Of course it was easier - that's not a negative on Lunhow. He did phenomenally with what he had and as well as basically anyone could have done. But he had more money, more prospects, more time, more freedom, and less pressure to work with.
Brandon Walter Victor Carantini Ben Gamel Jason Heyward Tayler Scott Kaleb Ort Jason Alexander Steven Okert Bennett Sousa Peter Lambert That is a pretty good list of guys Dana picked up essentially for nothing.
Lunhow and Click had plenty of bullpen disaster acquisitions. In the 2017 World Series, the Astros bullpen was essentially unplayable. They basically ditched their closer mid-playoffs and just relied on starters. Click's bullpens are a little trickier because they overlapped with Dusty, who has turned every bullpen he's ever had into the #1 bullpen in the league without necessarily changing the players. So it's hard to say whether those were good acquisitions by Click or Dusty being the best bullpen manager ever. The 2024 bullpen had most of the same players as 2023 + Hader and sucked so it leans towards it being a Dusty thing. But Neris and Montero are examples of what I'm talking about. Click paid $8MM/yr for Neris and even more for Montero. Dana Brown doesn't have those luxuries. He has to get those types of players super cheap. He also has to go find #1 pitchers and top-tier hitters without many resources. He doesn't have the luxury of taking a chance on a Colby Ramus $8MM/yr to produce an OPS lower than Cam Smith. Instead, he has to ditch guys like Dubon and Sanchez to save dollars. Click got to spend $60MM on Abreu which was an epic disaster but the Astros could survive it because they had talent all over the field. Brown has to get Imais and Burrows and Walkers and get lucky that they defy the odds and are great. They haven't been and the Astros don't have the surrounding talent to just survive it.
Did he have those things? Our prospects ranking everywhere was in the bottom tier. We had the worst roster in MLB. We weren't spending a lot of money on the MLB roster until after winning the 2017 WS. After that, sure he was in a better position, but not when he was hired. As for time, we were god awful for his first 2 seasons as expected, but saw a big improvement in year 3 and made the playoffs in year 4. We don't know how long he had because it didn't take long for the success to come.
Still exponentially better than what Brown walked into. pre-2012 BA prospect list: https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/prospects_team_year/2012~13~BA/
Fair, completely forgot about the Oswalt haul coming before he came in. My favorite thought is how they ended up being nothing, and Luhnow being a genius in trading Cosart for what also turned out to be almost nothing, but was ultimately a piece in the Cole deal (Moran).
And won a WS because of that trade. Like it or not they wouldn't have made the playoffs without Fiers. The W. Abreu trade is the one that really hurts.
The only reason it's the latter stage of the dynasty is because trades and FA signings haven't worked out. I will bet you Luhnow wouldn't have had a AAA OF for the last 2 years or only 2 starting pitchers that were good. I'm betting he would have found his next Brantley and I'm pretty sure Abreu and Walker wouldn't be playing first base. But carry on.
True but the difference is a trade for a solid innings eating SP3 and a supposedly good CF. VS a backup C for a potential all star OF that this team is really missing right now. I'm sure Abreu at the time wouldn't have been a deal breaker. They had higher rated prospects. Unfortunately Click picked the wrong prospect to trade.
But this is all a counterfactual. Maybe abreu never develops if he stays with us . Maybe hader stays a starter ... That could help or hurt
Yup - I have been saying this for well over a year. I know based on track record, that Dana Brown has long term been very good at talent evaluation and scouting. He has a multiple organization track record. Does that mean he will make the right picks for the Astros? No - sometimes even talented people have droughts, but most likely he will be successful. What I don't know is if Brown is a good GM - does he hire and appoint the right people? I think the Espada pick is dubious and I don't like that he failed to keep a lot of the nonconventional but very talented people within the organization. So maybe not? We know that at this point Crane is basically calling the shots on any free agents or trades that cost a lot of money - is there any real way for Brown, as the subordinate to push back? Even Luhnow caved on Gomez and Verlander. Click made his own mistakes (Wilyer Abreu), and did stand up to Crane - (although he was on board with the Jose Abreu pursuit before he left) but lost his job for it.
I just saw a post on r/baseball that showed all the war by players that were alumni of a team (basically if you lost a bunch of good players that have produced this year you are at the top ) The Astros were like 4th from the bottom , meaning that we didn't lose anyone that is killing it right now . I am concerned about brown the GM from a coaching standpoint and building up an organization. As a scout he's proven he's solid I will blame crane if we buy this year . I am worried about pressure on Brown as a upcoming FA gm .
He was on board (for Abreu) for a far reduced price. I have literally talked to Click about it in person. They had conservative/middle/aggressive offers tiered, and the org way way way overshot the aggressive offer that Click specified.
