Drellich would have affection for any player we let go. If we traded Valbuena and kept Lowrie, he would be making the exact same argument with names changed. He's a contrarian.
Drellich definitely stirs the pot. Most sport writers do. That said, Drellich does seem to have an axe to grind with Luhnow. My guess is that Luhnow never lets Drellich break big stories like signings and trades. Drellich finds out with the rest of the national media.
Is Drelich a professional sportswriter, or is he a 13 year old girl? Someone needs to tell him to retire the Twitter account.
There's a reason for that... the chronicle struck first blood by calling out the team for the tanking. "Some" of it was justified... but it went beyond simply reporting, and they interjected/echoed the sentiment of some that the Astros were embarrassing the sport. Again, some of that was the case... but you'd expect a little bit more neutral/long-term viewing from your HOME newspaper. There was enough of their viewpoint being spewed by the national pundits.
He's gone so far as to lay partial blame on the Astros for the Cardinal hacking case. I seem to recall a press conference, can't remember the specifics or the specific timeframe, where Drellich and possibly JdJO were not allowed to enter, this was following some ridiculous hack reporting on something. Maybe someone else recalls this better than I.
The Astros were a PR nightmare during Crane's first 2-3 seasons. You had the obvious tanking, the CSN debacle, the "community leaders" monstrosity sign at MMP, and Crane basically putting his foot in his mouth every time he said something. The Chronicle didn't *have* to pile on them... simply reporting the above professionally would have painted the picture of an organization in semi-dissaray. But, they also missed a golden opportunity to somehow paint things in a broader more long-term view... provide a semblance of optimism for what the team was doing "well" that when you look back now, there were obvious trends/signs that things could get better. Instead, the piled on them every step of the way... excessively. There's always room for criticism (nobody wants a "yes-man" newspaper)... but you have to provide a semblance of balance. It was telling when Luhnow gave far more info/personal interviews to SI for that cover story (and he continues to do so) than he ever did to the Chronicle.
Good lord yeah they were. Crane seems to have learned a thing or 2, but it's amazing how that turned around pretty much the minute George Postolos was fired (errr..."resigned") and Reid Ryan hired as President.
Unfortunately, they have dumb... and dumber. JDJO being president of the BBWAA is like a match made in heaven (or hell).... couldn't be more made for each other.
<pre> W L RS RA AVG OBP SLG TAv FRAA 1. Houston Astros 87 75 749 686 .250 .314 .426 .266 -2.8</PRE> http://www.baseballprospectus.com/fantasy/dc/
Seems like a lot of teams around the league have this. There's always one bad apple from the local media. I remember Deadspin doing something on this for every team a few years back. EDIT: found it. http://deadspin.com/the-best-and-worst-baseball-beat-reporters-according-t-1111597704 I want to like PECOTA, but they were way off last year in a lot of the projections. Seem to hate Royals for w/e reason lol. 72 wins projected last season.
Mariners in 2nd place in the division? Did they do something significant this offseason that I missed?
Evan Gattis makes $3.3 million this season. He has a team option for next season at $5.2 million or a $100,000 buyout.
Yep; I got into with him over that, too. He seems genuinely incapable of Tweeting and/or writing about the Astros and not working in a shot at the organization. Specifically, re: the hacking scandal - on the day Correa was indicted, he, for lack a better term, victim-blamed the Astros (password security). When I pointed it out (my POV: time and place for that but probably not on the day a federal indictment was handed down), he told me the Astros should have expected it, at which point I linked to his own article that, in its first paragraph, called the hack "unprecedented." I asked him if he knew what that word meant. I normally find most "the media hates us" cries hollow; he seems to have an ax to grind.
Yep, especially with the news that Gattis had been working with a nutritionist/trainer in the offseaseon to slim down some. He could have been primed for a breakout year. If so, we potentially get two out of him for cheap. Tyler White falls in feint
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Evan Gattis confirms he's reached agreement with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a>. He'll make $3,3 million this year with a team option for 2017</p>— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/699648330234630144">February 16, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
