Brown has been fantastic imo He has helped rebuild our completely barren farm system despite having limited picks and the trades he has made have been smart Crane is a great owner , but Brown has been hamstrung by the abreu deal and mccullers Now , Christian walker hasn't looked great , but honestly, that one is a bit of a shocker and I wouldn't be surprised to see him rebound a great deal next year . It will be exciting to see how we navigate this off-season. Our medical staff needs a serious reckoning , and espada and our 3rd base coach should be goners. Our pitching is the weakest it's been in years , but on paper , our offense going into next year looks stellar . I think we bounce back and get over 95 wins next year . The pitching situation is bleak , but I think we find some magic
Not sure if the first one is true. Second one is not true. Nook has confirmed numerous times that the pitchers wanted Maldy catching them. Third one is not true. Dusty was not fired. His contract expired and he was not retained. Your need to hate is breaking your connection to reality.
Dusty wasn’t retained because he went against the front office and sabotaged 2023. Otherwise he would’ve been retained. This is really getting fired. Don’t be stupid. The pitchers never said they preferred Maldy and Diaz was 1000X better and Dusty never let him pitch to Framber or Verlander, our top 2 in the rotation. Diaz caught like 1 game in the last 15 games of the season and not at all in the playoffs. Your obsession with defending Dusty with your bullshit facebook commentary level narrative is getting sillier by the day. The fact that you would agree with moron RVO says it all.
Half the team was on the injured list but experience matters. We all know an experienced manager could have squeezed out another win or two. Go get a manager who knows how to win and manage a bullpen. Let espada go manage a team like the angels or pirates.
I won't offer an opinion on a lot of this - but I can say for certain that the veteran pitchers wanted Maldonado to catch them. It wasn't really anything against Diaz, as much as it was that they really felt comfortable with Maldonado and felt that he was exceptional at calling a game and working as a team with pitchers.
I disagree. And even if they did, it was still Dusty’s job to play the best player. How would framber or JV know this because they NEVER caught Diaz the entire season. It would be stupid to say that when Diaz is a rookiie and never caught those guys during a game. He was purposely held back from catching them by Dusty. If they were uncomfortable with Yainer at the beginning (they weren’t) they could’ve easily been comfy with him come playoff time. That’s a managers job. Diaz was close to .900 OPS while Maldy was batting .170 and playing awful defense. I do not believe it was that big of a deal to the pitchers, like JV said it wasn’t. He said he NEVER asked for a specific catcher except one time and that was Chirinos. Thats all that was ever said. Baker ****ed that up on his own.
Yes, Maldy was cut and brought back to be the 3rd string emergency catcher in the wild card. He has been cut by 2 teams (in season) since he left the Astros. Hasn’t played since early August and won’t play at all in the playoffs. You’re an idiot.
Essentially the Astros have not made the playoffs in the 2 years under Joe Espada. Only one year removed from winning a World Series title. Consider all that.
Yeah, Espada sucks. I still think he wins it all with the ‘22 team but yeah he sucks. I hope we move on from him
I'm neither here nor there on Espada, if they fire him, my hope is they have a guy already they really like. What I don't want is they fire him and then try to figure it out, find nobody, then just promote Omar Lopez.
New Espada needs to go. Like now. I'll never forget I went to opening day vs the Yankees last year, and him managing the game like it was game 7 of the World Series was absolutely embarrassing.
FTR: I would be just fine with Espada being let go. I never thought he'd be fired after this injury-riddled season and for those that did and are invested in his firing buckle up. You do you, that's what this boards for but I'm not sure what'll be worse, the incessant b****ing when he's back in the dugout or him actually being IN the dugout.
"Hey Dana - I think that meet and greet with the media went well. So, when is our first playoff game start? I looked in the paper and couldn't find it and when I asked Tuve he told me to **** off. I know everyone likes to play jokes but I want to set my line up." - Espada "..........." - Brown (realizing that he has hitched his career success to a man with the intelligence of gypsum board)
