testing 1, 2, 3...am i finally in the right thread? im mad about jose cruz being gone!!!!!!!!! thats all i will say. LOL
I cant believe Cheo is no longer with the team. Its going to be strange watching an Astros game and not seeing him at first base, this kind of p!$$es me off.
I'm sure he had other roles but all I ever remember seeing him do is point to third base and hold everyone's batting gloves. Oh and he clapped occasionally. disclaimer: Don't flame me for this, I posted it in jest to the quoted part. I really like Cheo and am sorry he is gone.
LOL, Agree he didn't seem to do much on the surface but for a team that is severly lacking in positive PR, getting rid of (Reassigning lol what a load of poop) one of the most popular baseball players in franchise history doesn't look good at all. Not a good move with the hispanic community either...
Maybe they replace him with a Hispanic person? I'm not saying they should have moved him, I don't know anything about what he did for the club so maybe it was a bad thing. That said, if a new manager is coming in (which he is) maybe he should get to assemble a staff that will help him accomplish what he wants to do? I know with a team like the Yankees the first base coach is very important. Not because of what he does at first base, but because of his defensive teaching skills. He's been a big help to Robinson Cano this year. Maybe Cruz just didn't fill a role?
All of this should be contingent on the manager's hire, not preceding. The Astros have had me scratching my head for years now.
Part of the reason this team has so many problems is that it's made a lot of moves in large part for PR reasons over the last few years. I have no idea what/if Cruz brought to the table, but PR is a terrible reason to retain anyone.
Why is Sean Berry coming back? Why doesn't the new manager get to pick his staff? This reminds me of how the Oakland Raiders hired their entrie staff before hiring a head coach.
It would have been one thing if the new manager would have come in and cleaned house then it is understandable but for management to basically be calling all the shots before a new manager gets involved and letting an icon go just makes for more negative press on them???!!! Thats my issue and why it makes them look like idiots in my book, not just the Cruz thing but also the Dave Clark thing. The club hasn't made a great PR move since bringing in Clemens and Andy, Lee was a stop gap and I don't recall everyone jumping for joy. The Jennings trade and Wiliiams singing brought mixed results with the fans at best. Hampton this past offseason was nice but no one expected much out fo him and even the Miggy trade was looked upon negativly so I can't agree the moves have been PR driven. If I am missing positive PR moves then I must have forgotten, not trying to be a smart a$$, but honestly I haven't been excited by a move this team has made since bringing in Carlos Beltran.
I actually think the Berry/Clark things are more of a concern than Cruz. It makes sense if they want to clean house and start over, and not put a new manager in the position of having to anger the clubhouse from the start if they like Cruz and he wants someone different. I agree that the manager should have free reign picking a staff; but I think that's easier when you don't have any legacy staff already in place. I'd rather them have said "no one has a job" and then if the new manager wanted to contact those guys and essentially re-hire them, he could. The PR may not have been what they wanted in the long-run, but all these short-term moves to keep the team mediocre are essentially PR moves trying to convince the team they were being competitive. Everyday fans get excited when we trade for a Tejada, for example. Signing Lee to a monster contract was an attempt to make a splash, for example - anytime part of your goal is to make a splash, that's a PR move. Bringing back a fan-favorite in Hampton had a PR element to it as well. That's not to say they were all bad baseball moves - you can have great PR and baseball decisions like Roger/Andy clearly was - but there was definitely an eye towards the PR side of things for the past several years.
Again, just like the firing of Cooper, the timing of this makes no sense to me. It's as if Drayton has no idea how to fix this team, and he's just making moves for the sake of making them. All this suggests is that he's aware that the fans want a change, so he's acting on it....but he has no clue as to what direction this team needs to go in. As far as Cheo goes, I'm not really sure what he brought to the table in terms of coaching, but our base running has been pretty sub-par the last couple of seasons. I don't know if you attribute that to Cruz or not, but it's just an observation. I don't really have an opinion one way or another about him staying here, but he's an Astros legend, so it's always sad to see one go.
Dave Clark was a terrible 3rd base coach this year. Why is he coming back? Why do you need to fire your first base coach and bullpen coach? What difference will this make? This franchise won't change as long Tal Smith is still here.
The bolded part betrays your underlying argument that this is somehow further evidence that the franchise is messed up. How does something that makes no difference make enough difference to get upset about?
It doesn't seem like good timing for an unpopular move like firing Cruz. Even if there was good rationale behind it (I'm not saying there was), I expect this to mostly just further anger an already largely disgruntled fan base.
Yea I see the angle your taking on the PR moves, good point. Some of the moves backfired both on the field and eventully in the media which made them look horrible. Honestly, I think right now I am just pi$$ed that they took this course of action against a guy who had been with the team so long. I don't really have an issue with Berry as he did a good job with Bourn, Pence and the team had a nice batting avg just no extra base power yet forcing a staff on a new manager smells fishy to me. I hope this is part of a bigger plan but honestly I have little to no faith in Drayton/Tal but do have faith in Wade hopefully he can influence both into making the right calls this offseason.
According to the always attractive Alyson Footer on twitter Wade will be addressing the media regarding the coaching moves in a press conference also Dave Clark will speak about his interview in a bit.
Dewey Robinson going to catch up with the other 2 former Astros in Tampa Bay. I don't know what his role will be.
