitte's futures. And there were tenuous futures looming for closer Brad Lidge, struggling outfielder Jason Lane and free-agent-to-be Aubrey Huff.
The defending NL champs suddenly were looking like a team about to go into slash-and-burn mode.
It was a club that looked ready to begin uttering baseball's four-letter word (so to speak): Rebuilding.
But now, win or lose the wild-card berth and Wednesday's sluggish offensive night in a 1-0 victory over the Brewers notwithstanding, these are better days.

Ripple effect

And tomorrow has never looked better.

That's how much signing Oswalt to a five-year, $73 million extension means to this Astros club. Beyond repairing any lingering ill will with Oswalt, beyond locking up arguably the league's best pitcher and best hitter (Lance Berkman) through 2011, there is more.
The trickle-down of McLane's getting this done a year before Oswalt would become a free agent is huge.
Today, Pettitte must be looking at his future with Houston on his mind. He isn't making any plans public, and Astros general manager Tim Purpura says he'll approach Pettitte's agents, Alan and Randy Hendricks, at some point soon. But retirement must be less of an option.
Clemens? Who knows? Who ever knows?
Huff has reason to want to stay. And free-agent corner outfielders on the horizon will move the Astros up on their list of preferred destinations.
And that front-line starting pitcher the Astros will try to land come the winter? He's out there, watching. His name could well be Woody Williams, the Padres starter and long-rumored Astros acquisition who's apparently keen on making it happen this time.
No matter where the Astros end up in 2006, no matter how many flubs and flaws they show, the message is clear: No one's giving up on this group just yet.
"It has an impact on any player that currently is here and any player we might be interested in in the future," Purpura said. "It says we're never going to rebuild here. We're going to retool. We're going to try to keep our strengths."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...z/4153408.html

[redsrbetter]

So what is this organization up to? Firesale soon to come? Even if they make the playoffs and win the World Series, are they going to retool the team and organization as a whole? I guess we will see...

[redsrbetter]

Houston is 3.5 games behind in the WC race right now. If they do happen to build on their past success of playing good baseball on the final stretch and wind up making the playoffs, do you see this team changing much?