It took 56 years for the Houston Astros to reach the ultimate goal of what every sports franchise strives for .... a championship. In 2005 the Astros came close, having made it to their 1st ever World Series, but they got swept in that series 4 games to none. It wasn't until 2017 when the Astros reached the top, winning their 1st World Series championship.
This run of excellence for the Astros started when owner Jim Crane bought the team in 2011. Crane bought the Astros from Drayton McClain, who had absolutely gutted the team by then. The farm system was also in shambles. Crane hired Jeff Luhnow to be the GM and the plan was to rebuild from within, meaning rebuilding the farm system, developing those players, and building a core from that. In order to exacerbate that plan, the Astros needed draft picks has high as they could get, which meant they had to lose a lot of games. For 3 straight seasons the Astros lost over 100 games per season and had a payroll barely over $20M.
So the Astros have gone almost the entire off-season in search of a new GM. Meanwhile, former Astros great and Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell has taken on a more prominent "advisory" role with the Astros. Some might argue he's been the interim GM. Bagwell has made it well known that he's not a huge fan of analytics, or certainly nowhere near how much Luhnow leaned on analytics. This was a little worrisome because this Astros dynasty, and yes, I think we can call it that now, was built on analytics. What's the old saying, don't fix what ain't broke? It's bad enough that Dusty Baker is even more old school than Bagwell.
In the past week or so, the rumors started heating up that the Astros were getting close to naming a GM as interviews were being held. Another red flag popped up when ex-Astro Brad Ausmus had his name popping up. Now, I have no idea if Ausmus would be a good GM or not, but I do know he has no GM experience and that no other teams were knocking on his door for GM interviews. But for some reason he was in the mix for the Astros GM job. Well, it turns out that reason was that Ausmus is apparently best friends with Bagwell. Great. This is starting to sound like that team down on Kirby.
Dana Brown has been with the Atlanta Braves the last 4 seasons as their Vice President of Scouting. Just a couple of the players he's brought up through the ranks are last years Rookie of the Year Michael Harris, and pitching phenom Spencer Strider. So this is a guy who can identify talent. Brown was, of course, with the Braves when they beat the Astros in the World Series 2 years ago. Brown played his college ball at Seton Hall where he was the leadoff hitter in a lineup that included slugger and former MVP Mo Vaughn, who batted cleanup behind a Hall of Famer batting 3rd, one Mr. Craig Alan Biggio.
If you think it was hard to accomplish that, it may be just as hard to maintain being on top. But for 6 years now, the Astros have done just that as they've set an American League record for most consecutive trips to the League Championship Series (6), have been to the World Series 4 times in 6 years, and have now won the World Series twice in those 6 years. In 2023 they will set out to do what hasn't been done in 23 years, and that's win back-to-back championships. To do that they would have to go to their 3rd straight World Series, also something that hasn't been done since the Yankees went to 4 in a row from 1998-2001.
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| Jeff Luhnow |
This run of excellence for the Astros started when owner Jim Crane bought the team in 2011. Crane bought the Astros from Drayton McClain, who had absolutely gutted the team by then. The farm system was also in shambles. Crane hired Jeff Luhnow to be the GM and the plan was to rebuild from within, meaning rebuilding the farm system, developing those players, and building a core from that. In order to exacerbate that plan, the Astros needed draft picks has high as they could get, which meant they had to lose a lot of games. For 3 straight seasons the Astros lost over 100 games per season and had a payroll barely over $20M.
The plan started coming together in 2015 when they made the playoffs ahead of schedule as players like George Springer and Carlos Correa started moving up through the system and landing on the big league squad. The Astros fell short that season, but as more core players kept moving through the system (Alex Bregman), and with the addition of some key free agents (Charlie Morton) and trades (Justin Verlander), the Astros finally reached the summit in 2017.
Of course the big cheating scandal rocked the world soon after. Well, it didn't really rock the world, just the Astros as they got the full brunt of all the blame despite numerous players admitting that the Astros weren't the only ones doing something similar. It was just the Astros were the only team who had a rat spilling the beans. As a result, the GM, Jeff Luhnow, the man behind the design of this juggernaut now known as the Houston Astros, was fired. They also lost their ace skipper A.J. Hinch.
That immediately instilled a fear into Astros fans that it would all come crumbling down. But the machine that Luhnow built kept on going despite new leadership. A new GM, James Click, was brought in, and a new old manager, Dusty Baker, took over. The results so far, just 2 more trips to the World Series, and winning it all again this past season.
With the Astros winning the World Series a mere 2½ months ago, they did something unprecedented. They fired their World Series winning GM James Click. Apparently Crane did not see Click as a good fit. And let's make no mistake about it, where the Astros are now is still a Jeff Luhnow product. Framber Valdez, Christian Javier, Yordan Alvarez, all here because of Luhnow.
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| Jeff Bagwell |
So the Astros have gone almost the entire off-season in search of a new GM. Meanwhile, former Astros great and Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell has taken on a more prominent "advisory" role with the Astros. Some might argue he's been the interim GM. Bagwell has made it well known that he's not a huge fan of analytics, or certainly nowhere near how much Luhnow leaned on analytics. This was a little worrisome because this Astros dynasty, and yes, I think we can call it that now, was built on analytics. What's the old saying, don't fix what ain't broke? It's bad enough that Dusty Baker is even more old school than Bagwell.
Another sign that the apocalypse might be coming is when they re-signed relief pitcher Rafael Montero to a 3 year/$34M contract. Montero, in his 8th season last year, had an outstanding year for the Astros with a 2.37 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and an ERA+ of 163. 100 is average. But in his 7 seasons prior to last year he had a 5.18 ERA, 1.56 WHIP and an ERA+ of 80. Again, 100 is average. And just like that, the Astros are paying him over $11M per year for 3 more years. That was very, VERY un-Astro like. And this happened while the Astros technically had no GM.
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| Brad Ausmus |
In the past week or so, the rumors started heating up that the Astros were getting close to naming a GM as interviews were being held. Another red flag popped up when ex-Astro Brad Ausmus had his name popping up. Now, I have no idea if Ausmus would be a good GM or not, but I do know he has no GM experience and that no other teams were knocking on his door for GM interviews. But for some reason he was in the mix for the Astros GM job. Well, it turns out that reason was that Ausmus is apparently best friends with Bagwell. Great. This is starting to sound like that team down on Kirby.
Just as it seemed we were about to reach DEFCON 1, and this entire Astros ride about to jump the shark if they hired Baggy's buddy with no experience, Jim Crane reassures us all that this ride is not close to being over, and hires Dana Brown as the new General Manager of the World Champion Houston Astros.
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| GM - Dana Brown |
Dana Brown has been with the Atlanta Braves the last 4 seasons as their Vice President of Scouting. Just a couple of the players he's brought up through the ranks are last years Rookie of the Year Michael Harris, and pitching phenom Spencer Strider. So this is a guy who can identify talent. Brown was, of course, with the Braves when they beat the Astros in the World Series 2 years ago. Brown played his college ball at Seton Hall where he was the leadoff hitter in a lineup that included slugger and former MVP Mo Vaughn, who batted cleanup behind a Hall of Famer batting 3rd, one Mr. Craig Alan Biggio.
With Brown as GM there's no worries of the Astros abandoning analytics. You know, the thing that got them where they are now. As mentioned, Brown has a good eye for talent and should keep the Astros stockpiling those hidden gems like the Framber's of the world. The only real concern I have is keeping the international pipeline open, particularly in the Latin countries. That's where Luhnow really seemed to work the magic.
The Astros are on top of the baseball world and staying there is about as hard as getting there. Teams would kill to do what they've done the last 6 years, and it appears Jim Crane has it set up for this to go on a little longer. October and November baseball has become the norm around these parts. I see no reason why that needs to end, and I'm glad to see an owner of a professional sports team in this city understand that winning matters and is willing to do what it takes.
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