This is surprising, but I don't think you could say it's unwarranted. Public relations matters and these guys will have a toxic reputation for a few years. PR 101 says you rip the band aid off and move forward with as clean a slate as you can get. Jim Crane has shown himself to be an owner that will empower people with a plan. Luhnow had one, Crane empowered him and the team won the World Series. However, it turned out that Luhnow also hired front office guys like Taubman who were analytically sound but had no regard for optics (see his Osuna comments). In fact, the Osuna acquisition may have been when perception of the organization turned. We sacrificed our reputation to acquire a toxic asset for pennies on the dollar and still lost the World Series. There are long-term considerations to weigh if you want to become the win-at-all-costs organization. They're a lot harder to accept when you lose the ALCS and World Series in back to back years. I would trust Crane to hire the right GM going forward. This roster is still loaded and any top notch GM candidate would want to take the reins while the core is still together.
Man I thought we were breaking out of the curse yesterday after going up 24-0. What a turnaround in just 24 hours. Houston sports absolutely sucks and I don't know why I torture myself being a fan. Always coming up short lol.
Osuna is geting traded I imagine as well since Crane wants to clean up their image. Honestly they should just trade everyone away and start losing again.
Reflecting on this whole cheating scandal I just for the life of me don't understand how the people involved players/manager/GM thought they would get away with this? It's impossible to keep something like this under wraps forever. You've got 30+ players and staff who know what is going on and almost none of them will be Astros lifers.. they will move on and this will come to light... outrageously stupid thing to do.
"Sorry I was drunk last night and went to the wrong owner and told him to fire the GM and coach." - Deshaun Watson
This might be the end of the Astros long term. We won a championship and almost won another in a three year span. You don't lose the GM and manager that got you there. We might have a competitive team next year, but I don't trust anyone not named Luhnow to run the Astros.
Right. I said in the other thread... if you cheat... you're a cheater. When deflategate happened, and spygate before that, my first thought wasn't "well everyone does it and Belichick is great and Brady is great and even after halftime of that Colts game the Pats were even better and it's not a big deal"... my thought was "THEY CHEATED". I mean there's no other way to explain it to a 10 year old, for example. "Well, they technically cheated, but it's ok!" They cheated. Would I have thought less of Crane and the organization had Crane not fired them? No. Do I think it was a bad idea to fire them? No. Do I actually have slightly more respect for Crane for firing them? Yes. I think that puts me in the camp that cheating is cheating. To a certain extent... life is life, you have to push boundaries, I get that. But there's pushing boundaries, and cheating.
There are other talented GMs. Putila is a sharp guy. And Houston has talent on their roster and no really bad contracts. So it’s not the end of the world. But the draft pick losses put a gigantic dent in the chances of maintaining a contender past the Verlander years.
Hinch didn’t set it up but knew about it and did nothing to stop it? So, who actually set it up and did it?
Hinch is gone because he did nothing to stop it. He didnt agree with it so he should've put the hammer down and he didn't. I have a hard time believing Luhnow knew nothing about it. Maybe Luhnow didnt know about the cheating but from what is being reported he had an unsavory culture going on with those that worked for/with him.
So is Crane going to release any remaining players who instigated and participated in the scheme? The leaders of the organization are ultimately responsible for the actions of their employees, but I feel like Hinch in particular is getting a bum deal from what I've read so far.
There should be many well-qualified managers who'd love to coach a team with this kind of talent. Choosing the right one, though, is the key.
I understand it but I don’t understand how they say it was the players who did it and none of them get named other than Beltran.
