"Huh?", Part II

I have no idea what Ed Wade is thinking. Does he actually believe that the Astros (13.5 back in the NL Central, 9.5 back in the Wild Card) have a chance at the play-offs this year?

In another perplexing move, Houston traded second-base prospect Matt Cusick to the Yankees for LaTroy Hawkins. Now Cusick is no great shakes (he’s hitting .285/.356/.462 in A-Ball, but is already 22 years old), but Hawkins isn’t good either (5.71 ERA) and he’s a free agent at the end of the year, and likely won’t net any draft-picks. Even with the Yankees picking up a good bit of the money he’s owed for the rest of the year, it still doesn’t make sense. Ed, for the sake of the fans in Houston, please stop trading cost-controlled years of even mediocre players for crappy veterans who are going to leave at the end of the year. There will be no late season surge – you aren’t making the play-offs. The longer it takes you to accept that, the longer it’s going to take for the franchise to dig itself out of this hole.