But they can spend with the others (except maybe LAA) in the AL West, if they can also convince the fans (me included) that DH-ball is almost as good as baseball.

More or less, if they couldn’t compete in the NL, then moving to the AL won’t help that, and may in fact be detrimental. Especially given the size of the markets in their new division vs the markets in their old division. Not a single AL West opponent is in the bottom half of the AL revenue and market size wise. Same can’t be said for the NL Central.

In Jim Crane’s short time as owner, the Astros have moved to a league whose rules allow the potential to score more runs, and thus–be more competitive.

He has also FIRED the pawns that Drayton McLane had in place–that conspired to rid the team of any contracts that might decrease his profit margin prior to his fire-sale of the team. McLane/Wade’s moves also bankrupted the team of ‘fan favorites.’

I appreciate anything that Mr. Crane does to distance the organization from the dumpster fire that was the Astros last 5 years. Keep that axe sharp, Mr. Crane. Go ‘Stros!

New to commenting, Craig, but I have been reading it for a while.

As to Springer, he was regarded as a high potential, but higher risk because his swing needs developing. If we hit the jackpot with all three, I would feel a lot better. But that may be expecting a lot.

However, he was also the guy who was GM when they drafted Hamels, Utley, Rollins, Howard, Burrell, Myers, and he was actually the GM who hired Charlie Manuel. Most of the core of the 2008 Phillies were Ed Wade’s players. The guy who had the LEAST to do with the 2008 Championship was RAJ. That’s just a fact. That title was 100% Wade’s and Gillick’s.

All of that being said, I would be SHOCKED if Ed Wade is ever handed the keys to another team again.

The Tejada trade wasn’t really that bad, only Luke Scott has turned out to have any value at all. When you trade away five players for one, you had better be sure about the value of your own guys, and evidently Wade was correct about them.

-The trade for Miguel Tejada looked terrible at the time and made no sense for a team that was rebuilding. And that was before Tejada was revealed to be a steroid user and two years older than previously thought.

-Trading for Randy Wolf as a half-season rental mid-2008. At the time, the Astros were 12 games back and tied for last place in the division.

Looking back, I think you’re right that Wade wasn’t as uniformly bad as some of the criticism suggests. Some of his trades have worked out well. However, a few really bad decisions create an impression of ineptitude that is hard to shake. In addition, it is hard to see his tenure as successful rebuilding. Their farm system has improved somewhat, but it is still not very good. The major league team is far worse than it was when he took over. And he has had a lot of money to work with–their payroll has been much higher than most rebuilding teams.

Now I’m picturing all the GMs having a set of those icebreaker games like we used to do on retreats and at conferences in college :p

George Springer is thought of quite highly by most scouts, he should be up there with Cosart and Singleton when the prospect rankings come out.

Cept’s is gone for good??

It would be difficult to overstate the magnitude of the mess that Ed Wade inherited in Houston and hopefully he will be able to do his next job without both hands cuffed behind him.

Four drafts in, the Astros only have two of the top 100 prospects in baseball. And both of those were obtained in the trade for Pence. Where is the rebuild of the farm system?

I also agree that the Astros did okay in their trades with the Phillies (for what they were trying to do), but they did pretty badly everywhere else. They were talking about three years to rebuild when he took over. We are still talking three more years.

Friedman or Hunsicker is a dream scenario, but I suppose we might as well dream big.

I also agree that Mills needs a chance with a decent team. If his skills with young players are sound, he should stay.

Crane has a big hill to climb with this change to the AL. It is tremendously unpopular in Houston (and with me). But he just made an essential first step.