Matt Wheeler’s Reviews > Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball's Brightest Minds Created Sports' Biggest Mess > Status Update

This book is maddening!

Take the Brady Aiken story.

Astros drafted. Did a physical. A major concern came up. They hedged and alsk did what was best for the org; tried to snag a 3rd player w/ the money they would save off the adjusted deal. Shrewd business.

Aiken didn’t sign. Got signed a year later. Immediately needed surgery. Never recovered. Exactly as the Astros predicted.

But they’re still in the wrong.

I try to view this all neutrally - because hindsight is 20/20, and firing decades long employees seems wrong - but there is zero middle ground.

Drellich gives Luhnow/Astros no credit. It’s all haphazard and clumsy.

If he had recognized the abrupt changes as harsh but working towards a goal, fair… but he doesn’t.

I guess that’s why he does puff pieces for the Athletic, and the Astros have won 7 ALCS’s.

I started over again since it had been 5 days since I initially began, and it was a late night already when I did.


That said, it is clear Drellich has an agenda. Despite winning a WS for STL, it is despite Luhnow and in no way because of or influenced by. Every innovation is bad, and Jeff is too.

There is no objectivity here at all.

Drellich’s bias seethes through every page.