I actually have a family member who used to work with Luhnow back in the 80s on the east coast. When he became GM we use to get a lot of free tickets behind home plate that got less over time the better the Astros got lol. But when the Astros let him go he changed a lot of his contact info but I'll try to see if I can get something. And apparently Luhnow in the 80s was that dude. Click has done a better job than I thought. Nice help for the bullpen and we'll see how he does with a full slate of draft picks. I was really sour on losing Luhnow though.
Never hated Click. He made Tampa Bay contenders with no money. Was just upset Luhnow got scapegoated and blackballed. Click literally was the best replacement we could have gotten. He definitely knows how to evaluate pitchers. I originally thought he whiffed on Odorizzi and Baez, but Odorizzi is proving valuable in the post season. So only Baez has been whiff. Maybe he comes back strong next season and gets his velocity back.
I haven't seen anyone criticize Click for rebuilding this bullpen on the fly. In fact, I saw nothing but excitement for picking up Graveman, Garcia, and to a lesser extent Maton (at the time, and only because of the price of your starting CF). Obviously he looks brilliant now based on how all of his additions (including Jake, Chas, and Siri) have turned up in the post-season. However, as is always the case, I think Click's tenure will truly be judged on how he handles this upcoming off-season. He has the potential to have serious money to play with, which is something he never had in TB. So far, Click has proven he's no Tim Purpura, and that's fantastic.
You have not been reading enough, there was a poster at the beginning of the year trashing Click in multiple threads. There was definitely a lot of negativity through midseason.
Click has been judged since he was hired, he got plenty of **** because of what he did not do during the covid offseason It's really strange that you have not seen anyone criticize Click because there have been plenty of posters ******** on him.
I'm talking about specifically this season, regarding the BP. I've seen the criticism of him not making the big splashy moves, and that's why I say this off-season is going to go a long way in forming his legacy here. It will be interesting to see whether he can escape the TB mindset, and swing money around in free agency. That's where I think the jury is still out on him.
I tend to agree with this too. I think Crane is a great owner, now let's see a little more from Click this offseason.
I hope this thread isn't premature because whether or not the Astros get 3 more wins will swing my feelings on several of the moves made by Click.
Lunhow was rooting for the Astros in the 2020 playoff run so I imagine he still is now. Much of the team is still his handiwork so makes sense.
This..... if Click deserves credit for anything, it is trusting the players in the lower organization when he took over. After losing Cole and Verlander the last few years, he could have panicked and trades for starting pitchers. He showed huge balls and rolled with Valdez, Urquidy and Garcia and they all have panned out....... he also didn't force a deal for a CF before the season starter or at the deadline but relied on internal options. Now I know for a fact that the reports from within the organization were very high on guys like Javier, Valdez and Garcia...... and the player development people are the best in the world..... but at the end of the day Click still trusted them and risked his job letting the young players play.... and that wasn't easy to do. A lot of GM's would have gone and made deals for veterans. The Gurriel signing raised eyebrows, but the PD people in the organization said the bat was still good.... and Click trusted them. How will the team look in 5 years when 80% of the roster is from Click's moves? IDK really but so far, for this period of time he has been good.
Luhnow set the foundation for a dynasty. Click has been a capable GM that has shown his knack for finding the talent that the club needs. What do both Click and Luhnow have in common, both were hired by Crane! I hated the Luhnow firing, but who knows what back handed deals needed to be made. Heck I would not be surprised if there was some politicking by the Cardinals as retribution for the computer hacking fiasco. Plus there was a lot of hatred from old traditional baseball gurus, because Luhnow bucked the system. Even the players Union was mad a Click for getting to the bottom of the barrel payroll in the mad experiment to obliterate the player expense when the talent was not good enough to win. Luhnow had a lot of enemies, and a golden opportunity to get him out of baseball presented itself; and I’m sure Crane knew how to pick his battles. Luhnow was hired to get the Astros into the analytics game, and he created an impressive system. One that even the Cardinals were jealous of. Crane had his system, or something to build on, so Luhnow was probably replaceable by that point.
As long as the Lunhow Click transition isn't like the Hunsiker Pupura transition then I'm cool with it...
There was definitely complaining about how the Maton trade was terrible and how Maton and Yimi sucked and gave up runs every time they pitched, etc. It was attached to a lot of complaints with Dusty's usage of the bullpen which never made sense to me. The bullpen sucks because Click made bad trades, but it's also Dusty's fault for using the bullpen he had to use.
There are some people in the Front Office that worked with Jeff Luhnow, there is a mixture and James Click wants to add more Analytics and Stats. The Rays I think should spend money on a 1B. The Overweight Asian player, that can't field is a problem, he should be used as a DH only. The Rays need more Power and Quickness in their Lineup. Anthony Rizzo of the Yankees on the Rays would boost the team more. Rizzo adds Championship experience,to the young team. If only Tampa can spend money.
Jeff Luhnow One of the best trades Best Trade in Astros History Trading Josh Fields to the Dodgers for Yordan Alvarez The Dodgers watching at home, while Yordan Alvarez is ALCS MVP and Yordan and the Astros are in the World Series Signed Framber Valdez, Jose Urquidy, Luis Garcia, Christian Javier, Yuli Gurriel a 30 yr old from Cuba, he will always hit and Silver Slugger, Michael Brantley a Professional Hitter Regrets Not Keeping, waived JD Martinez (He changed his batting stance to normal) (Before Crouching stance like Pujols never worked,was slow hitting, late to baseball swing) Trading away Josh Hader for Mike Fiers, Carlos Gomez Not resigning Charlie Morton James Click Traded for Kendall Graveman, Phil Maton, Yanier Diaz Catcher another Catching Stud, Yimi Garcia, Jake Odorizzi(Pitching well right now) Signed Jose Siri who looks like a young Carlos Gomez, Speed, Power, Athletic Jake Myers another Solid CF, Speed, Power, Contact, Athletic
The last stretch of the regular season when the Astros were mostly playing .500 ball and they took a while to clinch the division. Just to be clear, I'm not saying the bullpen sucks, nor did I say that in the regular season. Just that I saw a lot of complaints about both the quality and use of the bullpen. At the time I pointed out how the bullpen actually performed well and helped carry the team through that brutal stretch of games with no day off and the Click addressed the biggest weakness on the team without giving up anyone who had a long term future with the organization (as much as I like Straw and Toro as players). Even if the performance was spotty at the end of the season, he got what was there to get in terms of bullpen arms.
I'm also talking about this season everything I said was pertaining to the beginning of the season leading up to the deadline. I think you are ignoring what was said and Tampa has a bright future why would he escape that mindset. Nothing is guaranteed with throwing money around, Padres, Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox say hello. What Jury? Him getting this team to World Series with these young pitchers and the youngins in CF should be all you need to know.
The reason this team is the WS again is Luhnow. A vast majority of the core are luhnow guys. 5 straight ALCS 3 WS I mean he did an amazing job.
