Wow, if true easily the best owner in sports nowadays. Was worried his interference would cause issues but seems like he is able to provide valuable input. The info about him axxing the Urquidy for Wilson Contreras trade is awesome. Not to mention Dusty putting his foot down. I am a huge fan of Click (bullpen was unbelievable) but was surprised that he would trade Urquidy for a rental. I figured Urquidy would only be traded for a stud CF or C with 2+ years of control left. Maybe there was a AA/AAA player on the cusp that was part of the deal that had Click intrigued. Obviously hindsight is 20/20 but so glad we did not trade Urquidy since we were still able to win in 2022 without giving up any of our major talent for 2023 and beyond. This team is going to continue to be special and I hope Crane, Click and Dusty can all work together to repeat in 2023 as the formula has proven to work.
It seems like Crane wants to win with a high character team and front office. As much as I love Luhnow, he was always on the fence of being high character and a sleeze ball. We rightfully so pointed out the irony of the hate we got when he traded for Osuna while the Yankees media doesn't give two ***** about Aroldis Chapman and his controversies. While the media blew that out of proportion, looking back that was something Crane probably was not fond of bringing that kind of heat to him and his team. Luhnow definitely has a win at all cost type of persona which is to be commended but if you can win with high character people then even better. That is what Crane and Co. were able to provide in 2022 so he will likely not deviate from that line of thinking.
I like the dynamic between Click, Crane, and Dusty. If Crane keeps Dusty, then go ahead and re-sign Click. What I don't want is for Crane to keep Dusty and sign a new GM, to allow Dusty to feel he has more say/power.
I honestly remember being just happy to be in the World Series in 2005, that's how foreign a concept a Houston baseball team making that far seemed. To fast forward 17 years and objectively say that our baseball team in Houston, the Astros, are in the middle of a baseball dynasty w a lot of runway in front of us, is wild. Another 2 or 3 seasons like this and we're talking about cementing our place as one of the greatest teams in baseball history. Hell, we're essentially there now. Soak it all in, folks. We may never see sustained excellence like this again.
If I recall correctly, the benefits of taking on Osuna were not near the PR hit the team took for it.
Is there is no way for him to have a fastball that would not aggravate his injuries? If just feels weird that he completely cut it out of his arsenal. Even his Sinker and Cutter that he rarely uses have a velo pretty close to his other off speed pitches.
JV didn't retain all of his velocity on his fastball after his TJ injury but is still very effective with it coming back this year. He had arguably his best year ever sans the playoffs this year at almost age 40. That must have been some kind of vitamin water they put him on in rehab.
his four-seam is not good so he does not throw it. McCullers will probably be fine. it's tough to come back that late in the year with all of the time that he missed and pitch at that level.
I know I shouldn't care but I was hoping for more World Series/Astros talk on these sports shows (Undisputed, First Take, etc.) but all they're covering is the NFL. They can't even get 10 minutes?
My memory might be not accurate but I feel Osuna was the snowball that led to the cheating scandal avalanche. That dumbass Astros exec that made the sexist comment defending Osuna to the reporter during the WS'19. It made the Astros the villain for that WS. Then Mike Friars who was resentful felt it was perfect opportunity to pile on while the Astros were down. Acquiring Osuna was always a bad move and I didn't feel right about it at the time.
Have tried several links including this one, but none have sound (yes, I thought to un-mute). Anyone have a link with sound?
I was thinking the same thing, unless maybe they're going to air these segments later? Otherwise it's just another example of the media conspiracy against Houston sports.
