I don't really care about Espada's use of pitchers, managers are extremely easy to replace in baseball. The fact that he still has a job after pitcher usage last season tells me the powers that be are on board with how he is using them, that is what actually scares me. I've stopped criticizing Espada because of it, at this point it's a front office problem and he's just a symptom.
Yordan has stopped hitting. Striking out a lot. Is he just tired or playing with another injury or both? Batting Cam Smith 5th?
Imai - 5 IP/ 2 runs. Probability 15% Woo - same numbers or better... 70% Yordan is in a mini-slump, but Altuve has fallen off significantly from earlier. Cam is hitting worse than last year. Walker, slump. Correa, gone. Paredes isn't last year yet, if ever. Peña, DNPs. Astros lineup has several holes and are lacking timely hits. If age has made Altuve an average hitter, that's a huge blow to a suspect offense. Cam is actually hitting *worse* than last year. Loperfido might be alive somewhere. Meyers, show yourself.
Yes, they still had most of the 106 win WS roster still on the team. You don't fall apart overnight 99 win projection...WS title 103 win projection...ALCS 107 win projection...lost in WS pandemic season 101 win projection...lost in WS 106 win projection....WS title 93 win projection...ALCS (still a great season, but by every measure our worst full season team since 2016) 90 win projection...lost in wild card series 83 win projection...missed postseason
Yes Espada is singlehandedly responsible for the collapse our MLB talent level Nobody else, just him. Everything else is just as awesome as it once was, fire him and we win 105 games with 5 or 6 all stars. And FWIW, Dusty was still the manager in 2023...the GM is the thing that changed after our WS title, and the guy that chose to hire Espada.
Has there ever been another situation where the GM was fired after winning a WS? I’ll say the answer is no.
Woo has allowed 3+ in 4 of his 8 starts, including 6 and 7 in the two starts leading up to his gem last time out. He is dominant at home so glad this one isn’t in Seattle Altuve is so streaky and always has been that it’s gonna be hard to tell when age has made him significantly worse. Hopefully last nights 3 hits is the start of a hot streak, cause without Pena, Correa and even Yainer (who had started hitting better) this lineup has some ugly holes in it
The misuse of the pitching staff is the main problem and that falls directly on Espada. I've pointed out just a few examples of his incompetence.
I don’t think anyone thinks Espada is single-handedly responsible, but he damn sure doesn’t exude confidence in anyone that he can lead us to anything better
The GM wasn't fired. His contract expired and he was only offered a one-year extension and didn't want that.
Can’t blame him for wanting more. They just won it all. He deserved more. I stand corrected. I forgot.
And it hasn’t worked out well for him OR the Astros We are way worse off without him, and he is a long shot to get another GM job with all the talk of how difficult he is to work with out in the open
