Astros @ Bronx Bastards, May 7, 2024

[moriarty]

@MusicMan

@MarkR

the front office has really had a bunch of dumb unforced errors the last few yeras.

Not just in player moves. There was a huge talent drain in the front office, not all of which needed to happen.

Lots of other teams seem to have recognized that the Astros’ analytics staff has been essential to their success. Since ‘22 it’s hard to find evidence that the Astros themselves recognize it.

Any good organization is going to get poached from, that’s just the game. And a good organization can survive a little bit of brain drain through (1) good process, (2) making good new hires, and (3) identifying and retaining key employees. The process side is still pretty good by all accounts (though a lot of the league seems to have caught up), but the personnel side has seen loss after loss without any major additions.* Losing Sarah Gelles (to the fucking Pirates of all organizations) was a real blow. They’re not a luddite organization by any means but they’re not at the head of the pack like they used to be.

With this season looking like a total loss, it’ll be interesting to see if anything changes.

*(In analytics, I mean. There have been several big hires and promotions on the scouting side.)

[MusicMan (Michael Shopoff)]

@moriarty

Losing Sarah Gelles (to the fucking Pirates of all organizations) was a real blow.

This was the primary example in mind. But also Luhnow cleaning out the scouting department.

[Lefty]

Elias, Mejdal, etc…

[Doyce7 (Doyce Kirkland)]

@chuck

the Astros would routinely go out and acquire mediocre pitchers with some interesting measureable and turn them into very good pitchers or sometimes even better.

The sample size for this is still super small.

There have been a few wins though.

Click - Montero, Maton, drafting Seth Martinez, Stanek

Brown - Scott, seeing Blanco as a starter

When it comes to the bullpen, I can’t blame anyone other than the big 3. Starting pitching, yeah they should have added someone for sure but I also get saying “just survive until we get healthy.”

Nobody saw this coming. Nobody.

I would be curious to see an alternate universe where the sign stealing never happened or came to light and Luhnow was still in charge. Where would the Astros be right now?