The Astros have received permission to interview Tampa Bay Rays general manager

Something doesn't add up... there is something going on behind the scenes that we are not privy to. A number of candidates are refusing to even interview... this will be interesting.

I did not expect the Astros to gre Friedman, but I did expect them to get a courtesy interview, which they did not get.... a number of potential candidates are not even interested....

 

Bring back Eddy, why not. Joke becomes a bigger joke, so what.

 

Yeah. I crossed my fingers for Friedman but knew it was a longshot. Still, when Levine, Ng, and Hahn all decline interviews and the hometown boy, longtime Astros fan won't even give you a courtesy interview, you just have to wonder what the hell is going on.

 

[rQUOTEr]The Astros’ three known interviewees, Rockies assistant GM Bill Geivett, Cardinals director of player procurement Jeff Luhnow and Royals assistant GM J.J. Piccolo, who spoke with the team Monday, according to people familiar with the talks, certainly fit that type of search.[/rQUOTEr]

 

In fairness, all three of those candidates have had success and are well respected... but it is a big jump to the GM position. Look at Tim Purpura. He was a very well respected assistant GM and was actively involved in building the Astros system into one of the best in baseball.... and was a terrible GM ... and now is back doing what he does best, control a teams minor league system.

Maybe one of these three will prove to be very good... but just like everthing with the Astros, it will be uncertain.......

I dont think I have ever seen a teams organization gutted, ripped apart and crapped on in such a short period of time as the Astros..... from gutting the farm system, to having an owner that essentially decided to not pay an ENTIRE draft class, to hiring a known POS GM in Wade, to all of the retreads we signed, to over paying a FAT DH to play the outfield, to trading all the long term Astros for pennies on the dollar, to a sale of the team that sat in limbo for 6 months, to being forced to change leagues....

SERIOUSLY..... WTF

 

I think the most depressing thing about the whole mess is that the team will be ten years recovering from the events of the last three.
And Jim Crane wanted to own a baseball team so bad when he grew up he watched Drayton gut the team, let Segil put the heavy hand on, extorting the team into the AL, and now a quality free agent or management candidate won't touch the organization.
And, as usual, the fans will pay the price.
When all these conditions started popping up, he should have walked and told Drayton to get bent...

 

 

 

The AL change has nothing to do with the problems the Astros have with getting front office personnel.

 

Agreed.

The reason GMs or potential GMs like Levine who have high stature around the league don't want this job or the Baltimore job is because the jobs suck. A total rebuild job where you don't even have the framework to start with.

 

What is it with good owners not finishing strong?

Hofheinz ended in bankruptcy and the team was owned by two different credit management companies. McMullen started with a bang--inheriting a team that had actually become competitive and adding the first ever $1M FA signing to it, riding him to the NLCS in his first season. Then he finished as a whiny turd holding a firesale, having run off that same franchise icon a couple years earlier. Now McLane... Wow man, you were the best owner the Astros ever had, then you just took a dump in all of our living rooms the last five years. Now we can't even get the GM from Tampa freaking Bay to interview.

Damn.

 

At least 6 people have been interviewed, with the following as confirmed:

Bill Geivett, Rockies (Assistant GM/VP of Scouting & Player Dev.)
Jeff Luhnow, Cardinals (VP of Player Procurement)
J.J. Picollo, Royals (Assistant GM)
Logan White, Dodgers (Assistant GM)

 

Really? Because they look a lot like the Baltimore Orioles with this bastardized AL move and what good GM with a functioning brain stem would want to takeover that disaster?

 

They didn't look like the Baltimore Orioles of the NL before?

 

That is not a fair comparison. The Orioles job sucks because their owner has a long track record of sucking and losing and have little hope stuck behind the Yankees and Red Sox.

The Astros are not that far removed from being successful and their owner is an unknown.

In 3-4 years it could be a fair comparison, but not now.

 

What does being in the AL have to do with anything? The Orioles are just a terribly run franchise in a terrible division. The Astros aren't moving to the AL East.

 

The Orioles job is definitely a worse job, don't misunderstand me. But if you set the owners aside for a moment, both have terrible organizations. The Orioles actually have much more upside than the Astros because they actually have pretty good talent on the major league club. A good gm can make that team work. Houston is a total rebuild. Drayton and his team of Tal/Purpura/Ed Wade/etc. went operation scorched earth on the whole organization.

 

saddest time to be an Astros fan since Ford Motor Credit/Spec Richardson days. This sucks, sucks, sucks.

 

Look on the bright side, ummm...... Well....... You got....... Wait nvm