The manager should have been the guy to take the fall. But who knew and didn't know didn't matter. This was all about getting rid of one guy Jeff Luhnow, mission accomplished. Luhnow fell victim to the fact that people who are singularly focused on success, will do whatever it takes to obtain that success and really dont care what others think as long as they obtain this success are aren't usually well liked by people who are mediocre people. In MLB these type people are targets.
This is exactly what happened and I still cant figure out why Hinch got a pass. I admire Lady Luhnow for pointing out the obvious and taking up for her man.
I what world is telling the truth not taking the high road, also did Crane (Tried not to pay Luhnow 22 mil that he owed him) or Manfred (Ordered Luhnow fired and banned from MLB) take the high road? Manfred/Press got what they wanted (Luhnow ran out of MLB) and Crane/Stros org. beared the brunt of what really should've fallen on Hinch's shoulders.
I live in Washington state, so as you can imagine, I interact w/ a lot of Mariner fans. 2 weeks ago they were talking ****. They are no longer talking ****.
They still lead by 4.5 games. Crazy that only the Yankees lead is smaller. The other 4 divisions are at least 6.5 game leads.
Which I've always said if Luhnow, an anlytics guy through and through knew about the trash can crap then why didn't he tell them to knock it off after a couple months of data? The data absolutely showed it wasn't working. In fact it probably screwed up more guys then it helped.
Marwin and Bregman feasted on it. Probably Jake Marisnick too. Altuve was worse. Correa probably helped. On balance it was a nothing burger.
This has given me pause, too. Especially with how crude and obvious it was once it was uncovered. However, maybe they thought MLB just wasn't serious about policing it even in spite of the letter or didn't want to sacrifice a potential edge knowing at least a few other orgs were working on similar projects.
iirc, Hinch took a baseball bat to the video monitor in the hallway behind the dugout at some point...and it was pretty much immediately replaced. That kind of stuff does not happen without a whole lot of people knowing about it, especially the HMFIC
When this was a burning topic on Twitter after the story broke, I'd show the Astros Home/Road splits on Twitter (not showing which was which) and it would get a big reaction as they pointed out the 501 runs scored at home vs. 395 on the road. Well, they had that wrong. Astros played worse at home, and it started around the time of the banging. The players we're asked a lot in second half of 2017 why the offense was better on the road. Well now we know why.
Oh for sure- I know all those Macro numbers. That's why I said on balance it was a nothing burger. I do think it helped Marwin and Jake and maybe Bregman and Correa, who all sort of had career years. Correa was awesome during that season and might have won the MVP instead of Altuve if he wouldn't have gotten hurt.
There is a lot of people lying about all of it - for a lot of different reasons. First off - Joey Cora was the bench coach, and longtime friend of AJ Hinch. They knew each other for like 20 years. Cora was deeply involved in what was going on, as we Carlos Beltran. Yet AJ Hinch would have us believe that he bashed in a video monitor and could not stop it? All he had to do was tell his bench coach (Cora) to put an end to it. Are we to believe that Cora would still do it? Are we to believe that Cora went rogue? AJ Hinch knew damn well about it - and if it bothered him, he just had to tell Cora or go to Luhnow. Hinch met with Luhnow regularly - yet he never brought it up with Luhnow? The Astros were a machine, an extremely well running machine....... and Luhnow and guys like Altuve, Beltran and others often talked. Everyone knew it was going on - and if Hinch didn't support it, he didn't care - why? Because cheating is and has been prevalent in baseball. Why did no one say anything when Clemens and Pettitte were running around naked having trainer shove needles in their ass? Because players look the other way - managers do too. The mistake Luhnow made was he believed he was safe if no one could directly connect him to some silly and stupid trash can scandal and believed it would blow over. Besides he had bigger things going on.
Exactly. The thing that aggravates me the most about the whole deal is just how ****ing primitively stupid their cheating system was. If you're gonna do it, do it right
Was the lawsuit and settlement all orchestrated? Take the wrap for this and we will pay you, but we can't make it look like we are paying you off so you sue, and we will settle. As I remember, Luhnow sued for a pretty decent amount change for a GM. Multiples of what Click made as a GM over multiple years.
I'm super curious about what you mean here. Was there something bigger in terms of "manipulating the rules"? Or just bigger things in the sense that rosters, development, etc. were much more important?
I don't remember which thread I posted it in, or if I even did vs just texting my Astros buddies.....but after we lost the 1st game to the White Sox, I said "that's it!!!!!!111 The season is officially over!!!!11" Since I made this brilliant proclamation, we are 7-0.
I know you mean Alex Cora (Joey was in PIT) but I totally agree with you about Hinch. Again, I just find it hilarious that Luhnow would continue to allow it after digging into the data.
