Jim Crane

It is pretty bad but as long as the baseball stuff is done right I don't really care

 

Honestly the ARod thing is more a reflection of crappy decisions by the Yankees than it is Crane. Crane inherited a bunch of crap so it's hard to blame the on field stuff on him. The PR and off field stuff though, what a disaster. Even Bud Adams is getting a laugh out of it.

 

and to think he spent only $660 million to buy this heap of crap

 

I'm sure they have.

Of course, hard for an owner taking over a terrible organization with a leveraged purchase to have overly good PR.

 

The crap about the franchise "losing money" when we're actually cash flow positive just pisses me off. I'm sure it's because the purchase was overly leveraged, but so what? No one's forcing you to buy an MLB team. And MLB should have been wiser than to approve such a sale.

The great irony is that Crane's horrible PR and slashing of the payroll has turned out to be a terrible business decision if it results in a worse CSN contract. As I understand things, the Astros are asking for a contract similar to the Angels and Rangers. Surely the providers just giggle and point to our viewership numbers. Unfortunately for Crane, slashing the payroll and running a completely tone-deaf business operation does have its consequences when you're simultaneously engaged in negotiations that require fan support.

Thoughts? Am I totally off base on this?

 

As long as they continue to draft well (with all their high picks), and continue to develop players appropriately (something they haven't done in over 10 years), I don't really care.

Owners look worse when the team is bad... and they look overrated when the team is good (case in point, Les Alexander who didn't really do a helluva lot to win his first two championships).

As long as we're not selling away our #1 draft picks because of the owner being greedy, I couldn't care less about what he says/does off the field right now.

 

Drafting and developing is great, but it's something that should be expected as the norm. It shouldn't be beyond the pale to expect attention to the farm system AND attention to the major league club. Instead it just feels like we're getting farm system attention and total neglect of the major league club.

And really, I'm a big Luhnow fan. I suspect he's doing the best he can given the parameters, which are probably "spend the league minimum as we pay down some debt." I'm not asking us to go bonkers in the FA market, but when your big FA splashes are Carlos Pena and Philip Humber, something's wrong. Guys like Melky Cabrera** and Lance Berkman were out there to be had, but we were too cheap for either.

**Through six games, Cabrera's struggling. So perhaps passing on him was wise. I think he'll come around though.

 

Yeah see the "Jim Crane is a cheapskate thread"

What I want to know is what is he doing to create a good product for the fans? Yes, I understand the rebuilding effort, but you have to give the fans SOMETHING. With all of his payroll savings, how about a top flight concert series at the ballpark or something? How about additional stadium enhancements? Remember he's saving around $75 million vs. other teams just on payroll savings alone. Again I'm fine with the rebuilding effort, but spend those payroll savings on international free agents, stadium enhancements, coaching talent, etc.

and tear down that awful advertisements board in left field now!

 

But I don't understand the logic of spending decent money for good players to play on a bad team.

Lance Berkman probably wins us 5-10 extra games by himself (and that's being modest... I bet the real win # is closer to 3-4 games, but I'm not that intuned with the statistical models that currently exist to measure that). Is there really much difference in watching a 100 loss team vs a 110 loss team?

And yes, most teams tend to both the minor league system along with the major league team... but teams usually don't have systems that are so barron to the point that we had to entirely rebuild them with viable prospects from scratch. If they do, its likely because they've traded away all the + prospects to make a run at the MLB level.

Its very rare that you are left with an MLB team with very little promise, along with a farm system that is barren... that's what the Astros faced in 2010 when it all collapsed.

Rebuilding an entire farm system is a daunting task that takes time... all these picks may eventually blossom into something special, and you still have to be patient. If they all fizzle out, then the team is surely doomed for another decade... but chances are, some of these guys are going to be pretty good players.

 

I understand the logic, from a baseball perspective, of not really caring whether you're a 100 loss team or a 110 loss team.

But from a business perspective? I don't quite see it from there. With the team in the middle of contract negotiations with CSN, having a generally pissed off fanbase is a net negative. I used to laugh at some of the national writers for their anger about the Astros' rebuilding process, but I do hear them on one point: the Astros are basically conceding defeat for at least half a decade, and that's IF all the prospects pan out as hoped. It's a lesson in how to teach a generation to ignore you, which I just don't see as being in the team's best interest given the CSN situation.

Another quibble is the way we ditched productive major league players in order to aid the rebuild. There was a mantra last year about "if player X isn't part of the 'next great Astros team', then player X should be traded to get players for that future." It's appealing logic, except that the next great Astros team may never actually get here if you're always adhering to that rule. At some point we have to hold on to our good players and at least try to be competitive. Holding on to Jed Lowrie would have been a start, especially since we received 3 guys in return for him that may never be productive major leaguers.

 

Berkman would have been perfect. He wouldn't win us too many games to keep us away from Carlos Rodon at 1-1 in the 2014 draft, but he would have created a bit of excitement among the fan base. Yes, it would have cost Crane money....boo freaking hoo. He still would have had the lowest payroll in MLB by a long shot.

Crane needs to take marketing 101 -- you gotta give the fans SOMETHING

...and yes, I'm bought into the rebuilding plan before I get jumped on by some of you idiots

 

What is the benefit of holding onto Jed Lowrie? He's going to be a free agent next year. If the team held on to him, they'd have to pay him market value at that point anyway - they STILL can do that if they want him back. They didn't lose anything by trading him except for the next 2 years, during which the team is likely to suck anyway and you want to see what other players might have potential to be part of the team in 2015.

 

Surprise, it's Jim Crane's masterpiece!

Spoiler

 

Fans had already stopped coming to the ballpark when this team still had Oswalt, Berkman and Lee.

Berkman being here would certainly make them more palatable to watch... but 30,000 fans aren't coming in every night just to watch him play on a 100 loss team. Likely, what ends up happening is that if he has a good season... the Astros then are in the position to trade him AGAIN for prospects to a contending team. Doubtful that Lance, or the team would have wanted to go through that again.

 

So basically you're against giving the fans something palatable to watch. Got it. You'd prefer maximum awfulness, no holds barred, and full money saving mode for Jimmy Crane.

That's fine if you want that, but don't sit here and try to explain it away to the fans who are left with a truly awful product to watch.

 

If Lance were here and had a good year, he'd still probably only get a B- or C+ prospect in return. Teams aren't going to part with promising players to get a DH at the very end of his career.

The system is deep enough now where we can stop trading away guys for the B- and C+ types. If we're not getting true major league potential in return, we really need to sit tight with what we have.

 

maybe we could improve the community leaders board and provide some target practice for our ailing lineup... perhaps it could inspire some power instead of all the whiffs

 

I think that pic is actual size.

So, not only did they put up that monstrosity, they don't have enough sponsors to fill it. Brilliant.

 

I actually received the sales pitch for one of those panels directly from Jim Crane when I was on the field during batting practice before a game last season.

"ummm....thanks but no"