I can see the Rangers now stating if only the umpire was more fair to the Astros then they don't get mad enough to jack a 3 run bomb on us.
Then again, foundations are important and we see this across all sports. Football franchises like the Ravens/Steelers always seem to figure out how to navigate tough times and rebuild/reload faster than teams that bottom out again and again. Luhnow's draft and developmental staff were all new to this team. That was a mindset shift as much as hiring talented individuals. Other GM's probably would have tried to install similar practices or upgrade the old ones, but Luhnow did have the background having built up that side of the baseball operations in St. Louis, and no team can have sustained success without it. But yes, agreed... you need a lot of luck/good fortune, as well as continuing to hire the right people at all levels even after he left, and they've had all of that in spades.
Don’t they have the guys we had prior to Sparky and Ford? Those guys were terrible. Alan Ashby terrible.
Personally I think Luhnow likes living in Spain building up that soccer team. Not sure if he got any calls but people he helped promote through the years almost all have as they lead other teams. That says something. Other MLB teams who were struggling respect that approach. Truly ahead of the game.
MLB culture is cheating. The worst thing baseball did was take a stance on steroids. They would have been smart to take the same approach that the NBA does which is turn a blind eye. It’s not an Astros only problem. Most fans are ignorant. If people want to talk cheating then I can’t really take them serious.
I wasn't knocking Dusty. Just want credit to go to the right place. I wasn't sure if Dusty was managing behind the scenes or not. Is it even officially allowed if he's tossed? That is all.
105.3 The Fan up here...caught wind of the radio show hosts talking about how it was totally intentional. Never mentioned once where the game was at and keeping the score close so we can attempt a comeback. I wanted to call them up and tell them to go f*ck themselves. Your boy lost his composure on a pitch that got away and sparked a comeback. End of story. They also called Framber a "fraud". lol
I'm proposing a 5+ inning combo start between Framber and France. It shall be known as the FramFran start years from now in Astros playoff lore.
In order of greatness/importance Carter (it won the WS) Gibson (WS G1 seemed impossible) Sprague (WS) Altuve/Yankees (it's the Yankees) Henderson (the pitcher sadly committed suicide years later) Clark Hard to place Altuve amongst the LCS HRs until the series is over.
I've been looking at the career playoff stats for the Astros players and see Tucker is one of the worst of the lineup (outside of Maldonado) Career .241/.319/.718 in 60 games. He does have 8 HRs and 28 RBIs so respectible. McCormick is close .250/.323/.676 with 3 HRs and 8 RBIs in 30 games (obviously less RBI opportunities being lower in the lineup) What surprised me is Bregman is only .234/.343/.780 in 95 games (18 HRs and 53 RBIs) When Bregman gets hot we win the series but the 4 series that we've lost with him he was about ice cold hitting close to .150 in 25 games In contrast, Yordan has 12 HRs and 39 RBIs in 56 games already in 4 post seasons batting .280/.379/.919, And where would the Astros be without Altuve. .270/.339/.843 with 26 HRs, 54 RBIs in 101 games mostly as a leadoff hitter. Just for laughs Maldonado. 173/.254/.508 with 3 HRs and 13 RBIs in 63 games, but he does some of his best work in the World Series. 231 avg.
I agree the talent from 2017 team was probably mostly from the Ed Wade era, but most of those players have moved on. The abilities of Luhnow to continuous stock young undervalued talent and finding value in free agency made this club a dynasty. Also, he has to be given credit for the player development on this club. If you haven't watched the Astros Edge documentary, it talks a lot about what he did. I personally feel like he was the best thing that ever happened to our ball club, and still pissed that MLB made us get rid of him. MLB had screwed over the team so many times, this is the worst thing they ever did to us.
