I have a tough time laying this at Dana Browns feet. He didn’t sign Abreu and Montero, putting them in a tough payroll spot. He let Stanek, Maton and Neris go but if Crane wasn’t willing to pay those guys, I don’t know. The replacements for them have done fine, Scott and Martinez have been pretty good. The starting pitching issue, well again by all accounts Crane wasn’t willing to go into the tax until Hader signed. The lineup was pretty well set, you can’t get an Abreu replacement without Crane being willing to eat the money. I don’t know what he was supposed to do. None of us thought this would be a bad team in 2024. I guess he can take the blame for hiring Espada, but again, we all thought that was a homerun hire. I just can’t put this season on Dana Brown.
The one thing I really find fault with Dana Brown is the lack of sense of urgency that has been prevalent throughout the organization this season. Just think about how long it took before the Astros finally demoted Jose Abreu.
The bullpen other than Pressly has started performing better. It’s not Brown’s fault the Astros have had an entire starting rotation on the IL, nor is it his fault that half the starting lineup is hitting well below their norms.
Dana Brown said today or possibly yesterday that he’s not worried about starting pitching. That may just be a pose, but it sure comes across as back of the baseball card hubris/idiocy to me.
And anyway, like I said, he’s a symptom, a result of the organization abandoning a formula that had made them the best organization in baseball for the better part of a decade. Click knows better than to go out and make a bunch of splashy signings, Crane gets annoyed, here we are.
Where you at today, Chuck?
Where he always is.