Not exactly any surprise. The Rays released the following official statement: “Andrew chose not to be a part of the Astros’ process. It is in no way a reflection on the Houston organization.”
Right.
It’s like when you break up and you tell the hapless partner – it’s not you, it’s meeeeee. Really. But we can still be friends. Oh, the phone block – that’s just an accident. And that hot person you’ve been seeing me with is, uh, just a friend. Yeah, just a friend.
Anyone with any good Organization and any sense has turned down the Astros. Even Kim Ng has turned em down. It is true that Jeff Luhnow of the Cards is interviewing, but this is not surprising to me as I have heard for a few years that he and Mozeliak are, uh, different.
Fact is that unless you have unbelieveable luck (see the Rangers with the Teixiera trade), that a team with no solid major leaguers and no good minor leaguers and an owner who wants a MLB low payroll is going nowheres.
And speaking of solid major leaguers, Wandy has seen his last day in an Astros uni. Crane wants him gone (even the syncophants in the media are now chanting the mantra) and I would guess he’ll be traded as soon as Wilson and Buerhle are signed, unless, for some reason, Crane decides he’d just rather have the salary relief as Wandy is, believe it or not, cheap at the price he will be paid.
He also wants Lyon, Myers and Clank gone, and is willing to eat a good chunk of dough to get rid of them. I’ve suspected this for a LONG time, and I have received confirmation from some people at the Dallas meeting. We’ll see what the Stros manage to grab from the Rule V. The Josh Hamiltons are the exception, not the Rule.
sigh
This is really really depressing. I had to drive past the silent Minute Maid park yesterday – started crying, had to pull off at Tuam – couldn’t concentrate.
It’s just as well that despite my best efforts, my kids have no interest in baseball.
Tags: Houston Astros
Lisa: You’ve put so much of yourself into the Astros’ story. I can imagine how really sad this is for you. I took the Astros homepage off my Bookmarks and felt such a huge loss. It must be multiples of that for you.
A thousand thanks for all the pleasure and benefits I have received from your blog. And the fun and funny people I’ve encountered here.
I check in here almost everyday just to keep in touch with Astros’ news and with you and this gang.
I propose we all meet up at a Skeeters’ game.
My very best wishes to each of you at Lisa’s blog.
zagger
Put Garner or Art Howe in there as GM. Let Art make up for the smear job he got in the Moneyball movie. Hire Lisa as Special Advisor for 2012.
zagger,
thank you gf. i wish i had ANY sort of good news. i was looking through the minors to see if we have ANYONE who just might could play SS and we don’t. they are pimping jonathan villar, but his numbers aren’t even as good as adam everett’s were and you KNOW how people complained about him.
and i don’t know who is gonna play 1B if they manage to dump Clank – the only guy in the minors who can hit has been left unprotected. and i don’t mean brett wallace, who couldn’t even hit in winter ball…
bruce,
i have like NO idea what on earth i could do if i was GM – there is no one worth promoting and except for wandy, no one worth trading.
art howe isn’t dumb enough to GM this trainwreck – actually, i didn’t think he came off as a bad guy in the movie at all. i’ll have to talk about it. i’d have played carlos pena over scott hatteberg, too.
Lisa, I might be joining you in your exodus from the Astros … The ‘Stros just hired Jeff Luhnow of the Cardinals as the new GM. Luhnow is a world-class jerk and one of the most overrated executives in baseball. (And he only got hired in St. Louis because he’s friends with the owners.)
I had high hopes that Crane and Postolos would get, if not Friedman, then the next Friedman, but this didn’t happen today. I bet half the people who have glowing reviews of Luhnow did so just to get him out of St. Louis. This team is toast. It makes me sick to my stomach.
Guys its not worth getting sick over, as lisa once said its just a game. So i suggest as i have done after 49 years of being a diehard fan to just drop the stros and walk away.
And the Astros get to face Albert Pujols for the foreseeable future. Though that is an absolutely ridiculous deal, especially if baseball ever gets HGH testing with teeth.
Surprising that Kim Ng turned them down. I thought she had been looking high and low for a GM gig for the last several years. I wouldn’t be happy about Anon’s news concerning Luhnow, if I continued to care about this team.
Going to take sceptor’s advice. Maybe go on dollar powerade night if I’ve nothing else to do.
FWIW…
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2009/4/7/824829/q-and-a-with-jeff-luhnow
Luhnow’s a joke. Lisa’s article speaks for itself. Luhnow got his job by being buddies with the Cards’ owners and then managed to alienate everyone in the office who had an iota of actual baseball knowledge. Then, his “genius” drafting yielded a bunch of fringe major leaguers. Yuck, yuck, yuck.