What the hell are we waiting for, dump Espada and Dana TODAY. Such a lifeless team, with no captain. In the past three days we've seen Dana's acquisition Imai get destroyed, his acquisition Burrows get destroyed, the guy he traded Dubon hit a dagger homer for ATL, and the guy he tried to trade for and fail (Donovan) go to a division rival and almost hit for the cycle against us today. Enough. I know it won't be a magic fix to the team's problems, but an immediate shake up is needed.
Exactly. With current leadership this organization is the Titanic. Changes have to be made, and there is absolutely no reason to continue waiting.
Dana's job is in jeopardy. He was brought in to fix the farm system, we have 2-3 prospects to show for it after 3 drafts. He picked these new pitchers that have been ineffective. They hate for Espada is silly. Look at the talent on the field and tell me these AAA players are supposed to be a winning team? Mariners are right down here with us if you take out 3 or 4 starters, their closer, and a 2-3 of their lineup.
I tend to agree with this. The talent is lacking. Having said that, what exactly has Espada done to instill any confidence that he's actually good at his job? I have mixed feelings. He seems like a good man and I want him to succeed, but I'm just not seeing much.
They shouldn't be a 100 loss team (their current pace) or worst-team-in-baseball. They have more talent than plenty of organizations. On offense, Yordan/Altuve/Paredes and until recently Correa should be a solid foundation for an offense. And they've had several AAA players like Cole and Shewmake hold their own as well. The pitching staff is not really AAA, except Lambert who's been great. The rest of them were all expected to be credible major leaguers. Nothing about this team suggests they are performing above expectations, which means, at best, Espada is a non-factor. Given that he's paid peanuts and easily fireable, why wouldn't you want to try out someone who might actually be a positive to the team? No one wants replacement-level players on their team, but for some reason, a replacement-level manager seems acceptable?
Agreed about Brown, just saying the Mariners WITH all those players and the games they have played vs teams Not Astros, they basically ARE the Astros. Just replace SEA offense with HOU pitching. Records SEA 15-22 (sans Astros) HOU 17-28 (current) / 16-21 (sans SEA) Seattle is +27 vs Astros and -11 vs everyone else. Great pitching but it appears Raleigh sold his soul last year and took some teammates down with him. Mariners are surviving off the Astros.
Just beating the dead horse here . . . At some point you have to stop explaining and start changing something. The Astros look flat, inconsistent, undisciplined offensively, and completely lifeless for stretches that would’ve been unthinkable a few years ago. This isn’t about injuries. Every team deals with injuries. Championship organizations adapt. Joe Espada inherited a culture that once felt relentless — pressure every inning, smart situational baseball, energy, accountability, edge. That identity has faded. The lineup constantly strands runners, the approaches look passive, and the team too often feels like it’s waiting for something to happen instead of forcing it. Maybe Espada is a good baseball man. Maybe he’s respected internally. But being “well liked” and being the guy to lead the next era of Astros baseball are two different things. At this point, doing nothing is its own decision. Sometimes a clubhouse simply needs a shock to the system. A new voice. New urgency. New accountability. Because right now this doesn’t look like an organization chasing championships — it looks like one slowly accepting mediocrity. And for a franchise with this core, this payroll, and this standard, that’s unacceptable.
I do think that Joe is a good baseball man and a good man. I think think he is miscast as the manager of a team that expects to compete. Maybe he would be better with a team like the one we will be watching in 3 months, or 2027 (if there is a season)? What my eyes have shown me over the past 2+ years is that he does not have the in-game chops to lead a team to 90+ wins or postseason success. IMO.
This series went better than I expected honestly. I felt there was a 50% chance they would be swept. They somehow managed to win a game. I expect it to get really ugly in the next few weeks. They will likely lose 2 of 3 against the Rangers...... they may surprise and win 2 of three from the Twins.... but after that, they have the Cubs, Rangers, Brewers, Pirates and A's. I would expect them to be at least 10.5-12 games out by the time that they finish that part of the schedule. The Cubs/Brewers/Pirates will dominate the Astros.
Joe Espada sucks as a manager, I will never argue that. But I think people here grossly overrate the amount of MLB talent on this team because of what happened from 17-24. With Brown out, even if we were otherwise entirely healthy we may only have 3 starting pitchers who I would even qualify as average, and that may be generous to guys who haven't proven themselves over a full season. You don't win in the MLB with terrible pitching...you just don't. Our ERA as a team....as a TEAM... is 5.59. Hell our FIP is over 5, that is so f**king hard to do without pitching half your games in Denver.
Yeah. I mean this exactly. I don't think it could be better put than this right here. Perfect synopsis.
I WANT things to go great. I WANT them to scrape and fight and find a way to at least stay within 5-7 games back for the next month until Hunter and Brown return. Then go on this fantastic run. Thats simply not reality. Does anybody think this team, fully healthy, is capable of playing at a 100 win pace? If starting today, they played at a 100 win pace for the rest of the season, they would win 89 games. Let's say they go 8-8 the rest of this month until Hunter can return on June 1st. Then they play at a 100 win pace the rest of the year. They win 87 games. The good news is that Baseball reference's simulations projects only 2 AL teams to win 87 games. The bad news is that the Astros have put themselves in a position where they must play out of their minds and have perfect luck over a 101-117 game span to even have any chance to win this year. What are the chances of that? 20%? 10%? worse? My WANT simply can't happen, so my backup plan: fire Espada and make Omar Lopez interim manager. Decide in the offseason if 2027 is right for a veteran "win now" manager or let Omar have another year. Keep Brown but tell him flat out the talent and projected payroll for 2027 of this roster along with the prospects in this organization on October 1st will determine his fate. trade away Pena, Paredes, Walker, Okert, Abreu, Sanchez, Meyers, and Yainer Diaz. Bring up MLB near-ready prospects and let them learn MLB without the pressure to win the rest of 2026. Have 1991 style open competitions for C, 1B, SS, all 3 OF and several pitching spots in ST. The worst thing they can do is continue to hope and wait.
They can likely let this go a little longer --- but they will need to realize that the have players under control for only so long, and some of those players have a lot of potential value to other teams that can give the Astros valuable assets. Also at some point the importance of getting as big a pool as possible in the draft. Brown has had a lot of success with high schoolers in the past, with a large pool he can get a lot out of that. Especially if he doesn't have to target guys to contribute immediately.
