You're know your favorite team is really bad if it can't even contend in the NL Central. To that end, it shouldn't be a huge surprise for fans in Houston to see that the Astros have decided to clean house. The blog Crawfish Boxes had the scoop earlier today and it's since been confirmed by the team's official website:The Astros dismissed general manager Tim Purpura and manager Phil Garner on Monday and replaced them on an interim basis by Tal Smith and Cecil Cooper, respectively.Considering this was Purpura's first job as a general manager, he's probably a little worried about his future, but Garner has been down this path before. In fact, Garner got the Astros job in the first place by taking over for Jimy Williams, who was fired midway through the 2004 season. Since then, Garner has posted a winning record, but ownership clearly had higher expectations than a 58-73 record thus far this season.
The team made a formal announcement at a 2 p.m. CT press conference at Minute Maid Park.
This is Cecil Cooper's first chance to manage a big league team, but he did serve as a Triple-A manager in 2003 and 2004 before joining the Astros' coaching staff in 2005. Smith, on the other hand, is a seasoned vet in the midst of his 50th year as a MLB exec. He was serving as the team's president of baseball operations before taking on the interim GM role, and he'll likely play a large role in determining who gets the permanent job this winter.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-27-2007 @ 5:48PM
John Doe said...
I know lots of Astros fans didn't think much of Garner, but I'm sorry to see him leave. Purpura...not so much.
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8-28-2007 @ 12:04AM
larry said...
i'm sorry, but isn't garner the only manager the astros ever had to lead them to the pennant-their only pennant in their 40+ year history???
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8-28-2007 @ 2:34PM
Gere said...
As a far away Astros fan who was an original charter season Astro buddy, I have pretty mixed views at this point. First of all Garner will always have the feather in his cap that he managed Houstons only World Series appearances. Tal Smith has a long association with the team dating back prior to the best GM this team ever had, Gary Hunsicker, and its Hunsicker to me who is the guy who deserves most of the credit for the last decade in Houston Astro baseball. We have had some good teams in the past but the killer B bunch is Hunsickers group. They are now just about all gone from the scene and the last few seasons have seen a number of Houstons minor league prospects traded away or sold cheap for rather limited returns of a short term nature. This has resulted in a thinging of the talent pool in the minor leagues that will take some time to replenish in my opinion. The guy who really seems to need too get a clue is Drayton Mc Laine. When he bought the team he upgraded the fans experience for sure, but even he admitted at the time that he new squat about baseball. Now it seems that he has firmly entrenched himself in the day to day, on the field and behind the scenes team operations. How this could be a good thing for the organization and to the coaches is hard to figure. Now, Pupura seemed limited each off season and too injuries had a strong impact on this years team record. He was probably average at best in his tenure. Drayton Mc Laine just needs to step back and let his coaches, managers and GMs operate in a professional manner without his heavy hand getting involved. For God's sake groceries is what he's good at. He needs to stick to that for this city and its baseball fans sake.
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8-28-2007 @ 5:27PM
chris said...
i was sad to see garner go but i understand the decision, as for purpura i havent liked them since the bagwell ordeal...seemed to me he was to worried about collecting the insurance money than to give one of there best players the benefit of the doubt..i also thought the retirement of bagwell's jersey was kind of plain compared to biggio's both are deserving but theres a little part of me that will never forgive tim...as for garner i was there on the night he lost his last game and i think hes to laid-back but good luck phil u deserve it
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