This move kind of flew under the radar, but I think it's worth noting today. Yesterday, the Astros sent minor league second baseman Drew Sutton to Cincinnati to complete the trade that the two teams made for Jeff Keppinger shortly before the regular season started. I don't know how they do it, but it seems like at least once a week the Astros make a move that makes me scratch my forehead and wonder just what's going on in their front office. To a casual observer, this might seem like a pretty lateral move. Keppinger's hit well with the Astros so far and Sutton is a 26-year-old who's just breaking in to Triple-A for the first time. But look a little deeper, and see that Sutton had a huge breakout year in Double-A last year and he's one of the only remaining bright spots in a farm system that's been ravaged by trades, giving away draft picks to make free agent signings, and poor drafting.
What the Astros really did here was trade a 26-year-old middle-infielder with some upside for a known quantity 30-year-old utility man. Keppinger's a nice piece to fill out a bench on a contender, but the Astros are using him as an everyday player on a team that's far from contending. To put it simply, a team in the Astros' situation needs players like Sutton far more than players like Keppinger. The fact that they can't realize this really indicates just how deluded the Astros are by their current situation.
