Cecil Cooper is a disaster as a manager - zero communication, zero leadership, zero consistency in his words/actions. This statement has nothing to do with what happened last night. He has completely lost the clubhouse, according to everything that's been reported.
With the Cubs loss today, we're in 3rd place for the moment but the Cards look like they're starting to pull away. They are a division best 7-3 over the last 10 and their +33 run differential points to them being the best team by a wide margin. National League Central Team W L Pct GB Diff St. Louis 48 40 .545 - +33 Milwaukee 44 41 .518 2½ -1 Houston 42 43 .494 4½ -25 Chicago 41 42 .494 4½ -3 Cincinnati 41 43 .488 5 -46 Pittsburgh 38 47 .447 8½ -6
i agree...the truth is though, he should have chosen a more favorable situation for himself to voice his beef. comes off looking dumb and loses alot of credibility when you complain after a game where he couldn't find the strike zone, and we came back and won after cooper pulled him to stop the bleeding. it obviously was a situation that has been simmering with him and just waiting to boil over though.
This is exhibit # 20-something relating to my "lack of communication" statement. A manager who loses the respect of the players will not be a manager for very long.
Certainly true in theory. But on the flipside, both last year and this, the Astros as a team have outperformed their talent/expectations and outperformed their expected W-L (based on runs scored/allowed). Whether or not that has anything to do with Cooper, it does buy him time because it's hard to argue that another manager would do better. There's simply nothing to indicate that this team is underperforming.
Bourn is going to be a solid above avg centerfielder...Lidge wont have anything close to last yr again in his career...good trade I say!
Beautiful....he really worked on his approach this winter...up the middle, to left and on the ground!
DAM I knew Crawford had a bunch of SB but didnt realize he was in Ricky Henderson/Vince Coleman pace! Puma needs to put this bad boy away!
OK, Bourn is human... that was unfortunate. Olsen was feeling the pressure. The last thing we wanted to do was give him an easy out.
I remember all those hardcore astros fans in here who busted my chops because I said Lidge would flame out in 2 years up in Philly. I hate being right all the dam time.
Bourn has improved a lot this season. He should win an award. I haven't been concerned about his play this season at all. He's mr. reliable now. That one stat of his BA with runners in scoring position...like .39x something and 4th in the league? Wow! Our offensive line-up is pretty good. It took them a while to gel from the beginning of the season...but I would say they are playing well going into the break. I'm still worried about our pitching but we could make a good run in the second half.
