In retrospect the Brantley decision was, in totality of both years, probably a miss. The Yuli decision was Ok. The JV decision was Cranes. The A Diaz decision was probably a miss (he was league average making 6 million or whatever and Hensley probably could have done the job ok). The trade for Emo and Montero was genius. The Stanek deal was amazing. The Nerris deal was ok, I guess, but for 8.5M a year I could have been just as fine with going a different direction and spending that money elsewhere as he wasn’t necessary for this bullpen with all the other quality you had. The Maton deal, amazingly, worked out with him having 1 good stretch in 1.5 years here and that being in the playoffs, but it becomes a heist if Y Diaz is a stud. The Castro deal was probably a loss in the totality of 2 years. The Pedro Baez decision was lighting money on fire. We saw major talent leave the Org in Springer and Correa, one of which has been a 2 year hole now and the other of which was replaced by the generic version that’s probably 80% as good but 4% of the price. That’s a win, I guess, but it doesn’t make us more likely to win the World Series this year as that savings was spent on Mancini, Vasquez and extra profit for Crane and not another high level talent somewhere else. He has done nothing to harm the organizations prospects in the long term with bloated or long term contracts. If his tenure ends this year he will be considered a good manager of what was successful (not everyone can do that well so cool and good for him I guess) who left little to zero long term impact on the franchise (unless Y Diaz becomes a monster). If Crane wants to bring him back that’s fine. I hope he continues to challenge him to be bolder than he has. If he wants to move on I will help him pack and drive him to the airport if the replacement is Stearns or Sid M or someone like that.
This is very detailed and very well thought out. I agree that Click in years 1-3 had a duty to not mess up what Luhnow built He can't be accountable for Springer leaving. I think he was gone no matter what and it had to do with 1) How Luhnow's organization treated him and 2) wanting to be close to home in the northeast. As for Correa I think it was a big test of " the philosophy". If Pena was not in the system and thought ready, it would have been tempting to spend beyond the team wants. They made the right choice as much as I love Correa. I also clearly see years 4+ will need to move beyond maintaining and require bigger bolder moves to keep the window open.
Click did a good job of keeping the status quo. They had the best team in MLB over the last 5 yrs. Who wouldn't want to keep the status quo? Also what player all things being equal like the Brantley contract wouldn't want to stay in Houston? That's what I'm talking about when I mention culture. Only an idiot would breakup the best team in MLB over the last 5 yrs and Click isn't an idiot. He's actually a good GM. He's just not the risk taker Crane likes in a GM, like Luhnow was.
So far that is the only legitimate concern about Click: can he make the high risk moves that fly in the face of pure long-term thinking. I had that concern about Luhnow until the Gomez (and subsequently Verlander) trades. Who knows if Click hasn’t made that kind of deal out of fear/inability to veer from his predominant philosophy, or if there just hasn’t been a deal of that kind available at anything even approaching a reasonable price. It is very difficult to render any kind of complete verdict on Click as a GM. His calling card with the Rays was amateur/prospect acquisition and development. As Astros GM he just had his 1st round pick for the first time this past draft, and he inherited a below average farm. It will be another 3-4 years at least before we can grade him in that arena. And in the other areas, the results speak for themselves, ALCS every year, with a WS appearance in the books with another potentially this year.
Time will tell if he's a Crane type risk taker. I'm betting not, but hope I'm wrong. The cupboard was hardly bare. Look at the pitching that was still in the system when Luhnow left. I mean 2nd tier guys like Pena/ Chaz/Meyers/Brown etc... are major contributors to this years team. Point is under Luhnow the Stros had a different way of valuing prospects than the traditional scouting services that ranked players and Luhnow's system was much better than those services or other MLB orgs. Will Click be as good as Luhnow if he's kept around in this area. Who knows, but he's got a lot to live up too. I'm thinking in this regard Click will be really good at this too, because this is his passion.
One thing I wonder is how recent (say, the last 5 years) GM turnover compares to the prior 5-10 years; one concern Crane might should consider is if the crop of replacements is shallower than it was when he hired Click and Luhnow.
What does his pride have to do with anything, People talk and they know if anybody is actually interested in him he would look like a laughing stock if he made up the offers. Just makes no sense for him to make up this he is not hurting for money.
Did you just forget the Bullpen pitchers he traded for last year and how good Maton was and has been? How about Neris?
Only Montero? Do the names Stanek, Maton, and Neris mean anything to you? Not to mention Graveman and Yimi Garcia last year.
My original point stands you clown. You've always been an insufferable prick in this forum since you began posting here.
But your point is flat wrong. There are more current bullpen arms that have no ties to Luhnow than do. Pressly-Luhnow Montero-Click Neris-Click Stanek-Click Abreu-Luhnow Martinez-Click Maton-Click Smith-Click Are the 2 bullpen arms that did not make the ALCS roster Everyone else is a starter who is only in the bullpen because they are among the best 13 pitchers but not enough starting spots.
He made far more good trades than bad ones. The fact that he was willing to take risks is what impressed me. A sure way not to win is to play the status quo, safe.
I believe I gave Click credit for rebuilding the bullpen and said Click's done a good, not great job of not messing up what was given him.
