Thursday, February 12, 2009

Richard Justice says not-nice words about Astros management

Good column today from Richard Justice, indicating the Astros deserve some blame, too (which is, of course, obvious). Regard:

This trade goes beyond what Wade gave up and what he acquired. It’s the timing of the deal and the attitude of the people who made it that’s even more troubling. This is the kind of deal that says baseball people haven’t yet figured out they should be embarrassed that so many players have been exposed as cheats.

I've thought for a long time - and we have discussed it here - how the timing of the Tejada trade is troubling. Trading for Tejada the day before the Mitchell Report came out, remember we all knew when the Mitchell Report was coming out, means one of two things:

1) Easy Eddie wanted to get the trade done before the Mitchell Report came out.
2) The Orioles wanted to get rid of Tejada before the Mitchell Report came out, and were looking for somebody to fleece. Voila, Easy Eddie.

I guess there is a third option, that the timing was pure coincidence, but those first two are troubling, because it either means that Ed Wade got taken to the woodshed, or...(I'll let Justice take it from here):

They made the trade even though they knew he might be in the report. They didn’t care, and in that way, they’re as culpable as the players. They wanted a shortstop who could help them win, and they didn’t want to know how the soup was made.

This is the trade that defines Ed Wade. If Tejada puts everything behind him, uses it as ammuniton, and hits .300 with 30 HR and leads the Astros to the playoffs, we'll all slap hands and be happy and hug each other. But especially if Luke Scott proves what he was showing intonations of doing, and Troy Patton and Matt Albers continue, this will be the deal in Astros history to off-set the Larry Andersen/Jeff Bagwell trade.