That's honestly shocking to me. He's not that good of a manager. Then again, he is managing a retirement home up there.
Where we recap the last week of the season- make fun of people like Hey Now that think exactly winning the division on the last game of the year in a fluke proves Dusty right, and predict the WC round. Spotify: https://spotify.link/dTF8hYfZADb Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/8...st-champs?ref=dm_sh_1HkKFhSLKgamLMBpC2Ba5HLBo
I honestly don't think Boone is the problem. Its Cashman and his horrible roster management. Boone would not be a hard manager to play for. He sticks up for his guys and that goes a long way imo. Would prefer Boone to Dusty if I am being honest. Boone would have never given Maldy the job or messed around with McCormick.
Stupid. I'm bothered by stupid. People that can't understand the difference between measuring a process and measuring a result.
Yep. I don't see having the same record as the Rangers being a ringing endorsement for Dusty's managing considering the Astros prevented giving up runs a lot better than the Rangers, and the Rangers scoring more despite only having 1 possibly 2 batters better than Yainer Diaz who struggled for PAs under Dusty. It is almost like having bad hitters in the lineup matters.
It's like people who think they are good at poker because they won money with lucky hands on the river. Ugh
I would hope the only people out there giving a ringing endorsement to the Duster are those folks that make those Arm bands of his, and the Diamond corporation. The makers of fine toothpicks.
The Astros are going to look for cheap and internal solutions when they can, which is smart. What I mean by that is, the Astros are not going to spend 5 million on a 4-5th outfielder if they believe that they can either get similar production from the farm system, or if they do not, can make a trade at the deadline. The real "splurges" by the Astros have been limited if you think about it in free agency. They went after Reddick and Brantley, they have signed some relievers like Baez, Neris, Joe Smith and in the rotation, Odorizzi. The biggest splurge has been Jose Abreu, and that was really only a 9 million dollar a year splurge, because they were no longer paying Yuli Gurriel. So, I expect that most of the positions of need for the Astros to be filed internally. The Astros free agents are: Maldonado and Brantley on offense. From the bullpen: Neris, Stanek, Maton. From the rotation: none. The Astros catching solution going into next year is pretty clear - it belongs to Y. Diaz. He is cheap, under long term team control and is already a top 5 catcher in baseball. Back-up catcher is a question mark. The obvious answer is Cesar Salazar. He is under team control and has been trained to be a back up catcher since the Astros got him. He is known for working well with pitchers and coaches. He brings nothing offensively, but he is a good foil for Diaz. If the Astros coaching staff wants someone with more experience, there are lots of back up catchers available on the market at a low cost. It is possible that the Astros decide to just drop 2-4 million on someone like Austin Hedges, Luke Mailie or even Victor Caratini. As for Brantley, I don't think they will have him back unless other free agent moves fall through. He hasn't played much, cannot cover 1st base and will likely want more than and will get offers for more than the minimum. So I expect the Astros to try to fill that hole internally if possible, with the idea that they can always make a move at the trade deadline. They could always try to sign someone like Garrett Cooper for a 1 year deal at 5-6 million, but that is money they may want to spend on the bullpen. The one place where the Astros will have to make a signing will be for a high leverage reliever in the bullpen. Neris is a high leverage reliever and will likely be gone. Stanek and Maton are always options to be resigned cheap, but I suspect someone out there will offer them more than the Astros will want to. Garcia and McCullers will be back in the second half next season, but the Astros don't have the internal options in the minors to wait for them in the second half. From the minors we will possibly see Whitley, Blubaugh or McDonald get a chance - but I think this is the area where the Astros will have to go outside the organization. The Astros coveted Josh Hader at the deadline, and I was told it was a done deal if the Padres hadn't decided to change course and compete. While it seems like a lot of money, I have had two people tell me that the Astros do have interest in signing Josh Hader this Winter. Will they have the highest offer? I don't know, I am skeptical but we will have to see how the market goes. I don't see the Astros offering 100 million like Diaz got. If the Astros strikeout on Hader - the other options are not that great........ Will Smith, David Robertson, Drew Pomeranz, Matt Moore and Trevor May. These all probably get multi year deals. There are other options but they are mostly fliers.
Make the process tangible. Where's your formula for proving the process would have yielded better results? Of course, such a thing doesn't exist, and so what's happening is that, absence that, people are filling in their own results. Are you more likely to win with your best line-up? Yes. Are you guaranteed to win with your best line-up? No. And yet, go though this, or any other Baker-related thread, and you'll see posters adding 2, 3, 8 wins; 50, 60, 80 more runs... Maybe they would've won more. I don't think that's an unfair assumption. But the reality is that we don't know and we never will. The assumptions are also - almost universally - untethered to what actually transpired. I've seen repeated posts about Baker not maximizing his best line-up... that line-up hasn't been available to him the majority of the season. The Astros played 87 games without Altuve + Alvarez - that doesn't include the 44 additional games Altuve missed to start the season. Once everyone was healthy (July 26), Diaz started/played in more games. It wasn't as many as he should have - but it was still more. His play rate after July 26 would have netted him 50-55 more PAs for the season. Also... they weren't very good after everyone got healthy. They were 58-44 on the morning of July 26, the day Altuve and Alvarez returned. They finished 32-28. All of you want to pin that on Baker and not utilizing his best line-up.... ERA Before/After July 26 Framber: 2.94 | 4.28 Javier 4.32 | 4.95 Brown 4.19 | 6.97 France 2.84 | 5.40 It's just silly to focus on exactly one element because it can fuel your vitriol and angst over an underwhelming season and ignore everything else. Yes, baseball is a long enough season that we can absolutely cherry-pick one game or one stretch to support whatever narrative we want. What I've maintained from the beginning is that, overall, the 2023 Astros just weren't as good/healthy as previous teams. And the manager pulling all the right strings wasn't going to overcome that.
I will say I have won a lot of money getting "lucky" on the river by getting to river cheaper than I should have been able and others not being able to throw away hands that were better before the river.
Having Presley and Hader in the bullpen would definitely be an interesting dynamic for whoever the manager is to handle.
