He is tearing it up right now.

Unfortunately he plays the only position that we have covered.... OF.

Do we trade him for some other prospects? Or do we keep him for a possible plug into OF if Lance doesn;t re-sign and we move Lee to 1st?

Knowing the Astros, they'll probably give him a full year at AA (10') and then at least another 1/2 year in AAA (11')....So I'd say if he keeps up this pace he'd be ready by the middle of 2011. Though i'd love to see him brought up earlier. So thus, i agree with your second option though hopefully it'll be LEE that goes!

I say hang onto him.

And like you and the Bobster said...wait and see what happens with Lance, Lee, Gaston's next year etc...

I would wait until he shows signs at a higher level before we talk about accommodating him. He definitely has some pop and a bit of speed to go with it, but he's been a whiff machine since the AS-break, and he hasn't really walked enough to offset it yet.

We do have much more talent in the OF than other places though. In addition to Gaston there's Bogu, Steele, Shuck, and Austin in the works. Not all of them will pan out, but we might have a bit of a logjam if even a couple do.

Keep him, you can never be positive about your future with Bourn and Pence. You hope for the best, but hey things happen players don't workout. It's always good to have a solid backup.

See if he can play 3B? :-(

He hasn't hit AA yet and, by the number of triples and steals he has, I think it's safe to say that he's a good athlete. If the front office has an ounce of brain between them, they'll start teaching him an infield position this next season.

I like the fact that he is showing some power. We need power. A .320 ISO is pretty awesome.

Athleticism doesn't mean you can automatically play an infield position. BJ Upton was a tremendous athlete who had to be moved to the OF because his glove was bad anywhere in the infield.

If we were going to try an OF-IF conversion, I would be more interested in Bourn.

"If we were going to try an OF-IF conversion, I would be more interested in Bourn."

Why? Bourn works in the OF, what are we going to do, move Pence BACK to CF and call up Gaston to play RF while we move Bourn...where, 3B? 2B? SS? Why not just teach Gaston an infield position? If it doesn't take, we're no worse of than when we started, rather than messing with a lot of stuff we have at the Big League level?

Some people need to get over this aversion to teaching young guys new positions. Defense, more than any other aspect of the game, is about dedication, hard work and practice. Defense is something that, even if you're bad at, you can make yourself better at. Maybe not awesome, maybe not Everett-like, but you can improve simply through working hard and practicing.

At this point, this organization needs to start pulling out some of the stops and trying some new things. Let's be honest, no one will take Carlos Lee in a trade next year unless we eat a MINIMUM of $6 million of his salary, and we'll have to eat more like half $10 million of it if we want to actually get some decent prospects in return. Add in the fact that he's popular with the fans and Drayton loves him, and we all know he's not going anywhere. By the time his contract runs out, Gaston will be 26 years old with zero Major League experience. We need to try SOMETHING.

"Why? Bourn works in the OF, what are we going to do, move Pence BACK to CF and call up Gaston to play RF while we move Bourn...where, 3B? 2B? SS?"

It all depends. Gaston could be an option in CF. There's also the possibility of someone like Steele or Austin patrolling the middle garden. 2B might be the best position for Bourn to try. He has good agility and he wouldn't need a tremendously accurate arm.

"Why not just teach Gaston an infield position?"

Gaston seems a bit big for the middle infield. 3B might be an option, but I'm not sure if he has the arm for it.

"Defense, more than any other aspect of the game, is about dedication, hard work and practice."

Eh, it's like any other aspect of the game. Some of it can be taught and improved on, but some just aren't cut out to play certain positions. I have no doubt that Adam Dunn could take eight hours of infield per day and still be unable to play an infield position decently.

Maybe Gaston should learn a little infield one day, but I wouldn't worry about it right now. First of all, I don't consider him a can't-miss guy yet (see his whiff rate). Also, so much can change between now and when he'll be ML ready that we shouldn't jump the gun. What if one of our outfielders suddenly quits hitting, or has a career-altering injury?

"If we were going to try an OF-IF conversion, I would be more interested in Bourn. "

I don;t know about that. We have a pretty cavernous CF and Bourn ranked pretty high with CF in the recent fielding Bible Awards.

"Gaston seems a bit big for the middle infield. 3B might be an option, but I'm not sure if he has the arm for it. "

I wonder if Pence could handle 3rd if team dynamics called for it one day.

"We have a pretty cavernous CF and Bourn ranked pretty high with CF in the recent fielding Bible Awards."

It is hard to move a good defender, but I think Bourn would be a better bet to stick than any other outfielder.

"I wonder if Pence could handle 3rd if team dynamics called for it one day."

I would think that funky throwing motion he uses would make it tough for the 1st baseman to handle his throws.

What about Bogusevic for an IFer?

"I don;t know about that. We have a pretty cavernous CF and Bourn ranked pretty high with CF in the recent fielding Bible Awards."

We have to think about the words of the old song...

Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. Moving Bourn would be eliminating the positive. I wasn't for the trade we made, but looking toward the future, he should be as solid of a fixture in CF as Berkman is solid at 1B. Look elsewhere to eliminate the negative and don't mess with the positive.

The only move the Astros have successfully made in the last twenty years by messing with success was with Biggio moving from Catcher to 2B and it involved a very special talent with very special dedication and a special coach in Matt Galante.

"I wonder if Pence could handle 3rd if team dynamics called for it one day."

Pence is an athlete with rather poor baseball instincts. Moving him to an infield position would be a disaster. In the outfield, he has a chance to let his athleticism overcome poor initial mistakes from lacking those baseball instincts.

"What about Bogusevic for an IFer?"

Unless he pulls a Billy Wagner and learns to throw with his other arm, 1B would be the only option.

I agree with you. Besides, why would anybody want to move Pence away from outfield when he's already developing into such a plus defender in RF?

Gaston, who presently playing in the AFL, leads the AFL in triples and whiffs.
He does have an on going wrist issue that will need to be looked at the end of the season.