Major Astros news today, for those of you who are living in a hole: last night in the middle of the game, they traded closer Octavio Dotel and minor-league catcher John Buck to the Royals for center-fielder Carlos Beltran. (Kansas City then immediately traded Dotel to the A’s for a third base prospect and a pitcher.)
Mom and Jason and I were at the game last night, and around the 5th inning, while the Astros were up to bat, I looked in the dugout and noticed that there was practically no one there. The Astros were batting, but there were only about 6 people in the dugout. Weird, I thought, and commented to Jason.
A few innings later, the announcer alerted the fans to the trade. Turns out that the dugout was empty because the players were going into the clubhouse to say goodbye to Dotel before he left for the last time.
I’m excited about the trade, and the possibilities, but also a little worried. The Astros likely won’t resign Beltran at the end of the year, so basically we traded Dotel for half a year of Carlos Beltran. Astros owner Drayton McLane is channeling Steinbrenner for the year, going out and buying what he thinks he needs for the Astros to win a World Series. I don’t really know if that is the best method or not. If Lidge can close games as well as he did last night (9 pitches, 8 were strikes, 2 strikeouts), then we’ll be ok without Dotel.
I don’t have the heart to ever be a baseball businessperson though. Dotel’s leaving makes me sad. I liked him.
So that’s the big Astros news and I hope it works out well for the team. In the meantime, my Mom arrived last night. Hooray for Mom!
