Just curious...where's all that money Crane saved from not re-signing JV the first time? I remember their was about 15-20 mil left after the Abreu, Montero, and Brantley signings. I think it was assumed it was going to be used to upgrade the team at the trade deadline. Crane was willing to sacrifice our 2 prospects to save money and get JV with the Mets paying off a substantial cut of his salary. Are we really sure he's not cheap?
Multi-posting for posterity, apologies CF... Dusty Baker knows its his last year here... (IDGAF who you are, thats a check that'll cash on Christmas Day) MLB "knows" its Baker's last year as the Astros GM... Dusty Baker has been literally tinkering- and quite literally doing EVERYTHING OPPOSITE of last year, running out NOT the best hitting lineups (whenever those best hitters in the lineups have been consistently healthy, respectively). All the quotes Baker's been making recently-- whether they're pushed by a media agenda or if its really just diarrhea spewing from his mouth... only leads me to think: (just as we've talked about fellas, Crane was "forced" into hiring Baker as a "****, let me clean up my personal business mess and this mess with the Astros"-- so yeah, we'll get him a ring and hold on to him as long as we can bc "optics"...) ...leads me to think: Dusty Baker is an employee of MLB, not Jim Crane's Houston Astros organization-- unless that was already decided back in the owners meetings & Jim agreed to it... we're gonna suppress this Astros surge / narrative and we'll make sure we have a mole to do just the best chance of that-- cue Dusty Baker. We were always supposed to have JV... and tbh, our record just may have been a few wins here or there better (lineup or not, shitty catchers, rising studs, forgotten heroes matters not). JV was a Crane move... every single call up / send down move has been with Baker's signature/advice on it. Players oblivious, but Manfred, the media fcks around the country, the owners / managers know exactly how the 2023 Astros season will play out. I can't believe anymore that we even have a WS defending team with the managerial FCKINGASININE blatant shhitbag moves / decisions that have been made this year... Dana Brown is probably white-knuckling the fck outta this season knowing he can't affect it. This isn't a negative post about being down on the WS this year-- friends, we weren't supposed to get back there this year. All those who aren't players know that. When was the last time you saw Jim Crane or Dana Brown or anyone in the media (non-player) actually step up and defend Dusty Baker's shake-n-bakes this season...??? #ready2haveawinningstudbaseballclub2getbehindagain Yeah-- this is the worst (Astros) team (NOT ON PAPER) I've seen at least since back, what 8-9-10 years ago+ ... its a fvcking JOKE to be a lifelong Astros fan right now.
Pretty sure Graveman and JV go beyond 15-20 million. Crane wasn't happy with Click last year when Click didn't make trades to get the Astros closer to the luxury tax limit. As far as the Mets paying JV, there was a quote from Steve Cohen saying he considered the Max and JV contracts as spent money and wasn't going to trade them just to save money. He only wanted to buy prospects in a trade and that's what the Mets did.
Just stop. This s*** is ridiculous. It’s like some of you started watching in 2017 and/or expect us to spend like we are the Dodgers with their mega TV deal or the Mets with Cohen’s money. He’s been the best owner in Houston sports by a land slide. Arguably the best owner in the MLB since he took over from McLane (want to talk about cheap?). We’ve been in the top 5 in team payroll multiple years since 2017. And the others weren’t far from it. This is on top of having one of the best development/scouting and analytics departments the entire time.
Lol when you can’t handle your ego being put in check, or someone telling you no does that make you the best?
Crane said he doesn't do long-term contract which means we will never get tier 1 free-agents unless he changes his stance. Without a GM, he signed R.Montero (worst signing ever) and J.Abreu (2nd worse signing ever, Diaz is platooning at 1st). Hiring D.Brown is still up in the air, he is more reactive than a proactive GM. Rangers GM got A.Chapman (2.28 ERA), poked at the Mets first geting Max and the other pitcher from Cardinals who has been dealing since traded. The Rangers may lose because of inexperience and injury, but they had a better pick up than we did. I'm happy with Crane with 2, but I like to be greedy.
The Astros roster is stacked. They aren't performing. That isn't Cranes fault, Dana Brown's fault etc. If Javier, Framber, Hunter Brown had been pitching to their potential the Astros would be up 5-10 games on the division. If Altuve, Yordan etc haven't been so beat up, then the Astros are probably 5 games up on the division. Its been a tough year, but next year will come and this team will still be predicted to be there in October. Tough year, WS hangovers are a consistent thing in this sport.
According to Cots Contracts, the Astros are about $4.5M below the CBT. That's 98% of available salary below it and $4.5M isn't going to bring in an impact player. Crane has spent the money, especially considering there was no GM for the majority of the offseason. Calling him cheap is flat untrue.
Cheap? No. But his money wasn't well spent. Brantley ($12M), Abreu ($29M) and Montero ($11.5M) were all bad decisions in retrospect. $4.5M wont get an impact player, but $42M+ sure would. Ok, some folks will say that these deals made sense at the time. Perhaps. But FO's are not judged by what looked good once upon a time, they are judged by how things turn out.
I'll respect him more if he fires Bagwell. Don't let my attitude towards a legend spoil because of what he does outside of playing. Thanks
Disagree. Bagwell belongs in this organization. He is great as color guy filling in for Blum or Sparky. He also has tremendous value working with prospects. But he absolutely should not be involved in scouting or acquisition decisions. Let him go impress people the nerd cave already decides needs to be an Astro but not involved in that decision.
That's pretty much what I would agree to, take away his administrative power. But I figure he would never relinquish that, so it's one or other with him.
Every top tier free agent signed this winter has pretty much sucked. Here's the list: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/2023/ It's a who's who of terrible or injured. So the only right answer judging by how things have turned out so far was "sign no one of note". Pretty sure people would have been livid with that outcome too, meaning Crane's choices are to be called either cheap or making poor decisions. Worth noting that the Orioles signed no one and look at them now.
Mariners got rid of folks and got better too. I would hope a no-decision ultimately would be better than bad ones. Those livid folks would have thanked Crane later if those players went on to perform like this with another team. But I'll grant you, doing nothing would have attracted a great deal of criticism.
The Abreu contract made sense at the time Brantley and Montero didn't. There was no reason to guarantee Brantley 12 million. Love Uncle Mike, but he should have been brought back at a much lower number with games played incentives, and if he wouldn't do that then let him go. Montero was great last year, and I think will be just fine moving forward, but that was a ridiculous amount of money for him
