Yes. If they don't make it to the playoffs, he turned the bats around and took the blindfold off the batters.
no offense to you swoly...but because i don't believe and can't understand the assertion that a coach turned the bats of seasoned veterans around in a 2 - 4 week span, i do not buy into the genuis of coaches on the major league level. the whole larussa is a genuis...dusty baker is the next buddha..and felipe alou is einstein's skinnier twin stuff is just beyond me.
But Max, remember how Don Baylor fixed that "easily correctable flaw" in Hidalgo's swing just days after Richard joined the Mets? That *is* what happened, right?
oh, yeah...i forgot about that. hidalgo is now a slam-dunk winner of the MVP award, i think. coaching is so overrated in baseball. so overrated. it's truly a "game of inches." guys fall into slumps that are unexplainable...and guys go on tears that are unexplainable.
I voted on keeping him. But i just realized Tony LaRussa is a free agent. I think he could be an interesting fit here. The guy has strived everywhere he has been. He's done wonders with the Cardinals this year. Everyone and their mom had the Astros and Cubs light years ahead of the Cubs coming into the season.
LaRussa is not leaving Saint Louis. He has been offered an extension, and the only reason he didn't sign it is he wanted to set an example (ie: I'm not thinking about contracts, and neither should you!) for the players.
Max, True coaching is overated, but the Astros had no vocal leader, someone who kept the team lose and got them excited. Many teams have players like that, the Astros leaders are mostly low key. Garner's enthusiasm had EVERYTHING to do with turning this season around. That, and getting rid of David Weathers. DD
Yeah that is true, but things sure have changed since Scrappy took over. I mean, the team seems a lot more aggressive. We have so many stolen bases this half of the season since Garner took over. And the double steals! I almost crapped my pants when the first Beltran Bagwell double steal took place, and then again in the same freakin game. This team has a heartbeat again, and is more fun to watch. I also love the attitude Garner has for the game. Garner jumps up and down for HRs, and throws his fist in the air, lets' out yells, and slaps high fives with the other coachs. He is more open with the media too, which helps since I love to hear what the manager has to say.
Those are probably explained by simple randomness. Flip a fair coin 600 times(good amount of at bats for a hitter in a season), and you'll see long stretches of heads and tails. And this is the equivalent of a .500 hitter, when even most great hitters tend to only suceed about 40%(using OBP rather than BA).
you'll be shocked to know i disagree with you. i'm not saying it wasn't a help..wasn't a factor. but i don't think you go on a 12 game winning streak, as a veteran professional, and start hitting lights out when you couldn't score runs at all previously, simply because your coach is enthusiastic.
