If I were running things with the Astros and too much of a scaredy-cat to talk to people face-to-face, I would have left a few short notes in some of the players’ lockers after the last game. Just some thoughts on what those notes might look like….
Christian Walker and Bennett Sousa
“Guys, I know you are tired and probably a bit frustrated with yourselves. (And if you are not – I suggest you spend a lot of film time digesting your season.) But don’t turn on the fans. They invested the last six months in this team (and for many of us 50+ years before that) and saw a lot of up-and-down play. Maybe you think they don’t have the right to boo the home team. Maybe you think that Jim Crane pays you. I guarantee that the fans – through tickets, food, souvenirs, cable TV, watching 8 gazillion ads – are the source of your income. They earned the right to boo you, and frankly, if you were playing in Philadelphia, you would have heard a lot more of this a lot earlier. Pull up those big boy pants and do better or shut up.”
“Joe, the farther this team went this season, the more times I shook my head trying to figure out how they were anywhere close to .500.
Fans will always question the manager’s decisions. It is their right, but every manager has to make a thousand decisions a week, and sometimes they are the wrong ones just because the players are imperfect (like you are). This team could have given up after so many early-season failures and injuries, but you did not let that happen.
How you were able to mix and match your way through so many short stints by your starters, I don’t know. Did you wear out your bullpen? What choice did you have?
Your positive attitude and the way you never threw the players under the bus (outside the clubhouse) were admirable.
I figure I’ve seen your last game managing the Astros. If it is, the best of luck to you – if not, I hope you are dealt a better roster the next time you put on the Astros uniform.”
“Yordan, what can I say? I know there will always be people who wanted you to rise up and hit four homers in the playoffs or something like that, but considering how few decent pitches you were being thrown, we should not complain. If not for your season, this team would have been the Seattle Mariners or lower.
You should get the MVP. I don’t know what else you could have done this season for this team other than learning to pitch or driving the bus.”
“Hunter, you are the most frustrating Astro to me, because you pitched much below your talent level. I’m not deducting points for you missing a chunk of the season. I am deducting points for your Framber-ish meltdowns when someone makes an error, an ABS review goes against you, a hitter gets on with a dribbler, etc.
Maybe you need to go to Anger Management classes, therapy, or yoga lessons… something.
Come back better. Please.”
“Cam, you have elite talent. Whatever you are doing in the off-season, do something different. Train with someone else. Work on what your weaknesses are. Something.
And if you don’t know what your weaknesses are, ask somebody or hire somebody.
You are still young enough to really turn things around. I want to see the best from you – because when it has been on display, it has been breathtaking. “
“Bryan – I’m not sure what to say to you. You pitched awful trying to be the closer. You pitched much better in your normal eighth-inning spot. You are a free agent now. I am ambivalent about the Astros re-signing you, especially if you want some big raise. You did not earn it this year. Good luck wherever you may be next year.”
“Peter, you were the savior for this rotation this year. You led the team in starts (29 vs. 20 for Hunter Brown), innings (155.2 vs. 107.1 for Brown) and wins (8 vs. 7 for….anyone, anyone, Spencer Arrighetti). Note: you should have had 12–15 wins with decent support.
You are a free agent and can likely sign for more money and years somewhere else and no one would blame you for that. Thank you for what you did for this year’s team.”
“Bro, you are on the precipice of being THAT guy. The guy who held on too long. The guy who is a defensive liability. The guy who is in the lineup because so much of the lineup is so bad.
And truthfully, I can’t blame you. You are trying. You are chasing the big 3000 hits, which almost feels like a bridge too far at this point.
I’m not telling you to quit. I’m asking you to work on being more like the guy at the beginning of the season, who stayed within the strike zone and hit the ball the other way and up the middle. I’m asking you to move just a little bit closer to the plate.
I’d love you to spend your career here, but I don’t want you to be hurting the club rather than helping the club.”
“Josh – you were critical to the Astros having any chance of getting back to .500 and into the playoffs. I wonder if the Astros would get the second seed in the AL if you hadn’t missed the couple of months at the beginning of the season. Whatever you did to prepare and hit the ground running, please repeat.
Also, don’t get discouraged by potential talk about being traded. This has nothing to do with your performance or value to the team and everything to do with the team’s current situation.
And thank you and your wife Maria for all you do for this community. Being nominated for the Roberto Clemente award for a team where so much charity work is sourced is quite an achievement and shows your dedication to your new town.”
“Tatsuya – it is a little sad to me that your problems here were not of a physical nature but perhaps based on isolation and discomfort in a new place.
I don’t know what you will decide about extending your contract or opting out. No one would blame you if you wanted to return to your homeland. No one would blame you if you decided to try again (especially with that much guaranteed money). But money, in and of itself, cannot buy you happiness. Whatever you decide, I hope you find success and happiness.”
This could obviously continue on throughout the roster and even include leaving notes on Jim Crane’s and Jeff Bagwell’s desks.
But that is why you are here. To whom would you like to leave a note, and what would you say to them?
23 responses to “Quick notes to some Astros”
As a season ticket holder I will get a chance to leave a note, when they survey my satisfaction. My comments will be: if you want me to continue as a STH then pick a direction: reload or rebuild. The worst possible scenario is a .500 team with no future. My plan: hire a strong GM; trade Diaz and Peña for 4-5 stud pitchers and a SS. Find a way to move Walker. Trade/sign 2 MLB outfielders. Re-sign Okert, Lambert. DFA Trammell, Jake, King. DH Altuve as much as possible. Limit Bagwell to helping minor leaguers.
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Jimle
I’m guessing you have been filling out surveys before. Have they ever responded to you about any suggestions?
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Dan, here’s mine…and it’s to someone not included in your list.
Mr. Crane,
I’m not happy we came up short in the playoffs this year, but I’m starting to believe it may turn out to be a good thing.
Let it be a wake-up call. Take a long look at the teams still playing this October, because the gap between them and us is wide, and fans can see it from the cheap seats. You may not want to hear this, but Harry Truman kept a sign on his desk that read “The buck stops here,” and the same is true of yours.
Most of us aren’t in a hurry to see a new GM. What we want is an owner who uses this off-season to remember the good years and decide what it will take to get back there. Houston is ready to follow you. Show us you’re ready to lead.
Chip
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I don’t know what to think about this – because I’ve never really seen Crane take responsibility for anything wrong that happens.
The bucks (as in profit) stop at his desk, but the buck as in responsibility apparently stops at the GM and manager desks.
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If we can get 4 or 5 stud pitchers and a shortstop for Diaz and Pena, that’s a pretty good start.
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You may need to tamp down your expectations here dave. Pena is a good to very good offensive shortstop and a good fielder. But he is a free agent after next season and again we have no idea when/if 2027 will occur. Diaz is a good offensive catcher and a middle of the road fielder. He has two seasons of control before free agency with one of those being the uncertain 2027 season.
I think you would be lucky to get a single stud pitcher from each trade unless they are younger (more uncertain) prospects. The SS you get may be a Cam Smith type prospect – certainly not a Pena equivalent.
If you go back and look at all those trades when the Astros were headed towards the dark ages – they were not getting that much back for even the best like Hunter Pence.
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Indeed Dan, those were not my expectations. But heck yeah, that would have been a pretty good start. It’s probably a good thing I don’t have a sarcasm font.
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Let’s assume a bunch of millionaires and billionaires will suddenly wake up and realize fighting over who gets to be richer while they take more money out of our pockets is a bad idea and don’t cancel the 2027 season. Under this unlikely premise we will have a normal offseason. Who knows, maybe we’ll even have a GM. That last point is the one I’d leave to Jim Crane. We need the organization to be fully directed by the GM and not the owner and his poker group. They can’t patch a position here and there. I’d enter the offseason with every player on the table for trade discussions from the MLB team. I don’t know that anyone in our minor league system would be an untouchable either.
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I think it’s about time Jim Crane has a press conference and addresses his fan base.
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Devin – yeah we need a real GM with no puppet strings attached.
Daveb – exactly right – Jim Crane needs to be front and center.
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I’m waiting on Crane, maybe unrealistically, to tell us what his plans are. Then we can really get started discussing all the options.
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Astros have lost nearly 600,000 fans since their 2023 peak
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Lambert is arbitration eligible. He will be back.
Cam – talent? I’m sure he can dunk a basketball. Probably has the fastest 100M time on the team. He can throw bullets. But to me – talent is fast eyes, quick hands, compact swings that can adjust to a pitch midway. Cam Smith has a loop. I’m not sure he has a swing that can adjust. He tries to read, lets it rip, if its there he can punish it. If he guesses wrong, he has no chance. What we all hope is that he has the talent to improve, but 6’3″, 225, that can run a 4.4, with a big arm, all those things have nothing to with hitting talent, or Isaac would be in trouble. Cam reminds me of the guys the scouts were talking about in moneyball, probably has a hot girlfriend, certain parts of him are in the room 30 seconds before he arrives, etc.
Abreu was throwing 92 in May, 99 by August. That’s it. I don’t know that he will be back, but if so, come into camp more ready young man.
I love Hader. Consumate professional. But expensive closers are the first to go for mediocre teams usually. Of course, I don’t know how tradeable his contract actually is.
Imai is a marriage we are stuck in for the sake of the kids.
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Steven, you had me feeling a little more optimistic about Cam last week.
I’m really hoping some kind of buyout can happen with Imai, for the sake of us older kids.
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Cam is our great hope. I’m not terribly optimistic, but I’m rooting for him. I’d love to think it’s just a matter of the at bat slowing down in his mind. But that swing is wide. It takes a long time to get where it’s going. It’s got thump once it gets there. With experience, coaching, and just some good old fashion muscle that speeds up the bat maybe, just maybe a star is still waiting in there.
The coaching doesn’t seem to be helping.
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And in the analogy Dave – the money is the kids. We (team and fans) are 1 parent, he is the other, and we are stuck together because he isn’t getting 18M kids anywhere else, probably not even the rest of his career. This 36M the next two years, this is his generational wealth.
So we will put on a happy face, say good things for the sake of the kids, do a little PDA for the cameras, but we all know no one is truly happy. We are going to ask him to change in ways we know he isn’t really capable of changing, and we will give those changes a chance.
Who knows, maybe there is still is a secret legit major league starter in there. Seems very unlikely.
See, I’m doing it already.
Sidenote – when you look at some of these contracts, Javier, Imai, even Correa and Altuve, ol Jimbo might actually be hoping for a work stoppage. Service time will continue to accrue but no money pays out.
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Oh, and Hader has that full no trade clause. If he’d rather pitch for a contender, then he’ll be ready to waive it.
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a) Espada is a good manager, but a terrible lineup maker and pitching staff handler. I know that sounds incongruous, but… He is a “player’s manager” which is a good thing. But he made horrible decisions every day filling out the lineup card.
b) Altuve had a .342 OBP when he batted in the leadoff spot. That’s not awesome, but it was far better than Pena’s .325. Please, Joe, put Jose back at the top of the order while he still has SOME skills left. Bat Pena 2nd, THEN Yordan.
c) Only a clueless person would bat your best RBI man in the 2 slot. Wake up, Espada. This is a stupid decision. The Astros led the league in HRs – get some guys on base, for goodness sake. THEN let Yordan and Paredes drive them in. Alvarez drove in only 64 people other than himself (106 RBIs – 42 HRs equals 64). Give him a chance to bat with some guys on BASE. Batting him behind Pena’s streakiness (and then the 9th hitter and Pena later on) gives him far fewer chances than if Altuve led off. Stats don’t lie.
d) STOP BATTING ALTUVE AS THE CLEANUP HITTER. He is NOT a good RBI man. Bat this HOF player in the leadoff spot and ask him to focus on getting on base. PLEASE!
e) Stop using 6-7 pitchers every game. Let your starters work out of early jams. Your bullpen was absolutely worn out by the times the playoffs got here. Youv are not building any confidence in your starters by yanking them after 3-4 innings.
f) Stop spraying champagne before you get to the WS. That was an embarrassing spectacle.
Please stop following the stupid ideas you have been so hard headed about.
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A lot of great points Andy – you hit many nails on their heads.
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I don’t think you have to worry about Espada’s in game decisions any more.
I was ready to dispute your Altuve/leadoff theory. The problem with disputing it – he did the same thing in 2025 – posting a .343 OBP from the leadoff spot. Something tells me though he wouldn’t be immune to slumps if he did all year and he would end up closer to Jeremy’s .325.
Espada isn’t the only manager batting his best hitter 2nd. Judge bats 2nd. Trout bats 2nd. The idea is to get them an additional 25-30 PAs over the course of the season. I’m ill equipped to argue the merits of it, but I understand the reason.
I watched probably 120 games this year. There were more times I felt Espada left guys in too long versus taking them out too soon, though I certainly didn’t keep a log of it. But again, that’s just me kind of spitballing out my initial thought about it, I’m certainly open to evidence that it was actually the other way around. I just don’t think this staff was full of guys I trusted to work themselves out of fires they started. I don’t expect a ton of change in 2027. Hunter has to be better. Lambert has to at least repeat – and not wear down. Wesneski was allowed to work – he had a handful of 6-7 inning starts in the stretch run. Javier, Imai, and Burrows are all candidates to be in this rotation again. If that is your 6 man, I don’t expect any manager to trust anyone other than Hunter Brown (and maybe Hayden) to work his way out of self inflicted jams.
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I appreciate your response.
But numbers don’t lie. Altuve has been a #1 or #2 the majority of his career. He is on the downside of it, and we need to get the most of his abilities. He absolutely SUCKED as a cleanup hitter. Go to baseballrefernce.com and look at his breakdown. He is small and can be more patient than trying to hit the longball.
Just because other managers are stupid and use their RBI men in the 2 hole doesn’t mean we should. Just like other sports, players in baseball fit into roles depending on their skills.
Do this… go look at Biggio and Bagwell side by side. Craig batted leadoff and Jeff batted 3rd every year. The most ABs Biggio had was 10 more than Bagwell. Usually, it was 1-5 different. Some years, it was exactly the same (per game).
Batting Yordan 2nd would have given him one or 2 more ABs for the entire season. Look it up.
Part of my pitchers comment has to do with the 100 pitch limit. THERE IS NO EMPIRICAL, SCIENTIFIC DATA PROVING THAT 100 PITCHES IS ANY DIFFERENT THAN 110. It is myopic to keep that pitch count for every pitcher. Pitchers younger than 23 should be protected, but after that, let them pitch!
I agree that our starters were piss poor this season. But you have to “dance with who brung ya.” Let them pitch. Let them learn how to work out of jams. Our bullpen blew as many games as our starters. Bryan King was great until late in the season. He was overused. Blubaugh faltered down the stretch, too.
While on the subject… if you are limiting pitchers to so few pitches, why do we need 5-6 starters? If he only threw 89 pitches in 4 1/3 innings, why can’t he pitch again in 3-4 days?
Peace
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Andy, you are correct on a number of points. Regarding pitchers, I’m much more interested in how their performance drops the number of times through the lineup than the pitch count. I don’t think you should blindly start pulling them for either though. Guys need to learn how to work through some adversity and fatigue if you want them to win in the postseason.
Regarding having your best RBI guy in the second spot it all traces back to Bill James, I believe, making the argument for your top OBP to be in the second spot. Managers are rarely given the authority to make such decisions these days, but it really should come down to a choice of when you want Yordan walking to first base in the first innings. For a guy like Mike Trout the equation is different. My favorite lineups from years ago had Biggio in front of Finley. Both guys were a threat to hit for extra bases, play small ball, steal a base, etc. How much benefit do you get out of Yordan coming up with the bases empty v. him coming up with a man on first who the pitcher has to worry about? Move the man down a spot!
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Dave – you know, just swing wise, who Cam reminds me of? Chris Johnson. Another “the ball just sounds different off the bat” guy. And had many of the same issues.
These guys that have those wide swings, where they are extending the bat earlier in the swing, man they generate power. It’s why you hear so many of his teammates talk about his batting practice power.
But they also are stealing read time. And they have trouble adjusting to movement mid-swing. In the end, they just strike out too much and walk too little.
If I remember correctly Johnson either won a batting title or almost did one year. That ball would zing off his bat. His BABIP that year was crazy, and it wasn’t all “luck.” Sometimes your EV creates “luck.” Groundballs find holes sometimes when they just get there faster.
But man, his BB/K ratios, even when he hit for average, downright scary. And they predicted his final trajectory just like those type ratios usually do.
Don’t get me wrong, I think more of Cam than I did CJ. And CJ posted some pretty good seasons for average, though even when his average was good, his OBP was meh. Chris had a career high 31 walks in 2012. Cam is already beating that at 23. Cam has already beat Johnson’s career high in HR in a season. Way more upside, you can look at them and see Cam is more of a physical specimen – he will end up way stronger and that will lend to more bat speed. I just want to see a little loop out of the swing.
I’m no professional hitting coach, but it seems to me if that front elbow can stay in the swing a little more he will do better at adjusting to pitches running away from him. I just think he extends that left arm too early, it generates more power, but gives him little ability to adjust, meaning he has to guess better. And be right more often. If they can find a way to rob Peter without having to pay Paul, give him some ability to adjust to a pitch without robbing him of that power that creates the awe some of his teammates and coaches have of him, he still can become a star.
I never personally graduated from a level that plays with aluminum. I imagine getting so little time in the minors to adjust to wood and going to straight to a contending team with expectations did not help his growth. The few times I played around with wood in the leagues I played in, its an incredibly different at bat.
Like I said, I’m rooting for him. I know it’s in there. I’m not convinced the Astros are the right organization to unlock it. But maybe he is good enough to unlock it himself. And we have to remember, we are watching ages 22-23 seasons. His best is yet to come, even if he never blossoms into a star, he should have some productive ages 25-29 seasons.
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