I'm sure everyone here is as fed up as I am. I don't know if there is a better way, but I think we all need to spam every Astros social media post and continuously post - #FireJoeEspada Open to other ideas, but something needs to be done to have our voices heard.
Seriously, that organization continues to put Abreu out there. There's no excuse, period. Saying Crane insists is a copout. You have to lead your team and you keep playing him.
They’ll make roster moves before firing a manager when it’s obvious. Houston hasn’t seen an aging player “lose it” due primarily to age since Hakeem in 2000 (Biggio was chasing milestones in 2007, Bagwell had one arm in 2005). Of course they weren’t going to force him to retire or cut him. Even that year he had a run of games (in between health issues) that seemed promising. I equate that to what Abreu was able to do late last season. Back injections, rest, and maybe a touch of motivation (or really good PED’s) helped him put together a decent 1.5 months and he made noise in the playoffs. Both Hakeem and Abreu fell off a cliff the subsequent season… except in this comparison, the Astros are most definitely the Raptors.
Espada has made some bad decisions, but nowhere near enough to fire him after 22 games. Players need to perform and everything else takes care of itself. No way Espada deserves to be fired or that even considered until the second half of the season at the earliest. Jim Crane or Dana Brown, whichever is insisting on keeping Jose Abreu is the problem. And I'm sure they are forcing Espada to play him also.
Let's put this in perspective, Biggio batted .251 in his final season with a OPS+ of 71. Even disregarding the difference in era, Biggio looks like Barry Bonds compared to Abreu's OPS+ of -28 entering today. Not only is Abreu below the average player.... he is below someone 100% worse than the average player... he somehow broke the system. As for Dream, he was still grabbing 6 rebounds a game and shooting 46%... not 6% at age 39.
Every voice is unique and you have shared yours. Organizing is a POLITICAL act and takes this out of sports and into the realm of politics which so many CLAIM to be taboo. The reality is only objectionable statements against a particular narrative is taboo. Good luck, not on Espada, but on expressing your opinion. Perhaps you even share the approved narrative of this board and it will be welcome.
The run wasn’t going to last forever. The pitching has mostly sucked, Abreu has been beyond bad, and we can’t seem to get many key hits. But, I still think we might get it turned around. The manager seems to be very quiet and reserved, and I think the fans want to see some fire. If we can’t right the ship, then let’s move on to the rebuild. We have some veteran assets that could help restock our minor league teams with some talent. I’m not going to get too emotional about all of this. There are ups and downs, and we’ve been really good much longer than I thought possible.
Should we form a union? I don't want to pay dues if we do. And I don't want to to attend any meetings.
