[Ringer] On the Astros Revolutionizing Player Development

Letting others see what your team has makes your guys (the ones that don't suck) more valuable in the eyes of other teams. As long as the Astros know who they have better than other teams, harm shouldn't happen from letting other teams see. The Astros were able to capitalize on teams not knowing what they had as they relied on scouts that were spread too thin to cover low levels/back fields.

 

Agree 100%. Generic all-around. Generic name, logo, everything. No history, traditions, or real team "culture". And O'Brien is SO unlikeable, it's too easy to root for him to lose LOL.

Anyway, very thankful for the Astros. Such a fun team, next decade will be even more awesome!
If only the Rockets could do something like this.

 

Maybe? I mean, I get that argument. And I'm certainly not saying that I'm correct with what you posted. I just have a suspicion that the astros aren't broken up about the idea of keeping some of their guys under wraps. I could be wrong.

 

I think the Rockets do stuff like this. I just don't think development is near as important in basketball as it is in baseball. Basketball says that basically you go as far as your teams best 2 or 3 players take you. Golden State is a historical anomaly with 4 great players on the same team, and even with that you see that they marginalize the abilities of their other stars at times. Historically, championships are about 97% reliant on the top 2/3 players on the team- role players just don't move the needle all that much, an there are probably only about 14 guys walking the planet at any one point in time who have the ability to be a top 5 basketball player. Player development isn't worthless per se, but it means a whole lot less than aggregating top 15 or top 20 level talent onto the same team, which is why Morey's answer is always "lets go get another star." He's not wrong if you are championship hunting.

My guess is that if the Astros FO and Rockets FO flipped places it would probably look a lot like what the guys they took over for were doing. I think the Rockets are a really really really smart organization as well.

 

I can only echo what others here have already said. A great read.

Evert fan of the Astros should read this article. It gives me high hopes for a long, successful future for this franchise and the city of Houston which is so worthy of it.

 

Agreed. All Astro’s fans should read.

 

This article spells out what we all should have already known about the Astros. They are one of the best organizations in baseball.

But what I thought while reading this was that Houston really is lucky to have two organizations with cutting edge and incredibly intelligent approaches to team building. The Rockets don’t yet have the championship to back up the design, but the right people are leading the way.

 

Hope we get Brad Pitt to play Jeff Luhnow in our future movie.

 

And they might not ever have those chips. In the Astros FO case they got lucky- they get to be really smart in a sport where a lot of variables can make it so that your team can easily defeat another great team (maybe unlucky sometimes) where as the rockets ran into an all time team that's going to win all the time when they aren't hurt, if that makes sense.
Morey would kill for the variance that Lunow enjoys.

 

Too Old.

 

Zac Efron is..... Jeff Luhnow

 

I trust Luhnow completely and look forward to his future promotion to supreme general manager handling the Rockets and Texans as well.

 

Morey is great. I see no reason why JL, if given the right ownership and patience, couldn’t go in and wreck shop in the NFL.

 

One of my take aways from this article is that the Astros Player Development can take non top 100 draft picks (which are essentially after the first three rounds) and turn them into true prospects.

In a sense, the Astros can make their own Diamonds in the Rough.

 

Terrific read. I didn't know he started at McKinsey. That depresses me ... I definitely chose the wrong path when I exited the Firm.

 

Great post

Luhnow is constantly bringing in new guys with new thought processes to ensure that the org doesn't get stale. Mejdal was one of Luhnow's longest time confidants and he moved on. I wonder why, but change is a good thing and is a big reason why this org will be great for a long time even as stars come and go.

They are polar opposites of the Texans good ole boy network and stale build only through the draft, choir boy only thought processes.

 

You're a much smarter man than I am. I've been a season ticketholder from the beginning and feel like they don't even really care about winning.

The Browns with DePodesta are trying to do some of the things you're talking about. They've been met with much resistance. I'm really looking forward to seeing how much they improve this year. I think the playoffs are likely. Whether it works or not they had a plan and stuck to it and I wish them much success.

What makes Belichick so good is he's a GOAT HC with a GOAT QB and is an economic major. But he has a plan and guys come and go but he sticks to his plan. He helped to start the rebuild when he was with the Browns and Ozzie learned under Belichick which lead to the decades of success for the Ravens. Sorry I got off on a tangent in a baseball forum.

 

This is the fixed vs growth mindset by Carol Dweck mentioned in the article...

...which is a fundamental component of the Flow Genome Project, an organization committed to optimizing flow states (ie what a pitcher is in during a no hitter). One of the individuals associated with the founders is Michael Gervais, who with Pete Carroll is pioneering group flow state work with the Seahawks: https://competetocreate.net. It helps explain how the Seahawks had 7 straight winning seasons. The books associated with the Flow Genome Project founders, Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler, I feel, are part of that next 'edge' the Astros may indeed be exploring:
- Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work
- The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance

EDIT: For the topic of group flow specifically, the authors recommend Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration. It's a start, the work of Michael Gervais is far more advanced IMO, but he hasn't written a book.

Then from flow state to group flow state, there's creative group flow state, or 'emergence', defined as higher order complexity arising out of chaos and simple interactions, which the Astros org seems designed for. 'Sensemaking' and 'Open Participatory Organization' are methodologies that go with it: https://amzn.to/2EPuvUr + openparticipatory.org.

Btw, if you want your mind blown, read Stealing Fire (and The Rise of Superman).

Much appreciation just for having the opportunity to share wonky stuff like this.

 

Thanks for the book recommendations will check those out.

 

Is Depo still there in Cleveland? They’ve been, let’s just say, not a model of commitment to a plan so I wasn’t sure if he got taken out in one of their purges. But I did immediately think of him when writing on JL and football, but added the caveat of necessity to stick to a plan. I figured if given enough rope he’d kill it there.

Btw- I don’t think your post was a digression, it’s a natural topic to fit with this article imo.