(If you're new to Astros County, "The Apparatus" is what we call the Front Office)
Some reactions from The Apparatus regarding the Tigers' signing of Jose Valverde... (both the Chronicle and Astros.com quotes are in here)
Bobby Heck:
It helps expedite the restocking of our farm system, which is an ongoing business. We’re excited to have this type of opportunity.”
Ed Wade:
We saw the Valverde situation as a win-win. If Jose had accepted arbitration, we would have been very pleased. Once that possibility ran away from us, the next best thing would be to secure additional draft picks, and this worked out as well as we could possibly have anticipated. As it turned out, we were able to satisfy the back end of the bullpen with Lyon and Lindstrom, and to score Draft picks -- particularly a first-round Draft pick -- is very satisfying. I like what he did for us and we would have loved to have him back, but at end of the day we have to look at end results, and we felt that being able to add two additional Draft picks in 2010 is a pretty favorable conclusion for us."
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
