I wanted Rodney Linares when Joe was hired and he is still a bench coach looking for a managers job Dude is a winner.
I keep hearing how ELITE he is at the draft, yet I'm still waiting for one of his draft picks to make a difference, or at least have the looks of someone who will He seems to love loud tools way more than baseball skills. At the very least we need to draft more of a mix, we have almost no one in the entire organization who has plus bat to ball skills His first class got people excited right away. Brice had the loud tools, and obviously it's way too early to know how he will end up, but the lack of contact (43 K's in a little over 100 at bats) is gonna make it extremely difficult to let those tools matter. That first class also saw guys like Bloss, Ferreras, Jeron Williams move fast yet three years later they are still at Corpus struggling to hang on Look at his 3 drafts Brice (already discussed) Treadwell, his best chance to make the big leagues is in the pen, dude can't throw strikes Bloss, consider this one a success I suppose since he helped get us Kuchi, not really seen as much of a prospect in Toronto system I guess the best of the rest is Joseph Sullivan, who has some power and speed, but struggling to hit .200 at AA 2024 Janek, nice spring, other than that looking more and more like system depth Forcucci, had surgery before the draft. Finally pitching, has 19 BB in 9 IP so hell might as well bring him to Houston he fits in Parker Smith, 23 and getting battered around in A ball Cole Hertzler, not big stuff but is having success at A+ at least, maybe he has a chance to make it some day? Joseph Sullivan, another toolsy Dana guy, hitting some HR and stealilng some bases while struggling to hit .200 at AA I think the best player to come from this class will be Bryce Mayer, a late round pitcher maybe he hit on Way too early on last years class obviously, but I do have to laugh when I see Neyens with 44 K's in 100 at bats in A ball. Yes, I know he is a teenager and has big tools, but for the love of God find someone who can put the bat on the damn ball
International - Alvarez was a great signing and he really need to be a star level player for the Stros.
Yes, good signing, and yes we really need him to be a star. I have no doubt Dana is a good, probably great, scout But if he is ELITE as I keep hearing a few people say, three years of international classes and three years of drafts, we should have more Whether a lot of people want to admit it or not, our system is really bad
On the Nothing Personal Podcast, David Samson said something interesting and pertinent. He said a GM will always fire a manager to save his own ass even if everyone knows/believes the manager is doing a good job. But he said the GM will wait until just before a series vs a weak opponent. Its important to that GM's survival that there is immediate success and it looks like firing the manager did some good. Don't expect Espada fired before or during the Cubs' series but maybe heading to South Oklahoma is an opportune time.
I do not believe that Dana has the final say on keeping or firing Joe. Since the scandal, Crane is way too involved to let it occur in that way. Crane very likely sees those two positions as positions he will make the decision on.
If Dana is counting on that to save his ass, he will be sorely disappointed. We will probably lose 2 out of 3 to any of the bottom teams in the league, even with Joe gone.
I would like Shildt also, has a strong reputation for getting basics right and can work with egos. Right after he left Cardinals they started doing stupid s**t nonstop on D, bases and in hitters box. I think he announced like semiretirement after Padres but that was rumoured to just be nice story for AJ Preller firing him and taking some time off. I know we don't have the player devel.that some teams have, super effective blend of analytics and old school process in FO or picks or prospects or owner who would give enough room for smart FO to operate.....but still I would love to see atleast clown Espada gone and Astros moving more to Rays style FO and smart manager totally in sync or to old school high demand authority manager leading guys with Dana and bumping heads with Dana having skills to motivate, lead and reprimand players if needed. That said Im not at all convinced Dana can operate whole org with scouting backround. Smart teams have been getting better at this for ages and with FO loaded with many supertalented people. Hiring a guy "come to scout" to number 1 honcho feels bit simplistic but happy if it works. When we lose Joe thinks stuff just happened we could't expect. When we win Joe thinks team is great, season is great and now when we have won 1 out of 3 in series we can punt the last two because everything is AWESOME. "He was throwing good" and "swing looked nice and good at bats". All the limp d*ck jargon without any substance or effort to improve. I don't say that it's only him being whimp, it might actually be he really does't know what they could individually and as team do better. He just is there filling the space. I think it was 2nd game postgame (Brewers sweeping Cubs this week) Murphy looked like he had been boiling a while during game. He was grumpy AF and almost snarled that they had 4 times runner on 3rd with less than 1 out and managed to strike out and not score and you dont win games doing things like that. Admitted the pitcher had good curveball but was disappointed. And they fking won. He plays to perfection to players that old "we small team against the world" to motivate. Ofcourse it's kinda true. MLB and comissioner would be devastated if they would take NL spot in WS. Dude might seem to some young players as old man yelling at clouds but they know every player must do what they can to help team win and if one slips from what was agreed he won't get away with it. Everybody says our star vets are the best and clubhouse is positively fortified. Does't that mean also that they would be ready for something different than this Dana & Joe vegan daycare stuff. We have no direction or fight. Players are comfortable and complacent. I can't stand that it took injury to get Diaz the fk out of the lineup for longer. Everybody can see he don't give a fk and has options but we are like frozen from real changes. Im on board for trading him for nothing instead of playing him to send a message. Does the needed change require new owner ( Crane son or someone new)? Maybe. But instead of this **** I would rather see 26 nameless baseball rats giving their all every day. They would become our rats and we would cheer for them and for their truthbomb machine get off my lawn senile manager .
This is not a good baseball team. There is not enough available talent to change that. Yes, Hunter and Hader will be back eventually. Doesn't change the fact that we're putting lineups out that have Jake Myers hitting 5th. I didn't worry about the slow starts over the last decade because they were just too good to continue playing like that over 162. I have zero confidence that they will pull out of this anytime soon. I don't think Espada is entirely to blame and I don't see how firing him now changes anything other that maybe a minor new manager bump. There's just not enough depth to change the fact that 5/9's of the lineup is bad on any given night...and the top 4 aren't exactly helping.
This. Absolutely this. While Dana Brown has shown that he is an excellent scout, it has not translated here in Houston. I would not expect him to hit on every draft pick as the MLB draft is a crapshoot. However, with the mix of toolsy players he has chosen (last draft not withstanding), I would expect some of his early picks to start paying dividends. Brice Matthews is at best IMO bench depth. Brice strikes out way too much to be an everyday positional player. By now I would have expected to see some of the college players chosen in the first two drafts to start making their presence known in AA and AAA. I don't remember where I read it, but an anonymous scout stated that there isn't a major league worthy positional player at AAA --- that is a damn shame. I understand that Dana Brown has picked towards the back part of the first round, however some of the best players aren't all first round picks. As far as running the big league team, it appears that just about every move that Dana Brown made over the offseason has not worked out in his favor (save Peter Lambert). While I understand you can't make chicken salad out of chicken **** (looking at you Jim Crane), I would expect Dana's scouting background help him to identify some of those bargain-basement, scrap heap players to catch lightning in a bottle. With the draft around the corner and the Astros having the most draft pool money they've had in 10 years, I hope they can draft some real impact prospects --- but if Dana Brown is doing the picking, it may not matter.
Not that it refutes your overarching point, but one reason the AAA lineup is so bereft of prospects is because of the injuries at the major league level. If everyone was healthy, Altuve/Correa/Trammell/Loperfido would all be on the big league roster, pushing Dezenzo, Matthews, Cole, and Smith down to AAA. Thats 4 legitimate upside young players. Dana Brown’s 2023 draft is bubbling up: Matthews is in the majors. Yes he looks like a bench piece but he is contributing to the major league roster ahead of most of the players drafted within 10-20 picks of him. Pecko is 2-3 starts away from getting called up. Nezuh is showing well in AA’s rotation, and Bush and Ferreras are showing well in the AA lineup. Ochoa and Huezo require patience as HS draftees but both are showing well in A ball. The only trending bust in that class is Tredwell. Brown has already captured major league value for Bloss and Jaworsky. I agree that no individual prospect is trending to be a core piece (although I have high hopes for Pecko) and that would be a disappointment, but it’s too early to draw conclusions on that.
Seems like Joe may have weathered the storm. A series win vs the Ramgers will solidify his position for a while it seems.
