FanHouse TimPurpura

It's been a rough year for the Astros. They are, after all, in the only division in recent memory in which a .500 team might actually take first, and they're stuck in the back of the pack with the Pirates. They've since fired GM Tim Purpura and manager Phil Garner, and are building a new city, hopefully with the brick and mortar of rock and roll. (I have no idea what that means.)

Anyway, despite the struggles, the Astros are already attracting interest:

Of all the candidates for the job, [Bob] Watson is the only one who truly knows what it is to love Houston, to love the Houston Astros and to have literally shed his blood and sweat trying to bring a winning product to Houston fans on the field and in the front office.

"I have really a real feeling for the Houston Astros," he said. "As you know, and hopefully our readers know, that in 1964 I signed with then the Colt .45s, so I go a way back. I've been with this organization in a number of capacities. And I left to go to New York, and bottom line is I left a job undone. I'd like to culminate my career of some 43 years as we speak with bringing in and putting this club where it needs to be.

"And I think the other reason is I think Drayton McLane deserves to have a championship club. He has worked so hard and tirelessly. He has spent a lot of his money and energy trying to make this a championship city, and I'd like to help him accomplish that."

So there you have it. Whether or not you think the Purpura firing was a bit of overkill -- the point was made with Garner, who didn't seem to be having much fun anymore anyway -- it's good to see that the Astros have at least somebody waiting in the wings. People, including former employees, actually want to work there! Who knew?

(HT: Baseball Musings)

You're know your favorite team is really bad if it can't even contend in the NL Central. To that end, it shouldn't be a huge surprise for fans in Houston to see that the Astros have decided to clean house. The blog Crawfish Boxes had the scoop earlier today and it's since been confirmed by the team's official website:

The Astros dismissed general manager Tim Purpura and manager Phil Garner on Monday and replaced them on an interim basis by Tal Smith and Cecil Cooper, respectively.

The team made a formal announcement at a 2 p.m. CT press conference at Minute Maid Park.

Considering this was Purpura's first job as a general manager, he's probably a little worried about his future, but Garner has been down this path before. In fact, Garner got the Astros job in the first place by taking over for Jimy Williams, who was fired midway through the 2004 season. Since then, Garner has posted a winning record, but ownership clearly had higher expectations than a 58-73 record thus far this season.

This is Cecil Cooper's first chance to manage a big league team, but he did serve as a Triple-A manager in 2003 and 2004 before joining the Astros' coaching staff in 2005. Smith, on the other hand, is a seasoned vet in the midst of his 50th year as a MLB exec. He was serving as the team's president of baseball operations before taking on the interim GM role, and he'll likely play a large role in determining who gets the permanent job this winter.

It is safe to say that Jason Jennings' first and maybe only season as a Houston Astro did not go as either side planned. The Astros traded for Jennings, who mastered Coors Field in 2006, to help fill in the holes created when Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens bolted back to New York. Instead of helping, Jennings went 2-9 with a 6.45 ERA and is now having season-ending elbow surgery. Of course, Jennings had elbow problems with the Rockies last year, too, but that didn't stop super-genius GM Tim Purpura from trading for him.

"He didn't miss any starts last year," Purpura said. "Their general manager assured me that he was fine. Our doctors talked to their doctors, and we were assured that he was fine. Beyond that, there's not a lot that you can ask for."

Well, of course they told you he was fine, Tim. If someone called you and offered you an outfielder and two pitchers for a guy you know is hurt, aren't you going to try your hardest to make that team believe he's OK? Actually, nevermind, judging by some of the things Purpura has done this year, I'm not going to assume he knows anything.

For his part, Jennings doesn't really want the surgery, but is expecting a six month recovery time and should be ready for camp next year for whoever he ends up playing for (he's a free agent after the season ends).

Lots of noise has been made over the signing deadline of midnight for the 2007 draft class. After lots of hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing, most of the key players from the first round ended up signing (I said most, sorry Kansas City turns out Moustakas signed at just about the last possible second after all, thanks to srmueller in the comments for the heads up). Lost in all the fuss was the Astros' awful draft.

Tim Purpura and his front office actually managed to not sign a pick higher than a fifth rounder this year. They lost their first and second round picks by signing Carlos Lee and Woody Williams, then failed to sign third rounder Derek Dietrich or fourth rounder Brett Eibner. Says Purpura in his own defense:

"It's tough to sign high school kids because they have so many options and so many opportunities," general manager Tim Purpura said.

THEN WHY WOULD YOU DRAFT THEM, GENIUS?!? If you don't have picks in the top two rounds, why would you draft kids that might have better options in the next two rounds? Excuse me, let me gather myself for a moment.

Seriously, if this happened anywhere outside the baseball world, everyone remotely responsible for this would be fired. But it's baseball, so people will probably just shrug their shoulders and move on with life. Don't let that shrinking deficit between Houston and the top of the NL Central fool you, I'm not sure anyone in their front office even knows what color the stitches on a baseball are.

And we have yet another thrilling near-deadline trade to talk about. The non-contender Houston Astros sent struggling reliever Dan Wheeler to Tampa Bay for utility-man extraordinaire Ty Wigginton. Tampa's pen is terrible so this move makes sense for them, but I don't really see how this is helping the Astros a whole ton. This is how Tim Purpura explained it:

``All trades hurt in one way or the other, and certainly losing Wheeler, a big piece of our bullpen for a long time, hurts,'' Astros general manager Tim Purpura said. ``But we also have been looking forward to refill some of our position-player needs, and this gives us a player in Ty Wigginton who can pay third base for us for the next several seasons.''

This, of course, coming from the guy who made essentially the same move at the deadline last year, trading for Aubrey Huff. The way Purpura talks about Wigginton, you'd think he's a 24-year old super prospect and not a 30-year old utility man. This would seem to necessitate a trade of Mike Lamb or Morgan Ensberg, but you never can tell with these things. It does put Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee, and Wigginton all in the same lineup. Now there's some speed.

Say you're the GM of a 40-55 team that's found themselves in last place of what is arguably the worst division in baseball. Do you think admitting that you have no idea why your team sucks is a good idea? Because for some reason, Tim Purpura does. From the Houston Chronicle:

"It's totally unexpected," he said while working the phones from Houston. "In some ways, you can't believe that we are where we are given the kind of talent that's on the club."

[...]

"Even at the All-Star Game," Purpura said, "a number of people from other clubs said, 'Don't give up because you're a lot better than you're showing,' and they point to the fact we swept Seattle and they went back and got in the race.

Why are the Astros bad this year? Hmm. It could have something to do with losing Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte and somehow thinking Woody Williams and Jason Jennings would replace them, putting Craig Biggio's run at 3,000 hits before the team's success, starting the season with Hunter Pence in AAA, Lance Berkman getting older, Mike Lamb and Mark Loretta not having regular positions while Morgan Ensberg and Adam Everett (when he's healthy) do, and having a crappy bullpen. Or it might just be really bad luck that no one could've ever seen coming. Really, it could be either or. I'm on the fence myself.

Everyone knows that the scariest thing in sports for any manager or general manager is the "vote of confidence" from the owner. If the owner has to publicly defend someone, chances are pretty good that person isn't doing a good job. Well, today Phil Garner and Tim Purpura both got their second vote of confidence from Drayton McLane of the summer. From the Houston Chronicle:

"As far as I'm concerned, there's no speculation (about firings)," McLane said. "We sure wish the team was playing better. We all sat this morning for over an hour and talked about the team and what prospects we have of improving and how we can move the lineup to enhance that and get players responding better, but as far as concerns for their jobs, no."

A second vote of confidence is pretty much unprecedented in sports, but only because most people get fired shortly after the first. Then again, the rest of the article is full of McLane talking about how he thinks that the fourteen games under .500 Astros are going to make a push for the second half and he's not even sure they're going to be sellers at the trade deadline yet, so it's entirely possible that he's just insane. And yeah, for the record, I think Garner and Purpura will both be canned either before or shortly after the end of the 2007 season.