Houston Astros 2008 review and look ahead

Oct 1, 2008 - 10:00 AM By Tom Covill PA SportsTicker Assistant Baseball Editor

It looked bad, it looked good, it looked wet, and it looked depressing.

The Houston Astros had one of the more interesting seasons in the major leagues, and only briefly in a positive way.

The Astros made the curious decision in the offseason to bring in general manager Ed Wade - a man whose claim to fame was being just good enough in Philadelphia to stay around .500 while never building the farm system or being fiscally responsible.

Luckily for Wade, Houston owner Drayton McClane wants to win as much as possible without taking the time to build the team in a way that will promote sustainable success.

Trades for Miguel Tejada, Jose Valverde and Michael Bourn and the free-agent signings of Kaz Matsui and Darin Erstad succeeded only in weakening the farm system while misusing resources.

The club began the season mired in mediocrity, thanks to a Wade-sponsored offseason that left the pitching staff as Roy Oswalt and 11 question marks, and began to win in May only because Lance Berkman did his best Babe Ruth impression for about six weeks.

By the time Oswalt began to pitch well and the team took off, winning 14 of 15 in late August and early September to pull within two games of the wild-card lead, Mother Nature stepped in and slapped them back to reality.

Hurricane Ike and some inflexibility on the part of McClane, who insisted on waiting until the last possible minute, taking every other option out of Major League Baseball's hands, forced the Astros to play two "home" games against the Chicago Cubs at Miller Park in Milwaukee.

They lost those two games in embarrassing fashion - managing a total of one hit - and the momentum was over. The team never seemed to get past the disadvantage of playing in Milwaukee, dwelling on the situation for the better part of the next week as it slipped further from contention.

WHAT WENT WRONG?: Poor roster construction, poor pitching staff, weak bench, no organizational depth, etc.

Houston, which for years had plenty of pitching but a weak lineup, somehow tricked itself into believing it could compete with a few strong hitters and no pitching at all.

When Oswalt was 4-6 with a 5.38 ERA after two months, it appeared that if the team was going to live and die on the strength of an offense that had yet to find its groove.

Years of poor drafting and player development were exposed when Matsui hit the disabled list and Bourn struggled to adjust to full-time duty.

The lack of organizational depth was especially evident in the rotation, which ranked 13th in the NL in ERA in the first half.

It seems easy to blame Major League Baseball and Hurricane Ike for ruining the Astros' season, but that would just provide an easy cover for what ails the club - an overall weakness from the general manager's office all the way down to the low levels of the minors.

MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER: Center fielder Bourn. The key piece to an offseason trade that sent All-Star closer Brad Lidge to the Philadelphia Phillies, Bourn was expected to solidify the top of the lineup and steal bases.

What Bourn did, instead, was post one of the worst offensive seasons in the game, recording the worst on-base percentage (.288) and lowest OPS (.588) in the majors. He did manage to steal 41 bases, but was caught 10 times.

All Lidge did was go 41-for-41 in save opportunities while posting a 1.95 ERA for the Phillies.

Tejada has flown far under expectations as well, posting his worst home run (13), RBI (66), on-base (.314) and slugging percentage (.415) numbers since 1998 while playing his customary bad defense at shortstop.

Oswalt and lefthander Wandy Rodriguez were the only members of the pitching staff to post numbers that were better than league-average, but it's hard to be disappointed by any of the other members of the staff, since not much was expected from the outset.

BEST PLAYER: Berkman. The five-time All-Star put together one of the best stretches in history from April 24 to June 4, batting .432 and posting a 1.318 OPS while scoring 38 runs in 38 games.

Berkman briefly flirted with a .400 batting average, hitting .399 on May 17, scored at least one run in 15 consecutive games and had multiple hits in 12 out of 15 contests during his sizzling stretch.

While he cooled to a more normal level of All-Star production after that spurt, Berkman is unquestionably the superstar of the team and one of the most potent offensive forces in the game.

Oswalt has been the ace of the staff since the day he arrived in 2001, providing the most consistent production even during the Roger Clemens-Andy Pettitte years. Oswalt's 3.54 ERA was the highest of his career, but he went 10-2 with a 2.24 mark after the All-Star break.

REASON TO BELIEVE: Did we mention Berkman? The Texas native is signed through the 2010 season at the bargain rate of $14.5 million per year with a club option for the 2011 campaign at $15 million.

Oswalt will be around through the 2011 season as well, and slugging left fielder Carlos Lee is signed through 2012.

Those three players combined will be making $47 million in 2009, limiting what the team will be able to accomplish financially in the near future.

The roster should be similar next season, with Bourn, Hunter Pence and Lee in the outfield and Tejada, Matsui and Berkman locked in on the infield. Whether Ty Wiginniton is brought back to play third base is in question, and J.R. Towles will try to bounce back from a disappointing rookie campaign behind the plate.

Valverde is arbitration-eligible but should be back to anchor the bullpen. He led the NL with 44 saves in 2007, though many were of the heart attack variety.

FUTURE BRIGHTNESS: Virtually none. Houston failed to land a player in the first five rounds of the 2007 draft and reached for catcher Jason Castro in the first round in June. Castro immediately becomes the club's top prospect, and while he should develop into a solid major league backstop, he lacks superstar upside.

The Astros also drafted a catcher, Max Sapp, in the first round in 2006. Sapp has failed to develop as planned, painting another black mark on what may be the worst farm system in the game.

Brian Bogusevic, the club's first-round pick in 2005 as a lefthanded pitcher out of Tulane, was switched from the mound to the outfield this season after posting a 12-16 record with a 5.06 ERA in two-plus seasons as a pitcher. His transition to the batter's box has been smooth, however, giving Houston a potentially solid outfield prospect.