An Aside About The Astros
A good bit of the media skills that I possess come from two men -- my father, Will F. Walk, III and my grandfather, Wilbur F. Walk, Jr.
My Dad will turn 60 in January after I turn 40 and my grandfather is 83.
My Dad is a very early riser, which goes back to his days in the Marine Corps. So it was of little surprise that I had been copied on an e-mail early this morning. The e-mail was about his favorite subject, the Astros. (Which, of course, guarantees a comment from Ms. Graybeal.)
So here was this morning's "Letter to the Editor" in the Chronicle's e-mail box with the title, "GM Doing OK":
I totally disagree with yesterday's Daily Letter suggesting Astros GM Tim Pupura hasn't been doing his job. On the contrary I think Pupura is doing a good job and (gulp) so is Drayton McLane.
The Astros have the players to get the job done but it is the responsibility of the field manager to put the right players in the lineup and use his roster wisely. Now there is the problem.
While always playing for the wild card is getting frustrating, the Astros can still get there by putting Scott, Taveras and Lane in the outfield, left to right, respectively. Go with Ensberg, Everett, Biggio, Berkman and Ausmus on the infield.
Tell them they are there to the end. There are enough hitters in that lineup that if they know they are in the lineup day in and day out and have the confidence of their manager that they will hit and hit enough for another wild card win. Garner must stop tinkering and let the guys play and being a former player surprises me how he fools with the lineup the way he does.
If you can package Wilson, Burke, Bruntlet and Lidge to get anything reasonable go ahead and make the deal.
That lineup mentioned above can get the job done but you better do it now as next year there is no Clemens and Pettitte for sure, Ausmus won't be needed with those pitchers gone, then the team can get a catcher who will hit more than . 240, Biggio will get 3,000 and then be gone and Jeff Bagwell is not coming back.
Wilson, Huff, Lamb, Palmeiro are not the future of this team. The others are good enough for five to seven years together and then you go into the offseason knowing that your need is pitching.
Oh, and leave Richard Justice alone as he is my favorite.
I had a chuckle this morning. Sometimes he's so far off the mark (but in a humorous way); however, this time I have to agree that he's right -- including the point about Richard Justice.
My Dad will turn 60 in January after I turn 40 and my grandfather is 83.
My Dad is a very early riser, which goes back to his days in the Marine Corps. So it was of little surprise that I had been copied on an e-mail early this morning. The e-mail was about his favorite subject, the Astros. (Which, of course, guarantees a comment from Ms. Graybeal.)
So here was this morning's "Letter to the Editor" in the Chronicle's e-mail box with the title, "GM Doing OK":
I totally disagree with yesterday's Daily Letter suggesting Astros GM Tim Pupura hasn't been doing his job. On the contrary I think Pupura is doing a good job and (gulp) so is Drayton McLane.
The Astros have the players to get the job done but it is the responsibility of the field manager to put the right players in the lineup and use his roster wisely. Now there is the problem.
While always playing for the wild card is getting frustrating, the Astros can still get there by putting Scott, Taveras and Lane in the outfield, left to right, respectively. Go with Ensberg, Everett, Biggio, Berkman and Ausmus on the infield.
Tell them they are there to the end. There are enough hitters in that lineup that if they know they are in the lineup day in and day out and have the confidence of their manager that they will hit and hit enough for another wild card win. Garner must stop tinkering and let the guys play and being a former player surprises me how he fools with the lineup the way he does.
If you can package Wilson, Burke, Bruntlet and Lidge to get anything reasonable go ahead and make the deal.
That lineup mentioned above can get the job done but you better do it now as next year there is no Clemens and Pettitte for sure, Ausmus won't be needed with those pitchers gone, then the team can get a catcher who will hit more than . 240, Biggio will get 3,000 and then be gone and Jeff Bagwell is not coming back.
Wilson, Huff, Lamb, Palmeiro are not the future of this team. The others are good enough for five to seven years together and then you go into the offseason knowing that your need is pitching.
Oh, and leave Richard Justice alone as he is my favorite.
I had a chuckle this morning. Sometimes he's so far off the mark (but in a humorous way); however, this time I have to agree that he's right -- including the point about Richard Justice.
posted by WalkSports.com | 7:53 AM
5 Comments:
How long do you stick with Ensberg? Garner stuck with him and stuck with him and stuck with him. You want him to just stick with him ad infinitum? There comes a point where when a guy's in a slump, it's not the manager's responsibility to get him out of it. I mean he can give it a try but if the ship's sinking, you gotta throw the guy overboard and hope he can swim. The season is only so long.
I've got to respectfully disagree with your dad. Everett (though I adore him) and Ausmus are .230-.250 hitters season in and season out. Taveras has no power. Jason Lane has faltered. Biggio is producing, but ain't getting any younger. I'll give Ensberg the benefit of the doubt and say he's in a slump.
Berkman and Scott are the ONLY players hitting above .300 right now. None of those other guys are even close.
Burke should be playing. He's not a natural outfielder, but I guess he's gotta be there until Biggio is gone.
Garner may be switching around a lot, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The Astros are just NOT getting it done, no matter which way you slice it.
My son and myself attended an Astros game for the first time yesterday. We got free tickets and had some very good seats, but after 6 innings we had enough. We slipped out and did some site seeing.
Baseball is just not in our blood, but the stadium was nice.
Richard Justice is, quite frankly, one of the worst sports journalists I have had to endure in my lifetime as a sports enthusiast. The man is a writing contradiction, not able to take a firm stand on any issue. His two-faced diatribes have caused me, and several readers of the Chronicle, to just skip his article every day... just like Greg Cote and the Miami Herald.
I still laugh to this day in remembrance when Richard "Name Dropping" Justice was quickly snared, live on ESPN, to prognosticate on the 2006 NFL Draft, and Justice went ahead and blurted out, live on ESPN, "the Houston Texans will undoubtedly take Reggie Bush as their No. 1 pick in the 2006 Draft, as all of my in-house contacts have assured me of his drafting."
No more than 5 minutes later, Mario Williams was the No. 1 draft choice, exposing Justice for the fraud he is...
Oh, and what does this have to do with running... Justice is the one that continually describes sports moments "as Beamonesque as Bob Beamon's Olympic high jump."
And he would laugh at your post because you've taken the time to read and then comment on it.
Plus, he has the courage to put his name on what he writes. Something you obviously don't have chutzpah to do.
I don't care what it has to do with running. It's my blog, I'll do with it what I like and, quite honestly, if you don't like it, don't read it.
And quite frankly, I also don't care if you could beat me in a race or not.
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