This era of Astros baseball is something else. We just dominated and won a WS, and yet here we are getting excited about something else. I wish the 13 year old me had the opportunity to enjoy this ride.
Crane is just doing some next level thinking. He wanted to hire Brown the whole time. By putting out it’s between Ausmus and Brown a few days before it will now make everyone even more excited and relieved it’s not Ausmus. We got played by the maestro.
Brown didn’t sign a one year deal. If he did he’s literally too stupid to be our GM and we should have just hired Ausmus.
Not condoning Ausmus at all and I'm glad about the hire of Brown...but wasn't Ausmus an asst GM at Anaheim before becoming manager?
The Ausmus 2nd place thing just reeks of Crane trying to help Ausmus’ career, akin to giving interview opportunities just to get interviewers experience. Kinda f like when the Rockets interviewed, I believe, Sam Cassell, when they had no intention of hiring him. I don’t believe he was actually second…but rather this was a leak to help further his FO career.
I like the Brown hire but reading about him, I get the impression that he certainly knows how to scour and evaluate, but is he someone like Luhnow who is willing to take big risks in search of the next market inefficiency? Is he truly an innovator with a strong technical background willing to blaze a new path and who who will keep the org on the bleeding edge of player eval and development? I don’t really get that impression from his background. Honestly, I would prefer Click although I’m certainly willing to be proven wrong.
I guess the question you need to ask yourself is do you think Crane would hire a guy who he thought would be gun shy if that's the exact reason (from most accounts) that he let Click go to begin with? At this point, we simply need to trust Crane bc he's batting damn near 1.000
Brown was the best choice with Stearns supposedly not under consideration. It doesn't mean Dana Brown will be a great GM, but he's earned the chance to show what he can do in the position. And it is a nice bonus that the Astros have hired a black GM, given they were the first to do it. Especially following a WS with no Black American players.
You could probably make a similar argument with respect to Deloss Dodds and how well he hired during most of his tenure at The University of Texas, only to see the big men’s sports go to **** at the end of and following his tenure. Hiring is pretty hard, and I would evaluate each decision on its own merits, although I understand Crane has performed well in the past in this regard.
I just want him to be good. I don't give a flying flip whether he's white, black, brown or purple polka dot.
Spencer Strider: 4th Round Michael Harris: 3rd Round Vaughn Grissom: 11th Round Langeliers: 1st Round Strasburg: 1-1 and a prospect every team would have picked unless they couldn't sign him. Desmond: 3rd round Zimmerman: 1st round The Braves players are a far more impressive group without looking into other players drafted during his tenure. Hasn't been with the Braves long enough to get a full sense, but the early returns are good.
I am absolutely digging him in the presser. I love that he’s a lifelong baseball guy. You can feel his fire, and o think he is going to bring a lot of things that we as fans are going to be happy about.
For one, Luhnow’s background is completely different from Brown’s. Both Luhnow and Click were fast risers with nontraditional backgrounds. Neither grinded away as a scout for years with different orgs slowly working their way up the ladder. Luhnow went from management consulting to being a GM in less than ten years. Click similarly rose fast through the Tampa org after being a writer for BPro.
That's all true...but how did that give you the impression that they'd end up being good GM's? Also, I didn't see anything Click did as "innovative" or "trail-blazing" despite the PECOTA background.. and Luhnow did have to put in work as the amateur scouting director and eventual head of the Cardinals minor league program before getting the GM spot. The Cardinals were also still successful after he left. Even well into 2017, there were certainly questions about Luhnow's ability to be the type of GM that could make a deal to put the team squarely in contention. Then Verlander happened (after it didn't happen at the real trade deadline), and that cemented his status. Like I said earlier, Brown will have to rise similarly to how Luhnow did. We know he'll be great at the draft and player development side... and hopefully skills will translate to the big league level (albeit, their roster is pretty set for the next few years, regardless).
