George Springer

not a good look for the astros.

i have been on board with the rebuilding plan, but it's starting to get out of control.

 

Its like everything this team touches (since the sale) turns into a toxic PR nightmare.... contract disputes before a player is even on the roster, and now MLBPA grievances before he's even a member of the union.

However, I'm not really sure the Astros did anything technically "wrong". Sure, its awful for Springer, and he certainly deserved a legitimate call-up last year (based on production), but once they decided to never place him on the 40 man, and once he rejected the contract, they made up their minds to stick with the idea of getting the extra year of free agency and possibly delay arbitration by not promoting him till late June/July.

 

Does it make any damn difference if he becomes a FA by 2019 instead of 2020? You won't have much on the books to not be able to pay the kid. What the actual **** is this team doing? It's so frustrating. Crain is the single worst owner in Houston sports history and this organization is quickly becoming a big joke. So now this slap in the face contract offer will sit on this kids mind when 2020 rolls around. He's gonna chunk the deuce and go get his money from someone else. Sad...just sad.

 

If Springer becomes a good player, yes that one season in his prime will matter. As far as him leaving, he will most likely to to the highest bidder anyway.

 

Well, it is sort of annoying that it seems the organization has resigned itself to "not" being able to re-sign him at that point, regardless of the situation of the team, the player, or the fans devotion to the player (for something that is 7 years in the future... hell, there could be a different GM/manager/or even owner by then).

And if they're going to be the sort of franchise that will rarely ever keep their own free agents (or trade players before they start to make big money), I'm not so sure it will fly well with the fans in "this" market. I can see you getting away with that in Tampa and Oakland... but Houston is a market that can get behind its players/teams with the best of them (when things are going well), and frankly its a market that "needs" players/faces to root for (instead of simply rooting for the organization).

 

Hopefully Correa will be called up before he's 30.

 

Who said anything about not resigning him? I said in the long term them sending him down a few months extra won't change where he goes as a free agent... He, like almost all others, will follow the money... Be it Houston or elsewhere.

 

This type of behavior puts a stain on the organization and it turns the players against the management. The Astros may save some money in the short term, but in the long run, this is not good business. Treating players fairly helps build morale and attract talent. Screwing over players on legal technicalities engenders mistrust and is adversarial.

Not sure if Luhnow or Crane is behind this move, but it's not wise.

 

If you have no concerns about resigning him, you don't care about when he becomes a free agent. The Astros are acting like the Rays or A's before the corpse of being a top 10 media market is even cold.

Its why most teams with cash aggressively promote prospects at a high rate... and service time/arbitration year issues are not much of a concern.

 

If Crane wanted him up he'd be here. Crane looks at the bottom line. The team on the field is secondary.

 

This behavior really concerns me. I've always believed that when the Astros need to start spending money, 2016 or 2017, they would. The Astros should not be a low spender.

But Cranes recent actions can't help but make you feel that this teams never expects to be a significant spender. By 2020 we shouldn't be worrying about one year of Springers contract. Odds are he's gonna be a highly paid Super 2 player that year if he is that good, so we really won't save much money, if any that year.

For what it's worth the Lance Berkman situation was quite similar and it wasn't indicative of anything long term, so it may be nothing. But nonetheless I don't like it.

 

Did I miss a CBA here? I thought calling up minor leaguers late to delay their arbitration clock was standard procedure unless you're a phenom and the team's contending?

 

Agree, it happens all over baseball. And...

1) he turned down a long term offer that would likely have him here

2) if you want to complain about not making the team, hit more than .161 in spring training

Crane has plenty of issues that we can rip him for, plenty. This really shouldn't be one of them right now though, not after Springers spring

 

You can't blame Springer and his agent on this. Could've cost his millions.

This is it in a nutshell right now. Springer had the opportunity to force the issue. But, he hit .161 with 1 extra base hit. The walks and steal were nice, but he needed to set the world on fire to even have a chance to avoid going back to the minors.

That said, I am happy for one reason. OKC plays @ Round Rock for the opening series and I'll be going to watch Mr. Springer and Mr. Singleton play (hopefully) for the last time in the minors.

 

Exactly. All I know is that last year the Rays (while contending with a hole in RF) did the same thing with BA minor league player of the year Wil Myers (a higher rank prospect with more AAA time than Springer) and no one batted an eye. It was just another shrewd move by Tampa Bay's front office. But of course when the Astros do it, they're harming the integrity of game. They're just an easy target and are susceptible to soap-box reporting. The Astros just need to do what's in the long term best interests of the team. And if the rules and Springer's own play dictate that it's in the best interest of the team to send him (and his .150 ST batting avg) down to start the season, then that's what they should do.

 

Even if Springer would have had a Marc Krauss-like spring training, he'd be going to the minors. If his tremendous minor league season last year wasn't enough to get even a September call-up (based on "production"), 2 weeks of hitting well against pitchers throwing inconsistent/non-season stuff should not have changed anything. It's never been about him "earning" the promotion, either way.

Only way he would have made the opening day roster was to have signed the contract... other than that, the Astros have chosen to play hard-ball with that extra year of free agency/super-2 status, and they made that decision a long time ago.

The reason the Astros get "targeted" is both because they don't have the track record, or the perceived lack of financial resources that Oakland/Tampa has (top 10 media market, newer stadium with all the amenities... but a poor owner). That and the 3+ years of being a completely abysmal franchise at the MLB level (by design) has never looked good in the eyes of those criticizing them... and there's no guarantees that this sort of rebuild is going to lead to the success on the field that the above two franchises have attained.

If all of you are happy with being that sort of franchise, so be it. I still maintain that Houston needs more than that to get behind this team long-term.

 

You may very well be correct, but we will never really know, because he hit .161

How you hit in the spring may not be an indicator of what you would do when the lights come on (and history says it's really not) . . .but, when you come to camp and you don't have a position locked up, the spring he had certainly isn't going to get him a job

 

You mention "top 10 media market" and that is true under normal circumstances, but right now we have no real "media" deal. Now we can blame that completely on Crane or spread the blame for it or whatever, but the fact is we have no local media deal, so the size of the market really doesn't matter until we have one. And personally, I haven't seen anything that makes me believe we will have one anytime soon.

3 years of being the worst team on earth (at least in mlb) and an owner who spouts off at the mouth does cause the team to get criticized more than others, I completely agree with that.

You are also right that the rebuild doesn't guarantee success, but neither does the Yankees 200+ million payroll every year, at some point it comes down to "getting it right" with the players you draft/sign/develop.

On the last line, not sure what you mean by "all of us being happy being that sort of franchise"? If you mean continuing to be the worst team in baseball, obviously I think I can speak for all of us in saying no we don't want that. If you are referring to the Oaklands and Tampas of the world, personally I don't want that at all. Everyone loves to talk about Oakland as the "model" franchise for some reason, and the last two years have been great for them. But before the last two years they hadn't had a winning record since 2006, so count me out on that one. Tampa is on a good run right now, but even there, as i've said many times, I don't want to be the team that develops great talent only to watch them walk as soon as they hit free agency and we have to get excited about the next big prospect. We should be a franchise like we have in the past, and keep the best ones that we develop around. We have no idea what approach Crane will take to that, none at all. Just because he is playing the situation with Springer in the best way he can financially, does not mean that if we are winning when Springer hits free agency, and Springer is a huge part of that, he will just let him walk. Let's hope we get good over the next few years and we get to find out

 

If we all suspected that he wouldn't be on the roster, no matter what he hit, to start the season... I'm pretty sure he and his agent knew the situation as well. That could have affected things... plus, we're talking about a 2 week sample size. I'm also not getting over-excited about Marc Krauss for his numbers.

Actually, I'm pretty sure (and hope) that Luhnow and the front office have been very up front with Springer about "when" he'll be making his debut... and that signing the contract would have expedited things (but I still feel Springer did the right thing in rejecting it, feeling his play will get him more).