I agree that the team has had problems and you cannot hang the manager when the team does not hit. My concern is that Williams seems to be using guys like Blum, at third, and now Viscaino at short and second, too much. I can understand wanting to keep these guys fresh and resting starters. If that is the case then what is the thinking on letting Biggio and Bagwell start for weeks in a row. Clearly the way Williams fills out the lineup card is pretty much on a whim for some and stats for others and certain guys get to put there own name on the card, nightly. He would have played Merced and now Lane more at the very least in situations where Big and Bags have bad matchups, especially early in the season when Bags was struggling. I am not for using these guys as much as Williams does as starters, Just wondering why the young guys like Ensburg and too a lesser degree Everett get bumped for Jimmy's favorites and the two oldest starters go for weeks without break. Ensburg has shown much more upside offensively than Blum and yet has played consdierably less time. I have to believe that Ensburg has shown enough to deserve the lion's share of the starts at third. Blum is a solid SS and if Williams thinks he hits so well then put him at SS more and leave Ensburg and his .512 slugging percenatge and Kent-like clutch hitting in the line-up more. Hidalgo also gets bumped 2 or 3 to 1 over Berkman. Clearly some bias there for some reason. Likewise the starting pitching. Very rare for a starter to get above 100 PPG with Williams. The pen, which has of late gotten better again with the additions of White and Miceli. was showing signs of overuse up until a few weeks ago. It cost us some games. Since the break the starters seem to have been mostly consistent. Dierker would have let these guys pitch longer and none of the starters seemed destined for Lasorda disease, (burnout due to years of overuse), under Dierker. These are young guys who need to learn to go deep into games. They never get the chance under Captain Hook. I am not ready to shoot Williams, yet. If they do not get into the playoffs, again, then I might want to see if Howe or Garner was available. ( It would my luck that Biggio would use those dirty pictures of Drayton that he seems to have to leverage himself into the mangers job after next year.) Williams is lucky as hell that the division is so weak. We should be 8-10 games out of first. He does not get any love for having the team in first in spite of the injuries because we are only 5 games over .500. If he had us hitting on all cylinders, 80 wins, then I would say he is making a difference. Right now he is looking very ordinary.
no manager would have this team with 80 wins right now...not with the key injuries they've had. wanna fire someone...fire LaRussa...there's a team with no good excuses. (sans Isringhausen's injury, perhaps)
Recently Williams has been doing a lot less lineup juggling than earlier in the season. He was forced to use Vizcaino at 2nd during Kent's maternity leave and last night was the first time in a while Vizcaino has started at SS (hmmm, punishment for Everett's costly error Tuesday night?). In actuality, Blum and Jose probably started due to the sweeping action of a lot of Brown's pitches. For the most part Blum and Ensberg have been platooning. Keep in mind that Ensberg has been very mediocre over the past 4-6 weeks. Perhaps this is due to the inconsistency of his starts or perhaps it is due to him hitting a wall. If Williams is looking ordinary then every manager outside of Cox and Alou are ordinary as well. The Astros might be atop a week division, but they are also on par or better than all of the other teams not named Braves or Giants, which is quite remarkable when you look at their individual stats.
MadMax, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the Cards have way underperformed this year. They should have a ten game lead right now.
exactly...look at that freaking lineup!! it's sick!! and their starting rotation looks pretty good on paper...now that Isringhausen is back, they should be running away with this division, in my mind.
Why would we want to see if Garner was available? The guy has had two chances and had zero success. Nothing about his record shows that he is the guy to get this team to the next level.
Hang him, shoot him. Whatever, get him out of here. He was masterful with the bullpen until he burnt out Lidge and Dotel. Now he has to pray for hard hit balls from Micelli/White/Gallo finding gloves instead of seats. It's Bigg time. Will he be a good manager? I don't have a clue, but he will have his face saved, center will be saved, and the promise for more fans' fannies in the seats (and maybe more payroll?Hah!) as a result.
dude, you don't quit! 1. dotel is burned out?? you might want to let him know that. 2. he used the bullpen because the starters were sucking!!! how many times does that have to be said?? had he kept the starters in you'd be saying, "man...we're in 3rd place now...6 games back...fire Jimy!!" 3. you're going to get rid of a manager who has won like 800 games in his career...man, i'm glad your first name isn't gerry.
Jimy is exactly the king of manager we needed...he makes decisions based on baseball, not gut feels... I do want Morgan and Adam to play more though...
One thing I found interesting: Yes, this team has a lot of room for improvement. But they have actually been playing much better than their record indicates. Their Pythagorean standings have them as the second best team in the National League, and comfortably ahead in the Central. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/neyer/index Chalk it up to bad luck, I guess.
Or, since those standings are based on run differential, you can chalk it up to blowing teams out by 15 runs one game, then getting virtually shut out the next night. Never have I seen an Astros team look so dangerous with the bat, and feeble, at the same time. Oh wait... I have... every time this team makes the playoffs.
I agree that the team has had problems and you cannot hang the manager when the team does not hit. My concern is that Williams seems to be using guys like Blum, at third, and now Viscaino at short and second, too much. I can understand wanting to keep these guys fresh and resting starters. What's wrong with Blum? He's getting the job done. He has as many RBIs in *September* (3 days, 3 RBI) as Ensberg did in August. Ensberg's simply not producing anymore. He's getting more hits, but he's not hitting for any power or driving anyone in. Plus, this ensures that when we need pinch hitting, both of these guys are legit options because they've been playing. Vizcaino played so much for a few days because Kent was out.
Jimy goes on gut feelings every day he fills out a lineup card. I disagree with people who think other managers would not have a similar record. Dierker got to the playoffs 4 of his 5 years.......and Jimy....well, how did he do as Red Sox manager....oh yeah...10 years...zero penants. HMMMMM !! DD
Dierker got to the playoffs 4 of his 5 years.......and Jimy....well, how did he do as Red Sox manager....oh yeah...10 years...zero penants. Astros didn't have the Yankees in their divison.
Larry Dierker had Daryle Kile, Shane Reynolds, Randy Johnson, Mike Hampton, Jose Lima, Wade Miller and a healthy Roy Oswalt at some point in his managerial career. Anything less than the playoffs would have been pathetic.
no one who claims to support Larry Dierker can use this as a reason to criticize any other manager! Dierker was the gut-feeling master. i didn't dislike dierker...i thought it was time for a change. but the anti-jimy folks don't make much sense to me at all.
Jimy's tired act or mine, criticizing Jimy's tired act? Or the running of the franchise with almost enough funding but not enough to go forth -- except with the aging process? The 'stros are the masters of woulda/coulda/shoulda. Right now it has to do with three of the problems -- marketwide excitement, manager and Biggio. Solve all three by naming Bigg manager as soon as this season ends. Will Craig Biggio be better than Dierk or Williams? I cannot see into my crystalized ball, but it would take age out of Center and put juice fan's fannies into Drayton's seats.