Here we find out that the Astros, in addition to Nevarez and Vallejo, will receive yet another player. Meanwhile, though, we hear from Roy in the clubhouse:
"I got to the clubhouse and they told me they traded Pudge, and I guess that's the process of trying to build the club for next year. That's what I'm hoping they are doing now. There is a time where you have to start rebuilding, and if you wait until the end of the season, you may not get the pieces you need for the next year. I think we still have some dates here where we can get guys that can help us next year, and why not do it now rather than wait and have to go up and bid against somebody in the offseason in a bidding war."
Nay nay, sez Drayton:
""This was an unusual deal. If we were interested in changing the total texture of the team, we would have done it before the Trade Deadline ended in July. I think [the players] will understand that if we were trying to change this team, we would have done that back in July."
Blum, who sounds like he's pretty much getting tee times set in October:
"We started sliding a little bit, and we couldn't stop it at all. It's frustrating, but in the same sense I don't think many people expected us to even be that close to begin with."
Pence:
"We're going to miss Pudge, but we've got to keep going. I'm not giving up. Crazy things can happen. You never know. Maybe some of the other teams can go into a funk, and we can get hot. Crazier things have happened and we have the talent to do it."
Wade agrees:
"I think we can climb back into things. We made a trade for a veteran catcher on our club that we felt could provide us with some prospects coming back and at the same point felt we had the coverage from the standpoint of Quintero and Coste and some of the guys down in the Minor League system to cover us."
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
