Or, as is the case with a majority of teams in the playoffs these past few years, the Nats also were successful in their intel at figuring out what JV and Cole were going to throw, before they threw it. It’s naive to think that the Astros, Yankees, and Red Sox were the only ones doing everything they could for an advantage.
Chirinos to the Rangers, $6.75M 1yr with a $6.5M club option 2nd year. Fair deal, surprised Houston didn’t beat that. Oh well, hopefully Garneau is a diamond in the rough.
Cmon bro. Hinch never said Cole wasnt ready to go. He said he had an agreement with Cole about how he was going to be used. If you Howie Kendrick interview post game he even said he was blown away that they pulled Grienke. It was a bad decision but its water under the bridge.
I’m really really REALLY not liking this off-season. Cole to Yanks, Harris to Nats, Robi to tx, Rendon to Angels.... not only are we losing key players, they’re all going to major rivals (or the team we lost the WS too). Trading Jake too. Add to that we haven’t made one decent offseason move and the cheating fiasco... just a **** offseason all the way around.
Pretty much every player loss was extremely easy to predict, we knew this was coming. Luhnow made his big offseason move at the trade deadline getting Greinke. Frankly Crane is already spending far more than I ever thought he would. If the likes of Tucker, James, Urquidy, Abreu, Whitley and Martes don't become contributors this season we're gonna be taking a step back and retooling very soon. May as well throw their ass in the water and see if they swim.
It was never going to be an exciting offseason given the current roster and payroll. If it helps, Houston is still projected to be the best team in the league by roughly 3 wins. I do think we will see an impactful trade at some point in the next 2 months.
With what looks to be an impending suspension for Luhnow, would whoever “fills in” the gm role for the time being be given a green light to make a substantial move? Obviously Crane would have to be on board with any significant move. I’m sure any groundwork laid between luhnow and other gms during the winter meetings has been passed on to whoever could potentially take the reigns short term. Surely there is a back up plan in place...?
How in the hell does one go about suspending a GM anyhow, that seems kind of hard to enforce beyond being an inconvenience. Are they gonna have full time surveillance team on him?
I will be surprised if Luhnow is suspended for any length of time. But if he is handed any lengthy suspension I would guess he’d be let go and Crane would hire a new GM from the outside.
Are we still speculating punishment/suspension for Luhnow even with more information that other teams (e.g. Boston) "cheated" as well? Seems like punishment in any form other than fines or removal of draft picks won't occur because MLB would have to pull the thread across ALL teams and that might reveal that Houston/Luhnow weren't the only ones playing "unfairly".
Sounds like you had unrealistic expectations after the WS was over which would be on you and not on the team.
Believe me I definitely hope there are no suspensions. Just been seeing that there may be some harsh punishment not involving players but front office and on field management which leads me to believe hinch and or luhnow May receive some sort of suspension.
The Astros are expecting suspensions for their front office and manager. I do not see Crane letting Luhnow go. Unless something has suddenly changed, they are very close and Crane thinks highly of him. Also, who would fill in would depend on who is/isn't involved. Also....... in someways it will not matter, you better believe that there will be communications with Luhnow before any substantive trades are made or signings. The game of baseball has been grounded on cheating since it's inception......... players used to sharpen their spikes to run the bases.... it has always been a part of the game, and I hope it remains in the game.
There is absolutely no way in hell Crane lets Luhnow go. That would make absolutely no sense. Also, what's stopping Luhnow from going to say, a neighbor that lives down the street, and having them take a cell phone plan out for him? There is no way they can enforce a suspension that keeps Luhnow away from the team for an entire season. It would be practically impossible to monitor all his activities.
I guess my naivete is thinking that if MLB is ready to pursue suspensions for any front office staff (including Luhnow) that this would undoubtedly set a precedent where ANY front office could also be suspended for "cheating" actions that happen years ago. It'd be a lot easier for the league to establish/update the rules moving forward than to retroactively suspend front office staff...at least in my mind anyway.
The league believes the Astros situation is a litmus test. If the Astros punishment isn't severe, teams will get the message that cheating is worth the punishment. The players will not be disciplined because the league has gotten their information in large part from players formerly on prior teams. What will be key for the Astros, is whether there is any proof of cheating by the team AFTER the league put out a memo in writing warning teams to stop using replay to cheat...... People forget, the Red Sox, Astros and I believe Yankees were all identified as culprits.
My logic is that the only way MLB levies a long suspension on Luhnow is if he was promoting a culture of unadulterated unjustifiable cheating, in which case our perception of him is way off and Crane would almost certainly feel pressure to make a change. I trust Nook’s insider info but that surprises me that they expect Luhnow to be suspended, for several reasons: GM suspensions are difficult to enforce. Suspending a GM for something that he didn’t carry out completely on his own and that happened several years ago sets a dangerous precedent. Luhnow/Crane are strictly business and if they have dirt on other, larger market teams that would justify their actions or force the league to also suspend front office personnel from those teams, they will leverage it.
