Ed Wade told Dave Dalati that he doesn't have a three- or five-year plan. Don't believe me?
“I don’t believe in three-year plans or five-year plans. I want to go undefeated next year. All you have to do is look at the baseball landscape today: the Padres had absolutely zero chance of being in post-season play this time a year ago. They got within one game of making it happen.”
Regarding payroll:
“I’m assuming that with the composition of the club as it stands right now, with the younger club, our payroll is going to be at or below where we were this year."
That's thanks to the number of arbitration-eligible players. Baseball-Reference estimates the arbitration cases to be worth $48m alone. With the $39.8m in guaranteed money ($18.5m to Carlos Lee /weeping), we can pretty much count out the Astros making a strong push for Carl Crawford.
But what about other free agents, Ed?
“To start looking at the free agent market the day after the season is over is really premature. The reality is the free agent market as it stands today will not be the free agent market when the filing period ends."
The close:
The Astros’ brass is scheduled to meet Tuesday to begin mapping out the off-season more specifically.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
