Cubs third base coach Will Venable will interview for the Astros’ managerial opening on Friday, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports (Twitter links). The Cubs granted Houston permission to speak to Venable about the position.
Mark Berman of FOX 26 first reported yesterday that Venable being considered by the Astros, and Venable brings a different profile than the two candidates who have already interviewed for the position. Whereas Buck Showalter and John Gibbons have combined to manage over 4500 MLB games, the 37-year-old Venable would be a first-time skipper. After wrapping up his nine-year playing career in 2016, Venable took on a new role as a special assistant to Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein in 2017 and then worked two seasons as Chicago’s first base coach.
Venable emerged as a managerial candidate earlier this winter when he was interviewed by the Giants and by the Cubs themselves for their dugout openings. While he didn’t get the big hire, Venable is slated to move into a new role in 2020, as he will move across the diamond to work as a third base coach.
As per the names on Berman’s list, Houston is taking a broad approach to its search, considering both veteran names and candidates without any managerial experience (i.e. Venable, Astros bench coach Joe Espada, Dodgers special advisor Raul Ibanez). It’s hard to predict how the organization might be leaning, both because the search is still in its early stages and due to the lingering cloud of controversy hanging over the Astros due to the sign-stealing scandal that led to the firings of former manager A.J. Hinch and former GM Jeff Luhnow.
Seems like a good fit. 2 bangs if you’re with me!
Bang, bang…. pow, pow.
Old school disciplinarian Showalter working with a bunch of cheats?
Buck has been defanged for years. Not the same guy that threw a hissy fit over a pair of socks while he was with Arizona.
Old school disciplinarian Showalter working with a bunch of cheats?
Should have just shut down the entire Houston org and it’s players for a year.
Are you having a conversation with yourself bruh?
Is old school disciplinarian Showalter going to work with a bunch of cheats?
It wasn’t a fun zinger when that worthington dude posted it, it won’t get better for you buddy.
try sobering up
that’s not good for revenues and other owners wolnt allow that precedent to be set.
I’d love that but what about the new arrivals?
So, a Cardinals front office executive, under the watch of Mo…Ron, commit a FELONY and get a slap on the wrist, yet the Astros steal signs(LMAO) and you want the entire team shut down? This is why baseball is so effed up. Not to mention MLB gets tough on steroids, yet has Rawlings juice the baseballs to get homers to return at record levels. Yeah, this league and this goofy commish has credibility…NOT!
The situation with the cardinals involved an individual and without the knowledge of the team. The entire Astros front office decided to either ignore the cheating or condoned it. As far as sign stealing goes, try not to focus on the infraction but rather that an entire team, knowledgeable of the rules, decided to break them in order to win a championship.
Not a Cards fan but this analogy is certainly apples and oranges.
………….But the question is, “Was he a whistleblower?” ;)
Altuve was wired?? Houston gets an asterisk!!!
Wired for greatness!
when cheating, yes!
Espada will be hired. Was not with the cheat-stros in ‘17. The other interviews are for show. Ibanez? Guess anything’s possible after seeing Beltran get hired.
Just curious, but why wouldn’t they look to hire a new GM first?
Either the GM comes from within or they’ll take a page from the Orioles playbook. Baltimore hired Showalter, then Duquette as GM. They butted heads until both were shown the door.
Pitchers and catchers report in 4 weeks. Manager is high priority.
I think it has more to do with time constraints for spring training starting in a month. They need to have a manager in place before spring training starts. They are in no rush to have a GM in place at that time as Crane and Luhnow’s assistant are handling baseball operations for the time being.
But is he a good electrician?
Espada should be hired. He knows the players and has the baseball knowledge.
Venable is the right guy for the job. He is a really intelligent baseball mind. At 37 he is sure getting a lot of attention.
My vote would be Oscar the Grouch. Dude lives in a trash can and can offer the most experience.
They should interview Carlos Beltran and Alex Cora.
Too soon?
Old joke
How politically correct.
What is PC about interviewing a current coach who learned under a future H of F manager, and ex-player with a degree from Princeton?
C-H-E-A-T-E-R
“C” is for the cost of all your cheating,
“H” means only that I hate you now,
“E” because your ears heard trash cans beating,
“A” is for the ache you’ve caused, and HOW!;
“T” is for your terrible conniving,
“ER” means Each Run
you scored was free,
Put them all together, they spell “CHEATER”,
A word that means the Astros to me.
The Astros cheating scandal vs punishment is not severe enough. The W.S title should be vacated. The biggest losers are the players and teams who not only lost games,but jobs, money. I still have a vivid memory of the Astros using Yu, for batting practice. Hasn’t been the same pitcher since then.
If a pitcher is that mentally fragile after a single game he didn’t have what it took in the first place.
You can’t change history now matter what the NCAA
says. A few pitches a game don’t matter because
YOU STILL HAVE TO HIT THEM! Just because you know what’s coming doesn’t mean you will know the location. And STOP giving me this false fake news FOX narrative about Yadda Yadda Yadda losing jobs, games and money.
It simply didn’t happen!
OK, maybe some fringe pitcher who wasn’t going to make it anyway? There’s no evidence they used it in the 2017 WS. Jeez, seriously people STOP! The Yankees, the Red Sox plus who knows how many other teams were doing the same thing. They just haven’t been investigated/caught yet. I’ve never seen so many ignorant, juvenile and stupid comments from 12 year olds since I was in 6th grade. I’m not reading these comments anymore because you losers are well, LOSERS and I don’t waste my time with LOSERS!
And Yu said he was tipping his pitches. So, there go that theory.
i just dont know how you can look at springers 17 Series the same.
You can’t even attribute it to signs when it was clear that it was his glove motions giving away his pitches man. Give credit where it is due. Yu isn’t the first guy to have this happen to him.
Go Cubs Go