Jimmy Paredes, a Bonified Young Prospect at 3B for the Astros.
As General Manager, Ed Wade of the Houston Astros holds one of the thirty toughest jobs in big league baseball. All he has to do is guide his team with the money and talent evaluative and developmental resources at his disposal to an undefined point in the fairly near future when all factors come together to make his club a contender again for the World Series. It’s sort of like firing a skeet gun at a target that already has been launched at you from beyond the trees on the horizon on an inexactly known course – and then hitting it in the sky when it passes your way.
Lots of luck, Ed. You are going to need it.
Perhaps I exaggerate the degree of difficulty in becoming ultimately competitive again, by just a tad, but I’m not so sure. Unless you are the GM for the Yankees or Red Sox, and can afford to buy known talent that works now, your developmental energies have to go into an accurate assessment of the prospective young talent out there and then having the people, facilities, materials, and plan for bringing that talent to ripeness together in a time window that translates into a team competitive performance at the critical team moment.
Having control of enough playing contracts to keep this competitive edge viable for more than one season is also important to the idea of success – as well as the development of an ongoing pipeline plan for keeping the infusion of new replacement talent plugged into the team on an ongoing basis. It “ain’t” easy but it is essential to the realization of affordable winning baseball on an ongoing basis. It’s really what Branch Rickey had in mind when he created the farm system concept back in the early 1920s.
Free agency has distracted many clubs away from player development as those with money try to buy their way to quicker winning ways through big salaries and multiple year contracts, but, as we know in Houston, these deals more often than not become better remembered as the obstacles to winning once the need for rebuilding becomes nakedly apparent. (For greatest local reference, see the contracts for Carlos Lee, Brett Myers, and Wandy Rodriguez,)
This “building a winner” business will never be an exact science, but put me in the camp of those who agree with what Ed Wade is trying to do with rebuilding the talent stream in the farm system. Even that move is no guarantee of annual competitiveness, but I think it’s pretty important, more often than not. A club has to see talent, sign talent, and successfully develop talent to be an ongoing competitive presence.
Hopefully, Mr. Wade will have the ongoing support of new owner Jim Crane long enough to determine if he’s capable of getting the job done at all. It has to be done over time, no matter who does it. Anybody who thinks it isn’t all that important to develop young talent is blowing smoke as far as I’m concerned.
Tags: baseball essay
The Pecan Park Eagle 
August 23, 2011 at 10:22 pm |
With any luck it won’t be Mr. Wade’s problem much longer.
August 25, 2011 at 12:36 am |
Bill: Having watched the Astros and the Rockies the last three days, I agree with you about young talent. The Rocks have some and so do the Astros. It will be interesting to see if the Rockies waiver claim on Wandy Rodriguez goes through. He did not look to good in Coors Field today. Wayne Williams