Thursday, July 8, 2010

John Royal: Forget Purpura, this is Wade's team

John Royal has a new column up over at Houston Press, and it challenges the notion that this isn't Ed Wade's team:

At the conclusion of Sunday's game with the Padres, 16 of the 25 players on the Astros major league roster were players brought on board by Ed Wade. This includes Michael Bourn, Pedro Feliz, Matt Lindstrom, Brandon Lyon, and Brett Myers. It also includes Casey Daigle, Jeff Keppinger, Jason Michaels, Humberto Quintero, Angel Sanchez, Oswaldo Navarro, Jason Castro, Gustavo Chacin, Wilton Lopez, and Tim Byrdak. So for some guy who hasn't had much time to shape the roster, it sure looks like he's been doing some shaping.

It's a good point. But what about all those contracts?

Sure Wade has to deal with the stupid contract that McLane handed out to Carlos Lee, and the Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman contracts were handed out before he took the GM job. But anybody who has followed Wade's career, or knows how to Google, knows that Wade gave out stupid and unexplainable contracts to the likes of Jim Thome, Pat Burrell, and David Bell.So while he might not have been the one who signed Lee as a free agent, there is precedent to show that Wade would likely have been on board with that deal were he able to do it himself.

It's depressing in nature, and well worth a read. I've thought that Ed Wade had a perfect job, mainly because he can deflect poor decisions on to Tim Purpura and Drayton. I think most of us can agree that whatever happens with Roy will be Ed Wade's defining moment. What if he does nothing?