Astros trade for Randy Wolf, fall into a tie for last place hours later.

[Brian the Automator]

Finally got around to reading the initial article:

 

"He still believes in the Astros," Wolf said of his conversation with Wade on Tuesday. "I think he still thinks there's a shot. With a little more than two months left in the season, there's an opportunity there he's trying to take advantage of. He's not giving up hope. I'm up for the challenge."

What opportunity is he trying to take advantage of? Hitting "rock bottom" so that the only place to go is up?

[jhart05]

This is all I remember...

 

"Astros trade for Randy Wolf"

 

"Astros trade for Randy Wolf, for some reason."

 

"Astros will themselves into 4th place contendership, trade for Randy Wolf"

 

"Astros trade for Randy Wolf, then something about the Pirates and 5th place." This one was good. Who remembers it?

 

"Astros trade for Randy Wolf, fall into a tie for last place hours later."

[InsomniacInkRoss]

All of these titles have been fark worthy

 

Outside of here I liked Tim Brown's headline on Yahoo!

The Diamondbacks trade for Jon Rauch, the Astros pick up Randy Wolf for no good reason, and more names are discussed.

[T B0NE 10]

it was something like Astros trade for Randy Wolf, crush pirates dream of finishing in 5th place

[logan82]

I am starting to have doubts about Sheets going to Houston next year. I am not sure he would want to be associated with an organization like that. This trade makes no sense.

[pitchleague]

The Diamondbacks trade for Jon Rauch, the Astros pick up Randy Wolf for no good reason, and more names are discussed.

I know that you didn't write this headline so I'm not picking on you. But in Houston's defense, the Devil Rays last year traded for Dan Wheeler "for no good reason" and now he's a very important part of their bullpen. Yes, I know Wolf will be a FA at the end of the year but maybe he'll be inclined to re-sign and go nuts next season.

 

 

[ELCABALLO45]

This is what we get for upsetting the baseball gods.

[mothershipconnection]

it was something like Astros trade for Randy Wolf, crush pirates dream of finishing in 5th place

 

Yeah, that was it.

[SeriesFinale]

This is what we get for upsetting the baseball gods.

You bet; I know I'm superstitious but it seemed like we're just asking for it when we paint pictures like this.

 

[jjfanec]

If my math is correct the Astros are 15-5 since this trade. Not saying it is the reason, but I also wanted to bring attention to the Astros who are playing really good baseball right now. Houston is 4.5 games away from St. Louis and St. Louis is 3.5 games from us before tonights game finished. They are 3 games behind the Mets and 1.5 games behind the Marlins. They would actually tied for the lead in the NL West. Not bad for a team written off for dead just 3 weeks ago.

[rluzinski]

Yeh, Astro fans should really be excited. They've raised their playoff chances from .2% to 1%. If they continue on this pace, they should get that up to 10% by game #180.

[brwrsfan]

The Astros are playing extremely well right now...but I still think it's too little too late. Carlos Lee is out with a broken finger, so I'm expecting their offense to decline (though it's been decent so far). They're just too far back, with too many teams in between.

 

The Brewers are currently 8.5 games up on them, with 41 games remaining. Let's just say we don't implode to end the season and play .500 ball the rest of the way. Let's say we go 20-21 to finish with a record of....90-72. Just to force a one game playoff, the Astros would need to play their last 41 games at a clip of....29-12 or 30-11 to win the WC outright.

 

Granted, they've gone 15-5 in their last 20, which is pretty nice....but they'd have to finish the season by playing .730 baseball while we struggle to play at .500. Couple that with their previous 20 games and they'd be ending the season on a 44-17 tear. Looking at their schedule, they have some tough games yet to play (AZ for 3, 3 @ Mil, 4 @ NYM, 3 vs STL 3 @ CHC, 3 vs CHC, 3 @ FL). That's 22 games against teams currently either in the playoffs or with winning records, only 9 of which are at home.

 

I just don't see it happening, nor do I see us not playing at least .500 the rest of the way. Nor do I see the other 4 teams between us falling apart either. I just don't think it's going to happen, though stranger things have happened.

[CportBadger]

Let's say we go 20-21 and they go 29-13. They would still need the Cards to do no better than 90 wins, and hope the NL East teams don't finish hot. There's a reason they don't have even a 1% shot. They need way too much to fall their way, and they need to play the final 60 games at a .710 clip, 45 of which will be without their biggest run producer.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Hopefully they continue to play well, since they play the Cubs 6 games and the Brewers only 3

[jjfanec]

I know the Astros in all likelihood will not make the playoff but I did not realize how well they had been playing so I thought I would point it out. If the Brewers would have only gone 4-4 over their last 8 games instead of winning 8 straight the Astros would only be 4.5 games out. The fact that the Brewer turned it on kept them out of contention more than likely but the Astros could have had a least a little excitement down the stretch.

[brwrsfan]

It is pretty impressive for a team that I had basically thought was going to mail it in over the rest of the season...but it's probably a month or so too late for them. Hopefully they can at least beat the Cubs a few times.

[rluzinski]

Are we talking about hope for the fans or realistic hope? Had the Brewers completely tanked, the Astros still would still be out of the playoff picture. Fans focus too much on GB and not enough on teams ahead.

 

If you are 3 games back and in second place of the divisional race, you need 6 games to your way to tie( you win 3, opponent loses 3). Say that you are looking at the wildcard race and have 3 teams 2 games ahead of you and a third team, 3 games ahead. Completely different situation. You now need 12 games to go your way (you win 3 games and your opponenents lose 9 games). It's comparable to be being 6 games back (12/2).

 

It's fun to see your team 4.5 games back or whatever, but it doesn't mean much when there are a bunch of teams you need to leapfrog. We had this argument about the Brewers a few years ago (2005?).

[StatPipes]

I don't think we here in Houston think we have a realistic shot of making the playoffs, we know all the teams we have to leapfrog and the games we still have to make-up. And we have been beating up on the likes of the Reds and Giants, however, since the All-Star break we have played very well.

 

Hey, we have won every start that Randy Wolf has started, and Latroy Hawkins has pitched great. Losing Carlos Lee hurts, especially since he was on fire at the time, already driving in another 100 rbis this year.

 

But you look at the D-Backs and Dodgers and you hear that those are decent teams, yet we have the same record in a much harder division. Im just glad we haven't mailed it in, at least it is still fun to watch.

 

And i don't want to hear that we cost ourselves draft position because we won a few more games, this isn't basketball or football, it isn't that big of a deal where you draft in the 1st round.

[rluzinski]

I wouldn't worry about draft position. I would worry about your team being willing to give any kind of prospects in a trade when the Astros post season chances were over two months ago. That's what this thread is all about

[jjfanec]

Again if the Brewers would not have played as well as they recently have the Astros would be in a similar spot to the Rockies last year. The Rockies were 4.5 games out on Sept. 16 with 3 teams ahead of them. The Astros have 5 teams ahead them but it is Aug 14th so they could make a run. Now obviously what the Rockies did may never happen again but it did happen once. I agree Houston is out of it and I thought the trade was crazy when it went down, but it at least keeps the fans paying attention for a while, false hope is still hope to a fan with blinders on.

[StatPipes]

The prospects we gave up were most likely not going to amount to anything...I don't care what mlbtraderumors tells you, Reinenke was not going to be the next "Chad Qualls" or whoever else they tried to compare him too, and they also mentioned the draft position topic. If we hear the name Reinenke again,(for being a good pitcher)then I will come back to this thread and apologize. If he was that good he would have been in the bigs by now, especially with the lack of pitching we have.

 

Im not saying I am an Ed Wade fan by any means, but people getting up in a stir over Randy Wolf? He has been fairly solid since coming here, and if anything maybe he will come back next year. There are worse back of the end rotation guys out there than him...

 

We might have a dilusional owner sometimes, but I would rather have one that is willing to make a move to win than not...The stros have been pretty successful since he took over the team Im certain.