Hopefully, this thread will kind of stay on baseball talk instead of smack. I was born in Dallas and have been a life long Rangers fan, however, I'm an enormous fan of the Ryan family, mainly because they tend to get things done, and they're a class act.

I follow baseball fairly closely, but not close enough to know what each team in the west has in their farm system. Teams that are really good will have two or three stretches of 7-10 wins in a row, of which Houston already has one streak of ten wins.

My main question is how advantageous was the front office in the draft during the three year down turn.
If the team has outstanding scouts, they should have at least one pitcher in the minors who can be a #1, and maybe a couple of guys in the outfield, or at the corners who can hit for average, or power. I just don't know.

Back in the old days, 10-12 years ago, they had an outstanding farm system, rich in pitching, but suffered a lot of injuries. They didn't have the players in the field, well, young players in the field, to make up the difference. We're talking the Camanitti, etc., time frame. My guess is that Reid Ryan has done well, and the system is pretty well stocked, which speaks well for the next 4-8 years.

I don't have a problem with our GM pulling a power play, like he did with Ryan, even though I didn't like it. However, if someone is going to do that, they damn well better produce. It's a young season, but it doesn't appear that Daniels has fielded a competitive team this year, or maybe even the next. This probably comes under the category of "be careful what you wish for". What I do know of the Houston ownership, I don't like. But I very much like the front office, and they seem to be doing the job.

Hopefully, some of you guys will have educated facts, or decent opinions.

Luhnow is the brain behind this rebuild 10X more than the Ryan's

Finally accepting the team was going nowhere and trading our MLB players (Pence,Bourn,Oswalt,Berkman) finally showed the commitment to rebuilding the farm team that Drayton had forgotten was important.

Drafting and scouting undoubtedly has been a priority, as well as making sure draft picks are signed.

The Astros as far as I know are the only team in the minors using an 8 player pitching rotation at some of their leagues, where you have 8 starting pitchers, each pitching around 4 innings, with two scheduled to pitch per day.

Reid and Nolan are much more involved on the business side of things, not the baseball side. Reid has done a very good job in my opinion there.

Like Astros4545 said above, Luhnow is the brains behind what you see on the field. He basically has carte blanche decision making.

Cool, thanx!

I'd assumed that Reid chose Luhnow, since he is the GM. I know Nolan is a "consultant", and Reid has tons of ballpark/baseball/business experience from Roundrock. I expect the Astros to play good ball in the coming years, I just didn't expect it this year, as it generally takes a year, or two, for rookies to acclimate, and reach their potential.

The Rangers were able to achieve some success for a couple of years without a true #1, but a bunch of number 2's and 3's. However, when it comes to playoff time, San Francisco has ridden their #1 of the year (whomever that may be) to three championships.

I'm sure y'all will continue to get better, and excel. My assumption is that there will be a 2-3 year window where they have outstanding chances to win it all, until 2 or 3 players get between $20 and $30 million a year, which will hurt depth, mainly the bullpen.

Luhnow was hired a couple of years before Reid Ryan

Reid is behind rebuilding the brand. The new unis, Orbit coming back, and renovations to the ballpark, etc.

Lunhow is behind building the team. He's the guys calling shots on trades, drafts, and pickups. Anything personnel is Jeff.

Think it's worked out nice since they don't step on each others toes. They each do what they do and do it very well.

Crane just sits back and counts the cash and signs the checks.

What's the thinking in draft? Read somewhere it's thought they will try to add 2 bats.

My guess is college pitcher, big bat, then high school pitcher. I think we also need to get a toolsy catcher.