They gave away too much!!! What is difficult to understand. That is an opinion from an annonmous fan. An idiot is the one that does not realize that the majority of the 2015 key core guys were brought in be Ed Wade. This team doesn't do a lick without Springer, Altuve, Dallas Keutchel. And without Cosart, there would be no Daz Cameron, Moran, Martes, Marisnick. Without Folty there would be to Gattis. Luhnow picked up McHugh, but he also missed out on the all star production of JD Martinez. Right now Luhnow has done two things exceptionally well, the 2012 draft and the Cosart trade return. I do maintain that the Front office should be held accountable. But this BS about the FO deserving all the credit belongs to idiots. Ed Wade did his part well, and regarding his bad record with trades and FA's, he was handcuffed by McLane to cut payroll. Think before you talk, and that goes for the whole lot.
Its reaching Peter Gammons-level dementia in here (who btw just mentioned that Bobby Heck was responsible for drafting Correa... not the guy who actually saw him in person, Mike Elias).
How would you like to hold them accountable? And for what, exactly? For turning a dumpster fire into one of the best young teams in baseball?
I think this is a fair trade and i'm glad that Appel was apart of the trade rather then Fisher. Appel has shown us nothing so far and is already 24.
ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHAT... AND HOW???? You literally contradict yourself - saying Lunhow botched the Appel pick then immediately raking him over the coals for trading him for a young stud closer. The turnaround this team has experienced has been nothing short of remarkable - what more are you expecting from this FO??? Not a single person has said they're flawless nor that they've never made mistakes but your entire argument is essentially that. I mean you're sure as hell not giving them any credit for going from historically bad to championship contender but you what them to be "held accountable" for nothing more than your inclination that they MAY have given up too much in this trade.
Tanking for 4 years in a row while not contributing monitarily to the big league team will get you into last place. They did the perfect tank job, the mythical one fans crave for. McLane ordered to shed payroll to a trickle to get it started. And the debacle of the CSN tv deal left Crane bleeding money, continuing the policy. Whoopty do, they got out of the cellar of abismal play, after they got average talent last year. There was minimal effort to field anything above a AAA team up until last season. Don't be fooled, they snuck up on teams in the beginning of the season. But they struggled to play even .500 baseball after that. The Astros had a golden opportunity after following their genius plan. They used up one of their bullets (#1 pick) which figured to be a integral part of the rebuilding plan, now it's revealed what they thought of Appel. Sure they aren't the first team to give up on a #1 pick, but it still hurts to see.
Appel was NOT going to be an integral part of our plan. Period. I honestly cannot believe this is even up for debate. Yes the pick was blown. But now we have someone with exponentially more current skill AND upside and don't have to tiptoe around the Appel issue anymore.
Did you see Appel pitch the past couple years? Get your mind off the "#1 pick" and just accept him as a good but not great prospect. For us to make the run we did last year, you really need to get a grip, bro.
I'm with you. I won't cry about giving up Appel until he does something special in the majors. I'm also happy that Fisher is still in our system. He looks like a very good hitter. He has power, he walks a lot, he steals bases. What's not to like?
Somehow I missed this brilliant gem. McHugh Kazmir Feldman Fiers McCullers Gregerson Neshek Sipp Harris Correa Carter Gattis Valbuena Lowrie Gomez Fascinating that none of this constitutes a "majority" of the key players, while 3 guys does.
It was called spending on free agents. Gregerson, Rasmus, Feldman, and Nesheck didn't do the Astros any favors, they got market value. Which when Astros were sucking, they didn't do. This wasn't going cheap trying to find bargain basement guys. Valbuena came from Fowler, who came from Jordan Lyles. Carter came from Lowrie who came from Melcon. My point is that three of your four best players are Ed Wade guys. Without them even with Correa the team is a 70 win team. So I am not giving Luhnow a free pass like some of you. Replenishing a farm system is never ending, maybe this SS Arauz. Ed Wade will get shunned once again, he laid some key foundation for the Phillies title run. And here in Houston the same is happening, Jeff Luhnow gets all the credit here. So much that it is almost sports blasphemy to question his moves. Because that is the same argument I keep hearing. Jeff made the Astros a playoff team, he's beyond criticism.
While I don't necessarily agree with Vince , I think ed wade doesn't get as much credit as he deserves . The guy had a much different mandate than lunhow and different ownership giving him those guidelines. He drafted fairly well and I don't think his trades ended up poorly . He did a decent job of restocking the farm system while also being somewhat competitive until he got the OK to tank . GMs take time to evaluate fully and while lunhow appears to have done some good things here , he was definitely aided by the talent wade had already acquired . Our depth in the farm comes a lot from having the highest pools in the draft 3 years in a row . The new draft rules have greatly helped the Astros. I also think it is fair to connect Bobby heck to the 2012 draft . I'm not sure how much input he had , but that 2012 draft was truly exceptional and I think heck had at least some influence . Lunhow had not been GM for that long so he had to rely on part on the previous staff and heck and the existing staff did a good job with that draft . I like lunhow , I also think he has made mistakes . I think it's fair to give wade credit for the talent that he acquired that is either playing for us now or was used in trades . At this point it's not crazy to say that the majority of the roster has been aqccuired either directly by Ed wade or using players he got . Yeah give credit to lunhow for making those moves , who is to say wade wouldn't have done something similar in trading prospects for proven talent once he had built up the farm enough . That's all .
I am not an Astros hater. I hope am wrong about this trade, and three years from now y'all can bring up my position over and over. In Vegas it's called going all in. And that is what they did. I hope they got gold, as in championship World Series title(s). Because if not, even if Giles makes an Allstar appearance; and any of Vince Velasquez, Appel, Eshelman, Obie are MLB 200 inning type pitchers, then it is a loss of a trade. There is strength in numbers, and the Phillies made one heck of a smart trade. Did they go all in too soon? and by that I mean overpaying so drastically. And for goodness sake I hope I am wrong and all of you are right!
Ed Wade gets too much credit for acquiring guys in part due to the pieces acquired by Tim Pupurra who got his pieces from Hunsicker. While we're at it, how come nobody gives Abner Doubleday any credit? Without him, there is no Ed Wade so it must be his doing that any of this exists and its sad that he doesn't get mentioned by all you Luhnow worshippers.
Going all in would imply they traded at least one of their best prospects, let alone an actual MLB player, no? I also wonder if it's called going all in in other places besides Vegas?
