Crane’s?
Would you not have taken Abreu, Pressly, Hader to start the season? Who wouldn’t have?
Martinez and Bielak have been pretty middle relief solid. Montero has been a surprise.
Crane is reason Hader is an Astro. He wanted to trade for him at the deadline, and he told Brown to contact Hader and his representatives when he remained unsigned deep into free agency.
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…and you thought that was a bad idea?
No, I did not. From my vantage point, some of the issue is there has been little consistency in usage for them. The Astros haven’t consistently put themselves in situations where they could use Abreu-Pressly-Hader to finish games. It has led to those guys going too long between appearances at times.
This doesn’t excuse his poor performance today, but Bryan Abreu last pitched on Tuesday. Five days between appearances is too long for a high-leverage reliever.
All that said, Abreu, Pressly and Hader should be able to command their pitches better and perform as expected.
I think it’s just a matter of Crane having made the decision one way or the other, so he gets the credit if it goes right and the blame if it goes wrong.
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I don’t know what “the decisions” are, but how is that different than any other GM?
Going after Hader specifically. All reporting indicates Crane drove that effort personally. The owner is always ultimately responsible for the team’s success—the buck stops there—but there are decisions where the owner’s responsibility is more direct than others. Hader is such a case.
and you were against signing Hader?
FucknA they needed this game today. For whatever the reason, it’s a shame they couldn’t hang on to the lead tonight.
Not at all.
Whatever reason being the inexplicably dogshit bullpen, obviously.
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Hader has already allowed more ER this season than all of last season.
That’s the thing.
I don’t hold anything against the owner/FO for getting him.
That’s a player performance issue.
Standing pat with the rotation on the other hand …
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The losing streak is growing.
I don’t think I can agree with this. Crane worked with his front office to construct a team that was universally understood by inside baseball people, by managers and former managers, by the sports press and by many in the fandom to vie for the division title in a tough division, and to be one of the top three or four teams to vie for the World Series. The lineup was supposed to mash. The starters were supposed to be good to very good. The bullpen was supposed to be historic and the defense was supposed to be very good. For every facet of the game, besides starting pitching, this is on the players. The assembled troop of very good players is just not performing. Only the starters get a pass due to injury.
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This. There was no indication this off-season that Abreu, Pressly and Hader would all three completely suck donkey balls at the same time.
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