Houston Astros, We Have a Problem…

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast.

Related Post Roulette

3 Responses

  1. PD Shaw says:

    While I don’t like Luhnow and am not entirely certain that he should have been suspended since MLB found “no evidence to suggest that Luhnow was aware of the banging scheme,” no doub the scope of the problem mattered in terms of the difficulty in punishing players involved, playing on other teams and protected by union process, and the uncertainty embedded in the world series games.

    But this part of the report certainly meant that the Astros had to fire him:

    “But while no one can dispute that Luhnow’s baseball operations department is an industry leader in its analytics, it is very clear to me that the culture of the baseball operations department, manifesting itself in the way its employees are treated, its relations with other Clubs, and its relations with the media and external stakeholders, has been very problematic. At least in my view, the baseball operations department’s insular culture – one that valued and rewarded results over other considerations, combined with a staff of individuals who often lacked direction or sufficient oversight, led, at least in part, to the Brandon Taubman incident, the Club’s admittedly inappropriate and inaccurate response to that incident, and finally, to an environment that allowed the conduct described in this report to have occurred.”Report

  2. Anne says:

    Anyway we can get Richard Herschberger’s take on this? I don’t have a contact for him. My husband went to school with AJ Hinch and wants to understand more of the nuance of what happened here.Report

  3. Stillwater says:

    I get that Manfred is doing his best to keep a lid on this pressure cooker, but this scandal ain’t going away in part because the punishments he imposed (other than the draft picks) miss the mark. Houston should have to return their 2017 rings. And all those (great?) players – Altuve, Bregman, Springer, Correa, Guriel – need at least a hand slap.Report