Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7...162&ATT=49

Despite Drayton McLane's reputation for frugality, the Astros do spend a lot (at least some seasons), and aren't very good. Their minor league system is pretty bare of position players now that Pence is up.

Trading Hirsch for Jennings, letting Biggio bat leadoff in an effort to get him to 3000 despite his total inability to get on-base in the past two season, signing scrubs like Woody Williams and expecting them to make serious contributions = justified firings to me.

I don't see this team being better than mediocre for the next season or two, though. There aren't really any big ticket, fate-changing free agents available this offseason, and with the exception of Troy Patton, I don't think they have much developing within.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

Seems like bizarre timing to me, seems like this should have been done at midseason, or at end of season. With 40 games left and 2007 declared dead a long time ago, this shakeup makes little sense.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

Seems like the GM should have been fired immediately after the Lee signing/Jennings trade, and the coach should have been fired immediately after the opening day lineup.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

Unless Cecil Cooper (fave player in my Milw years, ages 3 to 7) is a viable candidate for the managerial job. In which case a 40 game audition is a smart thing for the owner to do.

Personally I have not heard much about Coop as a coach/manager so I doubt it's really his turn after this year, but it could be an idea as to "why now".

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

Purpura and Garner are both idiots. Interesting that they got pink slips so soon; I was sure that the Astros would continue to employ their services for many years to come.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

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Purpura and Garner are both idiots. Interesting that they got pink slips so soon; I was hoping that the Astros would continue to employ their services for many years to come.

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FYP

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

Meh, just because they are gone doesn't mean that the anemic farm system will suddenly repopulate. They still have about 10,509 problems.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

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Meh, just because they are gone doesn't mean that the anemic farm system will suddenly repopulate. They still have about 10,509 problems.

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Yeah, and to add to this, the Pirates replaced Cam Bonifay with Dave Littlefield. Most times inept organizations have no clue who to hire.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

I wonder how many assistant GM's will turn this position down before they find a new GM. O/U at 4.5?

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

The only reason I can figure the timing for this was they retired Bagwell's #5 jersey yesterday, so, maybe Drayton wanted the guys to be there for it (ie: no distractions). I mean, the season is done with anyway.

Also, you are selling Timmy Poo-Poo short. He didn't trade Hirsh (a cheap young pitcher) for Jennings. He traded Hirsh (cheap young pitcher), Bucholz (cheap young pitcher) and Willy Taveras (cheap young player who "filled" two holes: leadoff and CF) for a fat ass who over-paid, injured, unproven older guy who just so happens to be an alum of the same university as Drayton McLane. Baylor.

Tim Purpura is absolutely ATROCIOUS as a GM, and will never see a GM job or possibly even assistant GM job anytime soon or likely, ever again.

Garner...has been a complete idiot this season, but I'm actually surprised Drayton sent him packing as well. Garner has been way better at him job than Purpura (and Purpuras is far more important), although him being better at him job is like two midgets arguing about who is taller.

I think Garner fruited out this season because he had a heapload of mediocre players and got shuffle-happy with his lineups, defense, and pitching. As Joe Morgan would say "he wasn't consistent." And since we know "consistent" = "good" then there was no way the Astros could be good this year.

Quite a shame, for me, as a fan, because this division (NLC) in this year is basically the easiest way to the playoffs in recent history. I mean, a team should legitimately be able to "buy" their way to the playoffs in this division. Easily.

Cliff Notes: Thank God they are doing something about the inept powers-that-be.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

Who didn't see this coming after the Astros fired Gerry Hunsicker and hired Pupura?

Srsly.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

I will remember the Garner era fondly; I mean, who else intentionally walks Ryan Howard to lead off the inning?

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

Ehh, they didn't really "hire" Poops as Gerry's replacement. He was the Assist. GM and just sort of took the reins...and since they did well in '04, and '05, Drayton was results-oriented, and assumed Timmy Poops was a good GM, and basically gave him 2 more years to hang himself.

I hope he never works in baseball again, except for maybe as a peanut vendor. Him and Charlie Casserly would overpay for ice at the North Pole.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

Looks like I was wrong. According to Stark (on ESPN.com) it seems Cooper is going to get the job for next year. So the timing could very well be to see if he is right for the job or can't handle it. Seems he has to show major reasons as to why he can't handle it to NOT get the job for next year.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

Let me already quote a passage between Jon Miller and Joe Morgan from the future of September 14th, 2007:

Jon (for whatever reason, tries to start conversation): "Joe, what do you think about Astros new manager, Cecil Cooper?"


Joe (stupidly): "You see, this hasn't been able to help th'astros. Sure, it's great that the Astros hired their first African-American manager in the team's 40 plus year history. It shows progress for the city of Houston, where no Black Americans are allowed to live. But it's not going to help. Because he's not a player. Cecil Cooper was once a pitcher for the Red Sox back in 1996, but he isn't going to help the Astros as a manager. The Astros won't get better until they get more African-American players. On the field. Playing the game of baseball the right way. They have a reliever Steven Randolph, but his ERA is way too high. He might be 1/16th Cherokee Indian or something. Also they did acquire Tyrone Wiggerton at third base and got rid of that blue-eyed guy. They sent him to San Diego. That was a good transaction. Craig Biggio isn't Black. OPS stuff."

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

Joe Sheehan writes a very strong defense of Purpura today, basically placing a lot of the blame on the owner. I won't paste it all, but this sums it up

"Tim Purpura isn’t to blame for the Astros’ disappointing 2007 season, and that he’s being fired for it is ridiculous. Drayton McLane set these events in motion by abandoning what had worked for close to a decade—staying out of the baseball staff’s way—and instead making his own bad decisions about what the Astros needed. McLane wanted a year-long coronation of Craig Biggio, and he got it. He couldn’t have that and a contending baseball team, however, and his refusal to see that—and his subsequent dismissal of Purpura and Phil Garner as scapegoats for his own mistakes—ranks as one of the game’s great embarrassments of 2007."

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

lol. I guess by "year long coronation" he's talking about sticking Biggio in the leadoff spots and starting the game on defense. OK, I can see that.

Granted that didn't help, but they could have worked around it. This team has performed horribly this season, and coronating Biggio is about 1/20th of the problem at hand.

I'm not saying Drayton doesn't get his dirty little fingers into things, but I understand that laying it mostly on Biggio will sell more papers.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

embarassing for Biggio for this all to come down on him. I feel kind of bad for him.

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lawl @ Sheehan raping this thread

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if i'm not mistaken, mclane made an executive decision and signed bagwell to his last contract.

i think an awful lot of responsibility comes on mclane. i'm not saying that purpura wasn't a good gm - anybody that lets ensberg get away for basically free isn't that good. my mind is telling me, however, that purpura deserved the opportunity to rebuild the organization.

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

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if i'm not mistaken, mclane made an executive decision and signed bagwell to his last contract.

i think an awful lot of responsibility comes on mclane. i'm not saying that purpura wasn't a good gm - anybody that lets ensberg get away for basically free isn't that good. my mind is telling me, however, that purpura deserved the opportunity to rebuild the organization.

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pretty hard to rebuild it when you can't sign your top picks

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

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lawl @ Sheehan raping this thread

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please. nate silver's article is 100 times better. sheehan is one of the worst writers on prospectus.

buhh oakland is a 100 win team hurrrrr

Re: Astros Fire Manager Garner, GM Purpura
 

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sheehan is a total Yankee homer and one of the worst writers on prospectus.

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