We get it. You want Cintron fired. We’ve heard it a billion times from you. I don’t personally care whether he’s fired or not but let me tell you this… There’s not a hitting coach in the world that could make this lineup we rolled out today good. We have Zach Dezenzo batting 5th. Jake Meyers in batting 6th. Our DH, Altuve, is showing Jose Abreu type concerns. Yet you want to keep talking about the ****ing hitting coach lmao
So Espada decides to move Framber to Monday - which was stupid. Then Saturday night he tells Framber he is going Sunday. The manager is stupid - and if I were the owner I would start to question why my team cannot throw any runners out on the bases, why my manager continues to make stupid decisions and why my GM isn’t doing anything about it.
The problem isn’t the hitting coaches - I am indifferent to them. The problem is that the Astros need another quality bat - Altuve after a hot start is ice cold and Alvarez has looked more than Abreu than Yordan.
Patience is being pushed waiting for Alvarez coming back and for the trade market to really materialize. I don’t know for sure - but Brown must be concerned because several times he has stepped in and stopped Espada. I don’t think there is animosity between them, Espada and Brown communicate well - but there are some serious issues that need to be addressed and Brown has made that clear, based on runners being a top one.
I’ll echo what others have posted. This particular team is missing something, anything, they’re just meh. A competent vet skipper would’ve been warranted KNOWING you had next to zero intention of signing Tucker and Bergman. This roster reminds me of the old “good guys” teams of days gone by that never won **** being nice and quiet.
I didn't think it was possible Duspada could lose his job in the middle of the year but now I think it's a very real possibility.
I've said this before and starting to believe it now. It feels like the Astros management is going through the motions on a soft rebuild, using Espada as the bridge manager until they retool with players that can actually win consistently. I really don't feel like management cares if they win the division or are out of the playoffs this year and looking at the bottom line of revenue savings. Once they see what they have at years end you may see some adjustments but as long as Espada is the coach I don't see the brass doing much to improve this team to it's former glory. I even question if they would contemplate going through a full rebuild through the draft again after 2-3 years of being really bad, but chose not to due to the optics (hoping to utilize Altuve and Yordan for their contracts as best as they can). After this season, you may very well see this team start to go that route though (and it may start at the trading deadline)
It’s time to just recognize this is what this team is…a mediocre .500 ball club. We might go and win the next couple games and try to convince ourselves otherwise again but we’ll be right back here shortly after. The lineup isn’t good enough to consistently win. Our starting pitching is banged up again and never know what you’re going to get outside of Hunter Brown…that includes Framber. The bullpen is the only positive about this team. The only way this team has a chance at being a contender is if Yordan comes back and hits like Aaron Judge.
I want to like Dana but he’s complicit. You can’t continue to let ESP sabotage any chance you have with dumb decisions. The deferring to ESP, an unproven sophomore manager on all things on the field is suicide by Dana.
It’s obvious to me what they are missing. I think the effort is there, we have comeback late and the pitching has not given up knowing we would not score. The bullpen is absolutely elite. The rotation is very good and the 1-2 is as good as any. On that side of the field we are good enough to win a World Series title. On offense we are okay at some things - but we completely lack power, we need another 25-35 homer guy to add to the line up. We also have seen our two best offensive players be below average. Altuve and Alvarez have been bad. Move Altuve back to second - trade for a 25-35 homer a year guy with an OPS around 780-800 … and have Yordan and Jose and Walker hit their normal levels and we would be 3-4 games up on the division right now. The problem is that right now - with the injuries and poor production, we can easily fall out of the race. The Cards are competitive and are sitting on their guys right now - same with a lot of teams, so opportunities are very limited.
