MLB Insider CONFIRMS our worst fear about the Houston Astros

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Ай бұрын

The Athletic's Keith Law joined Jeremy Branham and Joel Blank for Thursday's edition of the Killer Bees. The MLB Insider explained why the feeling around baseball is that Dana Brown is a puppet, why the Astros should DFA Jose Abreu today (he would!), and estimated just how much money Kyle Tucker stands to make in free agency. [A LOT] #Astros #HoustonAstros #JimCrane #DanaBrown #KyleTucker #JoseAbreu

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@woodcrest4655 Ай бұрын

Cranes worst mistake was bringing on Reggie Jackson & Jeff Bagwell. Get them out of the front office now

@alphaturtle3806 Ай бұрын

I started watching the Astros in 01’ when I was 11yr…I’ve never understood the passion for bagwell. He took up a needed roster spot on the 04’ World Series team cause of the same passion he’s getting from Crane right now. For 25yrs Bagwell has milked the steroid era, post steroid era

@mrcorona5175 Ай бұрын

Sometimes I feel for Dana. Dude was brought on not for a rebuild but to keep the ship afloat but it seems like he can’t do anything without the old heads vetoing his ideas

@akitas8165 Ай бұрын

He has looked out of his depth from day one, and you can't believe anything he says.

@johnburgess3488 Ай бұрын

@@akitas8165 out of his debth???? You obviously don't know baseball!!!

@harryvoigt5217 Ай бұрын

Apparently Dana Brown is nothing more than a figure head.

@worldtraveler721 Ай бұрын

Jose Abreu was specifically acquired to hit cleanup, or at least somewhere in the middle of the lineup. The Astros are trying to make up for his production in the middle by putting other guys who don't belong there. If anyone would have told me in the offseason that Meyers and Peña would be used as cleanup hitters, I probably would have assumed that the Astros were going to have MAJOR injuries this season. We had Peña, Meyers, and Dubon in the middle of the order the other day. Those guys don't belong there. Look at Peña's splits. By far, batting 2nd are his best stats with an OPS >1.000. That is where Peña won ALCS/WS MVP in 22. Batting 6th or 8th are also where he does great. Cleanup, not at all. Meyers, is going to slump badly if he is going to be placed in the middle. By far, batting 7th or 8th is where he is going to succeed. He has awful stats outside of those spots. Same thing with Dubon. Batting 7th or 8th is where he has his best stats. He doesn't have great stats when he bats anywhere else. They are missing Abreu's production in the middle and that needs to be addressed. If Abreu is not going to help the team there, then they need to release him. They need to address 1st base. Let's start there because the Astros need to have a better offense to offset their pitching woes this season. That's why the Rangers won. They won with an injured starting pitching rotation and less than ideal bullpen, but their offense carried them. In terms of Keith Law, he wrote an article in The Athletic on Nov 28th, 2022 and talked about Abreu’s existing decline at the time. He criticized the Astros for that signing, but the signs that he talked about Abreu declining, were spot on. He may be wrong about other things, but in terms of what he said about Abreu, he was right. I can guarantee that Luhnow nor Click would have signed Abreu, especially not for the amount that they gave him. The White Sox were even surprised that the Astros gave him that contract. It was no secret at the time that Abreu was in a decline. That's what happens when you have people like Bagwell and other Hall of Famers making decisions that they are not qualified to make.

@randytabor754 Ай бұрын

Several teams wanted Abreu and the national media was saying this makes the Astros lineup great the only thing that was criticized about signing him was the length the third year I remember the media criticizing the third year saying he will be washed up by then no one new it would be sooner than that

@worldtraveler721 Ай бұрын

@randytabor754 I remember reading the article back then in The Athletic (Nov 28, 2022) and I just read it again right now. This is what Keith Law wrote: "I’m not arguing that Abreu was less than elite last year (2022), because that’s beside the point. The Astros aren’t buying Abreu’s 2022 performance. They’re buying his 2023-2025 performances, and those are extremely likely to be worse, STARTING in YEAR ONE and DECLINING SHARPLY FROM THERE. For one thing, he’ll play at 36 this year, and his production outside of 2022 hasn’t been elite for some time; from 2018-21, he had just a .340 OBP, .336 if you take out the intentional walks. He did show consistently strong power output, averaging 33.7 homers per 162 games in that stretch, making him above-average but putting him in the 2-3 WAR range. In 2022, his production changed, and it’s something we’ve seen before. He lost some bat speed and started to struggle on four-seamers for the first time in his MLB career. His contact quality went down on four-seamers, and the harder the pitch, the more likely he was to whiff. He actually hit the fewest homers of any season since he first signed with the White Sox a decade ago, just 15, fewer than he hit in the 60-game 2020 season. He put the ball on the ground more and went the other way a lot more, which, in an older player, is often a sign that he can no longer get around on pitches he used to pull or hit back up the middle." The title is "Astros Deny the Existence of Time By Signing Jose Abreu" You can look it up in case you're subscribed to the Athletic. It was no secret at all. The White Sox were surprised by the Astros' offer

@worldtraveler721 Ай бұрын

@@randytabor754I remember reading the article back then. It was written on Nov 28, 2022 and I just read it again right now. This is what Law wrote: "I’m not arguing that Abreu was less than elite last year (2021), because that’s beside the point. The Astros aren’t buying Abreu’s 2022 performance. They’re buying his 2023-2025 performances, and those are extremely likely to be worse, STARTING in YEAR ONE and DECLINING SHARPLY FROM THERE. For one thing, he’ll play at 36 this year, and his production outside of 2022 hasn’t been elite for some time; from 2018-21, he had just a .340 OBP, .336 if you take out the intentional walks. He did show consistently strong power output, averaging 33.7 homers per 162 games in that stretch, making him above-average but putting him in the 2-3 WAR range. In 2022, his production changed, and it’s something we’ve seen before. He lost some bat speed and started to struggle on four-seamers for the first time in his MLB career. His contact quality went down on four-seamers, and the harder the pitch, the more likely he was to whiff. He actually hit the fewest homers of any season since he first signed with the White Sox a decade ago, just 15, fewer than he hit in the 60-game 2020 season. He put the ball on the ground more and went the other way a lot more, which, in an older player, is often a sign that he can no longer get around on pitches he used to pull or hit back up the middle." It was no secret at all. The White Sox were surprised by the Astros' offer

@worldtraveler721 Ай бұрын

@@randytabor754you need to read the article. It was written on Nov 28, 2022. It was no secret that Abreu was in a decline. I just finished reading the article again and Law based his prediction purely on stats, not opinion. And he said that Abreu's decline would get worse in year 1 and go on a sharp decline after that. "The Astros aren’t buying Abreu’s 2022 performance. They’re buying his 2023-2025 performances, and those are extremely likely to be worse, starting in year one and declining sharply from there. In 2022, his production changed, and it’s something we’ve seen before. He lost some bat speed and started to struggle on four-seamers for the first time in his major league career. His contact quality went down on four-seamers, and the harder the pitch, the more likely he was to whiff. He actually hit the fewest homers of any season since he first signed with the White Sox a decade ago, just 15, fewer than he hit in the 60-game 2020 season. He put the ball on the ground more and went the other way a lot more, which, in an older player, is often a sign that he can no longer get around on pitches he used to pull or hit back up the middle." It was no secret at all. The White Sox were surprised at the offer that they received from the Astros. There's more that he wrote, but it's impossible to post everything here.

@worldtraveler721 Ай бұрын

@@randytabor754 You need to read the article to really know what Law said. He talked about the changes in Abreu's production in 2022 and mentioned Abreu losing bat speed and starting to struggle with four-seamers for the first time in his career in 2022. He also mentioned Abreu's contact quality decreasing. He mentioned that Abreu hit the lowest amount of HRs, even less, than in 2020, 15 HRs in 2022. He put the ball on the ground more and went the other way a lot more, which, in an older player, is often a sign that he can no longer get around on pitches he used to pull or hit back up the middle. Law specifically said that Abreu would be worse in year one with the Astros and then take a sharp decline afterwards. And that is exactly what happened. The White Sox were surprised that the Astros offered him that contract. It was no secret at all. Law wrote this right after the Astros won the WS on the day they signed Abreu.

@nicholasmelchor3038 Ай бұрын

Jim Crane has become Jerry Jones, our worst fears have come true smh

@harryvoigt5217 Ай бұрын

Exactly …his actions speak louder than words.and his ego is as big as Jerry jones ego.,

@ralphey8189 Ай бұрын

Shut up!! Crane has been the most successful owner the past 10 years.

@gpmuenchow2064 Ай бұрын

The 2024 season regarding the Astros is like trying to fill a metal glass with a hole in it, ...and knowing it just won't make it to the top.

@uroktim Ай бұрын

He's absolutely correct about Abreu!!!

@urielrdz30 Ай бұрын

After winning the world series win we fell off big time. We were a good team in the office, on the field all around good except the farm system But it might take years to be good again

@stevenhill5829 Ай бұрын

So are we supposed to bow to this guy - Keith - before or after we see if we get to our 8th ALCS in a row? Is he saying we should have kept Guriel at first? Trying to figure out what he has been so right about and the team that has broken playoff records the last 7 years has been so wrong about. They signed Abreu, a guy who was 2nd in MVP voting the previous year, and he hasn't panned out. It happens sometimes. Astros decisions haven't been perfect, but let them at least have one season where they don't advance to ALCS before you start offering tissues to the Astros fanbase. Going on 8 straight years is not 'short term'.

@harryvoigt5217 Ай бұрын

You’re right that Astros haven’t been perfect. But the Astros act like they can do no wrong. Crane seems to think that he’s the smartest guy in the room. That’s not the case.

@harryvoigt5217 Ай бұрын

With the astros everything seems to be secret.from I injuries to who makes certain decisions. The Astros have a GM but it appears that he had nothing to do with the Abreu signing or the big signing for Montero. Those changes may have been made before Brown came on board. I also read that Abreu snd Montero were decisions made by committee …??????? committee oof Crane, Jackson and Bagwell.where mo one is held accountable for the decisions. I am just curious if Carne had not had the scandal as an excuse for firing Jeff Luhnow , would Crane still have fired him. BTW, Luhnow was not close to the scandal and it could be crane used that as a reason for firing him. He was the one who built the Astros to where they are today. Is Crane another Jerry Jones? Who doesn’t like ( and is jealous ) other people getting the credit for the team’s success.. like Jimmy Johnson with the cowboys. I think if the Astros don’t make the playoff this year it will be a long time before they return to the status they once had. And I would blame Crane for “ the committee” instead of having a real GM. Maybe he really doesn’t want one. In that case that will clinch the fact they will deteriorate beyond ever to where they once were; to the status they once had. After if that happens Crane will probably sale. All his fault. His ego will be to his detriment. .

@WhiplashPower Ай бұрын

Keith Law is just mad he wasn't good enough for the Astros GM job a while back. He sounds salty AF. And to his point, just so you know I'm not biased, he might've not taken the spot because he didn't want to be a puppet. But he does sound salty.

@stevenwoods5787 Ай бұрын

Is he wrong about anything? When you see bullshit coming n everyone brushes you off, and then it all comes to pass, you’ve earned your ’I told you so’ moment

@new2utube541 Ай бұрын

The Dodgers, Yankees and Padres have made the market ridiculously expensive. I love Tucker, but this amount of money for a player hitting under .300 seems excessive

@VivaLaZach Ай бұрын

Youre gonna use that 300 average as the benchmark and thats stupid. His numbers are fantastic.

@new2utube541 Ай бұрын

@@VivaLaZach can you make an argument without any insult? Or are you that much of a Yankee fan?

@VivaLaZach Ай бұрын

@@new2utube541 not once have I insulted you

@akitas8165 Ай бұрын

@@VivaLaZach Read what you wrote.

@VivaLaZach Ай бұрын

@@akitas8165 nothing I said was insulting towards him. I said using .300 as the benchmark is stupid, not him

@texoutlaw1732 Ай бұрын

Crane, get rid of the has beens and let Brown do his job. Trade Bregman for the best farm hands available.

@yordanalvarez1460 Ай бұрын

How does Keith Law feel about out costing McCullers to slip into the comp round thus losing millions of dollars?

@Mario-it3po Ай бұрын

Bregman. 3 year $75 million contract with the 3rd year being a team option. NO MAS!!! Or 1 year $25 million contract with a 2nd year team option for the same amount. He's gotta prove himself!!! He's been too inconsistent and un-clutch since 2019.

@TheLastBlackJaguar Ай бұрын

Espada is not a puppet he is just Dusty 2.0

@evilxpoptard Ай бұрын

He is 100% a puppet to Bagwell and Reggie.

@eltonyancey6426 Ай бұрын

Not Dusty but he gets his orders from above.

@FARID-fj7tm Ай бұрын

Fans@ the game should boo every time that Jose abrue comes to bat and rafael montero takes the mound.. So the people upstairs do something

@StrateTrippin Ай бұрын

The upper management are trying to save face on abreu and montero. I feel for Joe and Dana, and kinda glad they are doing what they are doing despite everything.

@randytabor754 Ай бұрын

No one in the national media was criticizing the Abreu signing they were all saying this is going to make the Astros lineup even better as for Montero that was a signing that people were 50/50 on but Montero has been great this year he has earned his money this year era under 3

@StrateTrippin Ай бұрын

@@randytabor754 shoot same here. I thought so too

@kennysmith5990 Ай бұрын

Let Joey Loperfido play first base.

@reaverofjillsandwiches Ай бұрын

REAVER WITH ANOTHER W. I've been saying all this since the world series. What were they thinking letting Click go? Well he said it. Crane thinks he's the one responsible for the team being where they were. Sure he helped, pushing the JV trade and for an extension that didn't work out. Can't plan on Tommy John surgery. But this team is a joke. I don't like this guy's bitterness towards Astros fans, in a way but dealing with most of yall does make me understand it a bit. Lot of overly emotional people who have zero baseball understanding. Welp kids look out because it's only gonna get worse from here. Guy swill be leaving the next few seasons and the farm is in tatters. Hmm.. I don't like saying it. This team had zero reason to not still be really good for a lot longer if they'd made the moves I wanted them to make. But it is what it is and this guy is confirming everything I've said about Crane and his cobal of i-iots running the team.

@stevenwoods5787 Ай бұрын

Dude alotta stros fans (hell, alotta Houston sports fans) really do act like this is their kids little league team, or they act like they’re just happy to have a team. They think you’re not allowed to criticize the astros ever

@reaverofjillsandwiches Ай бұрын

@@stevenwoods5787 Yeah man it's pretty crazy. I just think it's funny I've been predicting things, not everything, for over a decade and I still get backlash.

@ElGalloNegro628 Ай бұрын

Clean house

@juanmalamo-eu9xo Ай бұрын

José Abreu is not 37 years old. Cuban players invented the birth certificate fudging long time ago. Ask all Caribbean teams playing in any Pan-American games

@akitas8165 Ай бұрын

That nonsense has been proven false so many times.

@chghfd4946 Ай бұрын

This Law guy sounds like the Astros stole his wife and made his kids called the Astros father afterward.

@zekeluna Ай бұрын

Relief pitching is terrible . ..unacceptable!!

@Wilterweight Ай бұрын

The irony of Keith Law accusing others of thinking they're smarter than everyone else is truly amazing. Law is insufferably smug and it's disappointing to see these guys not push back on his "WHAT AM I EVER WRONG ABOUT" bullshit.

@mack72711 Ай бұрын

Somebody sensitive

@kerwinross2361 26 күн бұрын

This hasn’t aged well as of today 😂

@christochav Ай бұрын

Dana Brown may be sabotaging too!!! Why is Espada making OBVIOUS, terrible roster moves. Abreau should be benched, DUBON should be starting...somewhere on the field. All these bad decisions seem intentional

@randomrefrigeration4564 Ай бұрын

You guys didn’t even defend the Astros what the heck 7 straight ALCS HAS NEVER BEEN ACCOMPLISHED IN MODERN DAY MLB You guys were stocked when they announced Abreu coming to Houston and now you are sucking up to this guy Pitiful reporting lazy ESPN SUCKS

@thomasS9676 Ай бұрын

Everyone was stoked, it has not worked out, time to move on!!

@randomrefrigeration4564 Ай бұрын

@@thomasS9676 agreed 100% but we do not need some beet reporter giving the I told you so BS and ESPN Houston should stand for the team as true fans do. It just rubbed me the wrong way. 2 WS titles 4 AL PENNANTS WEAK REPORTING ON LOW HANGING FRUIT

@kmena05 Ай бұрын

Abreu was trash last year he wasn't gonna get any better he's washed, idk why they are trying to make it work it hasn't the Astros back then would've started the next man up.