Quote:
Those fans that were whining before the Huff deal that he "had [no] pulse" were just demonstrating their ignorance.


Well, many of those fans are here on these boards. Many openly asked why he was getting paid for doing nothing. Unfortunately, this is one of those instances when it is difficult within the Astros organization to separate good, sound baseball decisions from public relations decisions. McLane knows full well that he could get a stranglehold on the sports dollar in this town with another playoff run. The Rockets and Texans are down and neither of the college programs offer much outside of Rice baseball.

I'm guessing that the three and a half hour meeting yesterday between Purpura, Tal Smith, and McLane hashed out many of these same issues. Personally, I tend to fall on the baseball side of the equation, because I will watch the Astros whether they are 62-100 or 100-62. I would suspect that this is the case with 25,000 of the 41,000 fans that attend sell out games. That 16,000 is the difference between running in the red and running on a significant profit. That line of thinking can't be ignored. That's why McLane gave in and agreed to the 22 million (prorated to 14 plus) for Clemens.

Removing pure baseball considerations from the equation we can see the obvious appeal to acquiring Tejada. For one, he gives this team a legitimate all-star performer that will convince fans that the team's lacaidaisical play could end in time for a playoff run. Whether this is true or not is immaterial. If the fans believe it to be true then they will come out. I agree that knowledgable fans know better, but then again knowledgable fans are showing up anyway.

The second consideration is the future. This last off-season, the Astros managed to squander a good part of their goodwill from the World Series through the mishandling of the Bagwell situation and sabbatical by Roger. Acquiring Tejada gives you a head start on marketing for 2007. You can build a pretty solid marketing campaign around Berkman, Tejada, Ensberg, and Oswalt. If you add anyone to that group it just becomes that much better.

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Of course, the baseball side also needs a forum. The final question comes down to how much we think of Hunter Pence and Fernando Nieve. Adam Everett will always be what he is right now. He's a great defensive shortstop that simply can't hit enough. Nieve was decent this year, but could turn into a quality major league pitcher. Does he project better than Albers, Barthmaier, Hirsh, or Patten? Will Pence be a Lance Berkman type or a Jason Lane type? If there is significant doubt on either side I would go with Tejada and satiate the PR side of the equation.
I'm down with OBP (yeah you know me).