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I'm not sure Matsui is even an upgrade over Chris Burke.
Report: Matsui agrees to terms
Second baseman played key role for NL champions last season
By Jim Molony / MLB.com
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Kazuo Matsui batted .288 in 2007 for the Rockies. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
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HOUSTON -- The Astros have reportedly agreed to terms with free agent second baseman Kaz Matsui on a three-year, $15 million contract.
The Daily Herald of Chicago reported the agreement on the publication's Web site late Thursday night.
Astros GM Ed Wade's policy is not to comment on negotiations. Calls to Matsui's agent Arn Tellem were not returned.
The Astros had made an offer to Matsui last week and Wade had previously confirmed the team was interested in the 32-year-old switch-hitter, who played for the National League-champion Colorado Rockies this year.
Matsui, who will succeed the retired Craig Biggio as Houston's starting second baseman, hit .288 with four home runs and a .342 on-base percentage.
Jim Molony is a reporter for MLB.com. This report was not subject to approval by Major League Baseball or its clubs.
I'm not sure Matsui is even an upgrade over Chris Burke.
He hit .288 last season, so yes he is an upgrade!
At Coors. Check his Home/Away splits.
Matsui has zero power, and is not that great a fielder.
The Astros just got themselves an average player for $5 million a year.
Horrid signing. That .288 is disguised by the fact that he hit .330 in Coors Field and .249 away from it. His average at the Juice Box? .222 with a .263 OBP. Awesome!!! Burke was on the cheap and while he's probably not the answer, I would've like to have seen him get one more chance playing his natural position.
take away Matsui's Dodger stadium mess... and he is .272 on the road. he will only play 3 games there with the astros.
i dont really like the signing though because he isn't that much better than Burke... his defense is better and with everett the astros have the best middle infield defense in the league which will help the pitching staff. maybe matsui turned a corner last season and will go back to his numbers before coming to MLB. who knows. his baserunning is much better than anyone on the stros and better than burkes.
matsui hits alot of ground balls and gets on with speed which is what a #2 hitter does burke hit more like a 6-7 alot of fly balls try to hit it out of the park stuff.
batting average is a bad stat to judge a player by.
that said, matsui is probably better than burke, but not by much.
there are players at AAA (and not top prospects) who would perform better than both of them.
with a career .325 OBP, he doesn't really get on. even with the great home stats last year, he still had a below average OBP overall.
i meant thats how he gets on base... putting the ball in play opposed to striking out/fly outs.
It really doesn't matter how he gets on base when he doesn't do it often, well below the league average for a player.
I think the Stros did upgrade at the position, but it would be tough to find guys who aren't an upgrade over Burke.
i'm just happy we have a GM who's not sitting on his hands.
from justice's blog:
anyone know anything about him?Ed Wade continues to stockpile good players by taking advantage of the mistakes of others. His latest shrewd move came Thursday morning when he stole 22-year-old LHP Wesley Wright from the Dodgers in the Rule 5 draft for $50,000. The Astros must keep Wright on their 25-man roster or offer him back to the Dodgers. He was dominant at Double-A but struggled at Triple-A last season. Give Dewey Robinson a spring with this kid, and he'll be fine.
Worth taking a flyer on, I guess.
I see Justice is still gumballing the Astros as much as ever.
Damn the Astros have really changed things up and would like to know what you would grade thier off season so far with the newest additons, Miguel Tejada and Jose Valverde.
To me, this season is all about jettisoning what was the Astros, and starting over. So there are lots of trade-offs - more offensive potency, mediocre to poor starting pitching; traded many prospects and assets to get low volume returns, but got the best player in every deal, and many of the players traded away either consistently underperformed or helped make up an already lacking farm system. It seems to me Wade is simultaneously blowing up the organization and attempting to win big now in a weak division, which is bold to say the least. Will it work? I'd say this will be a two-year band-aid of just over .500 ball (which could win the division), followed by a couple of wretched seasons, then a resurgence of young talent Wade drafts. Just a guess though.
The Astros, if the starting pitching is there, will challenge the Cubs for the divison.
Tejada, Berkman, Lee is a pretty sick 1,2,3 punch.
Good luck this year.
you mean... tejada, berkman, Lee, Pence
Pardon me I forgot the true rookie of the year.
Yeah the Astros are pretty loaded.
Wiggington isn't nothing to shake a stick at either, hes turned into a solid 3B man.
I think the Astros, like I said, rotation willing, will return to greatness.
They will definately have easy wins against the Cardinals, Reds, and Pirates this year.
I hope we rise to that challenge. It'd be satisfying, to say the least, since I'm in the NW suburbs of Chi-town. I gotta say, it was *really* galling to have Cub fans giving me in '05, and it'd be nice to have some payback other than the usual Cub futility.
I don't know, I'm not overly high on the Stros. I think they would have been better off blowing it up instead of going for Miggy.
Their line-up is solid, but I don't think it's as good as the Brewers, and probably not even the Cubs.
Oswalt's a legit ace, and Valverde will close the door, but there are a lot of question marks on everybody else in between.
Wright was ranked just outside the top 20 in the Dodgers' prospects. In most organizations, that wouldn't be overly impressive. But the Dodgers' system is loaded beyond the point of sickness.
What do you guys think, should the astros pursue Mark Prior for the second half of the season?
no way.
If I could, I'd go upside your head with a dictionary for that. NO! Heeeell no! Bad ATRAIN!
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