Richard Justice's new post references a tweet by Brian McTaggart in which Ed Wade references the team's off-season needs. They read:
Closer
Offense
8th-inning reliever
Bench
Then Justice says that the Winter Meetings are basically a boozefest, and Wade must be drunk, but he isn't drunk, etc.
There's no easy answer to any of this. Drayton isn't going to allow Ed to spend enough money to significantly upgrade the Astros this winter, so there's a chance 2010 could be terrible.
Maybe the strategy is to keep as much payroll flexibility as possible for next winter when Carlos Lee can be traded and the 2008 draft class could begin arriving in the major leagues.
Perhaps there's a coherent plan we don't know about. Ed might be attending these winter meetings to prepare for next year. They might know exactly what they're doing. Next round's on me, Ed.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
