Ed Wade: This Team Is Yours (Unfortunately)

I know that Houston Astros general manager Ed Wade has some defenders in the city. They say we can’t judge Wade, supposedly, because he’s hamstrung by contracts that were given out before he arrived. We can’t judge Wade because, supposedly, he’s still putting his blueprint on this club. We can’t judge because his boss, Drayton McLane, is putting a halt to the big spending and won’t let Wade go out and buy players.

But 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.

And while McLane has supposedly cut the free-agent budget, Wade has
wasted some big bucks on some pretty questionable deals. He’s giving
$4.5 million to Pedro Feliz this season. He’s giving Brandon Lyon $15
million over three years to be a setup guy. The Astros are still paying
for Kazuo Matsui, the injury-prone, light-hitting middle infielder that
was one of Wade’s first signings when he took over in Houston.

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.

But what none of
Wade’s supporters can really point to is Wade’s plan for the team. Sure, we hear the nebulous talk about building through the draft and the
farm system, which is what Wade supposedly did in Philadelphia. But
every team wants to build through the farm system. Even the Yankees and
Red Sox teams are largely built from the work of their farm system. So
it’s nice that Wade wants to do what the successful teams do, but even
awful teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles talk about
building through the farm system. Just like the Astros. And we know
how successful they’ve been.

Wait your turn behind Jim Thome

I look at Ed Wade and I see the guy
who traded Curt Schilling for Travis Lee, Vicente Padilla, Omar Daal,
and Nelson Figueroa. I also see the guy who traded Scott Rolen for
Placido Polanco, Bud Smith, and Mike Timlin. I see the guy who traded
for Miguel Tejada on the day before the Mitchell Report came out. Sure,
he got Michael Bourn for Brad Lidge, but when I see Wade, I see Tim
Purpura and not Gerry Hunsicker or Bill Wood, two of the best GMs in
Astros history.

Bill Wood got Steve Finley, Curt Schilling, and
Pete Harnisch for Glenn Davis. He got Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen. At the time of the Bagwell trade, Bagwell was stuck behind a guy named
Scott Cooper, and it was Cooper that the Red Sox saw as the heir
apparent to Wade Boggs at third base. But I can’t help but think that
Wade would have traded Andersen for Cooper, then he would have benched
Ken Caminiti so that Wade could prove his genius.

Wade’s known
for letting players languish in the minors. Ryan Howard was stuck
behind Jim Thome. Chase Utley was stuck behind Polanco. Hell, this
season saw Chris Johnson stuck behind the dynamic duo of Feliz and Geoff
Blum and Jason Castro was stuck behind the likes of Kevin Cash. This
is a guy who lets Edwin Maysonet, Jason Bourgeois, and Brian Bogusevic
languish behind the likes of Blum and Jason Michaels. It’s not that
Maysonet, Bourgeois, and Bogusevic are surefire major league all
stars. But when you’ve got one of the worst records in baseball, it
makes no sense to keep going with lackluster veteran talent when there
are younger players in the minors just dying for a chance to prove
themselves in the majors.

Back in the late-80s, Bill Wood was
named GM of the Houston Astros. He had an owner who was slashing the
budget, dumping salary, and demanding that high-priced stars be traded
away. Yet operating under these constraints, Wood laid the foundation
for a franchise that was arguably one of the best from the mid-`90s up to
2005. Does anyone see any sign of this level of competence when they
look at Ed Wade?

So go ahead. Defend him all you want. But in
the end, Wade is nothing more than a PR guy who is friends with Tal
Smith. And with the Astros, being a friend of Tal Smith is really all
that matters.