I don’t think Dana is really to blame as much as this franchise needs an org-wide rebooting at this point and he’s not the person to accomplish that. They need a new Luhnow to come in and clean house. Simply too much brain drain and bad decisions over the years and I think Crane is the main party responsible.
Games in March / April, night games in May, other holidays, September / October should ALL be played, roof-open* Daikin, the Astros org, the HC-HSA all need to get on the same page and grow a pair, or God-forbid-I-say-it Manfred/MLB should apply their own strategic "persuasion". *pending weather/rain.
Omar Lopez just led an inspired Team Venezuela to win the World Baseball Classic. I want to see what he's got now before that residual winning spirit is tainted by that loser Espada.
@Nook Was Bill Murphy the brains all along behind the Murphy-Miller duo? Pirates are currently ranked #3 in ERA and tied for #3 in total pitcher wins in all of baseball. I know this team has had injuries but it seems him leaving was a devastating move for this organization.
No, it was the combo of both of them. They both were very good and worked well together. The Pirates have a lot of talent too. A lot of the Astros issues couldn’t be solved by any coach. Between injuries and Japanese being home sick, and poor catching… it’s a lot. Valdez was a big security blanket for years and the Astros #1-2 starters are out… and the Astros are learning why the Pirates were willing to trade Burrows (stubborn/argumentative). We also are seeing why Brown kept trying to get even more pitching all off season, even over bats.
The likelihood of finding another Luhnow is extremely rare. Consider how few of them there are and how many are in the largest markets. I am pretty confident Brown would do well in the draft and international signings. I also trust his ability to trade veterans for young players. He likely could also get good scouts and coaches in the system. I am not as confident in his ability to do the rest of the job. So I guess the question becomes can you get someone better? Personally if I were Crane I would keep Brown for now and tell him to beef up the scouting budget and focus on scouting other organizations minor leagues and move Brown, Yordan and Pena this winter. This deadline gut the pen in trade and move Meyers and Paredes and try to get international money in trade and trade for supplemental MLB draft picks under the rules.
Maybe someone should've said during the interview... we're not tryers here-- we don't "try" here in Houston, we do.
Cora (and multiple other) just got let go by Red Sox. Cora was making 7m and Joe gets prob.90% less than that so make the changes (Brown & Espada) and start getting ready for the future. I was't upset that Dubon got traded, understood that Dana needed the money to try upgrade pitching. Part of that was that we kept misusing Dubon playing him too much. If I would have been told we are gonna use him properly I would have been against the trade. He was perfect glue guy, clubhouse dude and utility player. Having watched him tell his whole life story from kid to bigs against all odds have to say prob.the most humble and down the earth player in this team. Dubon had like 7 positions he could play effectively. At the same time we have few players kinda like with no position because they can't play D much. Alvarez, Diaz, Altuve (these days), Paredes (plays multiple positions but has no mobility at all now). We are paying Diaz almost 5m to do what the fk he wants in batters box and look disinterested on the field. When he got picked off last night the Yanks broadcast were making fun of him looking like totally asleep. That is his regular gear game time. Someone mentioned as counter argument to playing Vazquez more that fatsy Vasquez was retiring b4 Astros called. Is't that like the worst look that retiring not in shape dude wipes the floor with Diaz showing fire and trying to compete and help team win everyday? Then you look at Diaz who is just disinterested. He knows he is safe because the bar is set so low in this team. Even if he does terribly, he just gets to play and will run into some homers when opposition decides to pitch strikes because he is doing so bad. But they don't have to really when game is tight. Diaz had 3 options year ago and now he has still 2 arb. years left (no 5y protection) I don't see anything that could stop the team from making example of him. There is only 2 players with worse war in this team but those are pitchers (Gordon & Abreu). Diaz is war darling because lot his dumbness is not calculated in stats. That he can't and is not interested in leading pitching staff creates bad stats for mostly pitchers. Just random venting. Clean house. Demand more. Give chances for young who shine in minors and option fast dudes that need that.
Cora is not the answer. If Espada is fired the obvious options are Omar Lopez and Mickey Storey as interim manager for an audition for the full time job. Mark DeRosa, Brandon Hyde, and Rocco Baldelli would be 3 guys Houston should interview.
Wow, just realize, this is WORST TEAM in MLB at this moment in time. Yes, I don't follow and not a huge fan. But still, this is bad. I get it, cycles, there were the bad years, follow by good years. I guess it is the down times again. With this and the Rockets doing what they do, the only potential winning team in this city is.... Oh well.
Dubon wasn't played too much for no reason - everyone on the Astros was injured and that's why he got so much playing time. People quickly forget, even with Dubon playing as much as he was, how many Nick-Allen-type scrubs played last year. But beyond that, Dubon is playing a full-time role in Atlanta right now and doing pretty well at it. Because of the infield logjam, I understood why they traded him but he was always going to be missed. Him (and Marwin before him) just make roster construction so much easier. I'd much rather have him having gotten all the at-bats that Allen, Johnson, Harris, Shewmake, and Whitcomb have collected. But it's hard to predict you'd lose so many outfielders in such a short time.
