Agreed...they waited until 2010 to do what they should've done in 2007. As far as right now, I really don't know what the right thing to do is to solve this mess. I'd be listening to any offers for Walker, Paredes, Pena (if you won't extend him) and Meyers. Extend Brown at all costs. Brown has done a few good things (Tucker trade, Kikuchi rental), but none of his draft choices have done squat and that was apparently his specialty. The early returns on Burrows and Imai are very poor. Walker has improved since last year but still not worth the contract. I'm ready for a new GM. I would either hand Luhnow a blank check or get somebody back that was part of his tree. Fire Espada. I don't put all this bad pitching and injury luck on him, but he has not been impressive from the first day he took the job. Let's see what Omar Lopez can do to provide a spark, then let the new GM decide if they will keep him or make an outside hire.
We have moved into "Half Astro" territory. I remember those days well. We were the joke of the majors for a long time. Then came the Golden Years that are now long gone.
I think they would listen and deal him for the right deal - but they likely will keep Altuve and one of Correa or Yordan to get some fan interest.
The season is genuinely *this* close to already being a lost cause and it’s not even halfway through April yet.
Agreed. Espada is the manager that you have when you don't expect to do any damage in the postseason. That's exactly what the Astros front office has drawn up but failed to let everyone in on it.
I said it this offseason, and the start of the season hasn't made feel any better. The Astros are not a good organization anymore, I'm not even sure we're average. The MLB product has stayed competitive due to some leftover MLB talent from when we were good, but as an organization I can't look at anything and say we do it well. Seriously, somebody correct me and say we're doing whatever well. The one thing we appeared to still be doing is finding passable starting pitching out of nowhere and even that appears to have vanished. Espada will take all the heat, which is fine he sucks. But I have seen absolutely nothing to suggest Dana Brown is cut out to be an MLB organizational leader in 2026. Head scout maybe, but even our farm results have been mediocre at best so far in his tenure. Season is still young and maybe things will fall into place, but the franchise trajectory has been consistent.
What time frame are you referring to when you say they’re “not a good organization anymore”? I’m assuming you aren’t going back to 2022, when they won the World Series. So you’re at most talking about 3.15 seasons (2023 to now). Assessing that period: Legitimate dings: Consistently lose mass amounts of pitching depth to injury, more than other teams in the league. Consistently give out free agent contracts that go sour. Crane lit $100,000,000 on fire between Jose Abreu and Rafael Montero when he was GM. The returns on the Walker, Hader, and Imai deals ($200,000,000 total) are bad so far. Consistently lost draft picks from signing free agents with QO’s attached, which exacerbated the impact on the farm system of the sign stealing penalties, late draft picks due to winning, and loss of talent due to buy-side trades. Positives: Consistently find pitchers on the scrap heap, in the international market, and late in the draft who outperform their profile (until they get hurt). Win more trades than they lose. (Burrows trade requires more time to evaluate.) Generally draft well relative to their bonus pool. I am definitely ready to cut Espada loose, since I think the teams hes had have consistently underperformed even after considering the injuries. And there’s legitimate reason to doubt Brown; Espada was his hire and the injuries could potentially be traced to a program/staff he left/put in place. But I still have a lot of faith in Brown as a scout. Their big international signing from last year is already a top 100 prospect. Their HS late 1st rd pick is holding his own in full season ball. His biggest trade target (Smith) is a blossoming star. Really the injuries, bad free agent contracts, and poor in-game management are what is at the root of Houston’s downfall, and I’m not sure how much of that should be blamed on Dana Brown.
