There's a chance the Astros got a LOT better....

[Kevin Seitzer]

Are they able to say "well, we're not playing for this year anyway" or do they take the losses personally?

A lot of both.

[Erik]

I'm very excited and optimistic about the future here and collaboration among the front office and people throughout the organization, but man, it is tough to lose so much this year.

Hey, the 1972 Phillies were one of the worst teams ever assembled, and they won the World Series just 8 years later!

[Don Quixote]

Hey, the 1972 Phillies were one of the worst teams ever assembled, and they won the World Series just 8 years later!

I was thinking more along the lines of the 2003 Tigers. it was only three years from challenging the record of the '62 Mets to a World Series appearance. And, of course, this never-unamusing bit of Bhob certainty--

"It's hard to envision Detroit winning a game here, much less the series. They ended the season on a five game skid, they saw their monumental lead come apart at the seams over the last couple of months, Verlander is either bone tired or injured, etc. Who knows, maybe Chris Shelton starts hitting a home run in every at bat like he did in April, but otherwise it's the Yanks in a cakewalk. Bring on Oakland for the best series we'll see this post season. Too bad it can't be the World Series.—Bob Kohm, October 2006"

[TranaGreg]

I'm very curious to see if the Astros start building next year. Houston is the 5th largest market in the United States and the Astros had the third lowest payroll in baseball in 2012 (about $60 million). Looking at what that $60 million was spent on is pretty brutal, too. It was essentially a washed up slugger (Carlos Lee), a reliever (Brett Myers), one good starting pitcher (Wandy Rodriguez), and a terrible reliever (Brandon Lyon). They'll still have to pay $5 million to Wandy next year, too. However, and this is great news for Astros fans, they have essentially all one year deals. They can construct a team from the ground up if they so choose and hopefully spend a little more wisely on their big acquisitions. I'd venture to say that paying big money for relievers is not going to get the job done in Houston.

It will be an interesting offseason. I'm curious how Boston with their enormous budget will influence free agent signings ... will they target & overpay for a few select guys, or will there be an across the board uptick, or maybe no impact at all.

[Fresno Bob]

Mike got the shoutout this weekend on clubhouse confidential for his jose molina catcher framing analysis, mentioned both BP and the current gig