lol... Mills? He's the very, very least of this organization's problems. I'd say he's done at least adequately given his experience and the pile of crap he came into. There are far bigger non-thinkers leading teams to division titles and WS (see: Baker, Dusty or Washington, Ron for a couple of shining examples). Don't take this as an endorsement of Mills. I don't even think about that situation much either way. He carries himself professionally and respects the game. That's about all that matters for the next several years. It wouldn't surprise me if 1 or 2, possibly even none, of the current players are even part of the club by the time the Astros are competitive again. Then we can worry about strategy and acumen. As far as I'm concerned, Mills is perfect for the present situation... a good character coaching noob supervising this pile of dump until better days. He gets some experience, we get an ideal placeholder at a minimum... win-win.
I think you are omitting the importance of good leadership. While I take your point that with or without Mills, we would not be division contenders, I feel its important to have the guys respect and even admire their coach, especially a young developing team like this one. What comes to mind is imagining myself as a newly promoted AAA guy on the current Astros squad. If I have to keep scratching my head when it comes to many of the decisions my skipper is making, then potentially, my own development maybe hindered. I would want not just a leader and a guy most everyone on the team respects (there is often someone who go against any consensus), but a skipper I can learn from, trust, and be proud of. If I think that my coach is basically some interim guy who will be canned once the team is halfway good, there would be a tendency to not really listen to him or pay attention to him. Not to mention the interclub controversy and gossip is likely to be unfavorable concerning such a coach. Private jokes and non-verbal queues between players aimed at their coach in even a subtle way is not the atmosphere one wants to bring out the best in your players or assess their potential. If Crane & Co. really want to turn this club around, and they are willing to hire top guys to run it, there isnt any good reason to overlook who the coach is and whether that component is up to the standard that you are making for the rest of the organization.
i was about to say...bout time our fans have balls to boo this **** team, but it was royals fans saying moose for moustakas.
WTF Maxwell...dude needs serious help with pitch recognition ....that pitch was almost a wild pitch 3 feet outside lol
Astros fan: "Man, I can't believe we got shut out by the KANSAS CITY ROYALS!" Royals fan: "Ehh, we shut out the HOUSTON ASTROS...big whoooooopteeeeey dooooooo!"
Maxwell is what he is - a power guy with good speed and defense, but he's not going to give you a good average or regularly competitive at-bats. What blew me away was Dave Clark holding Lowrie last night (with 1 out) and Maxwell coming up... think it was the 6th inning when Lee doubled to deep right. If you have a guy coming up you can trust to make contact, maybe, but with a Maxwell type... if you have even a 30% chance of the runner scoring, you have to send him. Of course, Clark held him and Maxwell struck out swinging. I know the third-base coach is rarely popular, but Clark seems to make some truly bizarre decisions sometimes.
No kidding. Once I saw Lee hit that ball and the way it rolled all the way to the fence I thought for sure Lowrie was scoring. Then it cut to Lowrie being held up, of course. Runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out, and Maxwell and Bogie promptly strike out to end the inning. **** you, Dave Clark!
Whole coaching staff needs to go, finish cleaning the decks from last year. Mills hasn't been given much to work with, but he seems to make bad decisions regularly.
This has to be one of the worst teams in baseball at situational hitting. How many times lately have they had a runner on 3rd and under two outs and not made contact?
I am not expecting much this year, but *******....this team is really not fun to watch. It is pretty much to the point where I am only tuning into Altuve and Lowrie ABs.
