I grew up in southern Illinois and since childhood my favorite baseball team has been the St. Louis Cardinals. I have lived in Houston since 1977, and I adopted the Astros as another favorite team when I moved here. Having followed both of these teams closely for many years, I was intrigued when former Cardinals scout Jeff Luhnow became the General Manager of the Houston Astros.
I have followed Luhnow’s career with interest because he does not fit the mold of your typical “baseball man”. He got the Astros job over several other candidates by thinking outside the box. After completing a lengthy phone interview with Astros president and CEO George Postolos, Luhnow told Postolos he wanted to send him more information. The next day a package arrived and, instead of a resume and cover letter, Postolos was astonished to find a 25-page binder outlining a plan to improve the Astros.
Luhnow has the toughest job in the sport. The Mission Impossible team wouldn’t take this one. He has to turn around one of the worst franchises in baseball history and rebuild the fan interest from a historical low. In the meantime, he will move the team (figuratively) to a new neighborhood… that upscale address known as the American League West where wealthy teams like the Rangers and Angels reside.
Some of his 25-page remodeling plan has been revealed over the past several months. Luhnow is treating the franchise as an extreme makeover project. He has stripped it down to the bare wood, keeping very little of the structure that he inherited. Now he plans to rebuild it from the bottom up, with the amateur draft providing the frame, floor, and rafters. He still has several years to go before the episode is ready for prime time. In the meantime, he has to grow the fan base by putting a decent product on the field.
Luhnow has accelerated the process by trading every marketable piece on the roster for young talent, partially compensating for five years of poor drafts before he arrived. He has said publicly that he wants to make the team more competitive in 2013 with mid-level free agents that could buy time for the developing prospects and help the younger players. The team has a 45% stake in Comcast SportsNet Houston, which debuts this fall. It will increase annual TV revenue seven-fold in a deal that averages $80 million annually for 20 years. When the organizational depth is in place to support a run, funds will be available for high-priced free agent talent to put them over the top. It could work.
I think it would be fun to be in his position, starting at the bottom with no future payroll commitments. I have thought a lot about what I would do in his shoes, and now I have decided to try it. I will stay true to Luhnow’s philosophy of building organically, but this is a simulation so obviously things will be different from the real world. The Astros’ current prospects will develop differently in the game, and my future drafts will contain fictional players. Regardless of the random fictional element, it should still be interesting to see when, or if, the approach and style bears fruit. My first challenge is to avoid being fired.
For those who want more background, I suggest this excellent article by Jon Heyman:
Clemens is just a sideshow; Astros' ongoing, unprecedented overhaul is the real story - CBSSports.com