That article was mindless, whiny drivel. What "facts" are you speaking of? That they should drop the price of concessions? Fine, I'll grant you that. I'm crazy, or perhaps my frame of reference is a bit wider than Houston, Texas, 2005-2010. I've had this discussion a thousand times with a thousand haters. None has accused me of sodomy with McLane, however--so great show of class there, bud. My point is always this: if you think McLane is as horrible as you indicate, then your frame of reference obviously does not include John McMullen or the Ford Motor Credit Company. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, read up. McLane isn't even in the worst 5 of current owners. *Every* franchise has its warts. Hell, the Yankees win 5 or 6 rings every decade (before you question my memory again, that was hyperbole) and Steinbrenner is constantly maligned. I'd rather be the Astros than the: Pirates Reds Royals Orioles Padres Nationals (they'll come back to earth, just watch...) Clippers T-wolves Grizzlies Bucks Knicks Lions Chiefs etc. etc. etc...
Oh, I forgot another fact from the article -- the Astros are making money even though they suck. Is that the author's point? BAAAAAD owner! BAAAAAAD!!!
Ed Wade is doing well at rebuilding the farm, but his major league acquisitions have been mostly a disaster. I think the worst part of Ed Wade is he isn't a sabermetrics guy. In this day and age, if you don't know all the relevant statistics, other teams will have an edge on you. But to be fair, Drayton was not about to let ANYONE trade away Berkman and Oswalt so the Astros could rebuild. So Ed Wade was handcuffed to an extent.
It actually isn't the norm, though I always thought it was. However, he would still have to sneak in a flask because you can't bring your own booze to any park I've been too.
Everything in that article is fact. You can dwindle it down to opinion, but FACT remains that its all true. I was only talking about CURRENT OWNERS. WHY IN THE HELL WOULD I COMPARE OWNERS FROM YOUR ERA, the Dinosaur age? I'm not about to go through all the reasons why these other teams are ran better than the Astros and have less owner interaction, but half the teams are doing a way way way better job than the Astros at this point. This isn't the 90s. I was tired of being "classy". You are the old fart who keeps insisting on calling me stupid so I'll say whatever the hell I want to.
Interesting. I couldn't bring a drink into: - were the Blazers play - Toyota Center - the Dome - MMP - Ranger Stadium - Ballpark @ Arlington - every concert venue I've ever gone to - Kile Field - Memorial Stadium - Baylor stadium (whatever it's called) Many of those outside of the last ten years, when I've been on the road more and being entertained less. Has something changed in the last ten years, or did I just have a long string of bad luck?
Wow you really summed it up in a brief few statements. I like your thinking. Yeah Wade is commonly bashed everywhere for not being a sabermetrics guy. Look no further than MLBtraderumors as proof. There was a former intern for the Astros who came out and demolished Ricky Bennett and Co for basing their decisions more on make up of a player rather than raw statistics. I'm more of a believer that you should use both when evaluating talent. Numbers can only take you so far and ignoring them to an extent won't get you very far.
The Bucks future looks much, much brighter thanks to young talent (Jennings and Bogut) and a playoff appearance this year. The Chiefs made the playoffs more recently than the Astros. The Lions have Calvin Johnson, Matt Stafford, and Ndamukuog Suh (in short, at least they have something to look forward to). Same with Clippers and Blake Griffin. But anyways, is this a corollary to the "at least Drayton is not McMullen" argument? Houston Astros: At Least we aren't the Clippers! Yeah, awesome. I don't think you can say Drayton is all good or all bad. His first 12 years as owner, he was one of the best. He gave control to smart guys (Hunsicker), improved the experience for fans, and put a competitive product on the field every year. He kept our stars happy and continually brought in new talent (Beltran, Kent, Clemens, Pettitte, etc.) On the other hand, the past few years, Drayton has been one of the worst owners. The Astros have been mismanaged into perhaps the team with the bleakest future in baseball. http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/news/story?id=5200005 (from Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus) Houston Astros: The worst situation in baseball Pirates and Royals fans think they have it bad, and their long-term history of losing seasons is worthy of their misery, but if one were to take a snapshot right now, and ignore the past, no team in baseball has a more bleak future than the Houston Astros. By now, we know the big league squad is the worst combination of both bad and aging, but once one combines that with one of worst -- if not the worst -- system in baseball, it's difficult to project anything but years of ineptitude ahead. Even the one player who was expected to help in 2010, catcher Jason Castro, likely will not be ready anytime soon. The 2008 first-round pick ended up more than a bit overrated coming into the year, based on a somewhat fortunate showing at the high-octane environment of Lancaster in the California League. During the second half of 2009, his lack of true power was exposed, and that trend has continued into 2010, as he's batting a strange .260/.389/.298 for Round Rock. Plate discipline has always been a strong point, but he has no above-average tools. Like all catchers, Castro is not a runner, but his line-drive swing has led to just four extra-base hits in 30 games for the Express, all of them doubles, and scouts don't see him hitting more than 10-12 homers per season long term, while his defense, like the rest of his game, is solid, yet unspectacular. When J.R. Towles bombed out in the big leagues (again), the Astros were hoping that a hot Castro would be ready to bring some youth to the team. Instead, they turned to Kevin Cash. That's the Astros in a nutshell.
The fact remains that the writer used facts to whine and moan and arrive at a whiny, moany opinion. ...to not be shallow? ...because you don't have any? because then you'd have to admit that since '92 the Astros have had infinitely more success than every one of them? but for the record, according to AB_ALLDAY, the Clippers and Detroit Lions are run better than the Astros. At this point, the Tampa Bay Rays are better than the Yankees. Tunnel vision is rarely a good thing. I'm genuinely sorry I asked you if you were stupid. You're not stupid--just your take on the current Astros' owner is stupid.
I read that post by the intern. Disturbing. I agree about sabermetrics, you have to use both numbers and other types of evaluation. But Wade should at least be knowledgeable of sabermetrics and how other teams value and price players so he doesn't overpay.
Excellent post. And I'm right with you on McLane's management being among the best for 12 years and among the worst for the last five. Interestingly, Hunsicker has been gone for five years. I'm a guy who always tries to look at the full body of work, and tries to avoid the "what have you done for me lately" style of evaluating anything. I understand others may not subscribe to that point of view. McLane inherited a mess at the major league level but some promise in the minors. He hired great people and built something "great" ("great" in terms of a fantastic player development system and great regular season games, although it's hard for me to use the term "great" when there wasn't even one ring). Let us see if he can build it again (assuming he doesn't sell). One last thing: I don't understand the knock against remembering past owners. I'm not pretending McLane is Steinbrenner, or whoever you think is the very best guy out there. He's fair-to-middling, but he's the best owner in the history of *this* franchise. Why is it so bad to point that out?
I don't like Goldstein personally but they are valid points. You should have read one of the Colorado beat writers just about hanging himself with a rope when we won the second game of the series. Daniel Williams said "And besides the Astros basically stinking for most the past decade, they are brilliant against the Rockies. Colorado has now lost 24 of 32 games to the Astros since 2000." Well funny how in the past decade, we have more wins.
