it's a fair point and I think we should all hope the Astros can turn it around. The first half of 2005 and all of 2006 and 2007 has been tough to watch as a fan.
Let's start here...because there's a huge contradiction. On one hand, the typical complaint about Drayton is that he's meddlesome. That he exerts too much control to the point of running off good managment. But those same people who make that argument are the same ones who give him no credit for the success of the franchise. So which is it? Did he have nothing to do with it?? Or was he exerting too much control along the way, and thus made it all happen?? And does he get no credit for hiring and keeping Hunsicker around for 9 years??? Really?? If you presuppose that good owners don't meddle and let the management figure things out....and at the same time given Hunsicker all the credit for the good that happened.....then how do you arrive at a place where McLane has been a bad owner??? Do you not see how ridiculous these arguments are??? How they inherently contradict themselves? The truth is he hired good people and kept them around for a long period of time. He made some good moves...he made some bad moves. ...and the franchise is infinitely better off with him than it's been under anyone else's watch. We can argue managment styles all day long....but the results have been there for this franchise far beyond anything they ever accomplished before him.
First off I think Drayton is obviously the best owner by far of a bad lot. And give him major props for bringing in Gerry. YES MAX,he deserves credit for hiring good people....how much of this is on Tal though and not Drayton I don't know. BUT I see Gerry and Tal being so good that overall we were able to accomplish alot despite Drayton having to have his thumb in the pie right down to screwing with the batting order.HUN was a counterbalance IMO to Drayton much like Billy Martin was to Steinbrenner. Please understand that I'm ecstatic we finally made it to the Series. And as long as Tal Smith is associated with our Stros we'll PROBABLY stand a decent chance of being OK in the long run. I just don't see us ever achieving our full potential on the field with Drayton at the helm though.
You're assuming that other owners would have hired and retained Tal and/or Gerry. GM's rarely stick around as long as Hunsicker did. I believe he had the longest tenure of any GM in Astros franchise history. So let's stop pretending that he found it so unliveable here. It's great revisionist history, but he was here for a decade.
had a few minutes to listen in to the stream of the morning show on sports radio 610 network in philly. they were ripping (host and callers) the stros for the ed wade hiring. but basically said his incompetence is not their problem anymore, it is the stros, so they don't care. http://www.610wip.com/pages/125485.php The Morning Show Monday - Friday: 5:30 AM - 10:00 AM Morning Show Join Angelo Cataldi, Al Morganti, Rhea Hughes, and former Philadelphia Flyer Keith Jones weekday mornings from 5:30am - 10am
The same fans who booed Donovan McNabb, one of the top five quarterbacks in the world, earlier this week? Yeah, I trust that kind of judgment.
You're almost obligated to do that. You don't think this fanbase will be ripping whomever hires JVG next? That we aren't ripping Carolina for bringing in Carr? You want to see people falter after they leave - it helps justify the decision to send them packing. No different than wanting your ex to end up with someone worse than you. Evan
Max- While some people here rip Drayton for too many things, many undeserved, I think (IMHO, which means nothing) that you are possibly too much of a Drayton-homer. Yes, he deserves tons of credit for building a quality franchise that has been one of the most successful in baseball. Yes, he has given the green light for trades and free agent signings that have brought in quality players and even got us to our first World Series. Yes, he is a huge upgrade over John McMullen and the organization is much better than it was in the Dome Days. He does deserve credit for hiring a great GM like Hunsicker as well. And although Gerry probably made most of the personnel decisions (I think), Drayton's willingness to write the checks and green light the moves is reason enough to compliment him. That said, I really think that at THIS POINT, Drayton has become somewhat of a hindrance to this ballclub. When Hunsicker left, he basically hired a "yes-man" and he took a much more proactive role in the personnel moves. This has led to our team making some pretty bad moves and we are in a bad place at the moment. He fires the yes-man and the manager (which were deserved) and then hires a GM with a less-than-stellar reputation, and one who (allegedly, but you never know with Philly fans) has a reputation of being another yes-man. He makes statements like "we need to reload", when in reality we need to do more than that (I think the term rebuild is taking it a bit far with the cornerstones that we have). Nothing less than a huge spending spree will turn this around, and I don't know if he's willing to do that...time will tell. We are certainly not winning with his guys right now...and we've been burned before (Ensberg comes to mind as well as Lane) While Drayton deserves credit and isn't a bad owner, it seems that he is somewhat (I stress somewhat) heading down the Jerry Jones path of "I think I know more than the experts and I own the team", which isn't good. I respect and understand your defending of Drayton, but I really think that he is traveling down a bad road. I hope I am wrong and that we put a quality product back on the field and resume our winning ways. FILIBUSTER OVER
I can't predict the future. I don't think any of us can. Wade may be awful here...he may do great. I'm not predicting nor defending Drayton McLane's future. I'm defending the track-record...particularly relative to what he inherited when he bought this team to begin with.
And you are absolutely right. But I'm also talking about his track record the last couple of seasons. I like Drayton and I appreciate that under his ownership, we have progressed by leaps and bounds (I remember the 4,000 person crowds at the dome). I just think that we are currently regressing and have been for a couple of years, especially this season. I hope it gets turned around. I only made that post because it seemed like people were criticizing Drayton in 2006 and 2007, not in the decade before. I could have misunderstood, though. Anyways, go stros!
After 9 years of hiring and keeping Hunsicker around, he made a mistake with Purpura. He corrected it in 2 years. Hopefully Wade will be an improvement.
Would you say, as a whole, that Astros fans like Wade? Here's a better question... How many teams have fans that like their GM?
Outside the normal contingent of whiners, most of the Astros fan community wanted to have Hunsicker's baby. I exaggerate, of course, but only a little bit.
