These are reasonable deals.

Astros sign OF Erstad

And the circle of pointless crap is complete.

Erstad's a nice player to have on your bench at that price.

With his base-running and premium defense at multiple positions, Erstad is a nice part-timer in the National League. Provided, of course, that his manager doesn't fall so in love with him that he plays him against lefties.

Any Astros fans want to weigh in on this one?

Are Erstad's defense and baserunning still plusses at this point, or is he just working off of reputation?

His ZR is through the roof at all three defensive positions this year but in small samples.

I can't believe Erstad is only 34.

erstad is NOT gonna be on the bench.

moehler is gonna be back in the rotation

and we just NEED to sign latroy hawkins fo a 5 year 20 mill deal to be a setup guy too seeing as how 12 straight scoreless innings sez it all. and of course, we have the wonderful jose castillo now - a winning hand

and cooper keeps saying he's gonna keep going with the "hot hand" - i can't WANT to watch him bench berkman when he next goes 0 fer 12

we're gonna have the same crappy team next year with the same moron tony muser quality manager. ed wade has already said he's not gonna call up very many guys - and i'll bet pretty much all of em gonna be crappy runs elvys type.

i HATE ed wade and cooper

i feel like a pirates/royals fan. only worse

You don't reward key contributors to a thrilling pennant chase like the Astros have given us by just cutting them loose.

spahnnie

you gonna get a SPANKIN for that there disrespect!!!!!!!!!

you gonna get a SPANKIN for that there disrespect!!!!!!!!!

Where does the line for spankings form?

mistress bbc sez

if you have a nice hot irish ass with luscious meaty thighs like spahnnie does, then line forms on the left

This is what gets people fired up to be Astros fans!

Seriously, these are small deals as long as, as others said, Erstad doesn't see too much time doing much other than pinch-running, defensive-replacing, and pinch-hitting-for-pitchers against righties.

I, too, find it a bit shocking that Erstad is just 34. He had that huge season where he batted .350 or whatever, and I knew it wasn't going to stick, but you never could have convinced me that that was going to be his last good season with the bat. He was 26! He'd been goodish before! Who knew?

if you have a nice hot irish ass with luscious meaty thighs like spahnnie does, then line forms on the left

It's not nice of you to either make the rest of BBTF-dom jealous like that, nor to tease me like that.

And I suppose I shouldn't make fun of Moehler, seeing as how my vaunted Cub offense has scored a grand total of one run in his last two starts against them...

I'm an Astros fan, and I think they are OK re-signings. Erstad has been a bright spot off the bench for the Astros this year. He has been a plus defensive player (including a game winning assist in the 9th inning from RF to cut down the tying run at the plate earlier in the season against the Phillies), and a decent pinch hitter and spot starter. For the most part, Cooper hasn't used him against LHB, at least until Bourn's OBP became untenable and Erstad got some starts against LHP, at which point his stats started to decline. Erstad's base running is OK, but not great. Look, when you are an Astros' fan who has seen several years of Orlando Palmeiro as the main outfielder off the bench, Erstad seems like a pretty good option in that role.

Moehler has had a surprisingly good season as a starter. However, I wouldn't bet that he can repeat it next year. But I think he can be an acceptable No. 5 type starter next year, in which case the salary isn't outrageous.

That's funny, I think of O-Palm as the quintessential fourth outfielder who has never really been a starter. Looking at his b-ref page backs it up:

9 straight years of >100 GP with only one above 114 GP
Only 1 season in his 13 with more than 3 PA/GP
Lifetime: 1206 GP, 2.24 PA/GP

It's quite remarkable that he has had such a lengthy career entirely as a fourth outfielder. Of course, the one year he played in more than 114 games was the year TLR got his hands on him...

Erstad's base running is OK, but not great

That is pretty surprising. Has he lost a step or is he making gaffes out there? The former I can imagine, but the latter would be something he didn't do much of during his time with the Angels.

Anyway Mr. President, as a kid who grew up a mile or so away from your first law office, it's good to see you're doing well. I'd heard you and Franco were in some sort of race.

Erstad's a nice player to have on your bench at that price

It's pocket change I know, but he cost only $1M this year and $1 M last year. When you're not even gamey enough for the White Sox ...

Luckily the Astros hold a team option on Geoff Blum so they won't have to worry about bidding for him on the open market. :-)

Darin Erstad, Primer's anti-Beane.

Of course, the one year he played in more than 114 games was the year TLR got his hands on him...

JD Drew and Eli Marrero getting hurt had a lot to do with that.

Lisa:

I know I will seem biased but Cooper has this team over .500 with:

--Pence being highly mediocre

--Towles MIA

--Oswalt missing a fair amount of time

--a no-name pitching staff

--Lee out for the year

And lest we forget, a mid-season fight between player/GM.

Coop seems to have mixed and matched well around his talent of Berkman and Lee. He tried playing the young guys who either disappointed or got hurt.

Meanwhile, guys like Wigginton, Rodriguez and Erstad play well.

What am I missing?

That is pretty surprising. Has he lost a step or is he making gaffes out there? The former I can imagine, but the latter would be something he didn't do much of during his time with the Angels.

Probably the former. At his age, I wouldn't expect him to be as fast as in his Angels days. He is still fine at going 1st to 3d, scoring from 2d base, etc. But Cooper likes the stolen base, and Erstad hasn't been very successful on steal attempts. Bill James' baserunning analysis shows Erstad at -2 on stolen bases and +1 on the rest of his base running. Even though he may have lost a step, Erstad still does a good job tracking flyballs down in CF.

Well, seeing as how the Astros just locked up the 2009 NL Central crown, I'd say the Cubs' window begins and ends this year. Let's hope we don't have to face Houston in the NLCS.

I don't think there's anything wrong with these signings in isolation. But in the bigger picture, they look to me like signs that the Astros still don't get it.