The manager sucks - if he doesn't have the balls to bench struggling vets, he is not fit to manage a big league club. DD
Again, Sig is a career #2 that has had opportunities to become a #1 and he has been passed over. Reminds me of the guys that worked under Morey who couldn’t work the same magic elsewhere, or created more toxicity (and none of them get a 2nd chance). Elias had the same pedigree as Luhnow… scouting director to GM to president of baseball ops (where he has Sig as a #2). The “systems/procedures” that Luhnow had in place were what contributed most to him being banned…. It was a toxic corporate culture that MLB wanted no team to be a part of. And you say you don’t care about how the sausage is made… just that it tastes good… but you want them to have the same systems/process in place that were “trashed”. For the record, I do believe they need a true baseball ops guy… but not sure thats ever going to happen again as long as Crane is the owner. Most of us would probably handle things similarly if we got burned as badly as he/they did with Luhnow’s actions (despite the results). And again, not referencing the sign stealing scandal that obviously wasn’t the end-all/be-all since all those other guys are back in baseball.
We just look at things differently. Hinch was to blame for the sign stealing. I really don't care what others think, winning trump's all. If others in MLB, the press don't like it then screw them. Manfred blackballed Luhnow because he was changing the way scouting was done and Luhnow building a dynasty was costing MLB money. There's a reason the Yankees Dodgers, Red Sox got off light when they were cheating and the Stros got hammered.
I think you’re a tad paranoid on the last point…. MLB had a lot better ratings and their TV networks weren’t all bankrupt when the Astros dynasty was churning (pre-scandal reveal). It’s still very much a “local” sports league, but the Astros first franchise championship was able to capture the nation’s attention and exceeded ratings compared to 2018 (Red Sox-Dodgers). The toxicity, misogyny, and “ruthlessness” that you craved exceeded what any previous MLB team had done… and no MLB team will be allowed to venture close to that in the future. From hiring practices to the code breaking schemes to the ground zero framework (that possessed way more intel than people realize) to media handling to eventually the Osuna debacle and the SI reporter debacle… the latter (with sign stealing) were just tip of the iceberg type stuff depending on who you talk to. The Astros did a great job of concealing a lot of the inner workings… NDA’s, threats of lawsuits, etc…. Much like any corporation. Yes, all of that is virtually gone now. I love results as well… but the “luhnow way” apparently will not be permitted in any US pro sports league.
I'm not paranoid, I'm a realist. True, but how can they stop it if another guy like Luhnow is hired and eventually a guy like Luhnow will be hired. I hate that it's all virtually gone, especially since Luhnow left behind people that understood his methods. BTW, Stearns and Elias dont count?
Stearns and Elias both got their starts in baseball under different bosses. Yes, they spent time under Luhnow as well but they weren’t groomed or recruited into baseball by him (like Sig was… or a guy like Taubmann). There certainly will be another person that tries to push things to the furthest edge… but I’m also sure that all MLB owners have been put on notice to avoid “that” sort of toxicity to permeate the entire baseball ops division.
There will be another young owner like Crane was that will hire somebody like Luhnow. What toxicity was permeating the entire baseball opps division? I read a book about the 2017 championship team and there didn't appear to be any toxicity permeating the org from what I read.
The NDA’s won, lol. There was plenty of off the record mentions of that stuff… but the winning kept it under wraps until they finally pushed things too far.
Like I said, I kept up with this stuff pretty closely and there didn't appear to be a toxic enviornment within the org. Now people like Drellich got their feelings hurt because he said in the beginning what Luhnow was doing would never work. People particularly people in the media dont like being wrong. I wouldn't call Luhnow keeping receipts with the media being toxic.
it went beyond that. Some of it was touched on in the official manfred report. The rest is buried in legalese, but there’s a ton there. @Nook has shared some occasional insight. no other reason why Luhnow would be unofficially banned and not a single outlet is willing to go to bat for his unofficial reinstatement. I mean it wasn’t quite Stratton oakmont… or was it? Winning masked a lot of it. Mysogyny at the end (that pre-dated me too) didnt help either and probably tipped the scales more than the actual scandal did (or further spurred the whistleblower to come out against them).
I would love for Nook to PM me with things that were going on behind the scenes. Luhnow has been reinstated, Manfred has blackballed him and made Crane fire Luhnow/Hinch/Cora because they were bad for business is what I've heard.
And yet Hinch/Cora/Beltran all back in baseball within the year? And the architect of one of the most dominant modern-day dynasties in all of sports… in a sport that is hard AF to build one now due to everybody using the same analytics and have access to the same scouting resources… is somehow still unofficially banned because of “business”. Makes you think.
Luhnow was always the first when it came to innovation. I'm sure he would have come up with a new edge. One of his greatest strengths was the ability to try new things.
If he wanted a job in MLB, he'd have one. I don't think he wants to deal with all of the inevitable media b.s. that would come with him getting rehired. Would you?
Horace Fogle, an owner, was banned for life in the ~20s for criticizing umpires. Marge Schott was banned for being a Nazi Steinbrenner was banned for doing a private smear campaign against Dave Winfield. Innovation in MLB knows no bounds.
the way he and his wife still follow the sport/team, of course I think he’d relish being in the midst of that challenge if given the opportunity. Not a single report has come out that a team even requested an interview with him. It’s sketchy AF.
You think owners, ultra competitive alpha males that they are, would give a **** what anybody said if they thought hiring the guy who built nothing into a dynasty would make them more ultra better? They'd hire him yesterday. Now, does Luhnow's reputation (some deserved) hinder his ability to do his job when dealing with other FO/management types? That's a legit question.
