Since I don't live in town and can't get the Astros on TV anymore, I'm not sure he really cares about my opinion - he doesn't make any money off me either way.
I would think that you are certainly right that he does not care about your opinion. I live in town, and i'm pretty sure he don't give a crap about mine either
"It doesn't bother me that people want us to spend more money, but it's not their money. This is a private company, even though it's got a public flair to it. If they want to write a check for 10 million bucks, they can give me a call." -- Jim Crane
No. 1) they're not mutually exclusive 2) A MLB club should certainly not ignore keeping the fans happy.
They certainly shouldn't ignore trying to make fans happy - they just shouldn't be doing that if it comes at the expense of getting the team good again. For example, they should bring someone up before they think is ideal to get fans excited. Or they shouldn't sign a free agent to make the team slightly better at the expense of being able to try out their younger guys and see what sticks.
Frankly I think it's refreshing to have a front office that is *not* concerned with fancentric p.r. bull****.
Guy's paying off his creditors while biding his time and watching the cheap young talent develop. And yeah he's an *******, but he's *our* *******! Everyone knew this was a 5ish year rebuilding plan, I don't understand why so many people are complaining about the team. What did you expect? Wait and see what he does with the budget in a couple of years, then b**** to your heart's content. The fans will show up and be quite merry once they start winning. That's all that really matters. Whoever (I'm looking at you, Postolos) had the idea for the eyesore in LF should be tarred and feathered and then drawn and quartered, I think that's something all fans can support.
Some fans are going to b**** regardless. They b****ed about Drayton. They're b****ing about Crane. If Mark Cuban had bought the team, they'd be b****ing about him too. I agree with you that it is way too early in the process to know if there is really something to b**** about.
I was looking at the top 30 international free agent signings and we've only signed one. This is odd considering we have the most money slotted. The Cubs and Rangers have signed the most. Is this penny pinching or is this Luhnow only wanting polished college guys rather than 16 year olds? I guess we'll know more the motive next year but it's strange.
I've had this thought too, but we did give out six digit bonuses to 3 or 4 guys and we wanted Jose Herrera but he chose not to sign with us. We didn't get the big fish, but we added quantity and depth.
Just watched Jim Deshaies call a Brian Bogusevic AB. It's the ****ing Cubs game. What planet is this?
This is baseball; a free agent will go where ever a dollar tells them to go. Everyone's not going to go all Beltran on Houston...
They're dirt poor Dominicans a lot of times, theyre not likely in a position as 16 year olds to turn down money. Are you saying we have crappy reps scouting out there and the kids don't have good relationships with the Astros reps? If that's the case then that is a major problem, especially with the Rangers leading the way down there. Jurickson Profar was the #1 prospect in all of baseball coming into the season. The Rangers signed him in 2009 for $1.5 million. Oscar Taveras, arguably the best prospect in baseball right now signed by the Cardinals in 2008 for $145k. If we have the most money to spend and we signed one out of the top thirty guys... that is not good and it better not be a trend.
Actually, we had the highest offer to a top 30 guy, and he chose the Diamondbacks instead. The top ones can be choosier. We signed Ariel Ovando for $2.6M, so just spending isn't necessarily a good thing. The team has signed several international free agents this year, and continue to do so.
Yes, it's a good thing because its an extremely important avenue for talent acquisition. Youre going to hit and miss just like in the draft. You don't avoid the draft because it costs money so we should not neglect this pipeline for talent. Ariel Ovando was signed by Wade, not Luhnow.
You are going to hit and miss. Perhaps that is why they are spreading around cash more and not going for the top guys. You don't just spend money because you have money. Lends itself to overpaying.
