I'd hire Luhnow the millisecond after his suspension is up. Guy has proven to be a genius GM, and I'd fight tooth and nail to have him running my baseball team. If I'm a team owner, I use the next year to make my organization squeaky clean and transparent to placate everyone and so Luhnow can just do the thing he's best at, and I have a blank check in hand as soon as that suspension is up.
Sure, thru luck or superhuman skill, the new GM might overcome not having the top 2 picks those years and be able to sustain the Astros as a contender. But based on where star talent typically comes from, they’re toast for a few years. Take a look back at the 2007 draft and you can draw some inferences from how Houston performed 2009-2013.
Even though the Astros accepted the punishment, I'm curious to see if Luhnow and Hinch will appeal on an individual level to clear their names. I would like to see what the outcome would be.
There’s never been a level playing field in baseball. I don’t feel all that bad that the Astros did this. I’ll be annoyed that I have to defend their title to some idiot Yankee fan one day but everyone has smelly ****. I don’t expect MLB to aggressively investigate nor come down hard on another franchise because they already instilled the fear necessary with this punishment. Better for the league to make this look as much as possible like a 1 team culprit.
I will say this is different though. The Astros have enough talent to dominate for the next 5 years...the two year drought will definitely hurt, no doubt, I'm not saying it won't hurt at all...but the Astros are loaded with talent still. What is kind of funny though... Texans - No top draft picks for like the next 3 years. Rockets- Same, traded them away. Astros- Yep, so much for that draft. I guess it'll be a while until I care about a draft.
Astros fans going on in Mike Fiers' social media accounts right now. Comments are being reported left and right.
Well ****. Let’s see how top notch this organization can remain. Hoping Crane can hire people that will keep the Astros successful for a sustained period.
The Astros aren’t toast at all. There are 38 other rounds to draft talent, and it’s only a two-year loss of picks. Obviously, it’s not ideal, but a well-run organization can overcome it, and the Astros during this run have been great at minor league player development. Those coaches are still there.
I hope you’re right but history is against you. Houston has 1 elite prospect (Whitley). They have a maxed out payroll. New rules prevent overspending in international signings. They’ve already traded away their first round picks from 2017 and 2018. They’ll be drafting late.
Sean Payton returned after his bountygate suspension, Belichick and co. dont get punished by their franchise for the countless controversies they've been involved with, I just dont think Crane had to fire these guys. This punishment went from "eh, ok" or "omg no!!!" after the firings. I guess after something like this, the owner makes the decision whether he is going to accept the reputation and hate and continue putting the preference on success above all else (like Robert Kraft) versus public image. Crane went with public image. Holy crap man what a day.
