A lot of misconceptions in this thread. First - Espada isn't Stephen Silas. He has worked his way up the chain from the lowest levels of baseball and there was no nepotism involved. Espada was a nobody, who was given a chance to be an hitting coach at the lowest levels. He worked his way up the Marlins (I think) system and then the Yankees were interested in him, and he worked for the Yankees for 3-4 years and was promoted to third base coach - and now the Astros where he survived multiple regimes and is the manager. I don't know how successful he will ultimately end up being, but I do know that he is not some sort of inside joke in the game like Stephen Silas.
Plus Silas was managing a bunch of literal kids. Makes total sense to bring in somebody with more authority/gravitas like Udoka who clearly got more out of the young ones but also can relate to veterans. Espada may be more equivalent to a Brad Mills type… but of course Brad Mills was gifted with one of the worst eras of the modern day Astros: no farm system, overpaid veterans, stuck in limbo on whether they were trying to win or trying to rebuild and then got caught up in the regime change where you knew Crane/Luhnow were going to bring in their own choices. Worst comes to worst, if it eventually doesn’t work out, he’ll go back to being a bench coach like Mills did…. But he’s been here long enough to know the veterans well, know some of the front office guys, knows Crane, knows the analytics dept…. So that familiarity should carry him a long way and this veteran team doesn’t need him to teach/mentor/coddle.
What this team needs is someone to make lineup and in game decisions who communicates and works well with the front office and analytics department. I think Espada checks all those boxes. So far, continued to move Abreu down in the order and has given him days off. I have liked the things he has said about fundamentals and base running. He has used McCormick and Diaz more often, like their history and projections show they should be. His bullpen and a few times the rotation have let him down but no manager knows what/when to make most pitching moves until further in the season after trends have become obvious. One thing: I don't like how he is starting to bench Meyers and play Dubon more and more, and I don't understand it, especially vs a LHSP and w/ Javier (fly ball pitcher) on the mound after he was benched vs a LHSP yesterday. Meyers has played well. So far I think Espada is just fine
Dusty would have pulled Christian long before he gave up one run let alone three runs. It had to be said. Sorry. lol. Know your players habits! Christian fizzles late!
somehow doesn't get bumped after he "handles" a bullpen against a very formidable lineup for 8.2 scoreless innings...
If people want to talk about Espada as a manager, shouldn’t the comparison be to who else the Astros could have hired? Dusty isn’t with the Astros and was gone either way, so it doesn’t really matter if he would have been better or worse than Espada to this point.
