barzilla wrote:



Someone (maybe Bob) mentioned the possibility of trading Valverde to the Mets for John Maine. I think adding those two would make this an 04-05 rotation again.




That was me. Since you put both ideas into the same thread, let's see what you get with both deals combined:

Astros trade Jose Valverde to the Mets for John Maine and Brian Schneider.
Astros trade Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn, Wandy Rodriguez, two prospects for Jake Peavy.

Let's say we re-sign Randy Wolf and Mark Loretta.

The rotation now looks like:

Oswalt
Peavy
Maine
Wolf
Moehler

The lineup now looks like:

2B Matsui
RF Wigginton
1B Berkman
LF Lee
SS Tejada
3B Blum/Loretta
CF Erstad/Abercrombie
C Schneider/Quintero

Bullpen would need to find a new closer but you have some guys (Hawkins, Brocail) who have some experience and there are some live arms that might be groomed for the role.

Obviously, the starting pitching is upgraded tremendously, making us far less reliant on the bullpen to get us 3-4 innings every night. The payroll has also expanded but the formula worked for Pettitte and Clemens in '04-'05 and no reason it couldn't work again. You've still got a strong lineup capable of producing runs and they will probably win many more 3-1, 4-2 games instead of 6-5 or 7-6.

It's not perfect by any means but if gives you a chance to make it into the postseason and have the sort of starting pitching that lets you win in the postseason.

"We don't do anything easy. We're the Astros." - Craig Biggio