It is pretty clear now that Wade didn’t have much to do with the Phils turning around. It really was Arbuckle and the minor league guys who were able to really nail a series of high-round draft picks over several years from the late 1990 through early 2000s.

Only thing Wade deserves a pass on is that he didn’t had out of all the foolish no-trade clauses this time around like he did with so many contracts in Philly including Burrell, Abreu, etc.

Lack of entertainment in these articles is often cliche bad attempts at humor, as if there was any challenge making fun of Wade, Dayton, and Omar.

Here’s how rare it is, when I read the article I thought, “Damn, he got right to the point”. That, to me, illustrates how far we tend to stray from just “getting right to it”.

Sometimes it’s fun just to “get right to it” and skip the foreplay. Heh Heh, I said foreplay.

–To clarify, I meant this year with the fans. Obviously, bolstering the farm system does help in general and I’m a big proponent of it, but you have to do both.

The Astros don’t have much in the way of options for going into rebuilding mode. Their big contracts all have no-trade clauses, and the players aren’t valuable enough to bring back a good return. They could sell their younger players (Pence, Bourn) for prospects, but those players are cheap and productive and will remain inexpensive for years.

As an organization, they have been drafting well these past couple years, and the farm system is gradually improving. Their only good option is to tread water and bide their time until the drafts start paying off, so that’s what they’re doing. I don’t agree with some of Ed Wade’s moves specifically, but I can’t fault his overall strategy.

The Astros probably need to be true-talent low 80′s Ws to have a reasonable shot at “lucking in” to a division.