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2023 Houston Astros Thread

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henrygandorf
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FartingDreamer
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Am I the only one that can't stand the sight of Altuve, Bregman or Tucker?  Something about each one of them just pisses me off.  

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19603

Posted
Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

Psssh.

Real torture is looking up the fact that Bregman (269) and Pena (253) are the only Astros that have more plate appearances than Abreu (249).

Dusty is a real asshole. 
there is no excuse for Diaz not to be in the lineup every day that Yordan is out either at DH, 1B or catcher. 

Edited by Wulaw Horn
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Seasick Sailor

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Posted
Posted
17 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:


you want runners on base for Altuve + he’ll see more strikes with Yordan behind him 

Fair enough, but that's not what he said. 

13 hours ago, Hank Chinaski said:

This happens maybe once a week. Dusty actively reduces the probability of winning almost every day with his lineups.

Apparently Brown thinks that’s fine.

Brown has no say in the matter. Brown is on the record saying he wants Diaz to get more PT but Dusty controls the lineups. Crane is the one who is okay with this. Brown didn't hire Dusty or give him an extension, and Crane damn sure won't fire Dusty in the middle of the season.

So we are stuck with Dusty and his refusal to make moves that increase our chances of winning individual games seemingly on the basis that it somehow increases our chances of winning in October when, as of now, we have a .5 game lead for the final wild card spot over the Jays and may be losing Yordan for a significant stretch. There is a non-zero chance this team will miss the playoffs if they can't get their shit together.

What was unthinkable on Opening Day is now not terribly hard to envision. In fact, Fangraphs pegs our chance of missing the playoffs at ~25% as of today. Add in significant missed time from Yordan, some likely regression from our young SPs, some regression from Dubon and the OF, and teams like the Mariners and Jays playing better and making moves to get better at the deadline, and sitting at home during the playoffs starts looking like a real possibility. 

Hopefully, this reality will spark a sense of urgency in Dusty. My concern is that perhaps he's not complacent just incompetent. He did a great job during the postseason last year (helps when you get a historically great performance from the bullpen and Yordan hits 3 extremely well-timed HRs), and winning the WS made it easy to look back on his regular season decisions and give him the benefit of the doubt. But reducing a teams' chances to win an individual game matters much less when you win a division by 10 games. He needs to understand that there is almost zero chance we run away with the division this season and a shockingly high chance, given preseason expectations, we don't even make the postseason. In short, each game fucking matters. He should start acting like it. 

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kevwun

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Posted (edited)

Very well said.  He can't manage with an eye on October right now because they can't afford to throw away games because of shitty lineups.  You don't give multiple starters off days at the same time.  They won't need the extra rest if they're sitting on a beach somewhere in October.

Edited by kevwun
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Hank Chinaski

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44 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

Fair enough, but that's not what he said. 

Brown has no say in the matter. Brown is on the record saying he wants Diaz to get more PT but Dusty controls the lineups. Crane is the one who is okay with this. Brown didn't hire Dusty or give him an extension, and Crane damn sure won't fire Dusty in the middle of the season.

So we are stuck with Dusty and his refusal to make moves that increase our chances of winning individual games seemingly on the basis that it somehow increases our chances of winning in October when, as of now, we have a .5 game lead for the final wild card spot over the Jays and may be losing Yordan for a significant stretch. There is a non-zero chance this team will miss the playoffs if they can't get their shit together.

What was unthinkable on Opening Day is now not terribly hard to envision. In fact, Fangraphs pegs our chance of missing the playoffs at ~25% as of today. Add in significant missed time from Yordan, some likely regression from our young SPs, some regression from Dubon and the OF, and teams like the Mariners and Jays playing better and making moves to get better at the deadline, and sitting at home during the playoffs starts looking like a real possibility. 

Hopefully, this reality will spark a sense of urgency in Dusty. My concern is that perhaps he's not complacent just incompetent. He did a great job during the postseason last year (helps when you get a historically great performance from the bullpen and Yordan hits 3 extremely well-timed HRs), and winning the WS made it easy to look back on his regular season decisions and give him the benefit of the doubt. But reducing a teams' chances to win an individual game matters much less when you win a division by 10 games. He needs to understand that there is almost zero chance we run away with the division this season and a shockingly high chance, given preseason expectations, we don't even make the postseason. In short, each game fucking matters. He should start acting like it. 

I agree with you; and what you’re describing - a disjointed org structure in which the GM/front office is neutered and the manager reports directly to the owner - is a clusterfuck situation unconducive to success.

And nobody wants to hear it (again) but the org has been a clusterfuck since the WS. The result has been: signing a guy to a $60mm deal who has turned into the worst everyday player in baseball; signing a fine (not special) RP to a $40mm deal; singing a guy who was injured (with no timetable for returning to health) to be a starting OF; and allowing the manager to create seemingly random, incoherent lineups and regularly play inferior players with apparently no oversight. Why even have an analytics dept?

And you nailed it - the club seems to operate like it has a 10-game division lead. It would not be that surprising at all if they don’t make the playoffs this year. They’ve been mediocre from start to finish so far (going 6-0 against a glorified AAA team doesn’t mean anything). This looks exactly like a 85-90 win team, meaning they may or may not get into the postseason, but almost certainly won’t skip the first round.

There are all kinds of warning signs about the future of the franchise, and there have been since November. They’re not doomed to irrelevance or anything, but they’ve looked like a shitshow since the WS, and it is increasingly looking like it’s all pointing back to the owner. 

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tx 3 putt

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Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Hank Chinaski said:

I agree with you; and what you’re describing - a disjointed org structure in which the GM/front office is neutered and the manager reports directly to the owner - is a clusterfuck situation unconducive to success.

And nobody wants to hear it (again) but the org has been a clusterfuck since the WS. The result has been: signing a guy to a $60mm deal who has turned into the worst everyday player in baseball; signing a fine (not special) RP to a $40mm deal; singing a guy who was injured (with no timetable for returning to health) to be a starting OF; and allowing the manager to create seemingly random, incoherent lineups and regularly play inferior players with apparently no oversight. Why even have an analytics dept?

And you nailed it - the club seems to operate like it has a 10-game division lead. It would not be that surprising at all if they don’t make the playoffs this year. They’ve been mediocre from start to finish so far (going 6-0 against a glorified AAA team doesn’t mean anything). This looks exactly like a 85-90 win team, meaning they may or may not get into the postseason, but almost certainly won’t skip the first round.

There are all kinds of warning signs about the future of the franchise, and there have been since November. They’re not doomed to irrelevance or anything, but they’ve looked like a shitshow since the WS, and it is increasingly looking like it’s all pointing back to the owner. 


They shouldn’t have made any moves / signings until a gm was in place.

yuli / Diaz at 1st, would have been damn awesome

montero would have singed for less 

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6363

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Posted
7 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:


They shouldn’t have made any moves / signings until a gm was in place.

yuli / Diaz at 1st, would have been damn awesome

montero would have singed for less 

I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic (I assume you are based on the “damn awesome”) but yeah, they should have had a front office plan in place before throwing money at old players that they’ll be on the hook for for multiple years. Montero was expendable if he wanted a lot of money. There should have been zero urgency to lock him up. 

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Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19603

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Hank Chinaski said:

I agree with you; and what you’re describing - a disjointed org structure in which the GM/front office is neutered and the manager reports directly to the owner - is a clusterfuck situation unconducive to success.

And nobody wants to hear it (again) but the org has been a clusterfuck since the WS. The result has been: signing a guy to a $60mm deal who has turned into the worst everyday player in baseball; signing a fine (not special) RP to a $40mm deal; singing a guy who was injured (with no timetable for returning to health) to be a starting OF; and allowing the manager to create seemingly random, incoherent lineups and regularly play inferior players with apparently no oversight. Why even have an analytics dept?

And you nailed it - the club seems to operate like it has a 10-game division lead. It would not be that surprising at all if they don’t make the playoffs this year. They’ve been mediocre from start to finish so far (going 6-0 against a glorified AAA team doesn’t mean anything). This looks exactly like a 85-90 win team, meaning they may or may not get into the postseason, but almost certainly won’t skip the first round.

There are all kinds of warning signs about the future of the franchise, and there have been since November. They’re not doomed to irrelevance or anything, but they’ve looked like a shitshow since the WS, and it is increasingly looking like it’s all pointing back to the owner. 

Also you forgot to mention the owner is cheap. 
I am more or less alone in giving Crane shot and everyone shouts me down as an asshole and calls him the best owner in houston history. And that might be true, but that’s the definition of tallest midget. 
so far the only thing I truly believe Crane has done/is good at is hire GM’s. Luhnow is an all time great Mount Rushmore front office exec (with Branch Rickey, Theo Epstein and the Braves guy as my other choices) Click was fine as a guy with no vision but a tinkerer after the amazing infrastructure Luhnow left, and now when we need vision and refresh of the farm I think Brown was a great choice. Other than that though he’s never paid the tax, he let Springer and Correa go over no great deal/ he’s letting Tucker go you can tell, and he’s actually been 30-50M under the tax line when his team is competing for WS titles and had serious holes to fill. Which should be unconscionable. Add that he picked Dusty (who sucks) and is empowering him over not one but now 2 GM’s and his Bagwell and Reggie fan boy obsession and that’s some major strikes against. 

The good news is hiring the right GM is like 75% of the battle (check) empowering him to do whatever is another 15% (I think we will get there) and spending to the tax line is the other 15% (and I think we get there if we need it to make the playoffs. But yeah- this set up is gross and bad. 

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tx 3 putt

tx 3 putt 78870

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18 minutes ago, Hank Chinaski said:

I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic (I assume you are based on the “damn awesome”) but yeah, they should have had a front office plan in place before throwing money at old players that they’ll be on the hook for for multiple years. Montero was expendable if he wanted a lot of money. There should have been zero urgency to lock him up. 


yuli for one year @ $6mil + Diaz min contract = awesome and we’d be getting more production + we wouldn’t have to read posts that Diaz should play more 

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Hank Chinaski

Hank Chinaski 6363

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Posted
2 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:


yuli for one year @ $6mil + Diaz min contract = awesome and we’d be getting more production + we wouldn’t have to read posts that Diaz should play more 

Ok my bad. I’m not denying that I thought letting Yuli walk was the right move; I definitely did. But by most accounts they outbid themselves in rushing to sign Abreu.

In fairness nobody should have expected him to be this bad, but there is heightened risk with any 36 year old guy, and they gave him 3 goddamn years. And the Montero thing never made sense to anybody. 

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Mitch Hedberg

Mitch Hedberg 2117

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So do we call Salazar back and make Diaz the DH? That pretty much assures the C spot will be a black hole in the order. Call up another OF? Not sure who but when Diaz does catch it would allow for theoretically a better lineup. Can’t replace Yordan so we need all 9 spots have a legitimate chance to get a hit. To the extent we can say anyone on the roster has a chance lately, Diaz at catcher and whatever else they come up with is the best lineup. 

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tx 3 putt

tx 3 putt 78870

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2 minutes ago, Mitch Hedberg said:

So do we call Salazar back and make Diaz the DH? That pretty much assures the C spot will be a black hole in the order. Call up another OF? Not sure who but when Diaz does catch it would allow for theoretically a better lineup. Can’t replace Yordan so we need all 9 spots have a legitimate chance to get a hit. To the extent we can say anyone on the roster has a chance lately, Diaz at catcher and whatever else they come up with is the best lineup. 


I’d be good with Salazar 

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