Steve Campbell has a nice piece over at The Chronicle, looking at whether Houston will regret trading any of these young vets at this trade deadline. It's an interesting question because the Astros are in a different position than they were last year. Back then, Houston was considering trading two of the franchise's icons in Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt but both were at the tail end of great careers.
↵Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn and Wandy Rodriguez are not. Heck, even Brett Myers is young enough to have four or five more big league seasons in him. Because of that, there is a bigger chance one or two of these guys could go all "Joe Morgan" on Houston and make them regret ever getting rid of them.
↵Campbell concludes that the position players are both young enough with good enough comps to make Houston pay for letting them walk. The pitchers, however, don't profile to become big stars or pitch a lot of years after leaving the Astros.
↵I'm totally on board with this. Think about it from the Phillies perspective. They could trade for Hunter Pence and give up a young guy like Domonic Brown but still win the trade. If Brown never develops and becomes a Quadruple-A player while Pence plays another seven seasons in Philadelphia, they'll have clearly won that swap. With Bourn, he could be a solid leadoff hitter and outfielder for another 10 years, a la Kenny Lofton. Both of those situations would make Houston kick itself, especially if none of the outfielders in the Astros system pans out.
↵Still think Houston should trade Pence (though not Bourn), but there is the chance they'll regret it down the road.
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