F'n Stros', but this quote from Coop has me wondering wtf is he still managing... Astros Astros manager Cecil Cooper was adamant he had no clue what was wrong as his ace gave up a single, hit a batter and walked two others to enable the Reds to tie the score at 4. “You have to ask Roy,” Cooper said. “I have no idea. Ask Roy.” Cooper was at a loss to explain Oswalt’s uncharacteristic lack of command. “You have to ask him,” he said. “I don’t know. You have to ask him. Maybe it was his hand from the inning before.”
And there's your problem right there. If a player is struggling, they have to get out of it on their own because nobody else is going to be able to help them.
I'm not a big Coop fan at all, and he certainly hasn't helped himself out very often, but I don't think it's his fault that our pitching staff is so thin and terrible. He didn't sign a bunch of over the hill relievers and starters that were great 8 years ago Regardless, we are not playing well at all and it is miserable to keep watching uninspired losses. I hope we somehow turn it around...we are digging a really deep hole
they've quit on the manager. need a manager change quick. i don't think that's going to solve their problems...but they don't believe in coop, it seems.
this kinda bullcrap infuriates me. if I walk around on my job with my head hanging down, doing everything half-assed, I can promise you my manager won't be the one who gets sacked. "they quit on the manager." You know what else they quit on, if they've indeed "quit"? Their fans, and their multi-freaking-million dollar contracts. Hey million-dollar titty-baby: quit blubbering and get your ass out there and do the job the rest of us only get to dream about. whiny-ass spoiled punks.
i'm not disagreeing with you. we've just seen it so many times before....it's just my take. i don't know it to be true. reading justice's article and listening to his comments on the radio...and then just watching them play.
oh, i hear you. that's what is so infuriating about. are you freaking kidding me Lance? Carlos? make me manager for a week. they'd hate me. they'll be on their million-dollar knees begging for Coop. didn't intend to disagree with your take; just providing my uninvited vitriolic commentary on million-dollar titty-babies.
I've watched most of the games this season. Some of you may disagree but I think they're just sucking rather than sulking. Any team in any sport will appear a little dejected when they are losing a lot. It's a natural physcial manifestation of the physological effects of losing. I think everybody is doing the best they can, including Berkman and Oswalt. It's pretty obvious that guys like Tejada, Pence, Bourn and Pudge show up everyday and give it their all. They may not always succeed but they always play hard. Bourn does get a little mopey at the plate sometimes but I think that is mostly independent from how the team is doing. He just loses confidence and starts having poor ABs.
I've been unable to watch games this season--I think I've caught part of only one, in fact. I catch them a bunch on the radio whilst running all over the place. So, I'm in no position to say whether or not they have quit. My commentary is about "quitting on the manager" in general. If the current Astros are not doing that, great. If they are, piss on them.
exactly. i'm probably not going to waste another second on them this season. i can't even begin to describe how disinterested i am in the astros and pro baseball in particular. now, i'm all about the pinging this weekend!
you may be right....i'm certainly not suggesting that i know something, specifically, beyond what we've all read in the papers.
This is where I am. I feel like a fair weather fan but I've tried watching them over the last couple of years and mediocrity is not fun. Neither is the prospect of them never being any better. It is blatantly obvious to anyone that watches them that we are not even remotely close to a championship caliber team. Watching a team that is in rebuilding would be fun just because you would at least be able to see some sort of potential. There is zero potential with our current team. I'd love it if they completely blew up the team. I mean blow it up where next year there is not even one player from the current squad. With young talent we would at least have hope for the future.
I honestly don't know what to say about the Cooper situation. I'm no expert but it does seem like he is subpar when it comes to in-game management. I think he's way too agressive on the basepaths and managing pitchers appears to be one of his weaknesses. As far as his personality and his relationship with the players, I don't see that stuff. I certainly won't take Richard Justice's word for what's going on in those areas. If Cooper is legitimately doing something to cause problems off the field that are carrying onto the field, then maybe firing him makes sense. I have no idea if that is the case though. The media may very well be making it look worse than it is. Nobody seemed to have much problem with Cooper late last season. It's funny how these kinds of things become issues when the team is playing poorly. I don't think any manager could do much better with this group considering the personnel and the fact that a new player is getting injured every other day. My guess would be that going from Cooper to the best manager in baseball history would make a difference of about 2 or 3 games by the end of the season. If management thinks 2 or 3 games will be the difference between us making and missing the playoffs, then maybe it's worth doing it.
I'm not saying baby him, I'm saying based on the quote, there is no kind of relationship...I have no experience in managing a MLB team, but you got to believe foster a relationship with players, managing personalities is apart of the job...I just don't think based on the info I've seen, Coop has that...
of course that describes about 80% of the team's history! we were so spoiled by success from about 1993-2006
The Astros set the expectation. "What did you do today to be a champion!" While the Rockets never got out of the first round until this year, there have been many years where we felt like there was a pretty good team on the floor and there was potential. The Texans in the last two years, while not making the playoffs, have shown potential to be good. That is fun to watch. We keep hearing from the team that garbage, like, "We will win 90 games this year!" and how "We reload, not rebuild." Uh negative. This attitude of not rebuilding is asinine. When you want to try and build a team, then you will get my veiwership and money. Just give us something to be excited about. I do not have delusions of getting to the World Series every year but I want to contend. I want hope. Right now we have none of that.
