Honestly, are you ****ing kidding me? "Why does it matter what the media thinks?" Because that's why the Astros got punished? Have you not been paying attention? For right or wrong that's exactly how it went down. If you think the Stros had a good professional PR team who could have made this sh@t blow over... Nope, it was total incompetence from the top down. And it started years ago.
Exactly the point. It’s not dying with the monumental moves of firing the best GM in the league as well as the manager. We’ve also seen minimal repercussions in Boston for a two-time offender because baseball didn’t want more bloodshed. if baseball wanted to ban Luhnow for life, they could have. I don’t think it’s the general managers job to police the players either. Other teams have acquired DV players and not felt the same wrath. Luhnow pantsing Evan Drellich as a beat-writer for 4 years was also because Drellich is an idiot.
I never thoght the Stros had a good PR team. But like I said, the media can go suck it. I could care less about them.
This is why I hope Luhnow gets another job and kicks a$$ like I expect him too. The media hates people who are solely focused on greatness. The media loves teams like the Texans.
The scandal is NOT going away. Sadly I fear this will tarnish the Astros franchise even after everyone from the 2017 roster is gone. Need more people to speak out and more eagle-eyed (and eared) fans to examine games for anything. The Athletic (Rosenthal) article said "part of a bigger (league-wide) problem." Manfred has even said on an occasion or two it is indeed league wide. And his final report even said somewhere that he estimates about 8 teams doing something similar. No, it doesn't justify the team's actions. But people need to stop unfairly making us the face of this, PLEASE!
While this is true, I'm not sure we could avoided the media firestorm no matter who was running the PR. The name "Houston" in front of Astros inherently doesn't hold the clout that Boston, NY, and LA get from national media types. I could go on and on about what happened, but at this point if people don't want to listen or know the facts, they can STFU.
FIFY. But yeah, this is the crux of the entire situation. It is what it is. The haters can go kick rocks.
I didn't watch Baker manage much with the Nationals, but this is not completely the Baker I grew up seeing. I don't think using Valdez in relief yesterday taking advantage of the bye before and after the series was Baker's idea. I think Dusty is being perfectly honest that he thinks Javier will start, but he's not sure if the front office has some wacky idea like an opener they haven't told him about yet.
Fiers designed and implemented their cheating scheme? Don't get me wrong, Fiers is a douche. As far as I know, he did not return his ring or his playoff money. But, as these things go, it was only a matter of time before someone talked.
Oh no. I mean, I think I'm the only one here that thinks he looks a little like Bagwell? No, anyone else?
So, the Astros are leading the AL in runs scored, and the bullpen has been awesome. Starting pitching...well, Javier has looked good that one time.
Those last two games have been something. I think I'm coming around to the "runner on second" rule. It's making it more interesting late for sure.
I wonder what we're going to do long-term. Greinke is about the only proven commodity in our rotation outside of Verlander. Gotta hope at least 2 out of 4 other pitchers are half-decent. Some combination of Urquidy, McCullers, Javier and James. My money would be on Javier and McCullers.
I don't keep up with other teams. So is there a 2nd starter in a rotation somewhere, who is 26-30 years old with a couple of years left in his contract, who also happens to be on a bad team?
Should not have fired Luhnow dammit. I will never agree with that move by Crane. Serve the suspension then come right back. Don't punish your own franchise more than the league did. Crane must have kicked his own ass after he saw how the BoSox got off way easy.
I am curious how long they would have gone without someone saying something. FWIW I think they may have gone a long time.... players keep a lot of stuff in house, even when they switch teams.
It wasn't that simple. Crane was told that Luhnow was not coming back and the punishment was established based on Crane and Hinch not coming back. Everything was supposed to die down and the scandal was to go away, except the media would not play along and the players finally spoke up. Baseball still thinks we live in the same world we saw in the 1980's.
He has always had a casual manner about him, which is why I think he has been able to manager as long as he has and has been able to relate well enough with the players to remain relevant. He also used to play coy with the Cubs concerning what he was going to do. I do think you bring a good point up about him willing to listen to what the front office wants him to do. He is not a control freak, especially as he has aged. He always struck me as a winner. He in the past has over played veterans that were not very good, and he wasn't always great at handling the pitching staff. However I would point out that was nearly 20 years ago. He is to this day probably the most disliked baseball figure in the city of Chicago.
