The Astros acquired Randy Wolf on Tuesday, sending AAA righty Chad Reineke to San Diego. This has inspired headlines, from writers I enjoy and read every day, such as "Astros' pursuit of Wolf baffling" and "Ed Wade Loses His Mind, Trades For Randy Wolf".
Look, I get that Ed Wade isn't the best GM in the league. He has made some questionable moves, and comments about "not believing in rebuilding" don't exactly inspire confidence.
I'm not really understanding the outrage here though. With Oswalt on the DL, Houston's rotation is in shambles; they've started Runelvys Hernandez and Jack Cassel in their last two games (this didn't end well). They don't want to keep doing that, so they made a move to patch up their rotation for the next 10 weeks. What's the harm in that? No, the lefty Wolf isn't the best fit at Minute Maid, but he's certainly an upgrade over what they have now.
It'd be one thing if they were mortgaging the future, but they're not. DePodesta, as he should, is playing up Reineke as the seventh best prospect in the Astros organization. But let's consider the circumstances here--it's the Astros organization. He's a 26-year old with middling numbers in AAA.
Wade was a bad GM yesterday, and he'll be a bad GM tomorrow. But while you can question his general mindset, this trade, in itself, is hardly a reason to question his sanity.
Original Story:
http://vegaswatch.net/2008/07/houston...
