12 October 2001
Pitiful
The Astros ended another postseason today in their usual fashion -- with nary a whimper.
The team today looked entirely lifeless. And who can blame them? They had Game One won in Houston, but their manager was much too clever for himself and lost it for them (then acted like an a-hole afterwards in front of the media, getting babysitters for his next press conference). They even had a decent shot at Game Two, but strange managerial decisions did them no favors. Today they walked around like zombies, and Atlanta beat the hell out of them.
Larry Dierker is going to be fired for it, despite winning four of five division titles, and I won't miss him (or his 2-12 record in the playoffs, despite having vastly superior teams two of those four trips). The team has had enough talent to do greater things than it has under Dierker. In fact, I have been very much reminded of Barry Switzer's disastrous reign with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys after Jimmy Johnson was fired as coach. Yes, Switzer had a fine record for the most part (and even won a championship, unlike Dierker, because the overwhelming talent supplied by Jimmy Johnson won DESPITE his coaching) but the team started losing as its overwhelming talent edge was narrowed. The Astros never have had enough of a talent edge to overcome little things (like the manager's idiosyncracies, to put it kindly) and thus have lost every playoff series under Dierker (although I will credit GM Gerry Hunsicker for putting championship-level talent on the field despite the constraints of his small-to-medium-market budget).
What is a real shame is that most NL general managers agree that the Astros both in 1999 and in 2001 have had a lineup that could have done some damage to AL teams in the World Series (via the longball). But they've never had a chance, because they have to win two NL series to get there.
Next year, the Astros have to try to diversify a one-dimensional longball offense and shore up some serious defensive liabilities (shortstop is a hole, biggio's range these days is average at best, and the outfield is well below average defensively, and will get much worse if Alou is not resigned and the immobile slugger Daryle Ward is thundering around out there next year) in addition to shoring up the coaching staff. On that last, Tony Pena is probably the next manager, although I would LOVE to see Felipe Alou or Buck Showalter (of course, Showalter is a disciplinarian and high strung, and might, like Terry Collins before him, hurt the very fragile egos of Biggio and Bagwell, so don't look for that to happen). The good news is, the next manager is going to have a stable of excellent young pitchers (Wade Miller, Roy Oswalt, Carlos Hernandez, and maybe even Tim Redding, who could become a stud if he improves as much as Wade Miller did from season one to season two in the bigs) to work with, and that will be a luxury with a team that ought to score some runs.
[Posted @ 06:33 PM CST]
