We are the Astros. Not the Cubs. Not the Cardinals. Not the Brewers. The Astros.

Just because the Cardinals went out and nutted their future, doesn't mean the Astros will do the same.

Ed Wade:
We're not the Cardinals. The Cardinals and the Cubs may make a deal. The Brewers may make a deal. The Pirates may make more deals. There's not much we can do about that. But we're not in the business of trying to match other clubs move for move. I look at our team right now and see the way we're playing right now. I think we can sustain this level of play, and if we can sustain this level of play, I don't think it makes a lot of difference what's happening around us. If we go play our game, we got a chance to go be in this thing.”

And Wade, through JJO (who knows more than you):
"Just from the standpoint we would love to be aggressive. We would love to be out there doing something of great magnitude. But our economic situation is not going to change in the span of a week although fans are excited.

"But when fans get excited midway through a season you're selling single-game tickets. You're not selling season tickets. So put that in perspective a little bit. And we're also going to be protective of the prospects who we have in our system. There's a lot of dynamics at play. There are going to be some significant deals out there, but I don't want people to think; one, I don't want them to think that we're not willing to be aggressive.

"But you just have to face your situation against the backdrop of reality, and the reality from an economic standpoint and from a talent standpoint is that we're committed basically to the players that are here. Now if something comes along that we think is too good to pass up and fits what we're capable of doing then we're willing to do something like that. Last year LaTroy Hawkins came along that we traded a kid from the system and the Yankees took back a bunch of money and that worked out very well for us.

"We'll continue to make the calls to other clubs and have the dialogue and have internal dialogue with our scouts to see if there's something sensible out there. But, again, I don't want to raise expectations because the club is playing better right now that, that necessarily changes the overall dynamics."