texasaggie2015 said:

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He may be right - but I take anything Bob reports with a grain of salt. I know who he gets his Houston info from and I wouldn't consider it an extremely close source.

Definitely not ruling this out though. Would be interesting.

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Please tell me his source is John McClain

linkdude said:

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The Astros are hiring Spencer Medick as their new director of pitching, sources tell @TheAthletic. Medick, a former Driveline employee, worked in the New York Yankees system for the past four years. He spent last season as their Triple-A pitching coach.

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 20, 2026

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Seems good...Anyone know anything about this dude?

Hopefully he was involved in *****tler's development

Ag_07 said:

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linkdude said:

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The Astros are hiring Spencer Medick as their new director of pitching, sources tell @TheAthletic. Medick, a former Driveline employee, worked in the New York Yankees system for the past four years. He spent last season as their Triple-A pitching coach.

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 20, 2026

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Seems good...Anyone know anything about this dude?

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Sounds like a scrapper, pitched several years in independent leagues and is only 35.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=medick000spe

Not sure if Boddy is hinting at the GM

Spencer indeed was a Driveline employee, though it's been quite a few years - COVID-era, approximately.

Congratulations to Spencer regardless!

(And another, more recent Driveline employee joining the Astros in the front office... soon to be announced, I'm sure.) 🤫 https://t.co/3nkJpNklK0 pic.twitter.com/g7Ikx5MNM6

— Kyle Boddy (@drivelinekyle) October 21, 2026

Astros prospects are on Scottsdale in the Arizona Fall League. Tonight Nehomar Ochoa, Jr has a home run. He's playing RF and he's huge in a good way. Nick Monistere has hit 2 HR. Second baseman Jeff Kent's son is also on their team and splits time with Monistere.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1EcrtgKyE1/

Chandler updated his story to add these two others as GM candidates (total of 5)

Kansas City Royals senior vice president Scott Sharp, Atlanta Braves assistant general manager Ben Sestanovich

EastCoastAgNc said:

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Chandler updated his story to add these two others as GM candidates (total of 5)

Kansas City Royals senior vice president Scott Sharp, Atlanta Braves assistant general manager Ben Sestanovich

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Sounds like Sharp is sort of a lifer with the Royas and has gotten a few interviews elsewhere in the last few years but not gotten a job. Plus he's older than I am, means he's exhausted by 330 p.m. The other guy's a Harvard nerd.

From another article

Sharp, 54, has spent the last two decades with Kansas City. He climbed to assistant general manager and eventually a senior vice president role under baseball operations president J.J. Picollo. He has worked in various facets of baseball operations with the Royals and frequently garnered attention from other teams for a role running a front office. Sharp has interviewed with at least the Mets, Giants and Rockies in recent years.
Sestanovich is a Harvard product who pitched for the Crimson in 2011. He worked in the Padres' player development after graduation, then took an assistant GM role under Alex Anthopoulos with Atlanta in 2019. He's one of five AGMs in the Braves' front office.
Rome reported this afternoon that the Astros could have their GM hire in place before the end of the World Series. They'll also need to settle on a new manager after moving on from Joe Espada at the end of the season.

CharleyKerfeld said:

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Plus he's older than I am, means he's exhausted by 330 p.m..

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LOL!! It's very accurate.

Really the only thing that matters is who you trust to run talent acquisition (draft and IFA) then sprinkle in some buy low moves no one pays attention to. The ability to work big league deals or target free agents making more than basically league minimum is irrelevant because Cranewell will handle that whether you like it or not.

MaxPower said:

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Really the only thing that matters is who you trust to run talent acquisition (draft and IFA) then sprinkle in some buy low moves no one pays attention to. The ability to work big league deals or target free agents making more than basically league minimum is irrelevant because Cranewell will handle that whether you like it or not.

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While that is very important, we need a leader who can instill a culture of excellence and cutting edge nerdery. We need to rediscover the ability develop pitchers and fix struggling arms. We need to be able to develop players to fill roles and bring value at the big league club. When is the last time our farm produced an solid everyday player? Pena?

Yankees GM Brian Cashman announces that he has agreed to new contract extension

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 21, 2026

Here is how I would rank the candidates:

1. Matt Kleine - far and away the best option of the 5 listed from Rome. Most analytical of the bunch. Been a part of the Brewers' "moneyball" for a very long time. Seems polished in the public interviews I've watched.



big gap




2. Ben Sestanovich - a distant second, but could be the pitching guru I was asking for. Pairs well with the new hire in Spencer Medick. Experience drafting late with the Braves.





big gap






3. Randy Flores - feels like another Dana Brown type hire, but maybe I am wrong. Supposed to be the scouting and draft expert. The fact that so many guys got better after leaving St Louis worries me.


4. Josh Barfield - another former player turned scout. I don't think this is the way at all.




big gap




5. Scott Sharp - The most old school and just old of the group. Least nerdy. Worst org to pull from of the group.

I'm worried it's going to be Barfield just because of the Houston ties since he went to Klein HS.

Kleine is far and away the right choice

If Rome is saying they could have the hire in place before the end of the World Series, does that mean it isn't Kleine? Seems like he would want to stick around at least until the series is over.

CharleyKerfeld said:

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txags92 said:

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If Rome is saying they could have the hire in place before the end of the World Series, does that mean it isn't Kleine? Seems like he would want to stick around at least until the series is over.

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They'll probably announce him beforehand so he can stay for the series. Not much for the GM to do at this point, especially with a lockout looming.

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I think this is the opposite. The window to do **** will be about a month. So the new GM will have 30 days to figure out a bunch of **** and make some signings if it's anything like the last work stoppage.

Quote:

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In the final weeks before the 202122 MLB work stoppagewhich began at 12:01 a.m. EST on December 2, 2021teams and players engaged in a frantic spending spree. Fearing an imminent transaction freeze, clubs committed over $1.7 billion to free agents in November 2021 as negotiations between MLB and the MLBPA stalled.

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Was at that game. Never wanted to leave.

Farmer1906 said:

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CharleyKerfeld said:

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txags92 said:

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If Rome is saying they could have the hire in place before the end of the World Series, does that mean it isn't Kleine? Seems like he would want to stick around at least until the series is over.

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They'll probably announce him beforehand so he can stay for the series. Not much for the GM to do at this point, especially with a lockout looming.

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I think this is the opposite. The window to do **** will be about a month. So the new GM will have 30 days to figure out a bunch of **** and make some signings if it's anything like the last work stoppage.

Quote:

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In the final weeks before the 202122 MLB work stoppagewhich began at 12:01 a.m. EST on December 2, 2021teams and players engaged in a frantic spending spree. Fearing an imminent transaction freeze, clubs committed over $1.7 billion to free agents in November 2021 as negotiations between MLB and the MLBPA stalled.

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Rome gave his opinion on this on his podcast. He said it would be a good idea to get someone in about a week before the GM meetings on Nov 9.

The Astros are hiring Clayton Thompson as an assistant director of player development, source tells @TheAthletic. Thompson, a former Driveline employee, worked in the Dodgers organization for the past three years, most recently as their coordinator of integrated performance.

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 21, 2026

The Astros are hiring Clayton Thompson as an assistant director of player development, source tells @TheAthletic. Thompson, a former Driveline employee, worked in the Dodgers organization for the past three years, most recently as their coordinator of integrated performance.

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 21, 2026

Now get a new GM in place and tell the AGMs to update their resumes and GTFO. (of course they could be the ones making these decisions, but it seems like a new leaf might be getting turned -- let's hope)

Coordinator of Integrated Performance sounds like the fakest job title possible.

Based on the two new hires and the smoke surrounding Kleine I'm actually pleasantly surprised and have a good feeling about where things are headed.

I'm not so sure I'd say Crane is heading back to fully embracing analytics, but it seems he's on board with the do more with less approach.

It sounds like according to Rome that the AGMs are enabled to make the hires under their respective orgs. Either way, this is a great change of approach compared to the hires of the last few seasons

Or you could look at it the other way and say that if it is the current hierarchy making these hires that's a great sign! Huge 180 from the last round of hiring

Plus at the trajectory this org has been on the last few years I'm just happy these guys are here.

I don't care how they got here the fact that they're here is a step in the right direction.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7711238/2026/10/21/mariners-manager-search-candidates/

Quote:

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In their ongoing search for a new manager, the Seattle Mariners have identified a group of candidates that includes an outside-the-box option in Chicago Cubs director of player development Jason Kanzler, plus former Houston Astros manager Joe Espada and Los Angeles Dodgers special assistant Rocco Baldelli, according to league sources briefed on the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation candidly.

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When I had insomnia one night recently, I came to the lucid idea that Cranewell really has seen the light and was trying to be an intelligent business owner instead of an intelligent baseball owner. An intelligent business owner who keeps making decisions in areas that he doesn't truly have expertise in will hire someone who does to come in and handle those decisions.

I looked up the team home attendance ; we were 2nd in the AL from 2021-2024, then 4th in 2025, then 6th this year. Average attendance was 37,683 coming off the world series win. This year it was 30,520. Other than 2021 when COVID was still a big thing, that's the lowest attendance per game since '17 when it was at 29,675.

So from a sheer math standpoint, and realizing that prices have fluctuated all over the place, that an average of 7,163 fewer people at Daikin from 2023 to now - a 19% drop.
Using some old numbers, the average fan spends $45-$65 per game. So let's call that $55 per game per person. That number x 7,163 per game = $393,965 lost PER GAME. Multiply that by 81 home games, and Cranewell is making $31.9 million less a season just in the stadium.

Clearly, his own leadership in baseball matters is costing him a **** ton of money, so maybe he's realized he needs to do it differently.