Marvin said:
At the airport and my bag gets checked. TSA pulls a baseball to test for explosive residue. I said, "Sir, that's from a Greinke change up, not a Verlander fastball."
*****Official 2019/2020 Houston Astros offseason thread*****
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Wait... we don't have scouts?
That was a tweet from 2017
https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2019/6/3/18644512/mvp-machine-how-houston-astros-became-great-scouting
Quote:
Like most teams, the Astros have eliminated in-person advance scouting, using Statcast and video instead. More recently and radically, though, the Astros have virtually eliminated any form of in-person scouting of professional players, even in the minors. One scout the Astros recently let go mentions a directory of pro scouts that's circulated around the industry. On the Astros' page for 2018, he says, "It just says Astros, and it has a picture of [Special Assistant] Kevin [Goldstein] at the top. One photo." In his new job with another team, the scout says, "I wore my [World Series] ring a lot to the big-league park. Each night, people would say, 'Can I see that? I haven't seen an Astros scout all year.'"
In August 2017, when the Astros informed eight scouts that they would not be brought back, Luhnow called the cut a "reconfiguring," telling MLB.com, "the overall number of people in the scouting departments [is] going to be roughly the same, if not increased" and characterizing the news as "normal" and something "that happens every year." In 2009, the Astros employed 55 scouts, above the MLB average of 41.5. By early 2019, multiple waves of layoffs had trimmed that total to fewer than 20, less than half the size of MLB's next-smallest scouting staff.
Even before the mass layoffs, one scout says, "Any kind of gut feel or any type of subjective portion took a huge back seat to the numbers." Often, the stats determined where a scout would be sent. "You wouldn't scout a guy who didn't have a good stat score," one former amateur scout says. "They weren't going to take him."When the Astros acquired Morton, Cole, and Pressly, it wasn't because they'd sent scouts to see them; instead, they'd sought the opinion of their scouting analysis group, a compact crew in Houston that studies athletes from afar. "I think their vision for scouting is gonna be maybe having only a couple scouts and a lot of video guys running around," another ex-Astros scout says. "And a bunch of tech people in their scouting analysis group and their front office that can just crunch numbers, crunch data, crunch the video."
Marvin said:
At the airport and my bag gets checked. TSA pulls a baseball to test for explosive residue. I said, "Sir, that's from a Greinke change up, not a Verlander fastball."
He didn't laugh...
If this really happened, I'll buy you 4 beers at MMP
At least we aren't the shltty rangers arguing about how much odor does or doesn't (but definitely does) sucks.
Hard to argue with an approach that brought in Morton, Cole, and Presley.
Exactly
Nuke LaLoosh said:Marvin said:
At the airport and my bag gets checked. TSA pulls a baseball to test for explosive residue. I said, "Sir, that's from a Greinke change up, not a Verlander fastball."
He didn't laugh...
If this really happened, I'll buy you 4 beers at MMP
True story. I have yet to make a TSA agent laugh out loud. I get the whole security thing, but I have theory that one of the job requirements is being born without a sense of humor. It's a lifelong quest... some day.
Had a great week in West Palm. I highly recommend a trip if you can work it into your schedule and budget. The players were fairly accessible, especially if you lead with your kids or wife. Old guys like me don't really get their attention, but I'm not an autograph hound anyway. Tickets are reasonable and available (walk up ranged from $12 (berm) to $35 (behind dugout, along foul line). Parking, if anything, was $10.
Mrs. Marvin was able to get autographs and pictures with Correa, Altuve, Gurriel, Brantley, Biggio, Bagwell, Enos Cabell and Dusty Baker. She spoke through the fence with Bregman, Reddick and even Greinke- they responded with a quick conversation when she congratulated them on engagement, birth of twins, and such. The trick was to address them by their first names and offer some sort of personal acknowledgement. Guys like Joe Smith, Biagini, Urquidy, Straw, Maldonado and others would offer a wave and quick hello back.
Duffy's Sports Bar is the place to go in WPB after a game. A friend ran into Dusty Baker one evening.
Plenty of opportunities to catch a batting practice homer or three.
Lakeland is a great ballpark visit. Jupiter was old and "eh" in comparison- I was shocked the Cardinals didn't have a better setup.
If you head that way and have any questions, I know several of us will be happy to offer what ideas we can to help make it a great time.
Ready for opening day. Screw the haters!
Mrs. Marvin was able to get autographs and pictures with Correa, Altuve, Gurriel, Brantley, Biggio, Bagwell, Enos Cabell and Dusty Baker. She spoke through the fence with Bregman, Reddick and even Greinke- they responded with a quick conversation when she congratulated them on engagement, birth of twins, and such. The trick was to address them by their first names and offer some sort of personal acknowledgement. Guys like Joe Smith, Biagini, Urquidy, Straw, Maldonado and others would offer a wave and quick hello back.
Duffy's Sports Bar is the place to go in WPB after a game. A friend ran into Dusty Baker one evening.
Plenty of opportunities to catch a batting practice homer or three.
Lakeland is a great ballpark visit. Jupiter was old and "eh" in comparison- I was shocked the Cardinals didn't have a better setup.
If you head that way and have any questions, I know several of us will be happy to offer what ideas we can to help make it a great time.
Ready for opening day. Screw the haters!
I guess spring break hasn't started yet. I wonder how bad it's gets there starting in March.
Marvin said:Nuke LaLoosh said:Marvin said:
At the airport and my bag gets checked. TSA pulls a baseball to test for explosive residue. I said, "Sir, that's from a Greinke change up, not a Verlander fastball."
He didn't laugh...
If this really happened, I'll buy you 4 beers at MMP
True story. I have yet to make a TSA agent laugh out loud. I get the whole security thing, but I have theory that one of the job requirements is being born without a sense of humor. It's a lifelong quest... some day.
Based on just this story and the Biagini story, it seems like the problem might be your material and not the lack of sense of humor in every other human.
expresswrittenconsent said:Marvin said:Nuke LaLoosh said:Marvin said:
At the airport and my bag gets checked. TSA pulls a baseball to test for explosive residue. I said, "Sir, that's from a Greinke change up, not a Verlander fastball."
He didn't laugh...
If this really happened, I'll buy you 4 beers at MMP
True story. I have yet to make a TSA agent laugh out loud. I get the whole security thing, but I have theory that one of the job requirements is being born without a sense of humor. It's a lifelong quest... some day.
Based on just this story and the Biagini story, it seems like the problem might be your material and not the lack of sense of humor in every other human.
Darn, and all this time I thought it was "every other human" in the whole wide world. Haha.
As I said earlier, screw the haters.
Look forward to seeing Springer and Tucker start to drive the ball today. Jones looked good this past week from what I saw.
Nuke LaLoosh said:Marvin said:
At the airport and my bag gets checked. TSA pulls a baseball to test for explosive residue. I said, "Sir, that's from a Greinke change up, not a Verlander fastball."
He didn't laugh...
If this really happened, I'll buy you 4 beers at MMP
Careful. Stadium beers are up to $15 at the tournament this weekend.
Just glanced at the box score, Framber looking good, 4Ks in 2.2 innings
****ing ignorant losers.
Im looking for Ray Finkle.... and a clean pair of shorts. Im just a very big Finkle fan. This is my Graceland, sir.
Marvin said:Nuke LaLoosh said:Marvin said:
At the airport and my bag gets checked. TSA pulls a baseball to test for explosive residue. I said, "Sir, that's from a Greinke change up, not a Verlander fastball."
He didn't laugh...
If this really happened, I'll buy you 4 beers at MMP
True story. I have yet to make a TSA agent laugh out loud. I get the whole security thing, but I have theory that one of the job requirements is being born without a sense of humor. It's a lifelong quest... some day.
I understand that. I have a similar thing with getting a "you're welcome" at Chick-fil-A.
I love Strommy! "Keep paying to come see us"
aTm2004 said:Marvin said:Nuke LaLoosh said:Marvin said:
At the airport and my bag gets checked. TSA pulls a baseball to test for explosive residue. I said, "Sir, that's from a Greinke change up, not a Verlander fastball."
He didn't laugh...
If this really happened, I'll buy you 4 beers at MMP
True story. I have yet to make a TSA agent laugh out loud. I get the whole security thing, but I have theory that one of the job requirements is being born without a sense of humor. It's a lifelong quest... some day.
I understand that. I have a similar thing with getting a "you're welcome" at Chick-fil-A.
This guy understands- although at CFA my task is to not hear "My pleasure" as a response. It's another elusive goal in my humor-depleted life.
bearkatag15 said:
This is the greatest thing you will see on Twitter today
I'm fairly sure we sat next to this guy in Jupiter. Ruthless heckler that has serious staying power. Highly entertaining. He went around the stadium and stood behind anyone hating on the Astros and made their life miserable until they quit. I think it's the same dude. He was hilarious.
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Not having scouts will eventually be a very big fail.
We had the luxury of a crap load of high draft picks, but now that the minor league talent is back to being barren, good luck relying on only computers to get that system built up again.
We had the luxury of a crap load of high draft picks, but now that the minor league talent is back to being barren, good luck relying on only computers to get that system built up again.
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It's almost like karma is biting the Yankees in the a$$
Minor league talent is there.. it's just not highly rated by the "experts".
We got a lot of high ceiling top guys in a lot of trades that are going to be filtering through over the next 3 years. Some will bust, but you'll see a couple come out and you'll say "who the hell is this guy?"
We got a lot of high ceiling top guys in a lot of trades that are going to be filtering through over the next 3 years. Some will bust, but you'll see a couple come out and you'll say "who the hell is this guy?"
Taking the wife and son to spring training next week, any recommendations on restaurants in the West Palm Beach area?
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