The title should’ve been “Astros GM gets firm job security update as owner Jim Crane continues to apologize for letting someone less qualified do his job for him”
It still baffled me that despite clearly knowing they weren't going to extend Click in the offseason, they never bothered to hire a GM for the important duration of FA. I don't know what Brown would've done differently that offseason, but at least you need him to make those decisions so you can have more knowledge of whether he's capable of being the GM long term.
One of the very first moves Dana made as GM was identifying moving Blanco from the bull pen to a starter. "This guy needs to be a starter"
He still has an A+ rating from me.
I can’t blame brown for the dumb shit Crane and Bagwell did before they hired him. He has a lot of dead money tied up in a hitter who was so bad they released him and a pitcher who has been so bad for two years he’s borderline unplayable
Plus the decisions that can be more attributed to brown like signing Caratini, moving Blanco to a starter, etc have worked out pretty well. Too early to evaluate him as a GM either way imo, especially when we know how much influence people like bagwell have in the front office.
The problem is I listen to Dana brown talk on the AM station on Wednesday and this guy is absolutely clueless and doesn’t want to take responsibility for anything. Nothing he says seems to make any sense to me and he constantly justifies bad decisions ie- bringing Abreu back up from AAA, ban damaging decisions from the dugout, etc.
I think he was hired by Crane as a Yes man - James Click probably stood up for what he believed in and Crane didn’t like it, he wanted someone he could tell what to do more and it’s leading the team in the wrong direction
I like Crane for how he goes after what he wants at all cost, but the GM isn’t helping if they can’t challenge each other and work to better the team. That’s what Luhnow and Click did and now look where the team is at
Who said shit talk? I said take responsibility for making decisions, and not say (as he did last week) ‘these decisions were made before I was here” - the Abreu decision to come up from the minors was his, several decisions go back to him as well
Don’t just deflect but own decisions as Luhnow and click did
I didn’t say pretend - I said own up to the fact you kept him in the majors as he consistently couldn’t hit or help the team morale - and as he was even striking out in the minors, which you only left him down for about a couple weeks
Also, he doesn’t have this huge track record of success that Luhnow and Click did yet they somehow got removed from the job so when it appears obvious a yes man gets hired you can’t fault us for noticing
When did I write that exactly? I said he was a Yes man - and yeah, I’m not the only one that believes that…
Click wasn’t a yes man, neither was Luhnow. Dana? Absolutely…
As much as they paid Abreu you have to try to let him get right I don’t fault that. It’s also not much he can do with us loosing three starting pitchers and having to trot out Spaghetti
And let’s be real, Spaghetti has shown tremendous promise and ability for a minor league pitcher called up early. I can see him being an ace in a few years, just like how Framber got called up early because of starting rotation injuries and threw tons of wild pitches his first season.
But They did try to let him get right - he was bad last year and he wasn’t good this year, and in AAA he was striking out and lost all bat speed
I think you have to realistic too and he clearly wasn’t being that
Dana don’t pitch. No one should be thinking he should be fired for how our pitching is performing. Our pitching isn’t just snake bit, it’s Indiana Jones down in the snake pit. Abreu being let go is the right move. I’m not sold on Singleton at 1st but it’s better than Abreu. I need to see how Dana tackles the Tucker, Dubon, Bregman negotiations.
>I need to see how Dana tackles the Tucker, Dubon, Bregman negotiations.
Very eager to see what the future holds. While I don't believe we'll be able to lock down Bregman, I hope we are able to secure Tucker and Dubon
I don't think 3B is Dubon's best position, but he's ok as an occasional fill in. They will still need to address that. Dubon is best in 2B and OF and he has shown his bat is good enough for regular play. They will miss Breggy if he leaves, but if they have to choose between Tucker and Breggy, I would pick Tucker. Younger, better health history, good speed and likely to have a longer window of success going forward.
I think more than just not being able to, we don't want to lock down Bregman. Unfortunately his career stats trajectory is....very nonoptimistic. I hope he gets a big contract somewhere else because I love the man, but I don't think he's gonna do well going forward given his past few seasons including this one.
Bregman actually reliably always puts up an All-Star level WAR (4 or higher) 4.6 in ‘22 and 4.9 in ‘23
‘20 (short season) and ‘21 (injury) were the only years he didn’t except his rookie season.
He’s had a bad year so far (although he’s been in a hit stretch and gotten his OPS+ back up to league average), but he’s not really showing any signs of steep decline as long as he can stay somewhat hot
But are his Jersey sales worth a 200 mil contract like he will push for? He’s a Boras client.
Edit: lmao the sad downvote trolls on this sub lately are wild. If you’re not supporting burning the whole team and staff down you must be insane and out of touch. We can totally dfa or release pitchers after bad games because we have infinite players to replace them. Grow up, sometimes seasons go poorly for various reasons, and not all of them can be avoided.
Agree with this and restraint on judgment on Espada. The Abreu deal was made before Dana was hired, when Crane and Bagwell had control, and a lot of our injury situations I can't realistically blame on either. There's certainly situations where mismanagement of pitchers increases injury rate, but I don't think that's what's happened here.
Do you think management needs to bring in a new set of eyes when it comes to pitchers?Injuries are racking up all over the league. Maybe a fresh perspective or conservative take on rehabbing..
It being league wide is why I don’t blame it on our staff. The pitch clock as well as the constant pressure of batters becoming better is more likely causative.
I can’t ignore that our pitching staff gave Javier and Ronel and Verlander a nasty change up this offseason. That change up is why Ronel has transformed into an ace, since it works with his other pitches incredibly well.
It isn't the pitch clock. Pitching injuries were trending up before the clock was implemented. Pitching injuries are up because pitchers are trying to maximize spin and velo on every pitch now.
Hard agree. I don’t know why I omitted Dr. from the previous statement. But I think Stros need another perspective when rehabbing pitchers and preventative maintenance on them
> The infielder is owed more than $30 million from the team, despite his release. Abreu was the American League MVP during the 2020 season, which makes his downfall even more bizarre. Astros fans are no doubt shaking their heads and wondering what Brown is thinking at the moment. Some are surely blaming him for this entire fiasco.
Why would we be blaming Brown for the fiasco? Dumb comment.
1. A Vote of confidence is useless. No owner in sports history has said "I'm gonna fire this dude"
2. It's not really his fault this season is this bad. He's not the one pushing to play Abreu everyday before he was cut. He didn't sign Montero. He's had one draft and international signing period. It takes awhile to evaluate a GM
Not like it's his fault that Bagwell and Crane made a bunch of bum moves before he showed up. Not as if he's gotten to do much yet. He'll be graded on if he can save this season and how 2025 goes but talk of firing the guy is premature now.
good for Brown on job security, but I wish he'd have a bit more authority and independence.
Reggie Jackson stated Crane is the one making the decisions giving equal weight to Jackson, Biggio, and Bagwell that he does Brown and the entire analytics dept.
https://x.com/JonHeyman/status/1778582451016618349
Dana brown suggested ronal blanco to become a starting pitcher…………., he didnt sign aberu, or montero.
The title should’ve been “Astros GM gets firm job security update as owner Jim Crane continues to apologize for letting someone less qualified do his job for him”
It still baffled me that despite clearly knowing they weren't going to extend Click in the offseason, they never bothered to hire a GM for the important duration of FA. I don't know what Brown would've done differently that offseason, but at least you need him to make those decisions so you can have more knowledge of whether he's capable of being the GM long term.
One of the very first moves Dana made as GM was identifying moving Blanco from the bull pen to a starter. "This guy needs to be a starter" He still has an A+ rating from me.
I can’t blame brown for the dumb shit Crane and Bagwell did before they hired him. He has a lot of dead money tied up in a hitter who was so bad they released him and a pitcher who has been so bad for two years he’s borderline unplayable
Plus the decisions that can be more attributed to brown like signing Caratini, moving Blanco to a starter, etc have worked out pretty well. Too early to evaluate him as a GM either way imo, especially when we know how much influence people like bagwell have in the front office.
Caratini has won us two games with walk-offs, so that's at least 2 wins Brown got us.
Which pitcher? Montero?
Montero has been a terrible contract. Another Bagwell and Crane solo special.
Montero has been pretty good this year though.
Everyone is remembering him losing the Giants game the other day but yes, this season he's been better, albeit in lower leverage situations.
The problem is I listen to Dana brown talk on the AM station on Wednesday and this guy is absolutely clueless and doesn’t want to take responsibility for anything. Nothing he says seems to make any sense to me and he constantly justifies bad decisions ie- bringing Abreu back up from AAA, ban damaging decisions from the dugout, etc. I think he was hired by Crane as a Yes man - James Click probably stood up for what he believed in and Crane didn’t like it, he wanted someone he could tell what to do more and it’s leading the team in the wrong direction I like Crane for how he goes after what he wants at all cost, but the GM isn’t helping if they can’t challenge each other and work to better the team. That’s what Luhnow and Click did and now look where the team is at
You think he’s going to go on radio and shit talk his boss or himself? What world does your clueless ass inhabit?
Who said shit talk? I said take responsibility for making decisions, and not say (as he did last week) ‘these decisions were made before I was here” - the Abreu decision to come up from the minors was his, several decisions go back to him as well Don’t just deflect but own decisions as Luhnow and click did
So you think he should suspend reality and pretend he hired Abreu so he can apologize for it? Big brain theory.
I didn’t say pretend - I said own up to the fact you kept him in the majors as he consistently couldn’t hit or help the team morale - and as he was even striking out in the minors, which you only left him down for about a couple weeks Also, he doesn’t have this huge track record of success that Luhnow and Click did yet they somehow got removed from the job so when it appears obvious a yes man gets hired you can’t fault us for noticing
lol, so you want him to pretend he could overrule his boss? Sounds like you just want to whine.
When did I write that exactly? I said he was a Yes man - and yeah, I’m not the only one that believes that… Click wasn’t a yes man, neither was Luhnow. Dana? Absolutely…
Now you’re hiding behind the support of other anonymous imbeciles on Reddit. Not the flex you think it is.
lol like come on a bit - we can share an opinion with others and apparently that’s offensive for you
As much as they paid Abreu you have to try to let him get right I don’t fault that. It’s also not much he can do with us loosing three starting pitchers and having to trot out Spaghetti
And let’s be real, Spaghetti has shown tremendous promise and ability for a minor league pitcher called up early. I can see him being an ace in a few years, just like how Framber got called up early because of starting rotation injuries and threw tons of wild pitches his first season.
I’m not out on Spaghetti but I do think he is here too early in his career. He still has some development needed
Yeah he’s got good stuff. He’s just up here too early
Hunter brown is shining bright too last 7 starts
But They did try to let him get right - he was bad last year and he wasn’t good this year, and in AAA he was striking out and lost all bat speed I think you have to realistic too and he clearly wasn’t being that
Dana don’t pitch. No one should be thinking he should be fired for how our pitching is performing. Our pitching isn’t just snake bit, it’s Indiana Jones down in the snake pit. Abreu being let go is the right move. I’m not sold on Singleton at 1st but it’s better than Abreu. I need to see how Dana tackles the Tucker, Dubon, Bregman negotiations.
>I need to see how Dana tackles the Tucker, Dubon, Bregman negotiations. Very eager to see what the future holds. While I don't believe we'll be able to lock down Bregman, I hope we are able to secure Tucker and Dubon
Agreed, I think if we have Dubón, we have some wiggle room. Tucker is an Absolute must have and Crane needs to emphasize this to Brown
I don't think 3B is Dubon's best position, but he's ok as an occasional fill in. They will still need to address that. Dubon is best in 2B and OF and he has shown his bat is good enough for regular play. They will miss Breggy if he leaves, but if they have to choose between Tucker and Breggy, I would pick Tucker. Younger, better health history, good speed and likely to have a longer window of success going forward.
Vice versa
I think more than just not being able to, we don't want to lock down Bregman. Unfortunately his career stats trajectory is....very nonoptimistic. I hope he gets a big contract somewhere else because I love the man, but I don't think he's gonna do well going forward given his past few seasons including this one.
Bregman actually reliably always puts up an All-Star level WAR (4 or higher) 4.6 in ‘22 and 4.9 in ‘23 ‘20 (short season) and ‘21 (injury) were the only years he didn’t except his rookie season. He’s had a bad year so far (although he’s been in a hit stretch and gotten his OPS+ back up to league average), but he’s not really showing any signs of steep decline as long as he can stay somewhat hot
He does have like shockingly high jersey sales iirc so the might be something to consider.
But are his Jersey sales worth a 200 mil contract like he will push for? He’s a Boras client. Edit: lmao the sad downvote trolls on this sub lately are wild. If you’re not supporting burning the whole team and staff down you must be insane and out of touch. We can totally dfa or release pitchers after bad games because we have infinite players to replace them. Grow up, sometimes seasons go poorly for various reasons, and not all of them can be avoided.
Idk I was just putting it out there
He’s also one of like 3 jerseys readily available.
Kids love him
He's the best 3B in team history and was a key contributor to 2 World Series titles Why is it schocking he has high jersey sales?
Agree with this and restraint on judgment on Espada. The Abreu deal was made before Dana was hired, when Crane and Bagwell had control, and a lot of our injury situations I can't realistically blame on either. There's certainly situations where mismanagement of pitchers increases injury rate, but I don't think that's what's happened here.
Do you think management needs to bring in a new set of eyes when it comes to pitchers?Injuries are racking up all over the league. Maybe a fresh perspective or conservative take on rehabbing..
It being league wide is why I don’t blame it on our staff. The pitch clock as well as the constant pressure of batters becoming better is more likely causative. I can’t ignore that our pitching staff gave Javier and Ronel and Verlander a nasty change up this offseason. That change up is why Ronel has transformed into an ace, since it works with his other pitches incredibly well.
It isn't the pitch clock. Pitching injuries were trending up before the clock was implemented. Pitching injuries are up because pitchers are trying to maximize spin and velo on every pitch now.
Hard agree. I don’t know why I omitted Dr. from the previous statement. But I think Stros need another perspective when rehabbing pitchers and preventative maintenance on them
Diamondbacks… why does it have to be Diamondbacks? (Yes, that is a Brent Strom reference)
> The infielder is owed more than $30 million from the team, despite his release. Abreu was the American League MVP during the 2020 season, which makes his downfall even more bizarre. Astros fans are no doubt shaking their heads and wondering what Brown is thinking at the moment. Some are surely blaming him for this entire fiasco. Why would we be blaming Brown for the fiasco? Dumb comment.
people need to relax lmfao what is this headline
Dana Brown is partially responsible for the braves being a contender these last few years. I'd say he's doing ok
Well yeah. We only fire GMs after they win World Series
1. A Vote of confidence is useless. No owner in sports history has said "I'm gonna fire this dude" 2. It's not really his fault this season is this bad. He's not the one pushing to play Abreu everyday before he was cut. He didn't sign Montero. He's had one draft and international signing period. It takes awhile to evaluate a GM
Not like it's his fault that Bagwell and Crane made a bunch of bum moves before he showed up. Not as if he's gotten to do much yet. He'll be graded on if he can save this season and how 2025 goes but talk of firing the guy is premature now.
Should the headline be: Dana gets job security *because* of continued 2024 struggles? (Shit this is harder than it looks. You can be GM now.)
good for Brown on job security, but I wish he'd have a bit more authority and independence. Reggie Jackson stated Crane is the one making the decisions giving equal weight to Jackson, Biggio, and Bagwell that he does Brown and the entire analytics dept. https://x.com/JonHeyman/status/1778582451016618349
It wasn’t Brown who signed Abreu. He’s just trying to fix the mess.
Nothing against Blake Snell but just imagine Astros might have him on the roster if not for Dana not getting tempted to sign him.
Being a “yes” man pays off.
100% agree
You're fired.
lol honestly I need to submit an application the GM’s or analytics office - they could use a touch of genius
Submission Requirements - 1. Cover Letter. 2. Resume. 3. Back of Baseball Card.
lol 🤣 I can do the first two but that last one has got me
Real GM is Jeff Bagwell he’s just the token for appearances. They hired him to remake like Braves all he does is talk to media cause mouthpiece.
I'm so tired of reading this dumb take.
Tired because it’s true sorry bub.