Ed Wade: How lame is he?

I'd say pretty lame. But after watching the Astros shockingly win their first series against the Reds this season, I decided to have a little fun and look back on Wade's main moves as GM and assign them a "win" or "lose" tag. Obviously, it's a little presumptuous to make such a stark judgement for each acquisition, as some transactions take years to show their benefits or drawbacks. However, I was hired to give my opinion, so suck it up and read.

11/8/07

Wade trades P Brad Lidge and IF Eric Bruntlett to Philadelphia for OF Michael Bourn, P Geoff Geary, and 3B Mike Costanzo.

Judgement: Win

Ironically, the first deal that Wade ever made will probably end up being his best as the general manager in Houston. Giving up a streaky Lidge and a meaningless Bruntlett for such a talented guy like Bourn showed promise at the beginning of Wade's tenure. Getting some solid innings out of Geary was icing on the cake.

12/12/07

Wade trades OF Luke Scott, P Matt Albers, 3B Mike Costanzo, P Troy Patton, and P Dennis Sarfate to Baltimore for SS Miguel Tejada.

Judgement: Loss

This trade initially looked a lot worse than it ended up being, as Scott was the only player dealt from Houston who turned out to be anything worthwhile, despite his neo-conservative antics and odd placement of 37 guns in his house. But giving up five young players for Tejada at that point in his career was inexcusable. Casual Astros fans might be like "Hey! That dude hit some homers for us!". So did Carlos Lee at the beginning of his career in Houston. Tejada ate payroll, played terrible defense, and dogged it way too much for my liking. How in the world he's still in San Francisco is beyond me.

12/13/07

Wade trades P Chad Qualls, OF Chris Burke and P Juan Gutierrez to Arizona for P Jose Valverde.

Judgement: Loss

This was a tough one to call, but I'll judge it by the amount of money that Wade paid for a 2-year stint by a closer who I've always found overrated. Valverde saved a fair amount of games in Houston, but he also blew his fair share as well. I initially was shocked that Wade didn't make Qualls the closer in the first place, but sending him and the out-of-style Burke to Arizona for the league leader in saves was a sexy move that earned praise.

12/1/09

Wade signs P Brandon Lyon and P Matt Lindstrom.

Judgement: Loss

Ok, this one wasn't entirely his fault, though he should have looked at Lyon's career numbers and realized that he might not necessarily be a reliable back-end of the bullpen kinda guy. But alas, Lindstrom was injury-riddled and wild in his one season as closer, and lo and behold, even though Lyon performed excellently as the setup man and fill-in closer in '10, he was injury-riddled and wild in his one (half) season as closer. Doesn't exactly sound like a stellar acquisition to me.

7/29/10

Wade trades P Roy Oswalt to Philadelphia for P J.A. Happ, OF Anthony Gose, and SS Jonathan Villar. Gose was later flipped to Toronto for 1B Brett Wallace.

Judgement: Win

I think it's rather fair to say that Oswalt was on the downhill portion of his career when he asked to be dealt, and seeing as he didn't want to be in Houston anymore anyway, I actually thought Wade did a nice job of swinging a deal that netted him a good number of farmhands. Happ was obviously the crown jewel in the trade, and while he has...uh...underwhelmed us so far, there's still time for him to improve. Villar is progressing well in the minors, and while Wallace is inexplicably killing time in AAA ball right now, he has the potential to be a cornerstone of the franchise in future years.

7/29/11

Wade trades OF Hunter Pence to Philadelphia for P Jarred Cosart, 1B Jonathan Singleton, P Josh Zeid and a PTBNL.

Judgement: Win

For the life of me, I still can't understand why Astros fans are angry about this deal. The only reason it angered me was because it might save Wade  his job. If you have the opportunity to trade your second-best player for the top pitching and hitting prospects in another team's system, you gotta take it. Zeid is projected to be a solid reliever. What more do you want for a guy who's performance was overrated anyway?

7/31/11

Wade trades OF Michael Bourn to Atlanta for OF Jordan Schafer, P Brett Oberholtzer, P Paul Clemens, and P Juan Abreu.

Judgement: Epic terrible fail loss

Just when I thought Wade did something to help the team, he goes out and gets hosed. Houston brass have always undervalued Bourn, and they did so right up until they shipped him out of town for a castoff, injury-prone outfielder and a bunch of second-tier pitching prospects. Keith Law said that Wade looked at the Braves' prospect list upside-down. I think that he probably didn't look at it at all.

Wade: Yeah Frank, we're gonna need some pretty good pitchers if we're gonna give up Bourn. Is Maddux untouchable?

Frank Wren: Well...uh...I got some other guys you might be interested in. Like this kid, Ober-something or other. And this other guy, Clemens. I think he's related to Roger.

Wade: NO WAY. We'll take 'em. And we'll send you some cash just to sweeten the deal.

So as you can see, not everything Wade has done ended up bad. But in the grand scheme of things, I'd still say, he's pretty lame.