Who knows what Boras is whispering in Brown's ear. On his current trajectory, he will get a Cole type contract when he becomes a free agent. Only health can derail that. Skeens, Skubal, and Brown are the new Verlander, Greinke, and Kershaw.
Luhnow wasn't great at drafting. What he was great at was knowing that there were other ways to get talent other than the draft and he was the pioneer at getting international talent. He was also the guy that pretty much built the core of our development staff. Murphy and Miller were hired and taught in the system that Luhnow built. Luhnow is the gift that keeps on giving. I also give Crane a lot of credit because he was the one that gave Luhnow all the power to do what he did.
If it is too early to evaluate post-Luhnow drafts, one should have no opinion on the strength of the farm systems lately Diaz spent a half a season or so in the Astros system. He got counted once, but he still came to the team because of a trade using a Luhnow guy. Pena and Brown were loved and parts of highly rated farms. They weren't the reasons for weak farm ratings. Abreu...I think the Astros Farm was still highly rated for pitching when he lost prospect eligibility. Blanco, France, Arrighetti, Gordon, and Gusto can't hit. Hitting skill makes up nearly 50% of a Farm System's value and the Astros have signed multiple old 1B lately because they have not developed one bat-first prospect since Alvarez and Tucker. Dubon plays second. With a team that has returned so much MLB talent lately, Dubon, despite playing well, should not have been in a position to start if the farm was great. The Astros team looks exactly as one should expect it to if the farm system was weak for the past few years.
Does Smith have to win it for us to get a pick for him on ROY, or does he just have to finish top 3. Because he ain't winning it- that's the A's SS, but if the Astros finish in first place in the AL and he goes on a tear coming in I could definitely see top 3 happening. Top 5 basically guaranteed.
I think Crane is sort of a bad owner at most of what people think being an owner is. I think Crane has made 3 incredible to very good hires in Luhnow, Click and Brown, 1 good manager hire in AJ and underwhelming hires and decions everywhere else. He isn't charismatic, he's not a bottomless checkbook, when he meddles it goes poorly, blah blah blah. In other words Crane only really does 1 thing really well (from the outside looking in) but in doing that thing so well (hiring and empowering GM's within reason) that's like 85 or 90% of what makes a good owner.
The Astros starting 9 and bench players? Or the 26. Because the pitching they've had is really good man. And has been. For a long time. And will be as long as the maldonado pixie dust stays on the team.
He also gets credit for keeping MinuteMaid/Daiken a fantastic place to watch a game despite its age. You don't hear anything about wanting tax dollars for a new stadium or threats to move if he doesn't get some kind of government handout.
I never even thought of that, but yes, absolutely. its hard for me to believe MMP is 25 years old and lots of ballparks are sort of obsolete and on their last legs. the MMP experience is better today than the day we moved in, and it was plenty good then.
