It's amazing to think that in 2005 this team was in the world series (a very shitty and boring world series, but that's besides the point) because now they're pretty goddamn awful last year and they're going to be even worse this year. I'm being pretty brutual, but if the centerpiece of your offseason is Mike Hampton you've got some issues.
As I said Mike Hampton was their offseason prize, but he comes at the price of losing Randy Wolf, an also oft-injured left hander, but he also went 10-1 with the astros in the second half. No matter, they got Mike "I havent pitched even remotely well since 2003" Hampton, great idea, I'm sure that will go great, I mean he complied an impressive 78 innings last year, his first year pitching since 2005 when he pitched an similarly impressive 69 innings. Granted, he's only the fifth starter on that team, but when he's lining up behind Wandy Rodriguez, Brian Moehler, and Brandon Backe the supposed second starter who had a 6.05 ERA you'd have to be pretty upset about that as an astros fan.
In the field they're not doing a whole lot better either. Losing Ty Wigginton will prove to be a huge loss, not because he's a great player, he's useful while hitting a very respectable .285/.350/.526, but the fact his replacement, Aaron Boone, just went under the knife for heart surgery! Not that he was going to be perticularly good anyways, but the Astros dont have anyone who can play there right now.
Finally the astros recently made a "splash" signing the corpse formerly known as Ivan Rodriguez. Now the guy who he's replacing was pretty damn awful too, JR Towles, but at least he was young and could improve, pudge is bad and is only getting worse now that he's older and clearly off the juice. As a yankee fan i can assure you he's every bit as bad as his .219/.257/.323 line he posted with the yankees, still not walking, and now he doesnt hit for contact or power like he used to, he's pretty fucking awful. But hey i'm sure he's a swell guy.
For a team that not long ago was a force in the national league, they've fallen to the bottom of the barrel pretty damn fast. They've gotten worse in almost every aspect of the game, including the farm system and general manager Ed Wade did nothing to change that. The Astros get a solid F from me and if they could be ranked lower I would, this is inexcusable for a team in a market like houston. While they still have Roy Oswalt, one of the most winningist pitchers in the league and have proven to be very durable despite his slight size, anything more than fighting the Pirates for last place is a lot to as of this club.
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