Cooper Fired in Houston

[bball123h]

Rough weekend. Swept in Milwaukee, Prince breaks his team RBI record, and now he has been relieved of his managerial duties.

[Thurston Fluff]

Given the situation over there it might be a blessing in disguise. They have a meddlesome owner and a really farm system.

[joepepsi]

It's a sign of organization dysfunction that they expected better results from this team. They made it to .500 in early August and were within a few games of that until the last couple of days. Last year they way overachieved. They had a crappy rotation and a GM who did nothing over the winter to correct it. I don't have an opinion on Cecil as a manager, but had they finished last place it wouldn't have surprised me. I'm pleasantly surprised they've been hovering around 3rd/4th most of the year.

[JohnBriggs12]

It's a sign of organization dysfunction that they expected better results from this team. They made it to .500 in early August and were within a few games of that until the last couple of days. Last year they way overachieved. They had a crappy rotation and a GM who did nothing over the winter to correct it. I don't have an opinion on Cecil as a manager, but had they finished last place it wouldn't have surprised me. I'm pleasantly surprised they've been hovering around 3rd/4th most of the year.

I disagree that they overachieved. Oswalt and Berkman had their worst years ever. Normal years from them and they keep I-Rod all year, and they're an 85-88 win team easily.

[Ennder]

I disagree that they overachieved. Oswalt and Berkman had their worst years ever. Normal years from them and they keep I-Rod all year, and they're an 85-88 win team easily.

I have to disagree, they had a number of guys overachieve like Bourn and Wandy that offset those bad players. That was easily a sub .500 team to start the year and I honestly expected them to be fighting it out for last place.

[Invader3K]

They need to rebuild big time. They should probably look at trying to trade Oswalt or some of their other bigger (aging) pieces and get some youth going on that club. I think Cooper did a good job with what he had to work with, and should hopefully end up with another club eventually.

[JohnBriggs12]

I disagree that they overachieved. Oswalt and Berkman had their worst years ever. Normal years from them and they keep I-Rod all year, and they're an 85-88 win team easily.

I have to disagree, they had a number of guys overachieve like Bourn and Wandy that offset those bad players. That was easily a sub .500 team to start the year and I honestly expected them to be fighting it out for last place.

I'll give you Bourn though he wasn't that big of a surprise given his talent, but Rodriguez was very good last year. What he did this year is no surprise. Berkman's been one of the premier hitters in baseball. He fell far short of his norms. Oswalt has been a top NL pitcher this entire decade and while not awful, he was far from the ace he's been. Where would the Brewers be if Fielder had 73 RBI right now? Berkman has meant as much to that team as Fielder has to the Brewers.

[crewcrazy]

Can't expect Ed Wade to fire himself, although he should've been sent packing along with Coop. Hopefully Coop gets a second chance somewhere else, though...it was never an ideal situation in Houston, and it likely won't be for awhile until they can develop some minor league talent. IIRC, Wade hung his hat in Philly on drafting the bulk of last year's Phillies squad that won the Series (Utley, Howard, Burrell, Hamels, Myers), but he also made some hideous trade. It's a trend that's continued in Houston.

[jimmyjeromehardy7]

I've been thinking Macha will be done at the end of the year. Any reason Cooper wouldn't be considered in Milwaukee if that were to happen? I've don't follow the Astros that closely but didn't think Cooper did horrible there.

[patrickgpe]

i don't think he did that bad of a job. The problem is that we really need to move past '82 and this wouldn't help. Personally i believe macha deserves another year.

[cwolf2012]

Berkman hasn't underperformed nearly as bad as you think, JB12. His slash line is .270/.397/.504. Still very good. He's 33 years old, so a decline is expected at this point. He overperformed last year, and he came back to earth this year.

 

Oswalt is 32 and has logged a lot of innings over the last 6 years. He was due for a decline, and they got just a little bit worse than they should have expected.

 

Houston has about as many wins as I could have expected at this point, but their run differential is awful. They probably should have a much worse record. Just like last year, where they finished well above .500 and had a negative run differential, they've won more games than they deserved to.

[DocLuna7]

What I am wondering is why not just let Cooper finish the year? It is never a good thing to be fired, but to not be given the courtesy of at least finishing the year this late into the season. With no chance of post-season play, it seems like the right thing to do imo.

[Invader3K]

It does seem kind of lame. Wade was quoted as saying that the move would allow them to start evaluating things immediately as far as a replacement, but I don't really see how two weeks really makes much of a difference at this point.

[Ennder]

but Rodriguez was very good last year. What he did this year is no surprise

 

I like Wandy but to expect him to have a sub 3 ERA is stretching things quite a bit. If you had told me Oswalt+Rodriguez were going to combine for 368 IP of 3.45 ERA I'd say you would have had reasonable expectations given their careers so far. The rest of the rotation looked to be worse than what we have and they had a lot of holes in the offense and bullpen. That team was a mess going into the season and needs a complete rebuild.

[RyDogg66]

What I am wondering is why not just let Cooper finish the year? It is never a good thing to be fired, but to not be given the courtesy of at least finishing the year this late into the season. With no chance of post-season play, it seems like the right thing to do imo.

Isn't it obvious? With 2 weeks left in the season the Astros fired their manager in a last ditch effort to get to the playoffs. Cooper got Yosted.

[rluzinski]

Berkman, 2009:

 

Marcel Projection: .289/.392/.523/.915

Actual: .270/.397/.504/.900

 

Looks to me that he did what was expected.

 

The reality is, Ed Wade constructed a team that projected to be below average and they are below average. They've been outscored by 90 runs, so they are kind of lucky to be only 9 games under. I don't think Cooper is a good manager but he never had a realistic chance.

[PeaveyFury]

What I am wondering is why not just let Cooper finish the year? It is never a good thing to be fired, but to not be given the courtesy of at least finishing the year this late into the season. With no chance of post-season play, it seems like the right thing to do imo.

 

Yeah, that's the really questionable thing about this- what in the world do they lose by letting him manage the last 10 days?

[endaround]

Cooper apparently was hated by some in the clubhouse so his days were numbered but in many ways this seems like a "Mets move." By that I mean how the Mets always need to do something so the owner doesn't think he's being overshadowed by other New York sports teams. The Texans just had a big win...

[BrewersSuperCollector]

Berkman, 2009:

 

Marcel Projection: .289/.392/.523/.915

Actual: .270/.397/.504/.900

 

Looks to me that he did what was expected.

 

The reality is, Ed Wade constructed a team that projected to be below average and they are below average. They've been outscored by 90 runs, so they are kind of lucky to be only 9 games under. I don't think Cooper is a good manager but he never had a realistic chance.

 

Berkman is 100 plate appearance behind what he normally averages for a year. Thats more production that the Astros were missing out on.

[ecjimg]

Cooper apparently was hated by some in the clubhouse so his days were numbered ........

I briefly caught the guys on MLB network talking about how several players were against him.....to the point that they wore "Really?" T shirts under their jerseys as a commentary to his managerial moves. I just missed something that a player allegedly said, but one of the announcers said "if thats true about Cooper, he will never get another job". I was hoping to hear more about this.

[DuWayne Steurer]

PLEASE no on bringing Coop back to Milwaukee. Who's next? Charlie Moore? Ben Oglivie? Jamie Easterly? Coop seems like an 'old school' manager to me, which this team doesn't need. They need a manager who values tangibles rather than stuff like 'grit and determination'. Coop was a fave when he was here, but the 1982 train needs to leave the station.