Houston Astros management has been described in some circles as penny-pinching, even heartless. It's always worth remembering that management -- yes, like Soylent Green -- is people. And all people have hearts, granted sometimes they're difficult to find.
It does seem to me that management's supposed heartlessness is in the service of some larger goal: winning baseball games. Sometimes the Astros' seeming fealty to the value of the dollar leads to (among other things) bad publicity, as when they failed to sign first-round draft pick Brady Aiken last year. Sure, we cut the Astros a little more slack when Aiken's elbow ligament snapped this spring. The club still didn't look good, though.
But if we're going to gig the Astros for worrying about dollars when things don't work out well, don't we also have to give them credit when their penuriousness pays big dividends?
Three years ago, they signed No. 1 overall pick Carlos Correa for considerably less than the recommended "slot value"; $2.4 million less, to be reasonably precise.
That left the Astros with "extra" money to spend from their bonus pool, which they used to sign high-school pitcher Lance McCullers for well above his slot value (at No. 41). Well, after a rough 2014, McCullers has been tearing up the Texas League this season -- 0.62 ERA, 13 K/9 -- and now he's skipping Triple-A and starting against the A's next Monday.
Of course that's just one step along a long, narrow bridge to stardom. My point is that before we make any overarching judgements about Astros management, let's see what the standings look like over these next few seasons.
Oh, also they're 22-13 right now.
