It's time. This team simply doesn't have it and it's not 1 thing. Hitting one game, bullpen the next, then defense after that It is not going to turn around without making some kind of change. But it's too late to make a moderate change like DFAing Jon Singleton or even Jose Abreu. If this team wants to turn the season around and win, it needs to both cut the dead weight but also add something significant. Jose Abreu and Ryan Pressly should no longer be on this roster. Regardless of how great of guys they are or what the back of the baseball card says this team can't win with them here. They were 6.5 games out on June 24th last year. If those 2 players can be jettisoned and replaced with even MLB average players there is still a chance. But another 2 weeks and they should just start looking to trade Bregman and find Espada's 2025 replacement.
My point was that AS CONSTITUTED, this team is off. Something always goes wrong and while poor bullpen performance, or anemic offense are the most common culprits there are several others. Despite a very high level of talent and experience, this team can't win. The 2024 Astros still have time to be better than last year, but it's running short. But it can't be THIS TEAM. There needs to be changes to at least 2-4 of the players on the team to even have that chance.
We can't sweep the A's or Angels and we can't win a series against average teams. In year's past, this is how we piled on the wins. I don't think this team has a run in them this year. We're just another team that no one is afraid of anymore. That Astros pedigree we've been lucky enough to watch for the last 7 years just isn't there.
Yep. That was probably the turning point, where it seems Jim Crane decided he had been around baseball long enough to take more authority instead of trusting analytical minds. Seems he's pivoted to the old school approach, letting "baseball minds" like Bagwell and R.Jackson help call the shots.
The way I look at it, the Astros’ magic number for “losses before the All-Star break” is down to about 10.
I think people miss the forest through the trees. The spark was Crane putting all his trust in Luhnow (and, to a lesser extent, Hinch) and having that trust violated via the cheating scandal. I don't think he lost trust in the nerds - I think he lost trust, period. Since just 2022, he's moved on from the analytical (Click) *and* the old school back-of-card type baseball lifer (Baker). Those relationships eroded while the team was *winning* - I suspect his patience with Bagwell/Brown/Espada is evaporating, as well. We'll see. This is why the narrative the Astros weren't punished severally enough for the scandal has always been bullshit. It fundamentally changed the owner - who, I'd be willing to bet, had to fight tooth and nail to not have the title stripped form him. The scandal will haunt this franchise for *years*.
Defending her genius husband? I have zero issue with her doing that. Fvck Crane for firing him and Hinch and not bringing both of them back.
