Didn't you JUST make the argument that he is blackballed...ie. "nobody wants to hire the guy that was considered the best GM in MLB"?
Has anyone considered that Luhnow is happy doing what he's doing now and is not interested in the inevitable crapstorm that would accompany him being hired back into MLB?
By the historic results on the field. Three straight 100 win seasons. Still going strong despite MLB punishment and a good but not great GM. Are you saying the architect of the best 3 year stretch of baseball in MLB history wasn't the best GM in MLB? If so there's no reason in continuing this discussion.
I'm saying the only people I've heard say that are Astros fans, myself included. What if others didn't share my opinion? But all this irrelevant anyway, especially in light of Buck's excellent point above.
The 100 win seasons speak for themselves Because of this anybody that disagrees, I don't pay much attention too. Agreed about this being irrelevant now.
The culture he created was the problem. The Front office was cut-throat and fostered unnecessary competition. The competition lead to the sign stealing scheme. People seem to ignore that. The Asst GM being fired for comments towards the female reporter about Osuna was part of it. That culture he fostered is the reason he wasn’t hired by anyone else. Also, it is the reason Crane would never hiring him back.
He has in the past said that he would like to be back in baseball, but I don't know how he feels now.
I have heard the "culture" argument before. Having said that, that was far from the first front office that was extremely competitive and cut throat. The competition didn't lead to the sign stealing scheme anymore than it did with the Yankees or the Red Sox or the Brewers. There were a number of teams that were cheating during that time period. It helped some players more than others (Marwin Gonzalez and Christian Yelich) but it was something pervasive through out baseball. That doesn't even get into the pitching side where everyone was cheating as well. The Astros were singled out because a former player for the Astros broke the code and went public after he was left off the playoff roster and was upset. Guys like Beltran were with the Yankees and other organizations cheating before he was even an Astro. Indeed, the Red Sox and Yankees both were fighting over who would bring him in AFTER the Astros had him. The Astros were not the best at PR, they did not give local or national media as much access as other teams and they also did not think they had to be if they won.
And if teams truly judge GM's based on end results... and the "culture" helped cultivate a machine that is continuing to pay dividends... its surprising to think an owner won't consider him in the future merely because he hired consultants that were mysoginistic and ended up publicly calling out a female reporter in a complete PR nightmare. You can contrast how the Astros handled that situation with how the Celtics are handling the Udoka situation (which by all accounts, what Udoka did was far worse than anything an Astros staffer did)... but they've kept it under wraps, they've doled out harsh punishment, and its just about expired on the news cycle.
One thing Morey is so great out is pandering to the media. I have no doubt he thinks the media is worthless garbage, same way lunhow thought and same was hinkie thought, but those guys didn’t bother playing the game. When you don’t pander to the media, it’s really tough, doesn’t matter if you are unquestionably the goat like lunhow or just top 3 or wherever hinkie ranked as a gm. Ultimately, that was both of their downfalls, not pandering to worthless media. The culture argument against lunhow is hilariously idiotic.
I think this is a good point. Pandering to the small guys is important. Narratives are a big deal at the end of the day.
To be fair, do you remember some of the hit pieces the media went after the Astros/Luhnow with at the start of the rebuild? I don't fault Jeff for keeping receipts.
I think people GREATLY over exaggerate the importance of reality or what actually happened in situations. People point to the “sign stealing scandal” or talk about fiers or whatever but in reality, everyone inside baseball knew what was happening and knew how much other teams were “cheating”. When passen was writing his garbage, you think he didn’t know about the yankees or boston or la or everyone else? Of course he did, he just choose dishonesty and ignoring reality because the media hated lunhow.
