Man y'all are spoiled. Jim Crane has always been involved and you weren't complaining during our 7 straight trips, 4 WS, and 2 titles.
This would have been the year if everyone was healthy. It could still be if Verlander, Garcia and Tucker comeback while we are still in the chase.
He's been a great owner. He changed the vision of the franchise with the GM/Manager hires he made and this has caused the lack of cohesion and ripple effects down through the lower levels of the org. Hopefully he can get back to what made this org great, an analytics based org that has everybody on the same page and working together. BTW, with some luck, (A guy like Dezenzo coming in and tearing it up) they can still make the playoffs and win. They've got a lot riding on Tucker making it back though.
Nah bro, he may have been involved on approving trades/signings...but not this heavily direct involvement with the recent disastrous signings. I like him as an owner, the best, but he needs to stick to being an owner and not a GM.
I hate everything this organization has chosen to be over the last 18 months, because it is so dumb and so self inflicted. we’ve done a lot is damage to ourselves, but if we’d just stop being stupid it could all be fixed. But, we seem to want to be stupid and then double down on it. It’s really really sad because it didn’t have to be. Off-season to do list if we wanted to get stuff back on the rails (and I’m not going to say hire Luhnow because that’s not a thing- but hire Luhnow). Get rid of Espada, bring back Hinch when he’s fired by Detroit or someone like him- smart, a communicator, a guy who understands analytics and has been successful and learned on the job. New contract for Yainer- 9/100M something like that. Make him a core foundational piece that isn’t going to get away while locking him up in pre arbitration years while you still have leverage. DFA singleton, cabbage, kessinger, that shithead we just got from the yanks in the bullpen etc. Trade Jake and Chas for whatever you can get for them Tucker- 10 years 300M. Trade Framber for your 3B of the future- we can’t let him get away for some pissant draft pick compensation/ get with Baltimore for Mayo. Maybe something like Presley and Framber for Mayo and Mountcastle. Give Yainer a 1B glove and tell him to spend the winter practicing with it. Call Salazar up to be 3rd catcher. Catcher duties will now be Caratini 40%, yainer 40% Salazar 20% or something like that. Yainer plays 60% of the time at 1B while getting ready to transition 100% of the time there if the catcher from Sam hits and is big league ready in 2026. Trade LMJ to someone that you think might be able to keep him medically healthy/ it’s time to move on. DFA Urquidy- he’s not good enough and it makes no sense to give him 5M to rehab and hope he’s back in August in his walk year. Nope. Sign JV to a 3/50M deal if he pitches on down the stretch. He’s your new #4 and veteran leadership and can chase 300 for three years as the Astros guy. If he doesn’t come back this year tap out. New roster- ish carstini/salazar/diaz/mountcastle/altube/pena/mayo/yordan/whitcomb/leon/Tucker/dezenzo/dubon pitchers: Brown/arrighetti/garcia/verlander/blanco/blubaugh/whitley/gusto/ort/scott/abreu/hader/mufree. these names might not all be exactly who ends up being there but it clears out a lot of the mess that you have by continuing to have guys that suck be on the MLB roster. Enough. your core which would all be here for at least 4 years is thus Yordan, Yainer, Tucker, Mayo, Brown, Hader, Altuve with supporting pieces around them and young guys looking to come up. The salary I don’t even think is terrible and by 26 it would be fine when all that money comes off the books. there’s just too much baggage with injuries, bad contracts and poor performance dragging down what should be a pretty decent core. The OF positions at CF and LF are likely holding spots for some younger guys (and maybe Mathews if he ends up out there) in the minors.
FWIW I agree with this 100% I'm not saying I agree, just think it may be what Dana is thinking. He probably went into the deadline expecting to add more players, but there is no doubt he chose 2025 over 2024 when the saw the prices.
I am about out of hope for 2024. This team simply does not have the bats, and Tucker is not enough by himself. That said, I am excited for 2025. It's time to spend the next month watching the Space Cowboys and then switch to football in September.
Jim Crane no doubt deserves a lot of credit. No doubt he made good decisions in the past to build what he has, but that doesn't mean the decisions he has made more lately are all good ones. People change, their internal process for decision making changes and those they surround themselves with to help with decision making change. Every significant high FO post below Crane has changed. The head coach has changed. Clearly, the Astros organization has changed. So lets not pretend that the group of folks that built this dynasty is the same folks that are there now. Sure Crane is still there. But a solid organization depends on more than just one guy.
And the whole “I’m not playing Vazquez “ crap kind of led into what happened with Yainer last year. That was when Dusty developed his Maldy or no one catches mantra Regardless of how Crane plays things moving forward, Nook is spot on about no cohesiveness, and it’s tough to run an organization well when the people in charge ain’t on the same boat
Jim Crane is calling the shots - he fired Lunhow, effectively fired Click, and from all reports has been very involved in personnel decisions - whether personally or with his hand picked advisors. By his own admission he has been more hands on. If there is a lack of organizational cohesion or focus it quite literally starts and stops w him. He's the one hiring top brass, he's the one driving decisions. Alarm bells should've been ringing the second word got out that he was intent on not only firing a World Series winning GM, but was willing to make significant personnel decisions without a GM at all. Owners simply have no place in the front office. Ever. Because of the scandal he has obliterated that golden rule and has meddled quite aggressively in all sorts of decisions. The precipitous drop in production across the board is not a mere coincidence.
Absurd take. Almost every team experiences significant injuries. Having a plan B is part of the job. Consider all the money we wasted on Abreu, Montero, Brantley, and Hader. A group that collectively has likely provided a negative war. No imagine if instead of team "back of the baseball card" we had someone like Click spending that $60m/yr. We'd likely be celebrating back to back titles and sitting comfortably in 1st right now. We aren't the Yankees or Dodgers - we can't afford to just burn $60M on bad or dead contracts. It's very likely the reason we didn't trade for an impact bat this year. The change in strategy was abrupt and noticeable and deserves to be called out.
Luhnow was given total control. Crane ended up with egg on his face with the scandal. Luhnow also had the luxury to fail completely. He wasn't trying to win games. Then, Altuve & Keuchel turned into stars, making up for mistakes like letting JD go. I think Click could have been a great GM, but wasn't given the control Luhnow had. Then, they also have to try and reload while having the farm hurt by the penalties and our success. Meanwhile trying to reload in FA while constantly being up against luxury tax limitations. I just think it hard to compare them when Brown & Click haven't truly been in Luhnow's position. Jim Crane has been a great owner, but I think he's also going to be the downfall of this great era (brought on by the cheating scandal). He has to let go and trust the people he hired. For better or worse.
I think Click following Luhnow also hurt him. He was always compared and never measured up until he was gone. Looking back and seeing the results of his tenure, sure look pretty good. If only he could play nice with others and actually follow directions lol.
Every team has dead contracts. How many teams have 5 pitchers that have won world series games out of the lineup? How many of those are still in the playoff picture?
Jim Crane did not want to fire Luhnow. He fired Luhnow because the MLB Commissioner told Crane that he was going to fire Luhnow and Hinch. After being ambushed by the Commissioner, Crane was mad at the consequences and how Luhnow handled things - but long before he made any decision was made, he was bluntly told he was going to fire his GM and MLB would take care of handling the scandal. The problem is that the MLB controlled media (yes serious) didn't play along. Also - he did not fire Click, he offered him a one-year contract based on the poor intrapersonal skills that Click had with the rest of the staff. Also, if you remember - in 2022, everything major conflict between Baker and Click ended up with Baker being right. Now - that was likely luck, but Baker was right about not changing the catcher in mid-season, he was right when he said Vasquez wasn't needed, he was right about the bullpen usage, he was even right about keeping Guriel on the playoff roster - as he had a really strong playoff run. Also - the decisions for Abreu and resigning Montero were already mapped out when Click was there - it isn't as if Crane went full rogue. Personally - I think that Crane should have given Click a 3 year deal like he wanted, and then he could have fired him after a year if he did not like his performance. Those issues though went deep - Click and Crane both did things that were really not smart from a business standpoint.
@Nook what about now though with regards to Luhnow? Is he blackballed forever? I know he has his soccer thing but I'm guessing a legit offer and he would come home.
I'll be shocked if Jeff Luhnow has any desire to come back to baseball in any capacity after how everything ended. (we really have to let him go)
