Memo to Houston Astros: Time to Start Over

Many fans, including myself sometimes, have talked about Astros owner Drayton McLane's spending or lack thereof over the years. Well, with the Astros having the eighth largest payroll in baseball (second in the national league) that is no longer a valid argument to the team not winning a championship. I have to give McLane much credit; he has done everything within reason from a financial standpoint, to keep the Astros competitve and in contention for a postseason berth this decade. But now I am absolutely sure it is time for the Astros to do their best Pittsburgh Pirates impersonation: HOLD A FIRESALE! Outside of Michael Bourn and Hunter Pence, everyone should be expendable on the roster. The Astros have to get younger, and what better way to replenish a depleted farm system than to trade away star veteran players in their prime! You think Carlos Lee, Miguel Tejada, Lance Berkman, or Roy Oswalt couldn't be the missing piece to some team possibly winning it all next season? Im sure these four guys alone can bring in some top young minor league prospects or better yet, young players with high upsides trying to establish themselves in the majors. I personally said this past June the Astros should do this, but when your team is only 3 games out of first place at the all star break who can blame management for not taking my advice! But since the team has free fallen to about 13 games out of first place at the time of this writing, its time to go back to my plan! So now, to get the most return value for these players they should wait until the offseason to trade them. I'm sure McLane fears that the fans won't support a team thats rebuilding so the decision isn't that easy for him. True baseball fans with adequate baseball knowledge knows that unless you are the Yankees or the Red Sox all teams will have to rebuild at some point. Lets face it the kids cant do much worse than the all star players have at this point! By the way the Astros lost tonight 7-0 to the D'backs! I rest my case!!!!