Daily Archives: June 24, 2004

Stros win and close trade for Beltran

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The Stros nipped the Pirates 3-2 at the Juice Box on Thursday night as the Rocket picked up his 10th win of the season and the struggling Stros won for the fourth time in five games.
However, the bigger news out of the Juice Box on Thursday night was that the Stros consummated a trade that will bring star Kansas City centerfielder Carlos Beltran to Houston for reliever Octavio Dotel and AAA catcher John Buck (the Royals then shipped Dotel to Oakland for a couple of minor league prospects).
First, the game. The Rocket was his usual dependable self, scattering four hits and two runs over seven innings. Miceli and new closer Brad Lidge closed out the victory as Morgan Ensberg had the game winning hit for the second time in three games.
Now, the trade. Beltran is one of the best young players in baseball, with a .368 on base average, a slugging percentage of .527, and an RCAA (explained here) of 17 this season. Dotel has been one of the best relievers in baseball over the past three seasons, but he was having a down season so far and Lidge is ready to handle the closer’s role. Buck was once the Stros’ best minor league prospect before his development was derailed a couple of years ago by injuries and the club’s failure to field a high A farm team until last year. However, Buck has rebounded nicely this season at AAA New Orleans and is likely ready for an opportunity to play in the bigs.
So, although far from a great deal (at least as of yet), the trade is a reasonable gamble for the Stros, who were probably going to finish third (at best) in the NL Central if they played a pat hand the rest of the season. Beltran is clearly the type of player who can elevate the Stros’ performance level to equal that of the Cubs and Cards. Of course, the downside is that Beltran is probably a three month rental for the Stros, as his uber-agent Scott Boras has already announced that he is going to auction Beltran’s talents to the highest bidder on the free agent market after this season. Don’t look for the Stros to win that horse race.
Hopefully, Beltran will be in the Stros’ lineup on Friday night as they send Wade Miller to the hill in the first game of the Lone Star Series with the hard-hitting Rangers at Arlington. Redding and Roy O will pitch the next two games of the series.

McMurtry on “My Life”

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Larry McMurtry, Texas’ finest novelist and the author of the incomparable 1986 Pulitzer Price winner Lonesome Dove, reviews former President Bill Clinton‘s autobiography My Life in this NY Times Review of Books review. Mr. McMurtry gives the book a generally positive review, and observes the following:

During the silly time when Clinton was pilloried for wanting to debate the meaning of “is,” I often wondered why no one pointed out that he was educated by Jesuits, for whom the meaning of “is” is a matter not lightly resolved.
To judge from this book, Clinton has never been able to understand why Kenneth Starr, the special counsel appointed to investigate Whitewater, pursued him so ferociously. The answer is to be found in the soil Kenneth Starr sprang from. His hometown, Thalia, Tex., lies along what local wits sometimes refer to as the “Floydada Corridor,” a bleak stretch of road between Wichita Falls and Lubbock that happens to run through the tiny town of Floydada, Tex. It’s a merciless land, mostly, with inhabitants to match. Towns like Crowell, Paducah and Matador lie on this road, and nothing lighter than an elephant gun is likely to have much effect on the residents. Proust readers and fornicating presidents will find no welcome there.

The legacy of business risk

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From the always entertaining Stu’s Views:
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Methodist Hospital continues on the offensive

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After the controversial split earlier this year (previous posts here) with longtime partner Baylor College of Medicine, The Methodist Hospital has been announcing a series of bold moves as it attempts to define its post-Baylor research and teaching role in Houston’s famed Texas Medical Center. Yesterday, Methodist announced its boldest move yet — a 30 year primary affiliation agreement with Cornell University’s Weill Medical School in New York City.
No one can of another teaching hospital-medical school partnership in which such a vast distance separated the from its medical school. According to the Chronicle article on the deal, Methodist President Dr. Ron Girotto downplayed the mileage separating the hospital from Cornell, saying “distance is not an obstacle. Technology today makes anything possible — the sharing of information, quality data and collaboration on research and patient care.”
Cornell’s Weill Medical College’s primary teaching hospital has long been New York-Presbyterian Hospital which is one of the largest hospitals in the country. That affiliation will not change, as Methodist’s deal with the medical school includes a Methodist affiliation with New York-Presbyterian, also.
Still unclear from Wednesday’s announcement is how the affiliation deal will work in practice. Given the distance between Houston and New York, the relationship would appear to limit the typical type of faculty-student relationships that a teaching hospital typically enjoys with a medical school. Under the agreement, Methodist physicians can choose to have faculty appointments at Cornell, which Methodist believes will be a lure in recruiting. Methodist also contends that the affiliation will accelerate the development of the hospital’s new research institute, which it recently announced.
Notably, the affiliation with Cornell and New York-Presbyterian is not an exclusive arrangement, and Methodist will continue to search for other medical school partners. Methodist forsees having multiple affiliations and are open to other ones in Texas. In that connection, talks are still ongoing between Methodist and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the other medical school in the Medical Center.

Enron Task Force adds charges in Nigerian Barge case

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The Enron-related criminal case dubbed the “Nigerian Barge case” would already be in trial but for a conflict with the Judge’s previously scheduled vacation that resulted in a postponement of the trial until mid-August. Using that delay to their advantage, the Enron Task Force yesterday filed a superceding indictment that added two new wire fraud charges against all six defendants and a new false statement charge against Defendant Dan Boyle, the former vice president of Enron’s Global Finance unit. Previous posts on this case may be reviewed here.
The Chronicle article on this development speculates that the superceding indictment may result in a further postponement in the trial of the case, but that’s highly unlikely. Inasmuch as the charges relate to the same transaction as the previous indictment in the case, there probably is not any unfair prejudice to the defendants in indicting them on the new charges, although the late indictment coming a month and a half before trial certainly calls into question the Task Force’s handle on the case. If the new charges would justify a postponement of the trial date for the defendants, U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein would probably dismiss the new charges before he would postpone the current August 16 trial date.