Have you ever seen a truck get stuck in mud?
At first the driver doesn't realize what he's doing, he thinks he's just slowing down. He tries to go faster, hoping this is just a small patch of mud and there's firmer ground near. But the more he tries and the further he goes, the more he's sealing his fate. This continues until all he can do is spin his wheels and hear his engine rev. Then he looks outside his window and wonders, how did he get himself in this situation and how the hell is he going to get himself out?
The
Astros need a manager.
They have several options...
10 really.
Manny "Second"
Acta: Former Washington Nationals manager... was signed as an
Astro at age 17 (as if that even matters)
Tim
Bogar: Boston Red
Sox first base coach... former
Astros player up until 2001
Dave Clark: The
Astros interim manager after Cecil Cooper was fired... wait, we fired Coop before the season ended?
Phil "Scrap Iron" Garner: Former
Astros manager who "led" the team to the '05 World Series... Hey I know him
Pete
Mackinan: Philadelphia
Phillies' current bench coach... Yeah, I've barely heard of him.
Bob Melvin: Former Diamondbacks and Mariners manager... 2007
NL Manager of the Year
Brad Mills: Boston Red
Sox bench coach... who?
Al
Pedrique:
Astros' minor league field coordinator... because the
Astros have such a good minor league system
Randy Ready: Padres' hitting coach... They teach hitting in San Diego?
Raaaaaaaaandy!
Ned
Yost: Former Brewers manager... led the team to the playoffs last ye--, oh wait, they fired him, then went to the playoffs
My ideal candidate would be someone who would openly criticize the owner, president, and gm on a daily basis on their lack of ability to get him the players to win games. He would also call players out for not hustling (Carlos Lee) and get on them for not playing the game the right way on every pitch.
I, like Richard Justice, want Jim Fregosi, damn it! This is a clip from Justice's column on
Fregosi...
Anyone willing to knock Uncle
Drayton on his ass is
ok in my book. But that will never happen... I digress. I'm not sure if any of the current candidates fit the mold, but I sure know who doesn't and that's Phil Garner.
Phil Garner is a team man and knows what the current
Astros management is all about... over paying for under performing players as long as butts are in the
seasts. He'll take orders from management in exchange for being re-hired and stick to the party line. He's also good at soothing the media with stories and is a favorite with Milo Hamilton. Maybe I just don't want "Scrap Iron" because
Richard Justice does (Justice takes stupid pills
9 out of 10 days before he writes his column or blog).
You look at the list, start to think about the roster, and you quickly realize that none of these men will fix this team. None of these potential managers will fix
Kaz Matsui's anal fissures. None of them will fix Miguel
Tejada's aging (he doesn't even know how old he is) bat and glove. And none of them will fix the starting pitching. The problems of this team are bigger than filling out a lineup card (something Garner has trouble doing) and deciding when it's time to go to the bullpen. So what does this team need?
This team needs a plan.
The current management has been running out the same roster of players every year expecting a different result, which according to Einstein, is the definition of insanity. And frankly, how could you not go insane watching Geoff
Blum, Mike Hampton, or Russ Ortiz?
I'm for this team president (
Tal Smith) and gm (Ed Wade) getting rid of everyone on the roster except for Michael
Bourn, Hunter Pence,
Wandy Rodriguez, and Bud Norris, or them being fired in place of someone who will get rid of everyone else and start from scratch.
Berkman is a DH,
Matsui is overpaid,
Tejada is not the future,
Blum is a warm body, Lee is an American League player and costs a boatload, Roy
Oswalt would probably fetch multiple prospects considering what teams will give up for Cliff Lee, and the 4, 5 pitchers in the rotation are constantly re-treads (see Russ Ortiz and Mike Hampton). The future of this team is potentially Tommy
Manzella at SS, Chris Johnson at 3B and Jason Castro at C, so what's stopping the team from starting the youth movement now? I realize you can't just get rid of
Matsui or Carlos Lee because their contracts are so big, but try damn it.
If this team is heading in the right direction, they'll be awful next year as multiple young players learn at the major league level and management is able to see what they really have. I really wish I was a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates right now because their management isn't playing around as they've shipped everyone of their players with value out in exchange for a roster full of young talent. Most think the
Astros have more money than the Pirates, so they don't have to go this extreme, but they really do. Trim all the fat and start from scratch and build the farm system. The
Astros farm system is currently a joke and ranks last or next to last in most experts' opinions.
Here is
ESPN's Keith Law's take on the
Astros farm system with their last place ranking as of January this year before the season began and excluding this year's draft of course...
30. Houston Astros: Houston's farm system looks like General Sherman marched through it, then turned around and marched through it again just to be sure the job was done. The Astros' 2007 draft class might turn out to be one of the worst in history: They had no picks in the first round (for Carlos Lee) or second round (for the now-retired Woody Williams), and they failed to sign either their third- or fourth-round pick (one of whom, Georgia Tech shortstop Derek Dietrich, looks like a sure top-50 pick for 2010). Two of the top six players they did sign were released in October, and their top signed pick, Colin Dellome, just posted a .305 OBP in high-A at age 22. Their 2008 draft was better -- not that it could have been worse -- with two promising high school arms in Ross Seaton and Jordan Lyles and one solid catching prospect in Jason Castro. The organization's decision to turn its back on Venezuela might reflect the nation's political instability, but it also leaves the Astros among the least-advanced teams in international scouting. There are lean times ahead in Houston, and even a massive shift toward rebuilding won't stop the oncoming drought.
In a seasonal review of the team, here's what Baseball Prospectus writer Eric
Seidman said of the team...
Perhaps the failure on display this season and the barren farm system will work to help convince Wade that the roster needs to undergo an extreme makeover. Oswalt and Berkman both needed to be packaged in deals last year to extract premium returns, and nobody else on the current roster aside from Pence could even bring back anything worth acquiring. The time has come for the Astros to look at themselves in the mirror and accept the fact that they will need to experience a few losing seasons for the betterment of the organization. If they fail to reach this epiphany, expect more of the same in the coming years.
If you have ESPN Insider, I encourage you to read the rest of the article, which is really rather depressing, but honest.
I'd rather see the Astros suck for 5 years in a row knowing the team will be good for the decade after, than see a team spin its wheels year after year.
I also have no problem with Uncle Drayton selling the team (yes, there have been rumors of such a thing happening this off-season) to someone who will pay to have this team over-hauled or simply spend his way out of this problem ala the Yankees or Red Sox.
In the end, it doesn't matter who the Astros hire as their new manager because until they fix the real problems within this organization they'll just be spinning their wheels, thinking they're getting closer to firm ground. My message to Uncle Drayton is to blow the team up and call a wrecker because you're in way over your head.
Last week I went 6-7 and am now 52-51 on the season. My lock of the week, Pittsburgh, covered and I am now 5-2 with that pick. I should have done much better last Sunday, considering it was the worst day ever for Vegas.
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