Do you approve of the job Jeff Luhnow has done as GM of the Astros?
This one's pretty simple, y'all. TCB takes some heat from time to time for being Astros apologists and Luhnow Truthers. We've discussed the veracity of that before and I don't want to rehash things here.
What I do want is to get a sense from the community on where you stand on the job Luhnow is doing as Astros general manager.
The Astros once again improved the roster this winter. I imagine Luhnow's approval rating is better right now than it was back in November.
That's why we are doing this. By starting a monthly poll, we can look back and see where the ebbs and flows of his approval rating have gone. More data is always welcome, especially for something as subjective as this.
While Luhnow's 2015 moves may put him in a more favorable light with Astros fans, the Padres moves may reflect poorly on him. Seemingly in one offseason, new Padres GM A.J. Preller has turned his team into a "contender" with a slew of moves and money-spending.
It's a great time to be a Padres fan. After years living in baseball squallor, with few star players and fewer wins, the team is now flush with talent. Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, James Shields all bring a legitimacy to the team.
Will they bring wins?
The Padres are currently projected for 80 wins by FanGraphs. The Astros sit at 77. Last year, the Padres won 77 games. So, Preller's big moves gained the Friars three wins.
Luhnow's moves, while less splashy, gained Houston seven wins over 2014, while also not hamstringing the franchise financially. Seems relevant. Oh, and almost all of Luhnow's moves will also help the 2016, 2017 and 2018 clubs. The Padres moves will not do that.
To me, what the Padres did was like what I used to do in baseball video games. Did anyone else intentionally bottom out a terrible team, and then go on a spending spree that first offseason? You'd sign the top five or six free agents, trade for a few more guys and go from a 60-win team to an 85-win team.
Then, the next offseason, there's a better player on the market at the same position. You have to spend more money and don't necessarily move the needle on that win total again. So, you turn on "force trades" and unload the guy bumped out of the starting lineup for MIke Trout.
That's the Padres this offseason. They blew up their team, remade it in an entirely different image and improved their expected win total. But, they also squandered their future. They've basically gotten zero out of the last five first rounds of the draft, especially after losing the No. 13 overall pick by signing Shields.
Luhnow, on the other hand, played things patiently. He could have dramatically remade the Astros like Preller has done, but chose to build up the foundation first. Luhnow has never sacrificed the future for the now, which has caused plenty of fan unrest.
If we're still making video game analogies, not many people play MLB The Show or something like Luhnow built his Astros. It's just more fun to spend a bunch of fake money on big names now, rather than wait on the game's shaky player development engine to spit out future stars.
Anyways, where were we?
Oh, right. The approval poll. Yes. Very good.
What do you think of GM Jeff Luhnow right now? Do you think he's doing a good job? Has he improved the team from 2014? Discuss in the comments. Vote in the poll. We'll reconvene in a month.
