A guy at the Astros message board says that a Tim Redding-for-Jose Cruz Jr. trade is in the works and will be announced in the 24/48 hours. What can I say; I'm desperate. It may well be crap, but I'll take what I can get. This would be an excellent trade for both teams, probably; the Astros really need outfield help, and the Rays need pitching. Tim Redding could probably benefit from a change of scenery, and Cruz Jr. is only signed for 1 year at around 3 million, so we wouldn't be stuck with him for years to come. I hope this trade goes through, as Cruz could play a solid (better than Burnitz, worse than Cameron, like 90% of the outfielders out there) center field, and put up somewhere around a 260 / 350 / 450 line. Heck, maybe he likes having his dad in the organization and has a career year, putting up something like 280 / 370 / 500, which would make me very very happy. If this trade goes through and Clemens doesn't re-sign, I imagine our rotation as something like

Oswalt
Pettitte
Backe
Carlos Hernandez
Pete Munro

which ain't so great. Maybe we could give Esteban Loaiza an incentive-laden 1 year deal. I don't even know who else is out there that's any good. Convincing Clemens to come back for one more year should would be nice.