Valverde really wants to stay;Wade is clueless

And we thought Tim Purpura had a hard time letting go of "his" guys. After giving Brad Lidge to the Phillies for a couple of Wade's guys - Bourn, Costanzo, etc.., now Wade trades for Randy Wolf.

Wolf is nothing more than an average major league pitcher. A 4th starter. A back end of the rotation guy. On the wrong side of 30. And injury prone. Very injury prone.
Hasn't had more than 23 starts in 5 years.
Hasn't thrown more than 200 innings since 2002.
Oh yeah and he's also a free agent at the end of the year. (Now I suppose this could result in a nice additional compensatory draft pick when he signs elsewhere, but still) And he will sign elsewhere, since he had every opportunity to sign with Houston this offseason but signed with San Diego in December instead. But Wade had him when he signed his first professional contract. Hey Ed, that was ten years ago. Guess what, he just might be on the decline.

In order to grab Wolf, the Astros, a miserable 45-53 team mired in 5th place in the NL central and 8th in the wild card race, gave up 26-year old RHP Chad Reineke, who's yet to make a major league appearance after getting drafted in 2004. Sure it ain't much, but it's just stupid nonetheless. Could have had Wolf in the offseason for about $5 million, but he wanted to play elsewhere. So instead you trade a top AAA pitcher, (1.84 ERA over his last 7 starts) and have to pay Wolf about $2 million just so he can make maybe 10 starts or so????

Reineke was in his first full season as a AAA starting pitcher and he was exemplary in single and double-A ball in the years prior. Why give up a player who might actually be a part of a bigger better deal over the next ten days. Nobody cares about a Dennis Sarfate, yet he was a part of the Miguel Tejada deal. Nobody cared too much about a Juan Gutierrez, but he helped land Valverde. The Astros have a depleted farm system as it is, so if you're going to continue to trade away parts at least try to get some value in return.

One more thing...Drayton - it's ok to admit you are a seller. Buying Randy Wolf is a bad baseball decision. It's a bad business decision.

One more, one more thing...Drayton - sign the remaining top draft picks. Ross Seaton, Chase Davidson and Brad Dydalewicz, you cannot afford not to. He'll spend $16.5 million on Kaz Matsui, $12 million on Woody Williams and $2 million on Wolf but he'll nickel & dime the draft picks for a couple hundred thousand.
---------------------------
Apparently Jose Valverde wants to stay in Houston - so he damaged his trade value as much as he could by coughing up 6 runs while recording 1 out and blowing his 6th save of the season Monday night. Any GM worth his salt would be trying to trade him - but this could not have helped. Both the Dodgers and Cardinals are in desperate need of a closer. I don't expect the other GM's to be extremely desperate for Valverde, especially after he adding more than a run to his ERA last night (3.72 - 4.86). Unless they think he'll be worth more at next year's deadline when they are not in the race again - he needs to be moved.
---------------------------
Rotoworld came out with their annual mid-season top 150 minor league prospects list. Guess how many Astros' farm hands made the list. Here's a hint - cut off all your fingers and toes and then count your remaining digits. Of course they had none. Here's the breakdown by team.
Top 150 by Team
10 - Athletics
9 - Indians
8 - Orioles, Rays
7 - Angels, Twins
6 - Braves, Dodgers, Red Sox. Yankees
5 - Blue Jays, Brewers, Cardinals, Giants, Mariners, Marlins, Phillies, Rangers
4 - Cubs, Reds, Mets, Nationals, Pirates, Reds, Royals
3 - Diamondbacks, Tigers
2 - Padres
1 - White Sox
0 - Astros

Here's the entire list.
-------------------------------