Trade Inconsistent/Mentally Scared Players Framber Valdez Kyle Tucker Jeremy Pena Josh Hader Gone Justin Verlander Ryan Pressly Wasted Money Lance McCullers, Cristian Javier, Jose Abreu, Rafael Montero Joe Espada must be looked at and see if he can be replaced by someone way better.
The writing was on the wall all year long, hired a novice coach, 1st base wasn’t addressed, and let’s be real here they got crowned dev champs due to playing in the weakest div in MLB. I’ll be completely honest I didn’t think they’ll go far in the playoffs but def didn’t think they’ll get swept this early. I dont think Espada was the right coach if you’re trying to win now.
I hate the wildcard so much. Any team can drop two of three to lose a series to any other team, had the wild card started last week Detroit would have lost to the White Sox.
Dusty got the team to the WS without Verlander. Don’t ever in your life compare a winner and a loser like that in the same breath. Pretending like this division wasn’t complete ass and the Mariners didn’t choke. Dusty never would have been 10 games back either.
The Dana Brown move to upset the natural order of the Astros bullpen by signing Hader can now be described as a disaster. What could have been much more prudently spent on we'll never know. A first baseman, a corner OF, multiple quality relievers. I've always thought that these last 2 years should have been the planning for Abreu to take over as closer once the Pressly contract ended in 2025. That's how you sustain success, you replace an expensive option with a really cheap one. That's all been blown to smithereens. He was directly or at the very least partially responsible for about a dozen losses this season. That's a lot for a near $20 million closer.
only a matter of time (and money) before the great realignment occurs… people think it just takes 2 more cities/investment/PE groups to pony up the dough to want to own & rep new teams (4 divisions, 4 teams vs. 3 divisions, 6 teams… bc parity)— but its gonna take at least 2 IF NOT 6 in order to realign the league & playoffs. Ive been working on this for awhile / how the wildcard & division winners would seed and the playoff format. Its kinda bvllshit theres 3 division winners with 2 of them earning byes… this shouldnt be the case. AL West is poorly misrepresented (well, straight up rocked and repped by the Stros). It can be done— its just a whole ‘nother game theory statistical conundrum IDGAF about right now.
Yeah I'm just being salty but I hate the best of 3, any team can win a 3 game series. Should just be best of 5 and if the top two seeds are worried about rust just make it an 8 team playoff like nearly every other sport.
