Poker Wannabe: 4/11/2005 - Baseball Venting (no poker content)

Okay, this is why Phil Garner should be summarily execu...er...fired.

It's a tight, one-run game. Phil Garner, manager of the Astros, has his team ahead 4-3 going into the eighth inning. In his bullpen, he has the rubber-armed Brad Lidge, who rarely gives up so much as a run and who's very capable of going two innings. But wait! Lidge had been used three days in a row now, including the previous day to preserve that oh-so-fragile three run lead.

So because of Garner's own ineptitude, he can't use the best relief pitcher in baseball. Another option is Chad Qualls, a fairly young relief pitcher who has been pretty effective in his limited playing time. However, also on the roster is the worst relief pitcher in baseball, Russ Springer, a.k.a., Batting Practice.

So of course Garner went with Springer. Springer has one advantage over Qualls and that is experience. Unfortunately, that experience is in blowing games wide open for the opposing team. Russ Springer should not be on a major league roster much less within 500 ft of the mound in the eighth inning of a one-run game!

So of course he comes in and, lacking the ability to actually make batters miss, promptly gives up a random assortment of walks and hits that at the end of the inning add up to five runs for the Mets (yes, even the Mets can hit someone like Russ Springer).

(And yes, even with two outs and two men on and the game well within reach at only at 5-4, Mets, Garner still kept Springer in there.)

Ballgame.

The Astros are in first place at this writing, having just dropped to 4-2. They have no offense and good pitching. With Garner in there trying his best to give every close game to the opposition, and since every game is going to be close, we might as well write a eulogy for the season. 85 wins would have been great if they had a decent manager. With Crap Iron at the helm who knows to what depths this team will sink.

Comments

We were at that game today. We were trying to figure out who the hell Houston's manager was and what he was doing while the Astros were running into each other and handing us the game. Great opening day to go to.

Posted by: Chris | April 12, 2005 at 02:32

I certainly understand the rant. I hope Phil will not make this mistake again. He is banking on youth in the outfield, so he had better start taking a hard look at the youth in the bull pen. IMHO it is to early to hang the manager out to dry! I believe he will rally the youth! Through out history the Astros have had someone in the bull pen who you cringed when they brought them out. No different today! Smith toward the end of his career and Dotel! Go Astros!

Posted by: Chrypto | April 13, 2005 at 15:44

When the manager is Phil Garner, it is never too early to hang him out to dry. He has a history of sustained mediocrity. He badly mismanaged the pitching staff in last year's playoffs, lucking into a series win over Atlanta, and basically suboptimizing the rotation for the series against St. Louis.

I like letting the "youth" play (as if Backe, Lane or Scott are all that young), but really that's not so much Garner's decision as Purpura. Purpura decided this offseason to put all his eggs into one basket--Beltran--and had absolutely no backup plan when that didn't pan out. The Astros made exactly 0 noteworthy moves (re-signing the Rocket when he was either going to play for Houston or retire doesn't really count).

Purpura's the one responsible for the fact that Garner even has Springer and Franco as options in the bullpen.

The team had a million glaring holes during the offseason and they still have a million glaring holes, holes that they had to fill with "youth" or not at all. I'm sure that if Garner had some 39-year-old washed-up vet to start in place of Taveras, he'd be in there.

Gah.

90 mins to gametime. Bold prediction: Rocket goes 7 strong innings, leaves with a one or two run lead, hands it over to some retread relief pitcher who has no business still being in the league (Springer, Franco, Wheeler) who then proceeds to blow it in the eighth since, well, Lidge can't be used until the ninth inning and only then if the lead is one, two or three runs! Either that or Rocket gives up one or two runs and never has the lead.

Posted by: pokerwannabe | April 13, 2005 at 16:43