The Josh Innes Show - Random Thoughts: Jim Crane May Kill The Astros

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

Hi All! I just read the Jeff Passan story about the Astros and it kind of confirms some of my biggest concerns for the franchise. Look, I know that not everything in these types of stories will be 100% accurate. Sources have biases. Some of this could be exaggerated. That said, I think Jim Crane is trending in a negative direction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I mean, they're plumbers. That's what they do. They're in the plumbing business. So make sure you reach out to them, 281-488-6238. That is the number. Or of course, you can go to their website, AqueductPlumbingCompany.com. Aqueduct Plumbing Company there at your disposal. Hello, friends. It's Josh. I bet you already knew that. So today, I have got this Jeff Passan story about the inner workings of the Astros and what level of dysfunction they seem to have on the inside. Now, there are a few things that are important to note. One, I do not actually have an account to read this story.

I had to have it delivered to me from someone who does have an account to read these stories on ESPN. So thanks to that person who screenshotted it and sent it to me so I can read it. Like what stories do I really need to read on ESPN Plus? I guess there's another question. If I have ESPN Plus, an account, which we do, Jillian and I have that. That's how we watch a lot of sports. Do I then get the ESPN Plus content on the website? And if I do, then hell, I have it for myself. But I don't

know that right now. So this is the best I can do is having somebody screenshot it and send it to me. So thanks to that person. Now, it's also important to note that Jeff Passan is someone who most Astros fans view as an Astros hater. And that's also part of what I hate in terms of how we read stories now is we decide whether or not the person writing them hates the team that the story is about or hates the person that the story is about. Then we ignore the actual message of the story, which might have some validity. And I don't know how valid this story is. I don't. But it's interesting. And there's some interesting parts of this story that leave me concerned about the Astros. And they kind of echo what I was saying yesterday about the Astros, which is I don't like the direction that Jim

Crane is going. And it feels like this team could be doing a little winger action here, a little headed for a heartbreak, baby. Because when you part ways with a general manager that just won a World Series and was an important part of winning that World Series, bad things happen. When you get rid of smart people for no reason, when you don't offer them a legitimate contract for no reason, you put yourself in a position where I think you have potential to really see this thing go to hell. And it sucks. And I'm not saying it's a guarantee, but when I'm reading this story, if any of this is true, this feels like an organization that's on its way to a downfall. And that's a shame because just a couple of weeks ago, I did a whole pod about how

well-run the organization is. And until proven otherwise, they still are, by the way. It's still an organization that can lose big-time players like a Carlos Correa, replace them with a Jeremy Pena. It's still the type of organization that every time you think they're down, they make smart moves, right? They could be that. But keep in mind, that's only been six or seven years. The really great ones can do it for a decade or two decades. The Patriots, the Cardinals have done it for over two decades. Organizations like that where they might not win the World Series every year, but their window wasn't just five years. Like the Philadelphia Phillies, their window when they went to the World Series

in 1-0-8, went back in 9, That team had a small window. It grew, then they had about four or five years where they had a chance to win, then they fell off a cliff because the organization, as it turns out, wasn't very well run with Ruben Amaro Jr. That's a GM, not an owner. I get it's a different thing. But when you start getting rid of people who are smart and people who are winning for you and you get rid of them because of personal vendettas you have, that is a recipe for really bad things. So I've got this Jeff Passan story and I'm going to glean some of the information in it.

So here's a quote from someone who is in the Astros organization. Sometimes I wonder if Jim thinks he's Jerry Jones, said one Astros employee who was among the dozen people with knowledge of the organization with whom ESPN spoke to to better understand the inner workings of the most successful franchise in baseball. or has a championship franchise, parted ways with its top baseball executive so soon after a title. But what became clear over those conversations was Crane's willingness. And this is the part that concerns me. Owners who meddle are bad news. Bad things happen when you have owners who meddle. Crane's willingness to meddle in baseball operations decisions, much like the Dallas Cowboys owner, who has also served as GM.

It's a path certainly in Crane's purview as owner, but rare among his peers in baseball. And it suggests that Klick's work always came with impediments. Now, when you talk about people being owners and guys who don't meddle, like you know who I think is a great owner? And when I was in Philly, they shit on him all the time because they're dipshits. But I think that Jeffrey Lurie is a great owner. He gives people jobs and lets them do their jobs unless it gets to a point that he has to do something. The only time that I guess he felt like he had to do something is when Chip Kelly and Howie Roseman had their falling out and he gave Chip the power. But right after he realized, after about a year, that giving Chip all that power was a really dumb fucking move,

what did he do? He whacked Chip, went back to Howie, and Howie over the last six, seven years has built one of the more stable franchises in sports, and he makes moves that very rarely lose. Howie Roseman is fantastic. Why is Howie Roseman doing a fantastic job? Because Jeffrey Lurie gets the fuck out of his way and lets him do what he has to do and gives him the resource to do it. Once you start getting owners who meddle and want to make decisions and want to play be good, and I'd love them to be good for two fucking decades. I'd love it. But when you start getting ownership that becomes meddling, and I start hearing the words meddling compared to Jerry Jones, that's not fucking good, and that's not a recipe to keep winning. Now, again, these are all sources. These are unnamed sources. Crane, sources said, felt coming into the 2022 season that the team needed more, quote,

baseball men involved in operations decisions and invited Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Reggie Jackson into the team's weekly senior baseball operations meetings. Crane, sources said, killed an agreed-upon deal for Chicago Cubs catcher Wilson Contreras at the trade deadline. Crane, sources said this week, personally negotiated the three-year, $34.5 million contract that brought Rafael Montero back to the team, a deal that was widely seen in the baseball world as a that sometimes we lack cock and balls in current sports in general, but baseball that gets analytics heavy. But ultimately, the teams that can win are the ones that can balance analytics with cock and balls. That's what you have to be able to do. And I think the Astros historically have done a very good job with that. You don't want to be overly analytical, and you don't want to end up like Kevin Cash pulling great starters in the third inning of World Series games because that's what your pre-planned analytical data told

you to do. It's bullshit and it's stupid. I would agree with that. But to me, there's really no grounds to assume that Jeff Bagwell and Reggie Jackson, one dude who retired, what, in the early 80s, and one dude who's been retired for damn near 20 years, what insight they're going to offer in terms of, hey, we're making a big decision. Let's get Jeff Bagwell's opinion on it. Like, I honest to God do not give a shit about Jeff Bagwell's opinion. It wasn't that long ago we were watching Jeff Bagwell bombed behind home plate feeling on his lady's titties.

Now, they're lovely titties, but like that's what we know of Jeff Bagwell. Like up until, what, a year ago, two years ago, we looked at Jeff Bagwell as all-time great guy that was just a drunk behind home plate. And now, again, according to sources, you've got the owner going to Jeff Bagwell to consult about decisions that need to be made for the team. And I certainly don't give a fuck what Reggie Jackson has to say about anything. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings.

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press conference addressing the crisis-causing sign-stealing scandal when Crane said he planned to be more hands-on with baseball operations. Crane had brought on Click and manager Dusty Baker after firing Jeff Luno and A.J. Hench in the wake of the scandal. What Crane appreciated most about Luno was the conviction with which he made decisions, sources said. Crane appreciated two sources familiar with that thinking. Crane, okay appreciated two sources familiar with that thinking. The efficiency

and ruthlessness of Luno's operation, seen as it was similar to how Crane ran his other businesses. Over time, Crane would learn that that was not Click's style. Though Click wasn't indecisive, he did not preen about with what one person deemed Luno's institutional arrogance, which Jim actually thought was an admirable thing, which I wouldn't disagree. Look, I ain't going to criticize Jeff Luno on shit because Jeff Luno built this thing and Jeff Luno is brilliant and I will kiss that dude's ass any chance I get because he built this damn thing. If it's because he's a dick and he's arrogant in the organization, it got shit done. So I'm fine with that. But not everybody does things the same way.

And that's something I've had to learn over time too. When I was doing the show with Rich, I thought everybody had to do the show the way I do the show. So everybody had to show up hours beforehand and sit around and talk about the show and do things together so we could talk about the show. Ultimately, everybody preps in a different way. And I look back on that now and I go, Josh, what a putz. Like we would all rip Rich for showing up 10 minutes before the show. Well, Rich was doing his fucking prep at home.

And by the way, most of the times that me or Ben or me and Jim or me and John Cascio got to the station early, most of the time we weren't prepping shit. We were just sitting around pulling each other's putz or going to Dairy Queen. So everybody does things a different way. As long as the job gets done and it's done successfully and done well, it shouldn't matter. So just because James Click is not Jeff Luno doesn't mean that James Click sucks relative to Jeff Luno, although Jeff Luno is a god. Going to an ALCS in his first season and a World Series in his second brought Click little goodwill and

he came into the 2022 season in the final year of his contract with the support at the ownership level withering. Disagreements over player evaluations furthered the chasm between the sides and further isolated Click. Baker was among those who convinced Crane to kill the trade that would have sent right-hander Jose Arquiti to the the cubs for contraris which is a fucking stupid move bagwell who quote jim might trust more than anyone according to the source uh familiar with their relationship and corroborated by another was critical of the astros player development system even as it was uh graduating eventual alcs and world series mvp jeremy pena jackson who joined the Astros in May 2021 as an executive assistant, despite never playing for the organization,

yelled at members of the team's front office this year and later would apologize, according to sources. Now people yell at each other. Who fucking cares? People get angry. People fight. When you're in a high-pressure, high-profile deal, people yell. I don't make a big deal of that. But I, honest to to God do not give a fuck what Reggie Jackson has to say. Like, look, I think that there are former players and a lot of

them have great insights and can help guys. You know, I'm a Cardinals guy, right? Willie McGee is part of the organization. Ozzie Smith can help guys out. Guys that have played the game have a great insight. That's helping guys on the field figure shit out. I don't think the Cardinals are going to Willie McGee and going, hey, Willie, quick question, what do you think about this prospect? Willie McGee is there to help the guys that are there figure shit out. Ozzie Smith can come to a camp and help a guy field ground balls and say, here's how I do shit.

They're not going to Ozzie Smith to say, hey, what do you think about this guy? I think we should draft him. Let's see. Had the Astros lost in the postseason, Crane almost certainly would have fired Click before his contract expired on October 31st. But they didn't lose, which is what I said yesterday. They felt like they were obligated to at least offer him a one-year deal because they won. You don't want to fire a guy after he wins the whole thing. Same with Dusty.

I wouldn't doubt that they whacked Dusty, too, if they wouldn't have won. But he won, so he's got goodwill. The team had stabilized in the aftermath of a scandal that left it tottering and kept winning. When Crane did discuss a contract with Click between the team's championship parade and Click leaving for the GM meetings in Las Vegas, Crane offered him a perfunctory deal, one year with a minimal raise according to sources. Compared to the contracts extended to Click's peers with similar resumes, the offer was seen by the industry as an insult. Click went to Vegas anyway, continuing to represent the organization and said he was optimistic that they would come to an agreement instead.

Three days later, six days after he earned his first World Series ring, he was out of a job, as was Scott Powers, one of the assistant GMs he hired this year. For now, Crane has evaluated new assistant general manager Bill Furcus, or elevated Bill Furcus, one of the highest-ranking officials left from the 2017 championship team, sullied by sign-stealing. Again, who the fuck cares about the sign-stealing stuff? And this guy's going to do the day-to-day stuff and talk to free agents and potential trades. Clicks assistant GMs and Charles Cook, whom Crane promoted to assistant GM earlier this week, remain. They are the brain trust, though multiple people in the organization fear their authority, like Clicks, will be usurped by the former players to whom Crane regularly listens.

So there's some of the details in this story. Just to scroll through some of this. The undercurrent of Crane's desire to be involved, however, especially took root three years ago and only increased during Clicks' tenure. Now he has advisors. He has a group of subordinates to execute his decisions, and the clock on a hire is ticking with free agency already underway, trades being discussed, and the reality of a new GM might mean even more confusion in the front office. So he could hire someone to do the job, or he could follow the path of another Texas billionaire and do it for himself. For all of Artie Moreno's intrusiveness with the Angels, all of Jeffrey Loria's prying with the Miami Marlins. The last baseball owner to assert himself was George Steinbrenner with the New York Yankees,

the archetypal organizational puppeteer. Crane is not there yet, but he has come closer than most. Like Jones and Steinbrenner, his thirst for winning has taken him to places others won't go. Regardless of who takes over, the click affair has proven one thing unequivocally. When it comes to who's running the Houston Astros, neither titles nor contracts matter. It's one person and one person only, Jim Crane. Again, one of the things that stands out to me is good organizations do not whack general managers who win championships. That's a recipe for bad shit.

And you can listen to this and call me a hater, and you can listen and call me a piece of shit, and you can be a fanboy and say you don't get it, you're stupid. I know of which I speak right now. When you let your ego get in the way of shit, bad things will happen. And I think that's what's happening here. I think he's putting trust in the wrong people. And again, that's one story.

So again, and Passon does have some issue with the Astros. So you have to take that into consideration when you read anything. And I get that you will. But I don't believe that story is all completely made up because I don't believe a guy is just going to run with a story and put his credibility on the line if he doesn't believe that some of what is in there is factual that he's getting from some of these sources. I think Jim Crane could potentially be destroying the Astros with his love affair. Like, again, Jeff Bagwell.

Why the fuck do I care what Jeff Bagwell says about a player? Jeff Bagwell's a great baseball player. There's a lot of great baseball players whose opinion I don't trust for shit. Magic Johnson's one of the 10 greatest basketball players ever. You know what else Magic Johnson did? Sucked as a coach and he's a bad talent evaluator. I don't care what Reggie Jackson or Jeff Bagwell or Craig Biggio or any of these fuckers. I love Lance Berkman. I don't want Lance Berkman out there picking players because I don't give a shit what Lance Berkman has to say about these players.

I'd listen and go, okay, cool, that's interesting. I want smart baseball people who can build a roster in 2022. I don't care what someone whose career ended 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, thinks a baseball player should be. And it's really egregious if they didn't make the Contreras trade over Aquini. Like, that's fucking stupid. Contreras is one of the hottest commodities out there right now. Now, if they go out and sign him and if they get him still, whatever. But shit, man. I don't know. To me, that's an ugly situation

there. And it feels like, now again, that's all coming from a tone, a negative tone story. I've been a victim of negative tone stories that are not true. There's always some truth to them, but there's not complete truth. I dealt with that mostly in Philadelphia. Every fucking story was negative. Everybody hates this guy. This is bad. There were tons of lies in there too. Because remember, anonymous sources, it's an important thing to remember about anonymous sources. They're anonymous because they don't want to get themselves in trouble. What could get them in trouble? Bullshit out there. It's their own personal biases. It's their own personal issues. So that's why I always take it with a grain of salt when I see somebody says, oh, he's a source close to the Astros says blank. Well, again, if the guy didn't put his name on it. So this could be a bitter employee. It could be someone who thinks they're

going to get fired because of click getting fired. It could be someone who had a bad run in with Jim Crane and fucking hates his guts. These are all possible. When you're the person that's the subject of these kind of stories, you learn a lot about those stories and how they're put together. When I used to read the Philly stories about me, it'd always be like, well, Josh Ennis is apparently a piece of shit in the way he handles people. It could have been someone that I had a bad back and forth with. It could have been someone who felt slighted by something I said or did, even if I didn't know I did it. But then that's how they view you and they're the source and they'll talk shit about you and it's based on their biases. So that's important to take that into consideration. But I do think the root of

this story is true and concerning. And what's true and concerning about it is you've got a general manager who's now been fired and an owner who kind of gives off a little jerry jones type of vibe now and he's trusting all the the decisions to himself and dopey baseball players whose opinions i don't give a fuck about that's a big concern if you're an astros fan and that worries me all right more to come