I definitely wanted Dusty gone, but when it comes to Espada, I really didn't have a firm opinion either way. Maybe its jitters and he will grow into it, but what we have seen so far doesn't scream competence.
It's not jitters, the guy is the baseball version of Stephen Silas. Lifetime assistant that had tired to get multiple jobs and every other team laughed him out of the room.
Live by the sword, lose by the sword. 5-2 if not for the bullpen, once the heart of the squad. 6-1 if I'm not being a homer. We're not losing tonight!
This thread has potential unless the Astros can turn it around. Imagine another 2-6 stretch. Team can’t afford it. A 4-12 record would be hard to overcome. Joe needs to light the fire or get thrown out of a game.
People don't understand how good Dusty was at managing people and egos and motivating people and all that stuff - which is actually something like 90% of managing. Lineups are such a small part of the overall puzzle. Hinch was also excellent at that and people got spoiled and took that stuff for granted. That's not to say Espada can't do it, but there's likely to be a learning curve. They are losing all their margin for error in this losing streak but it can certainly be turned around. They've had a lead in almost every game they've played, so it's not all bad. But to me, the biggest example is how they treated Pressly. It has to be a bit demotivating to be nearly perfect for so many years in the biggest situations for your team and then just get summarily demoted for a guy who's never had your success on the biggest stage. Those kinds of little things are worrisome in terms of whether Astros leadership understands the people side of things.
I agree. It wasn’t fair to him. Stupid move. Espada needs to show some fire. Throw some bats on the field. Get ejected.
Dusty cost the Astros a chance to win another WS by benching two of his top 5 hitters in the ALCS. I don't give a **** about anything else, because when it came time to do the things that the Rangers manager did, he was too ****ing stubborn to change. The problem with both of those guys is that they never held any person accountable for their shitty play on the field. Altuve has never been held to account for his consistently shitty baserunning. It has cost the Astros in 2 games out of 10 so far. Nothing will be done, and Altuve will continue to make crucial base runner mistakes all season long because he's slower than he used to be.
Posts like this are a good example of what I mean when people don't understand the intricacies of managing, or leadership in general. No one here has any idea whether Altuve is held accountable behind the scenes or what motivates him. All you can see is "he did bad = need to punish him on the field". It comes with no sense of whether that actually helps either him or the team - it's just a robotic reflex. Understanding people and managing an array of egos and personalizes and keeping people motivated over a 6-7 month season is what sets good managers apart from bad and its exactly the kind of thing you'll likely never see because the vast majority of that is going to be done behind the scenes.
Bagwell and Dusty either complained or mentioned their dismissal of analytics. Luhnow built the team using a progressive approach and the success eventually permeated to the rest of the league. You might can argue Pressly's felt a way after losing his closer role but he didn't regress in when Osuna was acquired. Ryan's closer role was more solidified before Hader than before Roberto but his current results are beyond ridiculous. I want to believe Pressly is just having a slow start and it's coming against some good competition, but I've placed hope in unworthy places before in my lifetime.
