I think the most damning thing about Brown and his regime is the lack of player development in this org. It's become a joke from what is was only a few years ago.
Again , I think the nature of time and the talent we have in the system at any given point make this hard to pin down. Which is why I asked it in question form . Then you also have to ask how much input brown has . If we lose a good minor league coach because he takes an opportunity elsewhere how much of that blame is on Brown ? Do we know anything about the astros internal payroll etc ? I do feel like we are clearly a step behind in our pitching philosophy. Yes our talent to work with has gone down , but the results are very underwhelming. if Walter and blanco come back and are effective at any point in 2027 then I feel a bit better . I will say , so much of our downfall lately has been injury related. There is some average injury risk in baseball and I have no clue what it is . It feels like the Astros have been way above average. You could understand that when they were managing verlander , but our young guys are getting hurt , our old guys are getting hurt , our minor leaguers are getting hurt . Like I said , some is to be expected . Are we too far over ? Imo our process in athletic training needs a revamp . Says this couch potato. One of my bigger wins for Dana is that he doesn't blindly chase velocity. You need guys that can throw hard , but you can have guys sacrifice too much for it . I still like Imai and burrows in retrospect. They were good gambles that just didn't pay off. Burrows has a chance to look better next year. Imai could shock us and pick up his option . He could also pitch well at any point . I think it's just easier to get results when your top hard carries . Yordan is doing that . No one else on the astros is bringing the heat like that consistently . Lamber gets a shout-out. When we were contending 2017-2024 you had multiple guys performing near yordan , oh and yordan. And you had at least 3 starters doing what Lambert is . We need to use the rest of this season to set ourselves up for the future . Crane needs to go to the beach and step away . I'd give brown a 1 year extension right now . You shouldn't put the spectre of his job depending on a single season outcome. That's not the job of a GM. To your point , the coaches should be coaching for their lives. Even if I think we can't make any noise , until brown trades guys we should be trying to win. This recent series was not a good look. I still can't believe we send the runner on that pop up . What a ****ing joke
Matthews moved up the last few weeks before the draft - there were a number of teams that wanted him at the top of round two. Brown took him in round 1 because he would be long gone by the time the Astros had their second pick. Brice Matthews has a fairly large margin of error because of his glove, versatility and athleticism - but he just isn't a good enough at reading pitches or stealing bases. I always felt it was a real risk to take him, but he was at the end of the 1st round and most those guys don't contribute a lot. He has always reminded me of Vaughn Grissom, another Brown guy. Grissom has hit some this season - but it took him years. The Astros have discussed Matthews in trade discussions - so the Astros apparently aren't sold on him now either.
There is always going to be some fluctuation in value , but brown taking Matthews doesn't bother me at all . In fact I think we moved him too fast and he has done OK (objectively poor performance in some areas ) . We took a late 1st , which in baseball is always a crapshoot, and have a proven utility MLB glove. I don't Really want Matthews at SS in the playoffs , but he could be serviceable for sure.. and the utility gives him value. The obvious question is if the bat will ever play even at the minimum. His speed makes it so that he at least can avoid some double plays , but too much swing and miss right now . He needs to refine his approach along with all the difficulty and reps required. Oh and luck. But , his tools are loud and his lack of production at the plate hasn't tanked his mindset when playing defense. Most of the position players taken behind him in the 2nd round (even other college guys) are still in the minors . It doesn't look like a HR pick at this time , but Brice could be like marwin , dubon , and the long list of valuable utility men . And that would be a great pick. Or he could be more like Derek Fisher who was a great athlete but just didn't bring enough. But even fisher got 2+ years in the minors . Brice is doing this OTJ training . Obviously it depends on if we make moves , but if we trade pena who is playing SS ? With altuve needing more rest going forward. I would think Brice should redouble his efforts to practice infield defense and see if he can take 10 percent off his swing and get better contact results . Is he playing in AAA ? Edit , I saw he was the OF hurt from crashing into the wall. Get healthy soon !
I want to see at least 2 of the following traded: Brown, Pena, Alvarez, Hader: 2 of these guys are about to price out and two are wasted on a rebuilding team.
It’s best to sell on them all and walk away with atleast 10 prospects in the top 100. And then just hope for a salary cap with a ton of flexibility.
I know it is an unpopular opinion and I don’t own the Astros - but if I were Crane, I would tell Brown to trade every single player if he gets a good leverage trade for them… that includes Yordan Alvarez. 85% of the league thinks they are making the playoffs- there are like 4-5 teams selling. Let them all fight over Alvarez, Paredes, Walker. Multiple general managers are fighting for their jobs… let the Red Sox gut their farm system for Yordan and Paredes…. Let the Yankees and Braves and Rays compete for Brown and/or Lambert…. Someone will pay for Hader, Walker…. Even Pena.
Completely agree, but I just don’t think Brown has either the nerve or the selling skills to convince Crane to do this. And Crane is too old and addicted to relevance to suggest it himself. For all the tiresome idolizing of Luhnow - most of which comes from either rose-tinted glasses or hero worship - this is one area where I do believe his mentality would help. Or a younger, more hungry Crane. It feels like we are re-entering the late Drayton years - that “desperately clawing onto mediocrity” era only ended with an ownership change.
Hero worshipping or idolizing? LMAO Some just appreciate the decade of excellence he provided for baseball fans in this city more than others like yourself and wish Crane would hire a GM that would go back to using those tactics and methods that provided one of the greatest decades any franchise has had in MLB history. But carry on.
Crane stonewalled Click constantly when he tried to make hard data driven decisions, Crane is the one that wanted to depend on it less in the first place. The very hiring of Brown, a guy without an analytics background, is symptomatic of that. Jim Crane wanted more baseball guys in the decision making process, and that what he has. Realistically he doesn't want a true GM since he personally makes all the big calls, he just wants a farm director. Depending less on analytics, giving away draft picks to sign bad free agents, forcing trades for known "stars", all of the things that have us in this spot right now are calls that the owner personally made. He oversaw the greatest dynasty the city has seen (by staying the f**k out of the way), so I guess he earned the right to destroy it as well.
Speaking of Burrows, pretty sure Lance Zierlein said on the radio yesterday that Burrows was refusing his assignment and that's why he got put on the IL. Anyone else heard that? Can you confirm, @Nook?
"like yourself"? You have no idea who I am or what I value or appreciate. I spent all Oct / Nov for 6 years getting up in the middle of the night overseas to watch the playoffs. Luhnow operated in a fundamentally different context with a fundamentally different owner. He did some amazing things and some really stupid things. The fact that I brought him up in a positive way and you STILL felt the need to defend him and attack me for - I guess not idolizing him enough? - should cause a bit of reflection on 'hero worship.'
He absolutely should tell Brown to do what he thinks is best for the franchise. If the value is in being sellers, be sellers.
I’d love to know what the offers would be for Yordan. I’d hate to trade the best player in the league in his prime, but if you’re going to go scorched earth and want to rebuild quickly with top end prospects then let’s do it right. Trade everyone but Altuve.
I know that you dont appreciate what he did if you dont want to go back to operating the way he did and my only idol is Jesus Christ.
There is no perfect stat, but it's a pretty good ballpark indicator for the amount of player talent on a roster. I'm still shocked teams are letting Yordan beat them as much as they are, he account for almost 1/3 of our total number.
