They may... but after years of everybody always being concerned about Oakland, will be fine to transition those concerns to Angels/Mariners (till they're not as concerning).
And an above avg SP in the playoffs probably would've meant a WS title. Which is more important to you? Castro's numbers, or the money saved when combining Castro/Odorizzi contracts that could've lead to trading for a SP that could give you 5 solid innings in the WS? Give me the innings. It's all about how you spend your available resources and I said as much at the time of the Castro/Baez signings. The Odorizzi signing was the cherry on top. I'm giving Click a pass because he's a young GM learning on the job. But those moves and particularly when looked at as a whole cost the Stros a title. IMHO Feel free to disagree, but I'm beginning to see a pattern with the Neris signing of overpaying slightly above avg rp's during the offseason. Why even trade for Graveman/Yimi if you weren't serious about keeping them? Were they not good enough but Neris is? What about the prospects given up to get Graveman/Yimi? Was that lost value too?
Yeah I would guess that the inconsistent track record and FIP may have scared some teams away from giving him the money some thought he would get. He has great in 2021 and I think in like 2018, but he was not so great the three years sandwiched between. I will admit I would be a little gun shy to sign him, although I am surprised a team like the Yankees didn't just gamble on him because his yearly number isn't terribly expensive.
Castro's money is not getting you an above average SP. And Castro is not dependent on Odorizzi. I'm not sure why those would be the only choices except to try to justify your dislike of Castro. Who is the mythical above average SP that not having Castro on the team would have allowed them to acquire and change the course of the World Series where the four games we lost we scored a combined 4 runs? I agree on Neris. And I thought Odorizzi was a panic signing. But those are different than $3MM for a backup catcher that can hit pretty well.
I like the Mariners bullpen. A rotation of Ray, Flexen, Gonzales, and Gilbert isn't terrible. If they add Bryant or Correa you will see the "experts" start to pick them over the Astros and I will hope the odds makers fall for it so I can get better odds and put more money on the Astros to win the division.
Hard disagree. In the four WS losses the Astros scored 0, 0, 2, and 2 runs. The title was lost because the hitters went icy.
According to Strom, Luhnow didn't know the extent of the cheating. I guess if you're going to fire Luhnow oer Osuna, you want Cashman/Epstien fired too. As far as judging talent and retaining talent I will put Lunow's record up against anybody's These abilities are the reason the Stros are where they're at today. I like a guy runnig the team with a McKinsey type of view. It may be cold but it works. As far as finances goes, Een with a bad TV contract what was the team worth when Luhnow became GM and what's it worth now? That's all that really matter.
Yep, and that's another reason the Odorizzi signing was a screwup. It's not the money it's the length of the deal.
Would you rather have had Castro or combined the Baez/Castro salaries and had a pitcher capable of going 5 innings in a WS game and I asked as much at the time and was called a hater.
Not true, I gave Click credit for fixing the Baez screwup by fixing the bullpen at the deadline. You just dont like the fact that I'm pointing out mistakes before Click's making them and no Click's not as good a GM as Luhnow was. Hopefully he can learn from his mistakes. But the Neris signing looks alot like the Baez signing and certainly a downgrade from Graveman. Is this not a fair representation of the Neris signing? For almost the same money?
You do know that people can see what you post here right and that there is a history function? Neris is not certainly a downgrade and Gravemen was not all of that. I don't care about Click getting criticism the way you care about him getting any credit.
You could've gotten a SP like say Kendrick (I dont know who was on the market but surely there was an above avg SP) if you had combined Baez/Castro/Odorizzi signings. To me 1 SP is worth what those guys brought to the table for 17 mil. Why is it when I disagree with a move Click make I hate him? That's not true at all. I just dont like the moves he's made. It's not personal. I liked the bullpen moes he made at the deadline, does that mean I love Click?
Graveman was great in the playoffs and that's all that matters. Baez hardly played last yr. So I think that speaks volumes on your ability to be objective. Your post would be correct but I guess you just forgot to read the first part of the post where I gave Click credit for fortifying the bullpen at the deadline. So no, I'm being objective unlike you and your Baez part of the post. BTW, have you ever seen Neris pitch? I have, he lost his closer job. Graveman was much better than Neris last year. You need to go back and look at Neris season before just looking at a bunch of numbers. Even though Graveman had better numbers than Neris.
The title was lost because there wasn't enough pitching to win game 4. If they had won game 4 who knows how game 7 would've turned out. Dusty didn't do a good job of managing the bullpen in game 4 either. That doesn't mean I hate Dusty either.
I’m not trying to debate the individual issues, Luhnow’s direct involvement in them, or play what-aboutism compared to other GMs. I’m just saying these things happened under his watch and as GM he is ultimately responsible for the culture that created these outcomes and other personnel related issues that have been reported. Whether fair or not that had an impact on the franchise in ways that are concrete (loss of draft picks, manager, and GM) and less concrete (organizational reputation). In terms of evaluating his tenure I don’t think you can ignore them. That all these things happened doesn’t speak well to his leadership outside of player decisions whether he was directly involved or not.
In the first half of the season, Neris threw 34 innings, struck out 41, and had a 4.72 ERA. In the second half of the season, Neris threw 40 innings, struck out 57, and had a 2.70 ERA.
I have no issues with how he ran the franchise and if the cost was 4 draft picks that's a small price to pay. Fact is Luhnow got banned because he was very successful doing things his way both financially and the on field product. That made MLB very uncomfortable and the media hated him because he didn't care what they thought about him. His mission eery year was to put the best team possible on the field. Mission accomplished. For operating this way he was the only person to get blackballed. To me he was the best GM this city has ever had regardless of sport.
He was their set up man in the second half of the season and his numbers looked good. Put him on a better team and defensive infield and he should be fine in the playoffs in that role.
Just because you are absolutely floundering to explain what other starting pitchers the Astros could have signed last offseason instead of paying Baez/Castro/Odorizzi here are a few..... DeSclafini- 1 year 6 million Taijuan Walker- 3 years 23 million Chris Flexen- 2 years 4.75 million Alex Wood- 1 year 4.25 million Carlos Rodon- 1 year 3 million (wanted to stay with CHW so would have cost more) Tyler Anderson- 1 year 2.5 million Mike Minor- 2 years 18 million Trevor Williams- 1 year 2.5 million I didn't like all the moves because the Astros were up against the tax and getting every bit of value was important. Baez turned into an awful signing. Castro was okay but the contract made it so they wouldn't play him more because it would cost the Astros more money so I didn't like that. Odorizzi was a panic move after losing Framber. In my opinion, Click's era doesn't really start until this season when he has his draft picks back. Who he drafts and signs internationally will have bigger and longer implications on this team compared to the short term free agent signings that are relatively small. I haven't loved all his moves but one world series win and noboby will care about the small bad signings we are talking about.
