Honestly, **** Ausmus. The guy has always gotten the benefit of the doubt. He is an "Ivy League" graduate.... He went to Dartmouth and had preferential consideration as a baseball player. Everyone just assumed he worked hard as a player, but he didn't really and it was a running joke with the players at the time. He did his work and went home, he wasn't out there grinding away. Everyone assumed he knew the rules of the game really well and would be a good manager..... he isn't. Now everyone in the game just assumes he is going to be great in the front office. I don't know Brad Ausmus, maybe he is great at scouting or player development, but I have no reason to believe he is.
Fallback candidate and negotiation purposes is my guess. You don't want to look desperate in negotiations.
WOW..... I am surprised they got him to interview. He is someone that a lot of teams have wanted the last few years but he didn't want to leave Cleveland. He would be an excellent hire. I haven't heard of the Astros talking to him.
This is one of the first proposals which looks interesting to me. Four years of control for an older (and wiser) catcher who has shown no sign of fading yet AND has above average defensive stats. But this would definitely be a transition year and not a backup role like what happened to Vasquez last year. I do not know the status of extensions, but this would just about wipe out any room for them. Trade Values simulator: Astros get: Perez C -37.4M Lynch SP 16.4M Total -21.0M Kansas City gets: McCullers SP -22.9M KCs favor by $1.9M
My hope all along is that Yuli moves into retirement working for the Astros in some off field role. Maybe, just maybe this will happen as he realizes a full time role at 1B will not be offered or at least not guaranteed.
Astros pretty much stated they would want Gurriel back, but I think the hold up is role and money. Gurriel loves baseball, so he wants playing time. He also wants to get paid, since he really lost out on his prime. He's not get either as an Astro unless someone gets hurt. He would be a limited utility guy and insurance.
I'd like to see him pull the ball more. That spray chart is not conducive to hitting HR in the majors with the currently dead balls for all but the biggest pop guys. Same with Chas as well.
Look- if he hires Ausmus it just confirms that he's a **** ass owner that got lucky as a mother****er with one splendid hire, and that was the guy who preached he spend no money when he was an overleveraged new owner that didn't have a pot to piss in and was so so so very revenue poor. IOW Luhnow was the cheap hire who sold him on the idea that he could slash his payroll, stack up cash and let him do his thing on the cheap and he would end up with a playoff team 3 or 4 years down the road. Luhnow was good enough to make that happen. Most of Crane's other moves have been cheap in letting Luhnow's talent go. The only guy he ever extended at anywhere close to market value was Bregman and JV, and those were both very short term deals (2 years for Bregman and 2 for JV and then the 1/1 for JV) where he had a decent size cost savings baked in. Click was sort of forced on him and he didn't like him and moved on as soon as he could. Fine. This is his first real hire since Luhnow and there are all sorts of warning lights flashing that a hire of Ausmus would confirm everything I think I think about Crane as lucky to be in the right place at the right time and stand on the shoulders of a pure genius.
Not that I wouldn't take him gladly, but he's owed a lot for a 33 year old catcher. McCann was the same age when we traded for him and he had 2 years/$34M left, but the Yankees paid $11M of it. They got Albert Abreu and Jorge Guzman in return. Two guys that were on the cusp of being top 100 prospects. Jake Meyers + Korey Lee + Whitley
