Nope I just realize that Luhnow built a dynasty and Hinch stained the legacy by letting the players cheat
Luhnow is the GOAT, any astros “fan” who hs anything bad to say about him can go F themselves. Has nothing to do with what you asked, even if you wanna be this dishonest and disingenuous about them “cheating”
Maybe we're not understanding each other. I don't care how Luhnow treated the media. Putting a great team on the field is all that matters to me. BTW, I could care less about the last sentence in your post.
When did i say anything about luhnow? Only you brought him up. You asked why people like hinch, that’s what i responded to
I thought you were referring to Luhnow. My point about Hinch not being willing to control his clubhouse and the cheating stands
The cheating stuff is obviously irrelevant nonsense, you gotta be really ignorant of baseball at the time to believe that was a real thing. Among our recent managers he was by far the best, so it makes sense people miss him
The choice of a baseball manager is usually fairly simple compared to a football coach or basketball coach - especially with the Astros where so many decisions are made before game, and there is nothing to prevent the GM really from contacting the clubhouse in an emergency. On the other hand, I think everyone under-estimated it with the Astros because Espada has been a holdover going back to Hinch. That can cause issues, because while there were strong relationships between bench coach Espada and the players, it is different when it is manager Espada. I think that Espada is fine when it comes to choosing line ups, he has clearly improved since the season started and - honestly - some of the more questionable moves he has made with the line up have worked. Yes - there will always be fans that will complain, but Espada is fine there. When it comes to making pitching changes - Espada has really struggled for a variety of reasons. One, he seems to have a poor feel for the game when it comes to pulling starters. He has left young pitchers out there too long, and turned what would have been confidence building starts into starts where they were left there too long and gave up crooked numbers. I think when it comes to deciding which relievers to go to - he is getting better at that. He still makes mistakes, but I see improvement for sure. I am also told that he has gone to each reliever separately after having each of them speak to Miller and has got a feel for what they want and expect, and they are mostly happy. Where I see problems though - is that Espada is slow to act when the game deviates from what he expects. He has blown chances for challenges, which shows he and his staff do not know the rules as sharply as they should. He also lets things mushroom out of control - the Valdez 5th inning is a perfect example. He knew something was wrong with Valdez and Diaz and then he watched Valdez give up a 3 run homer. At that point a good manager at least goes out there, if doesn't straight pull Valdez. You go to your pen earlier, but you are still up 6-4. Instead Espada NEVER acted, he literally let Valdez blow a 5 run lead and gave up 7 runs in one inning. He also has not been great at using base running either.
Hinch has been dishonest about 2017 and has protected people in the game. The idea that Hinch was afraid to stop it, makes zero sense. Hinch's bench coach was heavily involved in the scandal (Cora). Hinch claims that he didn't have the courage to make them stop - yet he also supposedly destroyed the screen involved. It makes zero sense that the bench coach would be so deeply involved if Hinch didn't accept what he was doing. Also - If Hinch was so convinced it was the players in the dugout handling all of this, he could have gone to Luhnow or someone else in the front office. Why would he not do that? Also - Hinch, Cora and Luhnow constantly met and discussed all decisions on the field and off. I was told that the front office knew exactly what was going on, and participated in it - as did Hinch, and didn't speak up against it. You draw your own conclusions.
Having your finger on the pulse of a team...in conjunction with in game strategy. All facets... A necessity for any contender... And, we don't have it... Dusty's "player's manager" will get you only so far most of the time. Espada being cast in this role so cavalierly smacks of hubris. "He'll learn on the job"...Damn. How freaking hard is it to understand you need a veteran guy with us being a perennial contender!?! Even Hinch spit the bit and cost us a WS in that regard. You'd think Big Jim would have prioritized someone that could handle the strategic side..learned from his mistakes, but.... We're really missing Luhnow. Go Astros!
Yet he's got as many rings as Dusty, although he had more talent to work with and I'm not a Dusty guy fan.
Espada is in over his head. I'm just hope he figures it out soon before it's too late, because we aren't finding a great manager in the middle of the season.
It's baffling to try and describe just how disappointed I am with Espada and his moves and machinations on the field and in the pen
That question's been asked about 87 times today and absolutely nobody can come up with an even slightly plausible answer.
