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Old 11-20-2013, 04:09 PM   #1
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Houston Astros 2013-14 Off-season thread

That just happened.
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Old 11-20-2013, 04:56 PM   #2
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Wait... the Astros get to have an off-season too? Awesome! Something to distract us from the Texans.
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Old 11-21-2013, 10:20 AM   #3
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Wait... the Astros get to have an off-season too? Awesome! Something to distract us from the Texans.
Yup. The loss to Oakland has finished their season for me. I'm pulling for Carolina for the rest of the season.
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Old 11-21-2013, 10:24 AM   #4
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Ryan Jackson was claimed off waivers from St. Louis. He might be a better shortstop than Marwin Gonzalez.

Crane says he is going to spend money this off-season, and raise the payroll to $50M. Who would Houston be able to attract among the free agents? It would seem that the best target would be someone trying to build value on a one-year deal. Houston certainly can offer playing time in the outfield, DH, starting rotation, or bullpen.
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Old 11-22-2013, 12:44 PM   #5
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It is hard to believe that we could have gotten a worse owner than MacLane, but in my opinion we did.


Jim Crane Sues Drayton McLane, Comcast And NBC: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com


Who buys a company and then sues the former owner for over-stating the value? There has never been an acquisition in the history of business where the seller did not pump up the business plan to inflate the value. That's why buyers perform due diligence.
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Old 11-25-2013, 09:47 AM   #6
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Heard this yesterday. Crazy. But Cran is still promising to spend money this off-season. We shall see I guess.
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Old 11-26-2013, 02:25 PM   #7
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It is hard to believe that we could have gotten a worse owner than MacLane, but in my opinion we did.


Jim Crane Sues Drayton McLane, Comcast And NBC: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com


Who buys a company and then sues the former owner for over-stating the value? There has never been an acquisition in the history of business where the seller did not pump up the business plan to inflate the value. That's why buyers perform due diligence.
The main reason for this lawsuit is to get an excuse to spend less on the team. From the article this is what the team said:
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...either accept the broken network as is and deprive thousands of fans the ability to watch Houston Astros games on their televisions, or distribute the game at market rates and take massive losses out of the Houston Astros player payroll...
So it's either they get Comcast to pay them something, or they'll reduce payroll.
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Old 11-26-2013, 05:25 PM   #8
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...or they'll reduce payroll.

Actually, this would be almost impossible.
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Old 11-26-2013, 06:15 PM   #9
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Actually, this would be almost impossible.


I was thinking about that also, but apparently the team thinks there is room to " take massive losses out of the Houston Astros player payroll"!!!

But yeah, if they still do not spend any money on players down the road, they now have some excuses.

There is something rotten in that whole TV deal though. CSN Houston went bankrupt after a year of operation. Jim Crane might indeed have falsely believed in the value of the TV contract.
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Old 11-26-2013, 07:59 PM   #10
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Any chance of the Astros returning to Fox Sports Southwest? I was so pissed when I found out I wouldn't be getting any of their games last year.
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Old 11-26-2013, 08:08 PM   #11
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Any chance of the Astros returning to Fox Sports Southwest? I was so pissed when I found out I wouldn't be getting any of their games last year.

Yes, I think this is what Crane actually wants to do.
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Old 11-26-2013, 09:14 PM   #12
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Yes, I think this is what Crane actually wants to do.
This would make me happy. I miss being able to watch the Astros and I refuse to watch the Rangers.
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Old 11-27-2013, 01:42 AM   #13
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Same here. I saw 3 games last year live, all in person. Very sad when you live 2 hours from your team and can't get their games on TV. I tried watching on MLB TV after the game, but it wasn't the same
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Old 11-27-2013, 01:46 PM   #14
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Any chance of the Astros returning to Fox Sports Southwest? I was so pissed when I found out I wouldn't be getting any of their games last year.
If that happens, it would mean the outlook of the team wouldn't be so good though.

Astros spent quite an effort to get out of the contract with Fox, thinking that it can get much more money with its own network. They got CSN Houston and supposedly that network will pay Astros $80m a year. That's the dream scenario sold to Crane, and that's why Crane spent all that money to buy part of CSN Houston.

It turns out carriers don't care for CSN Houston. Many carriers didn't want to carry it even for no fee. So the network went bankrupt, and Crane is suing people.

If there are true value in showing Astros games, I am sure the company would be re-constructed, find ways to get on the carriers, and Crane/Astros can still get some decent income from it if not as good as it originally planned.

If it's Fox taking it back, the valuation is probably not too high. Crane already piled up debts to buy the team. With the TV revenue greatly diminished, surely the payroll would stay low for quite awhile.
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Old 11-27-2013, 04:11 PM   #15
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Many carriers didn't want to carry it TEMPORARILY for no fee.
Corrected this for you. The offer was for 60 days, and the carriers did not want to have the backlash from customers when it was pulled.
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Old 11-27-2013, 05:30 PM   #16
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Corrected this for you. The offer was for 60 days, and the carriers did not want to have the backlash from customers when it was pulled.
I don't think any carrier would want to touch CSN Houston until all these lawsuits and related issues are cleared anyway.

What has been revealed so far showed that the business plan of CSN Houston was to charge all carriers inflated fees while giving Comcast a favored price. That's a key point in Crane's lawsuit against Comcast and McLane.

All these carriers are in a good position to simply wait for all the Comcast dirty laundries to come out. Crane or whoever taking over CSN Houston operation will then have to deal with all these carriers on more reasonable terms.

I think Crane is suing for the dozens of millions he believed he lost through this CSN Houston conspiracy for this year. Next year the network will be reconstructed.
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Old 11-27-2013, 05:42 PM   #17
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Is there any chance of MLB TV removing the blackouts in areas without comcast next year?
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Old 11-27-2013, 06:54 PM   #18
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What has been revealed so far showed that the business plan of CSN Houston was to charge all carriers inflated fees while giving Comcast a favored price. That's a key point in Crane's lawsuit against Comcast and McLane.

All these carriers are in a good position to simply wait for all the Comcast dirty laundries to come out. Crane or whoever taking over CSN Houston operation will then have to deal with all these carriers on more reasonable terms.

I think Crane is suing for the dozens of millions he believed he lost through this CSN Houston conspiracy for this year. Next year the network will be reconstructed.

No question that the carriage fees that Crane and CSN Houston demanded were ridiculous. Crane had plenty of opportunity to do his due diligence. If he did not believe that the network was viable at those prices, he should not have purchased his majority interest in it.

The main reason that peeople cannot see the Astros is Crane's stubborn refusal to accept reality and charge a realistic fee. The other partners in the network (Rockets, Comcast) want to lower the fees, but Crane has refused to go along. It takes a unanimous vote to accomplish anything, so the deadlock continues until the bankruptcy judge rules.
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Old 11-27-2013, 07:10 PM   #19
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No question that the carriage fees that Crane and CSN Houston demanded were ridiculous. Crane had plenty of opportunity to do his due diligence. If he did not believe that the network was viable at those prices, he should not have purchased his majority interest in it.

The main reason that peeople cannot see the Astros is Crane's stubborn refusal to accept reality and charge a realistic fee. The other partners in the network (Rockets, Comcast) want to lower the fees, but Crane has refused to go along. It takes a unanimous vote to accomplish anything, so the deadlock continues until the bankruptcy judge rules.
At the end of the day Crane is the one who needs to find money to build the team he promised. He insisted on some terms probably because he already talked about how Houston will be a top spending team too much.

It's harder to face reality when you were the one hyping up the fantasy so much.
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Old 11-27-2013, 07:18 PM   #20
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It's harder to face reality when you were the one hyping up the fantasy so much.
So true!
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