I think that Crane will have a strong say in setting the direction. In a way, the Astros GM is not a standard out-of-the-box MLB GM. Much of the Astros organization did not change after Click was hired. I suspect the same for the next Astros GM. Whoever accepts the GM job has to know this.
I've seen pages now of fretting over the possibility of Ausmus being the next GM. Did I miss something? Is he a legit candidate? All I've seen is reports about the asst GMs from Atlanta and Cleveland.
The recent drama started after this tweet by Jose de Jesus Ortiz. It was later repeated by Jon Morosi citing Jose as the source; not sure if anyone else has said it.
The fact that we went from dumpster fire RPs in the 2017 championship run to the ridiculous set of arms we ran out there this postseason is just mindboggling.
In 2011 the entire organization needed to be blown up and rebuilt - Luhnow was the man. In 2020 the team was coming off of WS appearance with a set lineup. The pitching depth was lacking especially in the bullpen- Click was the man. 2023 the team is defending WS champions with deep and solid lineup and pitching. The farm is the weak link - ?
I'm not sure what happened, but the 2017 postseason was not a good year to be a reliever. Here's a sampling of 8 pitches from the National League's best pen in the World Series. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=adc74cd0-778d-4dd7-b98c-706a2a35f899 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=aa8bf0bf-f009-47a2-aff8-2b85e8f10671 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=ab76c1ae-48d2-4ee3-98cf-bce98c7943c7 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=758d4c61-16de-4f62-b77b-35f2584e88a0 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=b9bc9368-afb0-4cf7-8466-e253b3730a5c https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=16cf1bec-80a2-479d-94ec-84d2dd12b891 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=499cf57f-fac3-4ab5-b261-1a872f35e272 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=df6032f1-3f8e-42e4-96f5-91ad650d5c13
I would imagine the Royals are listening on Scott Barlow. They seem to be embracing selling, and they also have 2 other lefty relievers in their bullpen with Aroldis Chapman and Amir Garrett. Barlow is an elite reliever with high leverage experience who I think would round out Houston’s bullpen nicely. He is already in arbitration so shouldn’t be too too expensive especially with all the lefty RP still available in free agency. Maybe a 2nd tier prospect like Joe Perez or Shawn Dubin would be a fair trade.
