Houston Astros: Why the Minute Maid Club Needs Big Changes

The 2005 playoffs. Music to every Astros fan's ears. The 2005 World Series, not so much. After the epic 2005 NLDS win against the Braves and sweet, sweet defeat of the Cardinals in the NLCS, it seemed like nothing could get better for Houston baseball. Until the World Series came around. The Astros were swept by the Chicago White Sox by a run differential of only minus-six, the lowest in World Series history.

Since then it has been a downward spiral for the club from Minute Maid Park. In 2006 the Astros came close but lost the NL Central race by half a game after an amazing comeback in the final stretch of the season. After the season, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte left. Then Drayton McLane did something terrible: he signed Carlos Lee to a six-year, $100 million contract. 

The 'Stros needed to make a splash in free agency, but giving that much money to a slugger without the credentials to merit it was a bad idea and put the Astros in a financial mess with Lee for the rest of his time in Houston.  McLane was never willing to spend the big bucks, but this was plain ridiculous.

During the 2007 season, the only real highlight was Craig Biggio reaching the great milestone of 3,000 hits. The Astros dealt many promising or established players such as Willy Taveras, Taylor Buchholz and Dan Wheeler for a bunch of players who really never served the club at all. 

All in all, these trades didn't hurt the Astros that much, but they were nonetheless bad moves. Midway during the season, manager Phil Garner and Tim Purpura were fired and Cecil Cooper and Ed Wade replaced them.  

Wade in essence made the Astros the AAA Phillies team over the years.  First, he traded star closer Brad Lidge and Eric Bruntlett for Michael Bourn, Geoff Geary and Mike Loretta (who actually played very well). 

In the offseason, he made several moves, over trading for Jose Valverde (who was coming off a record season) and making a decent move for Miguel Tejada (the day after the contract was finalized he was mentioned on the Mitchell Report) and signed with former all-star Darin Erstad.

Throughout the rest of his tenure, Wade made several questionable moves, while Drayton McLane still wouldn't invest any money in the team. Last year, Roy Oswalt was sent to the Phillies for nothing.

This year, he traded away the team's two top stars—Michael Bourn to the Braves and Hunter Pence to the Phillies—without getting either team's top prospects.  Everybody thought that the Phillies would have to give up star minor leaguer Domonic Brown for a big deal.

Wade refused the Phils' initial offer, but said yes to a slightly better one. Wade held the cards. He didn't need to make a move, both players were under contract and, as far as we know, satisfied in Houston. But he just traded away the last two quality hitters left in Houston.

I know the Astros are "rebuilding," but c'mon. How can they fill they seats without any stars? Is Wade going to trade Wandy Rodriguez to the Yankees? The Astros have had four straight losing seasons; they could set a record for club losses this year. When Drayton McLane sold the club to Jim Crane, I was overjoyed. Now it's the time for overturn in Houston. It's time to get rid of Ed Wade, and give Brad Mills a decent chance to manage a ballclub.