Astros, Josh Hader agree to 5 year, $95 million contract

This…

But I’m no Johnny Bananas thinking Bagwell had everything to do with Abreu and Montero. I supported them signing Abreu. I think it’s funny people can’t see the reasoning for not being apprehensive towards Bagwells influence.

 

I am glad we are all able to joke about this... considering how close we were to making it to the World Series.

 

I am thankful the team is treating Pressly much better than how they just discarded Yuli. When Altuve went down, I was hoping for super utility Yuli (despite his age, he is still serviceable in the field), which would have been an upgrade over Hensley, Julks, etc.

 

Completely different situation.

Yuli was a free agent.

Pressly is still under contract

And as much as I love him and hope he joins the front office or coaching staff, I am very happy that Yuli wasn't on this team to fill in for Altuve. As a player he is done.

 

Yuli was only serviceable at 1B or the Astros would have kept him. Yuli the utility player is fanfication Astros fans made to try and justify keeping him. And as much as people ride Julks, he had basically the same OPS as Yuli.

Pressly on the other hand should actually still be a good pitcher...and even if he wasn't he's under contract.

 

If Biggio can be ancient and play second. Anyone can play second in a pinch.

 

Could Yuli have given us better post-season at bats than Singleton? Yes. Yuli is a clubhouse leader as well.

 

610 said presley didnt take interviews this past weekend. is that normal for fan fest?

 

Thanks for sharing this Nook.

Brown talks out of his @$$ WAY too much in my opinion.

Have you heard anything lately about discussions regarding Bregman and if there's any possibility that Crane would possibly do a 7-8 yr deal and if Bregman would even be open to it or has that ship more then likely sailed and Bregman is gone after this season?

 

Yeah; the issue wasn't them signing Abreu - he very specifically addressed a significant need. The issue was that third year, and how it might impact extensions for Altuve, Bregman, Tucker, etc.

Needing Abreu and overpaying Abreu are two separate conversations.

 

I'd say it sounds like he's very open on what he want. Last season, I think he did not have much power over the MLB team. This season, I think Brown has power within a tight budget.

Hader was likely outside that budget, and Crane probably was the one who said he would spend outside that budget for Hader. I expect Brown was caught off guard on Crane willing to spend on Hader. It scares me a little that Crane is so involved, but this was a great move.

 

I get that a fan or fan base can be scared that the owner is so involved, especially in Texas lol

However Crane has been way more in the background than Jerry.

Crane allows his GM to be the daily face of the team and do all the daily tasks.

Crane has really only done 3 things above any owner 1) demand winning 2) choose specific great players he wants 3) Step in and get those players if the GM was unable to.

My take away is that Brown went and got Hader which bodes well for his job security here.

I am encouraged by that because I think he is the right guy to rebuild the farm system which will be needed to either replace the guys moving on (like Luhnow did) AND to have talent other teams want to trade for the stars Crane will want (like Luhnow did)

 

I don't know a thing about Jim Crane other than that he has presided over the best run in this cities history. What does seem to be very apparent, is that he likes bold, flashy moves.

His style has yielded results thus far when the team is top heavy loaded with in house talent. I think he has minimal concern with maximizing WAR value with smaller FA deals and in house players. A year out it's abundantly clear that him and Click were never gonna work, because they are polar opposites in that type of mindset, nothing encapsulates it more than the Jake Meyers standoff.

If you gave Dana Brown a truth serum, I imagine he would have probably rather spent that money differently, but if it was Hader, or not Hader...it's a pretty easy choice.

 

He's also made comments to the media that both Tucker and Bregman will be Astros. That he has no concerns they'll be resigned.

 

And if that's not your definition of talking out of your @$$ I don't know what is. It's one thing saying he'd like to get them resigned, but that isn't what he said. He said they "would" be resigned and in one interview with Sean Salisbury (when Brown said this) Salisbury asked him again so that there wasn't any misunderstanding what he was saying and he didn't even hesitate "they'll be Astros for a long time".

I've said this before, why not STFU, do your job, and if works out great, but if not you look like a F'n IDIOT.

 

The decision to extend Montero and pursue Abreu was made before the season was even over.

The numbers and plans had been formulated already with Click and Crane.

Jeff Bagwell was told to go to meet with Abreu because Jose Abreu has a lot of respect for former players - especially Hall of Fame ones, that played the same position as him, and can speak Spanish (which Bagwell can).

As for being smug about Abreu, what was he supposed to say? First I don't think tell people to look at the back of his baseball card is smug, its a fact -Abreu had been productive for a very long time and would turn it around.

As for Bagwell and his struggles in the post season - he was horrendous the first three times he went to the playoffs against the best rotation ever (Braves) and then Kevin Brown and the Padres. His next 4 series overall he was good, and that includes when he was trash in the WS with a degenerative shoulder. Also he only had like 125 at bats in the playoffs.

 

I don't think they over paid for Abreu at the time and in that market, you can look at what Rizzo got and Josh Bell got - and Abreu was clearly better than both.... and then the contracts that Benentindi and others got.

I don't have inside information on this - but I don't think that Abreu is going to have any bearing on resigning Altuve, Bregman and Tucker..... Altuve will be resigned, and a breakdown over Bregman and Tucker won't be over the 19.5 million that Abreu will make.

 

Last year before the deadline he said he wanted a bat and a reliever the most. Then the Astros traded for Verlander and then said he really wanted a starting pitcher the most, and with Verlander the Astros had what they needed pitching wise - then this winter he said that he knew that the Astros really needed more pitching to win the WS at the time.

That alone is 3-4 different answers.

He has also done the same when discussing the needs this off season as well.....

I'm not mad at him, he is doing what he believes he needs to do so that he can do his job best - but it isn't honesty.

He does it with prospects as well - he did it with Drew Gilbert.

As for control of his team, you put it well - Dana can do just about anything he wants within his set budget - and he did, he brought in the back up catcher he wanted. Then, over budget he can talk to Crane about opportunities or Crane can just step in and tell Brown to get a particular player.

 

He definitely did an interview with Pena and Espada on the field at Fanfest. Though it was essentially a pointless string of questions about their trip to the White House.

 

I think there is a lot of truth to this - and yes, Crane likes to play fantasy baseball to a point with his team.... luckily he really understands the game well and he is sharp.

One thing I would add concerning Click - from what I have been told, the biggest issue wasn't that Crane and Click butted heads.... Crane expects some pushback from his baseball people. The problem was that Click did not get along well with most of the existing baseball people, and these baseball people were close to or trusted by Crane because they had won. Click would belittle them to ownership, and when Click had some bad luck or made bad decisions (wanting to add Contreras for Urquidy/keep Gurriel off the playoff team/pass on adding a bat and trusting Brantley/etc.) and the Astros won despite that - Click was a goner. Also the antics he pulled at the Winter Meetings turned a lot of people off as well.