He was going to pitch a bunch of innings though. JV was going to pitch a bunch of innings. McC may not be ready to come back either, James can't throw strikes, Whitley is a total unknown...Etc...etc...etc... Innings pitched by good pitchers are good.
How tone deaf do you have to be to think leveraging a DV case to obtain a player at a discount is going to play well with fans and the media? I just think Luhnow didn't give a **** and saw another way to obtain surplus value and couldn't help himself. Luhnow, and others of his ilk, are like the Terminator when it comes to efficiency and acquiring value.
So tell me why doesn't the court of public opinion render the same judgement on Cashman and the Yankees for trading for Chapman? If you want to win you gotta do what the big boys are doing, screw the court of public opinion. I love the fact that Luhnow was ruthless and would do whatever was necessary to bring a championship to this city. I only wish other GM's and ownerships had the same resolve when it comes to bringing a championship to this city.
The Astros had PR points to spare at the time. He knew they were gonna lose some PR points, but like any choice, it was calculated. They would have had no trouble weathering the Osuna issue if the multitude of other s**t hadn't started dropping.
In time GMs in all major sports will likely be ex-McKinsey types who are used to doing things far more foul than leveraging domestic violence to acquire a little bit of value for your org. It might have been fun when we had an early prototype but it won't be a lot of fun when everyone has one.
Exactly. There were some grumbling at first when the trade happened - and more so because Osuna was still suspended (or at least not welcomed back to Toronto) when we traded for him, so this was really fresh. But after that, the Astros were generally fine for the rest of 2018 and 2019, until an Astros executive decided to taunt a reporter, the Astros conducted a sham investigation of what happened, told their own false story and accused the reporter of lying until the Astros' version of events fell apart. They got exactly what they deserved from all of that.
I feel like at the time Osuna was a good pickup. PR-wise, no. I knew it wouldn't be THE MOST popular move among fans and even our players. However, I think you gotta shoot your shot sometimes and take risks. I don't condone beating the **** out of your wife, but at the same time if it's even hinted he does it again you cut his ass without question. A shame it didn't workout. He wasn't quite a lockdown closer anyway, so not a HUGE loss.
I think the court of public opinion did render the same judgement on Chapman and the Yankees. That said, there’s always nuance involved with stuff like DV incidents, and for me personally, it doesn’t seem as though what Chapman did was as bad as what Osuna did. All the facts aren’t available so that argument is very limited. But the idea that nobody gave the Yankees hell for trading for Chapman is wrong. I’m no holier-than-thou fan. I am certainly down to blur the lines for winning. I’m also not a fan of holding any person to an unrealistic bar for morality. But there are limits. Trading for a 1.5 WAR closer who beat the everloving **** out of his baby mama wasn’t worth it to me. You can be at the forefront of acquiring undervalued assets without trading for wife beating closers.
Either you play to win by putting the best players possible on your team regardless of circumstances or you don't. Because the Yankees/Cubs/Dodgers/Red Sox obviously don't have the same moral standards some do and they're your main competition.
BS Why do you think this? The reporters got their butts hurt over an executive having said he was glad Osuna was on the team. If reporters are that thin skinned they shouldn't be in the clubhouse to begin with.
Why do I think what? The Astros admitted that they only heard the executive's side of the story, they admitted their version of the story was wrong and t the reporter was correct, they admitted to making false accusations about the reporter, and they had to apologize for their own stupidity. The Astros completely f***ed up - not in trading for Osuna or for what the random executive did, but in their response to the whole incident. It was amateurish nonsense and they deserved all the criticism they got for it.
Would you have supported the Astros drafting a convicted child molester in Luke Heimlich? Luhnow allegedly was thinking of doing just that - cashing in on the child molester discount. How comfortable would you feel rooting for someone like that in an Astros uniform? There are manifold ways of gaining a competitive advantage that still allow for the drawing of a line. The Astros didn't need Osuna to win a WS and have multiple 100+ win seasons. Guys like Luhnow though are machines who don't recognize that the heat generated from things like the Osuna deal weren't going away. There's a reason why Luhnow was effectively forced out of the sport even though Manfred couldn't find a smoking gun linking him to the trashcan banging shenanigans. The league wanted him gone.
I remember a *few* fans complaining. But I don't remember a PEEP--not a damn word--about it from the media. If there was a word, it certainly wasn't the torrent of sanctimonious BS that they unleashed at Houston. And, that's my point.
Is it possible you read more media about the Astros than the Yankees though? Just on this forum, as an example, I'm sure every article about Osuna and the Astros was posted and discussed, but I doubt any on Chapman would have been since it wasn't really relevant to the Astros at the time.
Very. Do you remember an outcry in the media about Chapman? Do you hear anything currently about Addison Russell? I read a report that says they've (re)signed him, and quoting their defense of it, but it contained no criticism whatsoever. Imagine if Houston traded for Addison Russell.
