The Pecan Park Eagle

June 16, 2011: The day the Astros fell 11 games back of the once lowly Pirates.

I can’t think of a better time to do this little knee jerk spot check on the future of our current Astros roster. After all, it’s the middle of June, hotter than hell, with no rain to cool us and preserve our lawns  in what feels like a thousand days, and no run support and relief help for any Astros starting pitchers who dare to take the mound and pitch an effective six to seven innings in this redundantly disappointing baseball season.

Yesterday it was rookie Jordan Lyles turn to take his lumps and this time the lumps were on the starter and his ineptly supportive Astros offense. Lyles first attempted to pitch an entire game in the first inning, getting two outs before allowing a couple of batters reached and sat on the ponds for a bigger Pirate duck to bop them home with a drive out of the park. Lyles then settled down and blanked the Buccos until the bottom of the sixth when he gave up two more runs, both unearned this time, but again after two men were out.

The Astros left 9 men on base, starting with 3 in the first and concluding with the tying run on second in the bottom of the ninth. The Astros might have scored the tying run on a badly muffed grounder to third, but the slowest man wearing an Astros uniform, short of some coaches, Carlos Lee, could not beat the long distance chase-and-throw recovery of the fielder’s throw to first for the last dagger out.

The 5-4 Pirates win sealed a sweep of the Astros and concluded a 2-8 record for Houston in the current home stand. It was definitely time for the team to hit the road and head for a time zone where only the most ardent Astros fans will now view the last televised out – and many will not even see the first. – What’s the point of even watching once you get to mail-it-in time?

Worst. Astros club. Ever.

So, back to that question: What’s the point of watching now? Assuming the club does not really go into a mail-it-in gear, the point of watching now is to see the future, as clearly as possible, from what we have here on the current roster, what we see coming along at Oklahoma City and Corpus Christi – and deeper down the minor league chain, and what we need to acquire via sensible future-oriented trades and growth supportive free agency signings.

People like Tal Smith, Ed Wade, and Brad Mills know far more than people like you and me about the detailed potential of the current 40-man roster, but we have opinions too as fans – and these opinions shape our abilities as fans to find enough hope to spring for tickets during an otherwise lost and crashing season.

What I go by on the assessment of players with potential value to a future winning team are age, performance, and signability. – Signability, in my book, covers all players who use agents other than Scott Boras. If I’m the GM, I don’t deal with any players who use Scott Boras. I try to trade them before their current contracts expire, especially if they are near 30 in age, anyway. – Get my drift? – Nobody gets rich by also volunteering for hold ups on the way to the bank!  Here’s the current Astros 40-man Roster by age attained in 2011, position, and current 2011 performance stats. I have used bold type only for those player whom I think have potential on-the-scene value to a future Astros winning team. I also do not assign “future value” status to the few good journeymen players that now help keep th 2011 Astros wheels from completely coming off. My list includes only young-enough veterans and prospects – with no “suspects” and no journeymen “expects.”

The 2011 Houston Astros: Those with Future Value and All Others

Pitchers:

Fernando Abad (L-L)  (26) (1-4, 6.91)

Enerio del Rosario (R-R) (26) (0-1, 4.65)

(1) Sergio Escalona (L-L) (27) (2-0, 3.24)

(2) J.A. Happ (L-L) (29) (3-8, 4.95)

(3) Wilton Lopez (R-R) (28) (1-2, 2.25)

(4) Jordan Lyles (R-R) (21) (0-2, 4.30)

(5) Mark Melancon (R-R) (26) (4-1, 1.62)

Brett Myers (R-R) (31) (2-6, 5.03)

(6) Bud Norris (R-R) (26) (4-5, 3.48)

(7) Aneury Rodriguez (R-R) (24) (2-4) (0-4, 5.80)

(8) Fernando Rodriguez (R-R) (27) (1-0, 3.65)

Wandy Rodriguez (S-L) (32) (4-3, 3.13)

Position Players:

Carlos Corporan, C (S-R) (27) (.143)

J.R. Towles, C (R-R) (27) (BA .198)

Clint Barmes, SS (R-R) (32) (BA .212)

Matt Downs, INF (R-R) (27) (BA .280)

Chris Johnson, 3B (R-R) (27) (BA .233)

Jeff Kepppinger, 2B (R-R) (31) (BA .301)

Angel Sanchez, SS (R-R) (28) (BA .252)

(9) Brett Wallace, 1B (L-R) (25) (BA .316)

Jason Bourgeois, OF (R-R) (29) (BA .377)

Michael Bourn, OF (L-R) (29) (BA .279)

Carlos Lee OF (R-R) (35) (BA .266)

Jason Michaels, OF (R-R) (35) (BA .193)

(10) Hunter Pence, OF (R-R) (28) (BA .326)

That’s it. I could only give bold endorsement to 10 men on the current 40-man roster s having some potential value to a winning club in four tof five years – and I had to be generous with my speed-mind development picture on some of the pitchers from this staff I’ve watched. We also need to include (11) Jason Castro, C (L-R) (24) (2010 BA .205) as our 12th man endorsement as a potential value to winning in the reasonable future, but I’m not sure I would consider even any of these men as untouchable if the right trade for rebuilding came along. Michael Bourn is not my bold lst because of his age in five years and his agent right now. The Astros need to deal Bourn while they can still get something for him. With a guy like Bourgeois available to fill in as  center fielder in the meanwhile, and the prospect of George Springer coming along in the future, the club doesn’t need to mortgage Mr. Crane’s ranch for the sake of dealing with agent Scott Boras.

That’s how I see it this morning, anyway, and, short of watching Koby Clemens come up to take a whack at major league pitching at catcher or third, I can’t see too much else to get excited about the rest of this season’s weary way beyond watching the hopefully continuing developments and improvements in Jordan Lyes, Bud Norris, and Brett Wallace – and waiting for Mr. Pence to bang out another multiple game imitation of Joe DiMaggio.

Have a nice weekend, everybody, and don’t fall asleep watching the Astros and Dodgers from LA tonight!