The astros gave away a hall of famer - for nothing

Oh for ****'s sake

 

Considering how much service time was left for JDM (e.g., Astros didn't give up this year), Astros probably will end up getting comparable value out of McHugh.

 

A little dramatic. He was a huge surprise prospect...was probably rushed to the majors during the Ed Wade era...spent 3 seasons up and down and he generally sucked...Luhnow didn’t see the upside and let him go in favor of other prospects like Robbie Grossman...little did Luhnow know Martinez had made an important adjustment to his swing...Martinez became a star elsewhere...bummer. BUT, now he is a post-free-agent making $20m+ a year, and he is about to turn 31. He probably has 2-3 years left as a star player, then will spend another 2-3 years as a DH. He is not going to hit 400 HR much less 500.

 

Pisses me off given there was 0 reason to give him his outright release, other then to help him out.

But I don't see why we need to relive the mistake over and over. Are we going to start threads be-moaning the several players we gave up for little value in the 90s? Players who are probably closer to HOF consideration than JD will be.

 

just remember its a what thread

 

I wonder if Hunter Pence would be down to dh, I miss him

 

get out.

 

Read Astroball.

 

We shouldve put Johan on the roster.....

 

Next book on my reading list.

@donkeypunch don't forget giving up on Curt Schilling!

 

We could have won a World Series if we kept him.

 

Should have protected Bobby Abreu

 

He hit 24 home runs in nearly 900 ABs between 2011-2013.

Sure, JD told the front office that he fixed his swing, but I imagine front offices hear that from dozens of players every single year. Yes, it's rare for a team to give away a player of JD's quality for nothing, but it's damn near unprecedented for a player with a sample size as large as JD's to completely transform as he has.

Kudos to JD. We won a World Series.

 

Why anyone still reads this clown's posts/threads is beyond me

 

What?

 

He wasn't a hall of famer when we gave him away. So no, we didnt.

 

The JD Martinez issue is given ample spotlight in AstroBall. Here's the brief(-ish) summary:

JD Martinez was a middling prospect with terrible results; he wasn't fast, he wasn't a plus-defender - his one calling card was his bat and he was not a very good hitter. That exact message was relayed to JDM late in the 2013 season. He took it to heart and started to pour through videos of his swing vis-a-vis others, including, rather comically in hindsight, Jason Castro, who was wrapping up an All-Star campaign. JDM's swing not only didn't look like others, it plain looked awful. So Castro suggested he hook up with this hitting coach guru, and JDM did.

He saw some immediate results towards the end of the '13 season then went to winter ball in Venezuela - where he was considered high risk to be kidnapped, btw - and tore the league apart. He came back to camp in '14, sat down with Luhnow and Bo Porter and told them everything and that he just wanted a chance to prove to them that the change was monumental and permanent.

As the book tells it, Porter, acting on his own, refused to give JDM spring training ABs, favoring Robbie Grossman and the like, and that the lack of ABs led Luhnow to release him.

Luhnow considers it the biggest mistake of his tenure, and he apologized to JDM later that season, and has tried to repair the relationship in the aftermath as JDM was/is rather bitter.

Of course, we all know where this is headed: JD Martinez is going to personally end the Astros' season with a Beltran-like ALCS, right?