Could be spin...though I don't think Brett Dolan is going to get on the air and lie saying that Mills' mom is dying if she's not. He did say that Mills hadn't shared his family situation with many people. Regardless, I don't get the need to spin. They fired a manager of a team that is absolutely awful and has a new braintrust in place....that firing is expected. It's not made any worse or better because of it happening at night after a game. But I personally think they did the man a favor of not having him ride out a lame duck term.
Max is right. There's no reason to spin firing Mills. Nobody thinks they were wrong to do it. As for the idea he would just resign...yeah right. He resigns and he loses the remainder of his salary and other perks. Being fired guarantees him the money.
It may guarantee him money but it also humiliates him and leaves a stain for his future employment. Nice favor.
Every coach gets fired at some point. It doesn't leave a stain...there are reasons why Mills wasn't able to make this team "work" that he can easily explain as having nothing to do with him. He was a regime change fire at the very least. Again..what's to spin? New front office...awful record...of course he's going to get fired. Everyone knows it. Everyone knew it before it happened.
I didn't say anything about it being a favor to him personally. I also don't disagree with you that Lunhow probably wanted him out. I don't get why that is a bad thing either. That doesn't dismiss the idea that there was some mercy involved. Managers RARELY resign and it is actually a bigger stain on their employment record when they quit before their contract is up.
I don't get it - what's humiliating? The timing? Doing it at 11pm on Texan game night almost assures it's the least-covered firing in the entire history of firings, which, if your Mills, probably isn't the worst thing that's happened to him these past three years. If the guy is qualified, he'll land on his feet, No one is going to change their opinion of him because he was fired at 11pm instead of 11am.
Exactly. Buster Olney's rantings this morning are unreal - what the hell is the difference between firing Mills at 11 p.m. and doing it at 11 a.m. Sunday morning, which he deems acceptable? Truly bizarre. This isn't 1960 anymore, Buster.
Bullpen, I agree - though given that most of them sucked, I don't know that shuffling players around to different roles was going to make a lot of difference. Statistically, there's not a lot of evidence supporting the theory that everyone having specific roles makes them any better. The rest, I'm not sure you can pin on Mills. Yes, the team is sloppy - but that's what young teams do. These players should be getting seasoning in the minors, but are now on the big stage. They are going to be sloppy, and they are going to be bad hitters that strikeout a lot - I'm not sure there's anything Mills can do about that. And with the nonstop roster changes, many of them have only been up for a few weeks or months, so it's not like they have 2 or 3 years worth of Mills' coaching to judge them on. All that said, I don't really care one way or another about Mills' firing. He was a non-factor in the team. Another manager is not going to make the team appreciably better or worse, and the record is not really the focus anyway. I agree that, in theory, what matters about a manager for now is that they can teach. I'm just not sure how much a manager in general impacts a team in that way.
I'm not sure what a manager is supposed to do to keep his low contact, poor batting eye players from striking out and failing to get on base.
Just shut up and let the moneyball GM and do the lineup and all will be well. Expect the new manager do that.
I don't think Lunhow would argue the team is underperforming (though they are, a little - based on run differential). But plate discipline and fielding are two areas a manager can absolutely impact. And the Astros were terrible at both. As for the Moneyball label... sigh. Being progressive and increasing your avenues of evaluation is never, ever a bad thing.
~AA/AAA players competing in MLB will get you these results. The Astros fail consistently at basic baseball fundamentals that would/should have been learned long ago through repetition. There are not enough hours in the day - given travel, rest, gameday prep, etc - for a major league team to try and teach basic skills to marginally talented youngsters who are totally above their heads.
Well keep in mind on the individual player level it matters greatly who the coaching staff and fellow players are. Mediocrity breeds mediocrity. You put anyone of the young guys on the '97-'01 teams, they'd probably fall in line. Someone would pull him aside and teach him. When it's all 9 guys that are undisciplined, raw players you can't expect much in the way of accountability or development. I bet you Jordan Schafer wouldn't be nearly as obnoxious staring across a locker room from Bagwell, Biggio and Ausmus.
Worked on Mitch Meluskey. And none of these young guys would have sniffed the '97-0? teams outside of September. I get your point, though.
File this under "Bizarre" or "Delusional" I heard on ESPN Radio this AM that one of the "reasons" Jim Crane fired Brad Mills was due to the poor attendance at Astros games (from all of the losing). My reaction was "WTF???" So I looked around online and found this article: http://www.journalreview.com/sports/baseball/games/article_3dd72d51-9d19-59a4-acca-01c7a0512447.html First-year owner Jim Crane believes firing manager Brad Mills and replacing him with interim manager Tony DeFrancesco will help the hapless Houston Astros win more games. That plan got off to a slow start Sunday. Houston dropped its first game under DeFrancesco when Aaron Hill homered twice to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to an 8-1 win and a series sweep. DeFrancesco was the manager at Triple-A Oklahoma City before being promoted. The major league-worst Astros (39-83) fired Mills late Saturday night. "We need fans in the building and we want to win more ballgames," Crane said following Houston's fourth consecutive loss. "We think this is a process that will help us win more ballgames. The team was really struggling and the demeanor in the clubhouse wasn't what you want it to be. If there's a message to the fans, it's that we're going to make good decisions and we want to win." Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow said he made the move to "bring in a new environment" to the National League's youngest team. But it was more of the same Sunday as the Astros fell to 7-33 in their last 40 games. DeFrancesco, who has managed in the minors for 17 seasons, said he "almost fell to the floor" when Luhnow offered him the position and that it's something he's been waiting for his entire career. "My first major league managing game didn't work out the way I wanted it," he said. "But it was an honor to put the Astros uniform on and be part of the organization. I'm excited to get it going." OK, was I out of the room when they passed out the magic mushrooms? How in creation can ANYONE be expected to win major league games with this rag-tag, minor league roster? If Crane is indeed this stupid then that says a lot to me about what went down when the team was sold (and yes, I'm talking about the so-called forced move to the AL West). Twould appear that Bud Selig knows a mark when he sees one.
