Houston's 2010 Review

Here's your 2010 opening day Astros:




CF Michael Bourn

2B Kazuo Matsui

1B Lance Berkman

LF Carlos Lee

RF Hunter Pence

3B Pedro Feliz

SS Tommy Manzalla

C JR Towles



Roy Oswalt

Wandy Rodriguez

Brett Meyers

Felipe Paulino

Bud Norris



Only 6 months later the team closed out the season fielding the following team:



SS Adam Kennedy

1B JR Towles

C Jason Castro

LF Carlos Lee

2B Casey McGehee

3B Chris Johnson

CF Aaron Rowand

RF Alex Romero



Kris Medlen

Josh Lindblom

Zack Braddock

Wily Peralta

Douglas Arguello
Matt Lindstrom
Of the main 14 players on a team only 5 were here on April 1st 2010. And according to all reports the Astros did all they could to move Lee but he refused to waive his NTC. With an opening day payroll of nearly 100M they finished the year with a payroll of only 45M (However, they spent nearly 85M throughout the year).
However looking at how the team shaped up isn't the best way to measure the Astros season. They managed to shed the pesky contracts of Berkman and Oswalt and pick up a ton of prospects in the process. However the most interesting trade of the year was probably the Bourn trade (and subsequent trade(s)).
On June 2nd The Astros traded CF Michael Bourn and RHP Alberto Arias to the Atlanta Braves for CF Jordan Schafer and RHP Kris Medlen.

Jordan Schafer never took the field for the Astros before being shipped out a month later to MIL along with Wandy Rodriguez for IF Casey McGehee and 3 pitching prospects. 2 of those arms tossed 64 quality innings late for the Astros and should be major parts of the rotation at some point in 2011.
It's clear that at the end of the day the Astros were clear winners here shopping their CF and #2 pitcher for their future 2B and potentially 3 pieces of the rotation. That said none of the arms are guaranteed and all come with control issues. If none of them can learn to put the ball over the plate the Astros could come out losers.