https://blogs.fangraphs.com/whats-next-for-the-astros/ Keep Putila to manage the prospect pipeline (maybe make him GM while hiring a President to be his boss), then hire a President/GM with a strong trade/free agency resume. All good. They can make up for the lost picks in a few ways. Obviously being good/lucky with the picks they do have is the first way. But their QO picks will help as well; the Cole pick will make up for the lost 2nd rounder this year, and the Springer/Correa pick(s) will offset the 2021 lost 2nd rd pick. Otherwise, a simple extra outlay from Crane can purchase a player or 2 that will fill the hole that otherwise would have been the 2020/2021 1 rounders. Finally, a moratorium on trading away valuable prospects for the next 2 seasons may be in order, meaning deadline deals would be limited to adding role players or stars on bloated contracts.
We got absolutely ****ed. Manfred is a jackass and Crane should have fought for his manager, GM, and franchise. I get more and more angry about this **** the more I hear and the more I hear the media blow everything out of proportion. The whole thing is trash, but I think Crane's reaction to everything pisses me off the most. He tucked his tail and rolled over and let the core of the franchise get bulldozed. He allowed and played a part with Hinch's and Luhnow's reputations being destroyed from my perspective.
So what do you the penalties should have been? Please do tell me. It was Crane's decision to let go of Hinch and Luhnow. If MLB wanted them banned and/or fired they would've done so themselves. Astros got off with a slap on the wrist.
Spoiler We've had a number of candidates in. There's a nice list. We got some more to go. We're gonna work really hard on that next week and hope to get to a conclusion quick. I'm comfortable that come Spring Training we'll have a guy in the seat, internally or externally. I just want to get a feel for what other managers are doing and their skill sets and go through their resume. Same thing on GM. There's a lot of interest. This is a good ball club. We should have another good season and team is pretty much intact. We'll make additions if we need to. I don't know why a manager wouldn't want to come in & manage these guys. How much have you done on the GM front? We've talked to a lot of guys. We got people coming in next week. We'll get a good group. A lot of phone calls coming inbound and we've placed some outbound. ... We went through it Monday. We made some mistakes. We made a decision to let that get behind us. We think the future is bright. We'll make the adjustments. You got a lot of really smart people in baseball ops, very deep. People think we're in crisis. I certainly don't believe that. We'll be fine. We'll get this behind us, get going & start playing baseball in the Spring. ... We just gotta find a leader that can handle some pressure. There's gonna be a little bit of pressure with where this team has been the last few months and so someone that can handle that also. Managerial experience? It's not mandatory by any means. Certainly experience matters in all sorts of things but it's not necessarily gonna be the driving force. Narrow down the list? Not yet. We still have a pretty extensive list. Every time you interview someone, you learn something else. ... We'll narrow down our decision towards the end of next week. Will the new manager inherit A.J.'s coaching staff? I would say most of it, if not all of it. We don't know where that's gonna land. Certainly we wouldn't prohibit to add another guy or so but you're not gonna see any wholesale changes. The core group we have is very good. ... We've talked to all of our Killer B's and they've contacted me and they've all expressed that they'd like to help. Berkman, Bagwell & Biggio all called me and said 'If there's anything I can do, I'm here for you.' So we'll continue to visit with those guys & see if there's something there. ... Because that department is so deep & I've interviewed all those guys and they're pretty coordinated in key positions, I think I can keep an eye on that until we get to the next one. It's been difficult this week just to get them in but we'll start bringing in possible GM candidates next week & working all weekend. The deadline is tight but my goal is by the time Spring Training is over, everything is running smooth. ... We've made that clear to George and his agent so it's on their timetable now. We've cleared up the arbitration and make things a little more comfortable for George. We love George. He's one of our core guys and we hope we can get that done & see if it works.
- largest fine permissible by MLB constitution - FOUR draft picks -- unprecedented - year-long suspension for GM AND manager -- unprecedented - we are looking for a GM and a manager freaking six weeks before spring training To call that a "slap on the wrist" is ludicrous. You can't have "unprecedented" on multiple accounts and still be a "slap on the wrist".
I love how no one seems to remember that they ripped Altuve’s jersey off to the consternation of his wife a few games before. He was getting a little heat from it from the ladies. I remember immediately thinking of it during the play in question. Social media really has given rise to the negative power of conspiracy l.
We got nuked and the Astros reputation got destroyed. On top of all that it's effectiveness was questionable, the execution was ridiculous with how blatantly obvious it was, and it wasn't led by the people that got suspended and ultimately fired. It's like suspending and firing the managers and GMs that were around during the steroid era when the players were using the PEDs. The punishment is ****ing stupid. The report said it was player driven. On top of all that this practice is seeming to be somewhat commonplace. You are living in another world if you think this was a slap on the wrist. What was your expectation? I know Luhnow and Hinch aren't banned for life but their reputation is wrecked. I hope they get jobs soon, but they are kind of radioactive for now. A $5 million fine is the largest allowed and we lost 4 top draft picks. What more did you expect? The Astros to be banned for a season? Did you really think this **** was that bad?
Dipshit Kellerman says that's not reality. He says Altuve is a cheater. Has Crane made any comment about this?
I'm sad and unhappy, this is why I haven't posted much here for a while, but... If it's true that once MLB issues their edict in 2017 to knock this **** off, and Crane told Hinch and Luhnow to stop it if they were doing it...I'm incredibly disappointed in Hinch for letting it continue. So he trashed a couple of monitors, but let his bench coach and quasi-bench coach keep ringleading it? I know there's more to this story that they're not allowed to share at this point, but if you lie to your boss you're getting fired, in any job/industry I can think of. Also, this is more about people inside baseball hating Luhnow than anyone acknowledges. He's not a likeable guy, but the selective punishment from Manfred (RedSox have been busted twice now...etc) is the most infuriating thing about it. This does not change the WS or anything else they've done in the least. Anyone that says so is a ****ing idiot. Show me the team that didn't do this.
Idk why media are being so excessively overdramatic about this whole fiasco. You would think the Stros were harvesting baby organs. I spoke to my father in law about this. He’s about 70 years old and a lifelong Yankees fan. He also played in the minors. When I spoke to him about this he simply said, “it’s always been apart of the game. Not a big deal to me.” Shouldn’t be this big of a deal but instead this is blowing up into a true crime drama for the ages.
Yep, Gotta hire the right guy to execute this and gotta keep working the back fields in spring training.
Totally agree. Crane should have said we're going to take the punishment and come back better and stronger with the guys who got us here once they served their suspension. FU to whatever anyone else thinks. Giving in to the public mob just makes the Astros look weak.
Key thing is none of this matters next season. The Stros are going to kick a** and take names. 5 yrs from now depending on who they hire things could get murky.
