Jeff Sullivan: The Worst Team Ever Projected?

On the plus side for bbc chick, Kevin Bass is still very good looking.

There, at the very very bottom of the standings, are the Houston Astros. Okay, that’s not a big surprise. The Astros were baseball’s worst team in 2011. They didn’t then undergo a complete roster makeover. But their projected record - which is the average of several projected records - is 60-102. That’s 60 wins, and 102 losses.

The thing about projected standings is that they tend to miss the extremes. Standings are projected by running a hundred or a thousand individual projections and then averaging them out. By doing this, the records are kind of regressed to the mean. So when you see an extreme record, that’s pretty telling. And I think it’s fair to say that 60-102 is an extremely bad record…..

Out of all the projected records above, the worst is 60-102, belonging to the 2012 Houston Astros (CAIRO) and the 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates (ZiPS). And between those two teams, the 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates were projected to have the better Pythagorean record, based on runs scored and runs allowed.

These 2012 Houston Astros might be historically significant, in whatever way that projected baseball standings might be significant. And while it’s very possible, if not probable, that the Astros aren’t actually the worst team ever projected, that doesn’t change the fact that CAIRO just thinks they’re really gross. And CAIRO’s fair. CAIRO doesn’t hold grudges.

If you glance at the Astros’ depth chart, that they’re projected to be terrible makes a whole lot of sense. Squint and you can like a chunk of the rotation. The pitching staff as a unit isn’t a complete disaster. But I’d really prefer to just not talk about the position players. I like Jed Lowrie, but when you can make an argument that Jed Lowrie is the best position player on a team, you should be worried about that team.

Berkman and Pettitte team up for Men’s program at Second Baptist West

It was a First Baptist Church…but Pettitte has admitted to a Second.

The Waco-born Berkman, now age 36, will report in the coming days to training camp with the St. Louis Cardinals, a team that he signed with as a free agent following the 2010 season. Berkman played the last two months of that season with the New York Yankees following a trade that took him away from the only professional organization he had ever known.

“The hardest time in my professional life was when I was traded to New York. I had been in Houston a long time. I was very comfortable, played at Rice, a native Texan, so it was like a dream come true,” Berkman said. “For the first two weeks (following the trade) I literally wanted to cry. I felt so bad. I was having a bad season, and was in a completely new and alien environment. I just felt overwhelmed. Fortunately, I did have one friend in New York, and that was the main reason I waived my no-trade clause and went up there because Andy (Pettitte) was there.”

Berkman was joined on the stage Tuesday with the former Yankee and Astro pitcher Pettitte, as well as former Astros shortstop Craig Reynolds and Yankees shortstop Bobby Meacham. Reynolds is currently a pastor with Second Baptist and Meacham is the first-base coach for Houston.

Justice: 5 things that could make the 2012 season a successful one for the Astros

6. A special Day for William Irving “Colt .45s” Neder (and half of the 3-block radius famous Neder-Bancroft comedy team!)

5. .Getting third baseman Chris Johnson and first baseman Brett Wallace on the right track would be a pleasant surprise. Both were handed jobs when 2011 spring training opened, and both ended up being demoted to the minor leagues. At the moment, the Astros have no idea what they can expect from either of them. They’ll need to play their way onto the team in spring training.

4. Second baseman Jose Altuve, third baseman Jimmy Paredes and outfielder J.D. Martinez showed some nice spurts after being summoned to the big leagues last summer. If at least one of them could have a solid sophomore season, it would be hugely important for the future of the franchise.

3. Luhnow’s most attractive trade assets are Wandy Rodriguez and Brett Myers. If he can get a single prospect for each of them by the trade dealine, he will have continued strengthening the organization.

2. To get productive seasons from center fielder Jordan Schafer and shortstop Jed Lowrie.  They were once highly regarded prospects with the Braves and Red Sox. Now they’re getting a fresh start in Houston. There’s no question they have talent, but so far have been unable to stay healthy or make the necessary adjustments every player must make. If just one of them ends up being a contributor over the next few years, it would be significant.

1. To have a bunch of young players take positive steps up the ladder. If Wade’s four No. 1 picks–catcher Jason Castro (2008), shortstop Jiovanni Mier (2009), second baseman Delino DeShields (2010) and outfielder George Springer (2011)–all have good seasons, it would be a huge boost for the timetable.

RLYW: CAIRO 2012 v0.5 and More Somewhat Useless Projected Standings

These look more realistic to me than the last set I ran with Marcel.  Probably a bit high on the Yankees, but since CAIRO was created to make the Yankees look better than they are that stands to reason.

Former Astros manager Larry Dierker grew to love reading

And here I thought he only played in Cocoa.

On to baseball. I asked the most successful manager in Astros history (four division titles in five years), are you OK with the Astros’ move to the American League?

“I know a lot of people don’t like it, but it’s going to be fine. I’m a National League guy, obviously, but the last couple of years I’ve been rooting for the American League because of Nolan (Texas Rangers owner Nolan Ryan). I like the National League because of the strategic implications. Decisions are easier for managers in the American League. The leagues used to be a lot more different, with different umpires and even different baseballs. But the boundaries have been blurred by interleague play.

“Now the American League has almost the same appeal as the National League. The move doesn’t bother me,” he said.

“Plus, having the Yankees and Red Sox and other American League teams here every year will offer something we haven’t had before. Those big crowds will mean more money to buy more free agents.”

RLYW: Too-Early Marcel 2012 Season Forecast

Crikey, such excitement in the NL West!

This is current through Francisco Cordero signing with Toronto, and assumes Prince Fielder at 1B and Miguel Cabrera playing a terrible version of 3B for Detroit in 70% of their games, and DHing in 25% of them.

Mazeroski views Biggio as ‘lock’ to be elected to Hall of Fame on first ballot

Easily over the Mazeroski Wall of Fame…

“I think he’s pretty much a lock to get into the Hall of Fame as a first-ballot guy,” Mazeroski said. “He had a real good career. He was such a great athlete. You look at what he was able to do with his bat, but then you realize the guy happened to play catcher, second base and center field, before going back to second.”

...According to Mazeroski, one of the things that impressed him most about Biggio was he played a large portion of his career in the pitcher-friendly Astrodome, yet evolved into one of the top hitters.

“I remember playing in the Astrodome for the very first time,” Mazeroski said. “It was really hard as a hitter to play in that stadium. There was no sky. A good connection off the bat often died in the outfield. I remember it being awful. It never was a hitter’s park. That makes Biggio look even better for what he did.” 

...Biggio was an Astro for all 20 of his major league seasons.

“It was really unselfish for him to move to center field for the signing of Jeff Kent,” Mazeroski said. “He’s a team player. He has all the accomplishments and was a great example on how to play the game. I really respect him. It seemed like he could do anything.”

Astros add ‘Baseball Prospectus’ alum Fast in drive for stats knowledge

Congrats, Mike! (and for bbc’s sake let’s hope he…“cleans up real nice, not fat neither”!

The Astros added to their statistical strength in the front office, hiring Mike Fast of Baseball Prospectus to serve in the baseball operations department.

Fast, one of the foremost experts on pitch trajectory (PITCHf/x) data, has also written on HITf/x data for BP. Some of his latest writings have been on hit-and-run success, quantifying how much control pitchers have over batted balls and an analysis of hot and cold zones for hitters.

“We’re definitely excited to have someone with his background and interests,” general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “It’s a lot of the same things that we’re interested in studying.”

Fast joins director of decision sciences Sig Mejdal in a front office that is increasingly statistically minded. His job title has not been determined yet.

Solomon: Astros need changes but not to name

Crane: Auto focus grope.

If you want change, change the team colors, paint the grass at Minute Maid Park orange, and hire scantily clad cheerleaders to dance on top of the dugouts between innings. But don’t make some silly name change as a money-grabbing ploy to sell more jerseys and caps.

Astroworld is gone, the Astrodomain is now Reliant Park, and the Astrodome is a blight on the city skyline.

But the Astros are Houston’s team, and despite what idiot politicians who didn’t grant us a space shuttle say, Houston is Space City. You may have purchased the franchise, but Astros is the name that belongs to the baseball team in Space City.

From Aspromonte, Watson, Dierker and Wynn to Cedeno, Cruz, Richard and Ryan to Bagwell, Biggio, Berkman and Oswalt, MLB stars in Houston have been Astros.

Keep this up, and your team will be the team formerly known as the favorite baseball team of tens of thousands of Houstonians.

People aren’t embarrassed about being Astros fans because of the team name. They are embarrassed about being Astros fans because the team finished with the worst record in baseball.

Astros drop ticket prices, relax food policies in new ‘fan-friendly initiatives’

The big changes could be a year away.

Owner Jim Crane said that branding changes are being discussed all the way up to the point of reconsidering the “Astros” name.

That change and any uniform and playing field adjustments could coincide with the move to the American League in 2013. Crane promised no changes, but much is being considered following Crane’s meetings with season ticket holders since taking over ownership from Drayton McLane in November.

WSJ: Houston Astros Owner Mucked Up in JeffCo Bankruptcy

We release things drip by drip…and when I have my sewer bonds settlement statements ready for this year, I’ll release them!

Stuck at the unfortunate end of the debt-clogged sewer system of Jefferson County, Ala., you’ll find Houston Astros owner Jim Crane.

Fresh into his takeover of the Texas baseball team, Crane has been ordered by a bankruptcy judge to reveal details of his settlement with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. over $35 million worth of sewer bonds that he bought from the investment bank four years ago—a personal investment that quickly turned to, er, garbage.

Those dirty details, which are not public, are what Jefferson County attorney are seeking amid their own fight with the bank over the complicated series of dealings that, with a little help from a corruption scheme that ensnared the county’s top elected leaders, left the county swimming in a pool of toxic debt.

Ultimately, the county—Alabama’s most populous with roughly 658,000 residents—filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, marking the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Crane said he got stuck with a bum deal, too, according to court documents filed in Texas state court.

MLB: Astros reach one-year deal with Cust

CustomInk: Compare prices!

Jack Cust, who has hit 105 home runs in a 10-year Major League career that has spanned six teams, has agreed to a one-year deal with the Astros that includes an option for 2013, according to a baseball source.

The deal is pending a physical and could be announced as soon as Wednesday. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow declined to comment.

Cust, 33, appeared in 67 games before being cut loose last July by the Mariners, for whom he batted .213 with three homers and 23 RBIs. He spent the previous four seasons with the Oakland A’s, hitting 97 homers and driving in 281 runs in that span. He’s played primarily left field, right field and designated hitter in his career.

The addition of Cust likely puts him in the mix to start in right field in an increasingly crowded group that includes Brian Bogusevic, Jason Bourgeois, J.B. Shuck and Fernando Martinez, the former top prospect of the Mets who was claimed off waivers last week.

RLYW: Salvaging a Sunken cost

Burnett projects to have an RA of 5.03 in CAIRO.  The following possible starting pitchers project better than that.

CC Sabathia (3.57)
Michael Pineda (4.37)
Freddy Garcia (4.55)
Brad Meyers (4.56)
Hiroki Kuroda (4.57)
Phil Hughes (4.63)
Ivan Nova (4.93)
...

If that’s true, then every start that goes to Burnett is a start that should be going to one of the above.

...

Unfortunately, since Burnett is owed $33 million over the next two years, the Yankees probably feel obligated to try and get some value out of him.

I don’t think they can do that by pitching him…. trading Burnett’s bad contract to another team for their bad contract might be a way to recoup some of that value.

MLB Trade Rumors: Bartolo Colon Agrees to Sign With Unknown Team

Bartolo Colon has agreed to a deal with an unknown club reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (on Twitter). The right-hander wouldn’t divulge the team because he has not yet passed his physical.

Pretty sure it’s either the All-Stars or the Champs.

Adam Everett retires, joins Indians as special assistant

I forget if Roger Clemens said it or if someone said it to him when he went to the Astros…but the “Now I’ll/you’ll finally have a Major League shortstop behind me/you.” was pure Jeterkill.

I guess this means Adam Everett is officially retired.

Everett was released by Cleveland in the middle of his 11th big-league season last June, and the light-hitting, Gold Glove-caliber shortstop has decided to end his playing career and join the Indians’ front office as a “special assistant to baseball operations.”

Everett hit just .242 with a .294 on-base percentage and .346 slugging percentage in 880 games and never won a Gold Glove, but consistently rated among the elite shortstops in baseball according to various defensive metrics. He also earned about $12 million in addition to the signing bonus he received as the Red Sox’s first-round pick in 1998, so all in all that’s a pretty solid career.

F-Mart to the Houston Astros

Shop smart…

One-time top Mets prospect Fernando Martinez is now a Houston Astro.

Houston, which has first dibs in waiver claims by virtue of its MLB-worst record in 2011, selected the 23-year-old outfielder…

Because Martinez has an option remaining, he needs to remain on Houston’s 40-man roster, but can be optioned to Triple-A in spring training if he does not make the major league club.

Martinez is a lifetime .183 hitter with two homers and 12 RBIs in 131 at-bats spanning the past three seasons. His biggest obstacle has been injuries, including an arthritic knee that severely limits his mobility, even when technically healthy. Including his major league activity, Martinez has averaged only 77 games a regular season since 2006.

Blasts from the Past

With the Hall of Fame results being announced today, we decided to take a trip down memory lane and dig up some old scouting reports from the Baseball America archives on some of the ballot’s notable candidates. . .

8. Barry Larkin, ss, 21, 5-11, 175, R-R
Larkin looked right at home in AA, hitting .267 for Vermont. He didn’t show power (one home run in 255 at-bats), but that will come. The key for him was just getting his feet on the ground, and he was not overpowered by the high level of competition (21 strikeouts in 255 at-bats). He will have good power for a shortstop.

6. Edgar Martinez, 3b, 25, 5-11, 175, R-R
Martinez’s discipline will produce runs. He’s averaged 70 RBIs the last four years. In the field, he’s solid, with good reactions and the soft hands of a middle infielder.

Neyer: Elect Jeff Bagwell To The Hall, And Cooperstown Will Bloom Again

Apparently “Craig” only needs a first name, like Cher, Madonna or Snooki.

This morning, Craig [Calcaterra] wrote a couple of compelling Hall of Fame-related posts.

In the first, he noted that attendance at the Museum is way, way down: more than 20 percent just from 2007 through 2011… In the second, Craig gave some Calcaterrian whatfor and whatnot to three Chicagoland Hall of Fame voters who have (again) not voted for Jeff Bagwell because of suspicions that he used performance-enhancing drugs (not including amphetamines, because hey if Willie Mays used greenies it’s cool)...

While I believe Bagwell should be in the Hall of Fame, I’ve never quite understood the argument that a Hall of Fame voter—if he thinks steroid use is germane—should ignore every scrap of evidence that doesn’t appear in the Mitchell Report or wherever… I believe that it’s intellectually indefensible to disqualify a player solely because you think he used steroids ... but I also believe it’s perfectly defensible to decide for yourself, based on everything you’ve seen and heard, if a player did use steroids.

Some of that makes sense, I hope. And I really didn’t intend to get into this whole thing. Really, I just wanted to express my mild surprise that Craig didn’t make any connection between Hall of Fame voting and Hall of Fame visitors. The Hall of Fame derives 98 percent of it publicity from one thing: new Hall of Famers. But lately—and for some years into the future, I’m afraid—a great deal of that 98 percent is going to be negative. It will be about Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield and Mike Piazza and all the terrible things they did, and there might well be years when literally nobody is elected to the Hall of Fame. You think attendance has been down? You ain’t seen nothing.

MLB: Astros add two to baseball operations staff

Astroland: A Team’s Obsessive Bid to Win the World’s Most Ruthless Baseball League!

The Astros have hired Sig Mejdal as Director of Decision Sciences and Stephanie Wilka as Coordinator of Amateur Scouting, General Manager Jeff Luhnow announced today.

Mejdal, 46, had worked with the St. Louis Cardinals since 2005, most recently as Director, Amateur Draft Analytics. While with the Cardinals, he was involved with modeling, analysis and data-driven decision making throughout all levels of the organization and was a key contributor in the draft decision processes that led to more Major League players than any other organization during that time frame.

Mejdal earned two engineering degrees at the University of California at Davis and later completed advanced degrees in Operations Research and Cognitive Psychology/Human Factors. He has also worked at Lockheed Martin in California and for NASA. Mejdal has been active in baseball statistics and analytics since earning his membership in The Society for Baseball Research (SABR) while in grade school.

Rosenthal: ESPN’s Keith Law: On the move again?

Oh, Lisa…

Keith Law, a senior baseball writer for ESPN.com, interviewed last week for a number of front-office roles with the Houston Astros, including the job of scouting director, according to major-league sources.

Law met with both new club president George Postolos and general manager Jeff Luhnow, but the team has yet to offer him a position, sources say.

In his current job, Law oversees ESPN’s scouting-related content. Prior to joining ESPN in 2006, he spent 4½ years as a special assistant with the Toronto Blue Jays. Prior to that, he was a free-lance writer for Baseball Prospectus and ESPN.

Justice: Baseball lucky to have had McLane around

Richie and Drayton sittin’ in Wade’s tree…

Drayton McLane slipped out the backdoor that final day in Milwaukee last month, off to a life out of the spotlight after 17 years as the owner of the Houston Astros.

I’m taking this opportunity to say now what I didn’t have the chance to say then. Thank you, Drayton.

Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for making me laugh. Thank you for never having had a bad day, at least not that I could tell.

Thank you for all the times you took my calls when I was a columnist for the Houston Chronicle and working on something that now seems insignificant.

...Through it all, McLane never once failed to return a phone call. He believed that part of his responsibility as the owner of the local baseball team was dealing with reporters, even the annoying ones.

Baseball was lucky to have him for as long as it did. His legacy in baseball will be that he led the Astros at a time of their greatest success on the field, including six playoff appearances during one nine-year stretch.

Ed Wade Returns, Hopefully to Claim His Ring

The Phillies will be living trophies in his diabolical collection!

Wade’s tenure as Phillies GM wasn’t considered to be a particularly good one at the time, but he returns to a team that still fields a talented group of players drafted during his time here, including Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels, and even Vance Worley. (Worley opted to go to college, but was again drafted in 2008, this time by Pat Gillick’s regime.) Charlie Manuel was also his guy, and he selected Shane Victorino in the Rule 5 draft (but almost returned him). Wade and his scouts drafted the recently departed Ryan Madson, as well as Pat Burrell.

That’s not to say he didn’t also make some critical missteps. It’s hard to think of anyone who was less popular during a Philly tenure than Wade. But, in its own cruel way, history has been increasingly kind to his legacy. The guys listed above finally did win us a World Series. While Wade couldn’t himself put it all together, he drew the prototype on the cocktail napkin and saw through it the startup phase. I certainly didn’t appreciate what he had put in place at the time, how close he was.

The Gillick Era will be seen by many, particularly as years pass, as the phase in which the Phillies went from being the bums who were a constant letdown to the heroes who have owned the city’s sporting hearts from 2008 ‘til question marks. But Gillick would be the first to credit Wade for the work he did leading up to that.

The Cooperstown case for Jeff Bagwell

Here’s the dilemma facing the BBWAA: Due to the imperfect knowledge we have of who did or didn’t do steroids, the voters will have to end up doing one of two things —either elect a guy who did steroids or keep out someone who never did them. Given our lack of concrete evidence, it’s hard to avoid one of those two options.

Bagwell is an interesting test case for the BBWAA. To date, the only other steroid candidates on the ballot are pretty open-shut cases. Mark McGwire’s congressional testimony created a widespread belief he was took them, and he’s since admitted it, and Rafael Palmeiro famously flunked a drug test.

Report: Sox trade Lowrie, Weiland for Melancon

Looks like a bit of an overpay to me…

The Red Sox have traded infielder Jed Lowrie and pitcher Kyle Weiland to Houston for reliever Mark Melancon, according to a report by FoxSports.com.

Former GM, ESPN analyst Steve Phillips understands direction of Astros

He believes newly-hired GM Jeff Luhnow fits “the Astros’ way.”

“My sense is the Astros wanted to hire a guy that is focused on what a small-market GM would do,” Phillips said. “It’s not going to be somebody who spent their time looking at major league free agents and spending money on big time players. The Astros have more of a commitment of growing it all from within.

“In their words, it’s probably having an Astros’ way of doing things. They want to develop players with an understanding of what the expectations and consequences are. They want youngsters with an understanding of what the development process is like, how to go about doing things and letting it all play out.”

...He wasn’t surprised with the Astros’ hiring, stating Luhnow’s background gave him the best training in becoming a general manager.

“It’s kind of a copycat league,” Phillips said. “Where there is success in some places, people think it will translate well into someplace else. Small-market GMs with successful ballclubs tend to have assistant GMs that become candidates for the other small-market teams. Somebody from New York City, or a place where they’re spending a lot of money by doing it a different way, may not correlate to that exact same level of success.

“Assistant GMs with player development backgrounds have experience in developing things at the lower levels. Whether they come through as scouting or farm directors, that is an important part, as well. I’ve always believed that somebody who’s been a farm director has the best training in becoming a general manager. Why? Well, they’re serving as a general manager for seven minor league teams by being in that type of role.”

Thanks to Fuller.

Rule V Results

1.Astros take Rhiner Cruz from Mets.
2.Twins take Terry Doyle from White Sox.
3.Mariners take Lucas Luetge from Brewers.
4.Orioles take Ryan Flaherty from Cubs.
5.Royals take Cesar Cabral from Red Sox; traded to Yankees for cash.
6.Cubs take Lendy Castillo from Phillies.
8.Pirates take Gustavo Nunez from Tigers.
  21.Braves take Robert Fish from Angels.
22.Cardinals take Erik Komatsu from Nationals.
23.Red Sox take Marwin Gonzalez from Cubs.
  25.Diamondbacks take Brett Lorin from Pirates.
  29.Yankees take Brad Meyers from Nationals.

Boston Red Sox - Johnny Damon says pinstripes would suit David Ortiz - The Boston Globe

A couple of nice quotes in this article. I bet the second quote only makes Astros fans more excited at the prospect of Friedman coming to Houston.

Damon also had some advice for Ortiz: Sign with the Yankees and take advantage of that right-field porch at Yankee Stadium.

“Shoot, I was trying to tell him if he went to New York his 30 home runs turns into 40,’’ Damon said. “He still has a great chance to win. I’m happy I got to experience both sides [of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry]. Both sides were very incredible for me.

“What people don’t understand is that there’s a business part of it. As a player, I wish I could have been in Kansas City my entire career. But once you get traded, you get to thinking and you accept whatever comes your way and you try and make whatever team you’re on better. David can do that.
...
“I haven’t even talked to them just because our GM [Andrew Friedman] is a free agent,’’ Damon said. “He’s not going to sign me and then leave. If he goes to Houston, his hometown, he’s going to try and bring me along with him. That’s where my waiting game is.

When A Team Leaves Its Stadium, What Do You Do With the Building?

Back in February, an architecture conference focused on “concrete modernism” met in Houston. Included on the agenda: a tour of the famed Astrodome. The 65,000-seat domed stadium, the first of its kind when it opened in 1965, was the perfect destination for the group. But the visitors’ path through the venue had to be changed when, just hours before the event, an electrical fire broke out in the facility. The blaze wasn’t major, but it illustrated the extent to which the facility, once viewed as an engineering marvel, has deteriorated. “It felt like walking into a movie set of something prematurely aged,” says Sarah Whiting, dean of the Rice University School of Architecture, who was part of the group. “I find it incredibly sad to see what had been hailed as the Eighth Wonder of the World essentially crumbling before our eyes.”

The fire was the latest chapter in the unceremonious decline of a facility that continues to remain an icon in Space City.

Recommended reading.

Astros receive permission to interview Rays GM Friedman

The Astros have received permission to interview Tampa Bay Rays general manager Andrew Friedman, according to officials with knowledge of the organization’s thinking.

Although the club has asked to interview “a handful” of others, Friedman clearly is the No. 1 choice to replace Ed Wade.

Among others believed to be under consideration were two Texas Rangers executives, Thad Levine and A.J. Preller. However, former Astros general manager Gerry Hunsicker apparently will not be interviewed for the job.

Friedman is widely regarded as one of the three best general managers in the game, having elevated the low-budget Rays to playoff berths three of the last four seasons.

Thanks to HY.

Report: Astros to fire GM Wade

Les Treemayne ~ More Leadership!

In news that is hardly surprising, the Houston Astros are expected to make “major changes” Monday to the front office, including the dismissal of general manager Ed Wade, reports Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. It’s only a report for now, but we do know that Crane is going to meet with the front office Monday. It would actually be surprising if he didn’t fire Wade at this point.

All the ingredients for a change were in place. First of all, the 2011 Astros were the worst team in franchise history, going 56-106 and finishing with the worst record in baseball. There also isn’t a ton of help on the way from a relatively barren farm system. Next, new owner Jim Crane is taking over for Drayton McLane. With a change in ownership and a team that basically needs to start over—especially since they’re headed to the American League West—it is the perfect time to bring in a new regime.