I don't know about trading Korey Lee. We would still need a longterm catcher solution and a backup next season.
Harris has a very interesting background. He started out in football and has experience in strength and conditioning. But the Indians are easily among the top 3 organizations I would want Houston to draw talent from (the others being the Rays and Dodgers, with the Braves close behind).
Why the sour grapes? What axe are you grinding? Crane is by far the best owner that Houston sports teams have had.
I think the Giants have had a lot of talent drain. The Cardinals and Twins seem to be pretty well run. If I were to group front office rankings: Tier 1: Rays, Dodgers, Astros, Indians Tier 2: Braves, Cardinals, Twins, Orioles, Blue Jays Tier 3: Brewers, Yankees, Cubs, Mariners, A’s, Royals, Red Sox, Phillies, Mets, D Backs, Giants, Padres Tier 4: Rangers, White Sox, Tigers, Nats, Marlins, Reds Tier 5: Angels, Pirates, Rockies
Can always find another backup (or maybe use Yanier Diaz as the backup in future years). Kansas City's top catching prospect is only 19. MJ Melendez is great offensively, but was flat out terrible behind the plate, so I don't know they actually want him there. Korey Lee seems like a perfect fit for them. With Perez under control the next 4 years, that gives you time to develop a new long-term solution at catcher.
Braves are as good as any. They had their last GM banned for life (though recently reinstated by MLB), and yet have a WS title and gobs of young talent under contract for the next several years.
Harris is someone that really has a lot of fans in other front offices, but he has in the past told teams he was not interested in leaving the Indians. He would also be a very good hire. I don't know who Crane will choose, but he has interviewed the two most sought after non-general managers in the game.
That's placing a big bet on a guy with tons of mileage. I'm not against it but I would hope they would eat some of that salary.
I said that I think I think. If he hires Ausmus the entire narrative of Crane as a good owner collapses. He will be a guy that got lucky to hire Luhnow and then torched what he built by being cheap and stupid. This is all conditional on him making a dumb hire I don’t think he will. But if he makes that hire he’s not the best owner a houston team has ever had, he’s a jackass that got lucky with one special hire. Like Jerry Jones with Jimmy Johnson.
Braves are a very innovative and well positioned front office. I am not a huge fan of Alex Anthropolis. I don't think he really was all that good in Toronto. He claims he learned a lot from his time with the Dodgers though. The Braves have one of the 2-3 best Scouting Directors with Dana Brown. Mike Fast is in charge of baseball development and he is extremely good. He used to work with Luhnow. The scouts the Braves have are pretty good too. The Braves could easily be the best team in baseball in a few years, they just don't make many mistakes and they have good ownership.
I don't think they would have interviewed if they didn't want the job. I'm sure they know what happens behind the scenes and have a very frank conversation on why Click wasn't extended. They also probably know that if they can gain Crane's trust, he will let them run the show just like how Luhnow did.
That simulator is all but useless. If Perez really has negative value why don't the Astros just take him off their hands. Why include a very talented still young former playoff hero who is a career Astro, wants to be a career Astro and is signed to a reasonable contract? Just take his contract and thank KC maybe throw a guy like Ross adolph who has POSITIVE 0.8 value. Clearly they will be thrilled to be rid of that "negative value" Royals win that deal by over $38M !!! And if he has negative value why would anyone want him?
Ausmus went to Dartmouth. Frat boys and north eastern bros. The school has its own ski slope. “Ivy League” doesn’t mean crap (edit: shouldn’t) Dartmouth is a fine school, but let’s not act like there is any magic to being a Dartmouth grad, anymore than being a graduate of any top 25 college. From an intellectual perspective, Ausmus is nowhere near Luhnow (U Penn, McKinsey, changing the game of baseball) or Click (Yale, Baseball Prosectus). I would legitimately be furious if Ausmus is the choice.
