He covered BASEBALL for the Houston Chronicle from 2001-2009. I think he knows what he's talking about.
Same goes to Rosenthal? Gammons? Law? Stark? Neyer? or any other long-time baseball writer who has criticized the Astros and their "rebuild" long before JdJO did? They're ALL wrong... only the Astros are right?
Along with not treating them all the same, with specific time-tables/schedules/arbitrary milestones, no matter what their talent. Would Wacha and Fernandez even be on this team right now had they been drafted? So far, their promotions haven't shown that "more" time in the minors is the answer to immediate MLB success. Sometimes guys have "it", and sometimes guys get "it" after spending time in the majors.
Officially the same record from 2013 after 34 games... but hey, their run differential is 7 runs better! The Marlins actually had a worse run differential than the Astros last year, and many here were laughing how they were rebuilding the "wrong" way, etc... and they are now in first place.
And sometimes, guys get "it" after spending the proper amount of time in the minors. George Springer's performance thus far is evidence that the Astros didn't wait excessively long to bring him up or that he had nothing he could work on in the minors. Maybe if the Astros had a Jose Fernandez that they could project to immediate success in the majors, they'd bring him up earlier. It's not like they aren't willing to bring up players when they are young - Cosart was brought up at age 20; Altuve at 21; Villar at 22. Maybe there's a reason that they hold certain players back that you and I simply can't see since we're not scouts.
I am saying that adding a career middling pitcher (Feldman) and two relievers really were not going to make a huge difference when you are a 100 loss team to begin with. I expected 95 losses this season, looks like they may lose 100 again.
I meant to put "at this point" last year.... When the teams were considered "even". Their callups have prospered. The Astros callups have either floundered (Villar), been inconsistent (Altuve), regressed (castro) or basically just "ok" (cosart).
So why do you think they brought those guys in? Are you also ignoring the expected contributions of the callups from mid-season last year to mid-season this year? Yes, they are definitely heading to a 100+ loss season and that is a major dissapointment. They need to be showing signs of progress, or you could see them decide to trade whatever "talent" they have that is about to be arb eligible and start over again.
You are ao obsessed with Springer you can't think straight. We have promoted several guys who were very young to be in the majors at their age. We also have a number of guys in the minors who are among the youngest in baseball at their level. It isn't like we just leave everyone down there to grow old. Other than Springer I can't think of a single guy who has been held down there past what any logical baseball guy would expect. And I know you won't agree with this. But the swing/approach issues we heard about with Springer are obvious now that we watch them. I know you think it is impossible for him to correct those things in the minors There is no reason at all to think guys like Fernandez and Wacha would be in the minors if they were in our system. We don't need a maddening promotion rate, we need to draft great players
Be careful, those guys you are criticizing were brought up very quickly which is gonna hurt another specific argument that we read about multiple times a day
Or, It's evidence that no matter how much time you stash somebody in the minors, they still need time to adjust to the big leagues (both the competition and the lifestyle). You think more time in the minors would have erased all his jittery errors? Or base running mistakes? Or ended his long homerless drought sooner? They also must be more foolish than even I think if they are willing to give him guaranteed millions before he even plays a MLB game (with all the flaws you state he needs more minor league time to figure out... He'd be the only career minor leaguer with a major league contract). Luhnow is already on record that they're not going to have guys skip a bunch of levels. They're going to have them meet certain milestones, etc. now some of that is just lip service so they can stash guys as they want to for salary reasons, but if he really believes in his development model, they won't ever have a Fernandez up here. Also, Cosart is 23....Altuve was promoted to sell tickets by the Wade/Drayton regime (and is an example of how guys CAN develop in the big leagues and aren't ruined by aggressive promotion)... and Villar spent parts of 6 seasons in the minors, and is not that young to be making his debut (he's more the norm).
I'll never blame aggressive promotion as a reason for failure. Half of those guys were promoted early, and all were acquired, by the previous regime that gets far too much blame. I agree they need better young players. You can have all the highest ranking farm systems you want. It doesn't matter till those players actually do well as MLB players.
They have not promoted "several" guys like that. Altuve/Castro were aggressively promoted by the previous regime... and both improved after adjusting at the big league level. They weren't ruined by aggressive promotion. I'd say Cosart/Villar are age appropriate (23/22). Nobody is blocking Singleton, but I feel he's still down for his maturity issues more than baseball issues. Folty would be able to stick in this rotation, or even be one of the best bullpen pitchers (he'd make the team better than they are now... and that should always be the goal). I don't think its "impossible"... just that at age 24, its time already. And regardless of what else he does at the minors, there is still always an adjustment... which we're in the process of seeing him make now. And if he's still hitting below .200 after 150 AB's, then there will be viable questions as to whether or not he was as good as his minor numbers, or this guaranteed-contract-giving front office, said he was. Great players show the ability to be able to skip levels and withstand aggressive promotion... two things Luhnow said they're unlikely to do at this time. Nothing "wrong" with that, but if the guys being called up are not succeeding right away, or struggling to make adjustments, maybe they should re-think/re-adjust their promotion strategy. Before its too late and they find themselves starting over again.
I think they expected to be slightly better, but not appreciably better. As I said, probably 95 loses instead of over 100. Anyone that thought the Astros were going to be much better than that, didn't look at their lineup and rotation... At absolute best it is bad. As far as call ups are concerned, most of their key players are still in the minors, and counting on rookies is a very uncertain thing. Turning around the worst team in baseball without huge free agent changes and top prospect producing is a hard thing to do. The Astros bottomed out and there are no guarantees.
No, my only point was that JdJO is a sh!tweasel, and the less I encounter his name, picture or thoughts the better my world is.
I have no earthly idea why the crap Ortiz and McClain spew out on a daily basis is accepted in this city.
Outside of Fernandez, who are all these aggressive Miami callups that have prospered, if Villar is considered to be floundering?
