The Astros had interest in Griffin - but they were out bid by the Nationals. Griffin ended up getting nearly 7 million, more than the Astros had to spend. Ryan Weiss cost the Astros 2 million and Burrows cost the Astros 500K. Yes - Brown supported signing Walker, how much of that is because he believed it was Walker or bust and how much of it is because he likes Walker? I cannot say. Walker was bad last year, this year he has been fine overall. He is going to be close to a 3 WAR player that has a good glove and power with a mediocre on base percentage. Dana made the decision to trade for Burrows and to sign Weiss -- but that doesn't take into consideration that he had a weak farm system to trade with and literally like 4-5 million dollars to spend. His options were close to zero. There is plenty of blame to go around - but the circumstances around Brown are very different than those around Luhnow and Click. I don't even have a strong opinion on whether the Astros should keep Brown, because it is impossible to really judge him. Prior GM's had larger budgets and more talent to trade than Brown.
The difference between a three-year deal for $52,000 Jose Abreu and a three-year deal for $58,500 isn't the reason that the signing failed. Jose Abreu in hindsight was the wrong player to target -- the Astros did not foresee him jumping off a cliff and 35 -- he ultimately aged at a rate very few players have in recent history. Click did somethings well as GM - he had faith in the younger prospects that Luhnow brought in, and he did a decent job rebuilding the bullpen. However, he also made his fair share of mistakes. He insisted on trying to replace Maldonado, and even after the pitching coach and manager said to lay off - he insisted on trying to get another catcher, when the owner made him stop. Because he was stubborn and felt he was the smartest man in the room - he went at traded W. Abreu for C. Vazquez and that was a massive mistake. He also struggled at the trade deadline. I think that Jim Click was fine as a GM - I would even hire him if I were a small market team - I just view him the same as Brown. Both of them didn't/haven't had the job or control to really evaluate them long term.
The astros last 3 GMs have taken shots at old 1b in FA . Yuli worked out the best Walker is going OK Abreu was horrible Can we develop our own 1b prospect so we don't have to pay someone 10+ mil to hold it down ?
Yeah - he was someone that was viewed as having a very high floor, he was viewed as a long term #4 starter. Oberholtzer had really good stuff and talent, just not mature enough emotionally for the big leagues.
Cy kuechel further down on that list . A lot of guys that made the bigs on that list . A.few guys still around Ed Wade was really underrated for us . We talk about crane limiting dana while wanting to compete. Drayton was the OG hard ass boss. Poor Ed Wade. That hunter pence trade was still awesome with how much prospect capital we got back .
Funny thing is the #1 target of Luhnow was actually Jose Abreu. The Astros finished second in the blind bidding for Jose Abreu. Early on the idea was to have Yordan Alvarez play 1st - but he really hated the position. Seth Beer and AJ Reed are the two that come to mind. Beer kind of lost interest after injuries and I think Reed would have ended up pretty good but he did not know how to handle failure at all.
There's still a part of me that thinks Singleton was the guy . Guy is a very talented hitter . Just didn't have e defensive value and had the alcohol/mar1juana issues . If only he hadn't started drinking when suspended for weed... Anywho . Maybe neyens or hughes or alvarez or Frey can be the guy in a couple of years .
This was your list Maton Montero Stanek Neris Harris Neshek Gregerson Peacock Gattis Conger Rasmus It didn't need to be that impressive given your list. And my whole list was just guys we signed for less than what it cost for just Hector Neris. They also weren't people we had to trade someone for, like most of your list. Outside of Carantini, they were all off the trash heap. Will Harris was a great acquisition. But the rest, honestly weren't that impressive. They are guys that were mediocre that we traded assets for or signed to fair market free agent deals. Sure most of them had one good season, but otherwise, were extremely replaceable.
We all wish we could get Luhnow back but we can't. As good as he was, he was also lucky and was allowed to lose enough to get a ton of top 5 picks. Luhnow inherited a player that was the greatest Astros player ever. Springer was also drafted by the previous GM. Then he was allowed to lose badly enough that he had 5 top 5 picks in the draft, and he hit home runs on 3 and whiffed on 2. Do you know how many 2nd and 3rd round picks panned out during Luhnow's tenure? One, and that was Jeremy Pena. Where Luhnow shined was international signings. He was one of the first GMs to really prioritize international scouting to get guys like Gurriel, Alvarez, Valdez, Javier, Garcia, and Urquidy. Unfortunately, other teams have caught on, and we don't have that advantage anymore. I think the best thing that Luhnow did was really beef up our development staff. He hired guys like Strom, Miller and Murphy. That staff helped us get the most out of Verlander and Cole and the no-name pitching prospects like Valdez and Javier.
I think I still have the 2012 edition of the Prospect Handbook laying around somewhere (if it hasn’t been ripped up already) but yeah, I’m pretty sure BA had both of those guys as top-10 prospects. What a time, we were really clinging to any kind of hope that we’d get something out of them.
Hey man , 2018 Mike folty happened and houser had a good year not too long ago . I remember at one point we hater losing villar and paredes (both had good mlb seasons , but didn't stick long term) I also remember when jiovanni mier and Ariel ovando were the new hot kid on the block . Hopefully Kevin Alvarez is more like yordan alvarez than these guys . Hell further down the list is Vince Velasquez who I liked and is still getting looks today. I really like this last draft the Astros had. The 2 pitchers we took early remind me of Ed Wade pitching picks . Granted , wade actually picked a lot of HS pitching too . Man I loved Jordan Lyles the prospect, even when he came up I was always thinking he could break out. If you want depression go look at our 2010 prospect list. Even that is better than like 2005 tho. The astros farm from like 2005-2010 is something I hope we never have to endure again. It's been pretty bad recently. But hopefully it's just down years from 2024-26. 2023 still had yainer diaz and hunter brown , which even though I think they might look worse with time ..still gave you good seasons.
Plus McHugh & Keuchel. What we did with pitching was just incredible. I agree that people overrate Luhnow. He killed the 2012 Draft. Correa & LMJ, plus a bunch of guys that have had MLB careers. 10 of the picks we signed that year made it to the MLB. We sadly got rid of the one good player between the next 2 drafts in Ramon Laureano. Then, we killed the 2015 draft. The 4 following drafts yielded Pena, Brown, Meyers, and little else. Trades were a mixed bag too. And Jose Altuve is not the greatest Astros player ever. Being a defensive & base running liability has cost him from ever passing Bagwell, but he will be the most accomplished.
I said greatest and not the best. Altuve has done more for the franchise than any other. Statistically, Bagwell was better but he didn't show up in the big moments like Altuve. He is the face of the greatest era in Houston sports. I know it's blasphemy, but I think he's even greater than Dream.
There were ways to move money to get Griffin. Trading LMJ and Meyers would've been a good start. The Burrows trade was the trade that brought the franchise down. Dana really needed to hit on Burrows. Walker, while not a good FA signing is a solid MLB 1B. It's just that he's got value as a 6 hole hitter, not a 4 hole hitter. Yes, they had different budgets because Luhnow was able to sign an entire starting rotation from the Caribbean for around 100,000 grand. Dana hasn't proven he's anywhere near that level of GM. Dana's biggest mistake was hiring Espada the Stros dont have the talent anymore to overcome Espada's level of incompetence.
Apparently not. Hopefully they can move Walker next offseason and move Parades to 1B. That's in addition to if they can get a good deal for Parades at the deadline. i was going to make a thread about this, do you trust Dana to make the deals that need to be made at the deadline if the team wants to rebuild.
Pretty good synopsis. He was smart enough to trade Appel when he had value value for a closer in Giles. He got lucky that Manfred let him off of the hook for the Aiken signing. There would've been lawsuits involved and I'm sure Manfred wanted to avoid that at all costs. They need to rehire OZ and Sig and start investing abroad heavily IMHO. Spend whatever it takes to buy the best Coyotes money can buy. Develop relationships by hiring the best scouts in the pacific rim.
It's not my job, but Nook said they got outbid for Griffin. If they really wanted Griffin they had avenues to open up the money to sign Griffin.
