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Friday December 23rd, 2005
12:33amStop the Accusations
You know what gets tiring? Accusations that the Astros are racist. I understand that the people who call into radio shows aren't typically the most highly respected yahoos but I can typically get through the normal calls like, "We need to trade Adam Everett and Wandy Rodriguez for Miguel Tejada" or "Brandon Backe should be untouchable".
Chuckie Carr ran his mouth more than he did on the fieldOne of the callers yesterday said that he knew for a fact that Bagwell was racist because Bagwell apparently made a comment about Chuckie Carr, even after Carr was one of the only guys to hit in the postseason for the club, regarding how the Astros didn't need his antics in the locker room.
We need to keep in mind that when Chuckie Carr talked trash he referred to himself in first person as "Chuckie"....as in "That ain't Chuckie's game. Chuckie's hacking on 2-0." He was also known to own a leather jacket with a studded portrait of himself on the back of it.
It is the same Chuckie Carr who in 1997 went 1-for-4 in his only postseason series with 3 strikeouts. Those were the last 4 ABs of his major league career.
It is also the same Chuckie Carr that coached for Single-A Salem this season....in the Astros farm system.
I understand that the Astros have never really had a superstar who was black but it's not like they never sign any. Just off the top of my head I can think of the guys I watched at the Astrodome and at Enron Field....Derrick May, Dave Clark, Daryle Ward, Carl Everett, Derek Bell, Brian Hunter, Tom Gordon, Darren Oliver, Charles Gipson, Roger Cedeno, Glen Barker, Doc Gooden....
True, there is no plethora of black players on the Astros roster but frankly there isn't a plethora of black players on many rosters....less than 10% of the major leagues to be more precise. That is an average of 2.5 guys per team. Remember, there are a lot of Latin players who are very dark....but they're in their own group.
I thought it was really interesting that when the Astros traded Richard Hidalgo to the Mets in 2004 the media went to town on this topic (even though Hidalgo is from Venezuela). I was working at Minute Maid Park at the time and it just so happened that the Pirates were in town with former Astro, Daryle Ward. I was working in the Diamond Club and the lady who runs everything down there ran into Daryle in the tunnel and I was with her. She mentioned the media overreacting to the whole thing and Ward said he hadn't figured out why he kept getting asked about it because he didn't know that Hidalgo was traded. I didn’t get the impression that he thought the whole thing was very newsworthy.
Frankly, it's not an Astros problem. It's the sports problem. The percentage of all kids playing baseball growing up is decreasing as more exciting, or flashy, or trendy, or less expensive sports continue to emerge....and the computer and video games continue to explode.
It's safe to say that my high school was pretty diverse. When I graduated in 2000 our ethnic splits were 36% African American, 33% White, 24% Hispanic, & the remainder was Asian. However, in the 4 years I played baseball we had a total of 4 black kids in the program spread between our three teams (Freshmen, JV, & Varsity). That is 4 kids total, not per year. Like I said, it is the sports problem not any individual team and it starts young.
Anyways, please stop calling in with these accusations. Eh, maybe I'll start calling in complaining about the NBA just to spice things up.
Wednesday December 21st, 2005
1:33amCubs Add Jacque Jones
Jim Hendry apparently decided that an acquisition through trade wasn't the way to go as he inked the Twins former property, Jacque Jones, to a 3-year, $16M contract.
I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this move.
I did notice something crazy....check this out....
2003-2005 G AB R H RBI HR XBH SO/BB BA OBP SLG Player A.. 407 1595 219 428 222 63 146 342/112 .268 .322 .443 Player B.. 436 1609 241 420 274 92 181 345/150 .261 .327 .492Those are remarkably similar numbers with the only difference being that Player A hit fewer HRs.
Player A is Jacque Jones and Player B is the man who's bat he's replacing.....Jeromy Burnitz. Both of'em even bat from the left side of the plate.
I was pleasantly surprised with Burnitz's defense last year (and his overall hustle) and I don't know how Jacque handles himself in the OF but I've never heard of him referred to as a "Pete Incaviglia" out there. I did read somewhere that he has a strong arm so hopefully that is the case.
We let Jeromy go by not picking up his $8M option and we're getting Jones for ~$5.3M, which is what I would have been willing to see Burnitz get, so I can't be too disappointed. I guess I was hoping we'd pick up a sexier bat but I think I can live with Jacque.
We will lose a draft pick to Minnesota as compensation since they did offer him arbitration. He is a Type B Free Agent (according to Baseball America). That will give the Twins our first round pick but not both a first round plus a sandwich pick as a Type A free agent would.
Here are his individual seasons since '02....
AB HR SO/BB BA OBP SLG 2002 557 27 129/37 .300 .341 .511 2003 517 16 105/21 .304 .333 .464 2004 555 24 117/40 .254 .315 .427 2005 523 23 120/51 .249 .319 .438Apparently he missed some time last season with a strained oblique muscle.
If he can return to his 2002 or 2003 status then this will be a very solid deal. If not it's still not terrible.
The thing that does scare me is that with, my boy, Matt Murton in LF, Juan Pierre in CF and Jacque Jones in RF we could end up with a total of 35-40 homeruns from out entire outfield.
That depends quite a bit on Murton's production in his first full season. He did have a very productive fall in the Arizona Fall League but not big power productive.
G AB R H RBI HR XBH SO/BB BA OBP SLG 24 92 15 31 14 1 13 12/7 .337 .396 .511I really think this kid is going to be a great ballplayer as he develops. He has been an on-base machine at every level he's played at and I think the power will come with time....he's built like a truck.
Aramis Rameriz and Derek Lee will provide some fire power but I'm not really expecting anything more than 10 HRs from any of the remaining starters (Walker, rookie Ronny Cedeno, & Barrett).
Hopefully we'll be smart on the bases and not rely on the long ball as we have in years past but with Dusty at the helm there is no telling what is going to happen.
I suppose we'll have to wait and see.
Sunday December 18th, 2005
4:58pmFran Hires Gary Darnell as New Ag DC
The official announcement was made on Friday but once Dallas Cowboys LB Coach Gary Gibbs took his name out of the hat it was pretty much a one man show.
Gary Darnell was not the popular choice among fans and I wasn't really sure why. When I started following college football Darnell was already up at Western Michigan and as a result of that I don't think I ever heard his name and if I did it didn't mean anything to me. I wanted to know more about Darnell so I set out and did some research.
Here is a list of where Darnell has been and what he has been doing:
1967-1969 Letterman at Oklahoma State 1970 Oklahoma State Graduate Assist. 1971-1972 Oklahoma State Linebacker Coach 1973-1975 SMU Linebacker Coach 1976-1977 North Carolina Linebacker Coach 1978-1982 Kansas State Defensive Coordinator 1983-1985 Tennessee Tech Head Coach 1986-1987 Wake Forest Defensive Coordinator 1988-1989 Florida Defensive Coordinator 1989 Interim HC for final 7 games 1990-1991 Notre Dame Defensive Coordinator 1992-1993 texas Assistant Head Coach & Special Teams Coach 1994-1996 tu Defensive Coordinator 1997-2004 Western Michigan Head Coach 2005 Out of FootballMost folks likely remember the 57 year old Darnell from his days with texas, Notre Dame, and Florida in the late-80s through the mid-90s.
I went through as far back as I could to pull up team stats under Darnell. I only looked back to 1978 when he took over his first Defensive Coordinator job....anything prior to that would be almost 30 years ago. I will note, however, North Carolina's 1977 defensive squad led the nation in scoring defense allowing only 7.4 points per game (Darnell was the LB Coach).
For the seasons that I was able to find the national ranking I included that in parenthesis next to the stat. Some schools listed that in their media guides but most didn't. I was able to pull any Top 10 rankings out of the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia.
Kansas State - Defensive Coordinator (1978-1982)
Year Rec RushD PassD TotD ScorD ======================================== 1977 2-9 239.9 133.3 373.2 26.0 (before Darnell) 1978 4-7 244.4 144.6 389.0 31.1 1979 3-8 204.6 143.1 347.7 20.6 1980 4-7 263.3 91.4 (1) 354.6 19.3 1981 2-9 208.5 172.7 381.2 27.0 1982 6-5 177.5 137.1 (8) 314.5 15.1 1983 3-8 221.5 186.6 417.3 31.2 (following Darnell)Things didn't improve in year one but they did get better. His pass defenses were very good but his rush defenses and scoring defense fluctuated quite a bit. Those were some pretty poor overall KSU teams though so you certainly don't expect there to be an influx of great talent.
It was at Kansas State where Coach Darnell and Coach Fran first coached together when Fran was the Assistant Coach from '78-80.
Tennessee Tech - Head Coach (1983-1985)
I couldn't find any defensive statistics from Darnell's years at Tennessee Tech but I do know that he hired Fran as his Offensive Coordinator prior to the '83 season where they coached together for 2 years. Here's what I dug out of a Robert Cessna article:Darnell was head coach at Tennessee Tech for three years, which was a total disaster. The school, which had just moved into I-AA, raised its entrance requirements and cut the athletic budget. Darnell won three games in three years and resigned.Wake Forest - Defensive Coordinator (1986-1987)
Year Rec RushD PassD TotD ScorD ======================================== 1985 4-7 160.1 189.4 349.5 22.6 (before Darnell) 1986 5-6 205.2 200.2 405.4 26.8 1987 7-4 163.6 158.0 321.6 16.8 1988 6-4-1 164.5 247.0 411.5 21.5 (following Darnell)Not spectacular but the difference from '86 to '87 is quite significant and I would be willing to bet that was the difference in the 5-6 season record and 7-4 season record.
Florida - Defensive Coordinator & Interim Head Coach (1988-1989, 1989)
Year Rec RushD PassD TotD ScorD =============================================== 1987 6-6 131.3 137.2 (10) 268.5 (9) 14.4 (before Darnell) 1988 7-5 124.2 123.6 (3) 247.8 (3) 15.9 1989 7-5* 88.6 (4) 153.3 (8) 241.9 (3) 15.3 1990 9-2 85.6 (5) 172.1 257.6 (5) 15.6 (following Darnell) *3-4 with Darnell as HCDarnell's stop at Florida is likely what launched his career to the next level. These are the years that a lot of people are pointing to when saying, "See he can be a great DC" but what is interesting (and deflating to me) is that I don't think you can really say that he came in and made a huge difference for the Gators. They were great in '87 before he arrived and they were great in '90 after he left.
Notre Dame - Defensive Coordinator (1990-1991)
Year Rec RushD PassD TotD ScorD ===================================================== 1989 11-1 105.6 (14) 190.3 (43) 295.8 (14) 15.3 (12) (without Darnell) 1990 9-3 123.2 (24) 267.1 (90) 390.3 (73) 22.6 (50) 1991 10-3 204.8 (84) 177.5 (60) 382.3 (73) 21.8 (53) 1992 9-1-1 111.1 (9) 216.1 (31) 327.1 (32) 16.2 (20) (without Darnell)This is a pretty big blemish. Darnell walked into a great defense and things went downhill quickly. Unfortunately, things got significantly better as soon as he left. That scares me.
texas - Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coach & Defensive Coordinator (1992-1993, 1994-1996)
Year Rec RushD PassD TotD ScorD ========================================== 1993 5-5-1 194.2 207.0 401.2 24.5 (without Darnell) 1994 8-4-0 171.4 192.0 363.4 23.6 1995 10-2-1 173.8 192.6 369.9 18.9 1996 8-5-0 203.4 169.6 373.0 22.3 1997 4-7-0 241.5 157.6 399.2 33.3 (without Darnell)I only showed his the stats from his time as a DC although I did read in several places that his special teams were ranked in the Top 25 in several categories.
I read in an article by Robert Cessna that his defenses in 1995 & 1996 were the two worst for the longhorns since 1953 when they gave up 4,437 & 4,476 total yards. What Mr. Cessna didn't take into account was that the longhorns played 13 games in each of those seasons (as opposed to 12 in 1994 & 11 in 1992 & 1993, etc.). If you look at average yards per game, which is the stat that most people look at, during those two seasons they weren't great but they were better in those two years than they were in a few of their other seasons during the 90's. Going for the shock factor is sometimes a little misleading.
Western Michigan - Head Coach (1997-2004)
Rec RushD PassD TotD ScorD SOS ============================================================== 1999 7-5 180.8 (87) 228.4 (??) 409.2 (97) 28.5 (??) ?? 2000 9-3 105.3 (20) 178.0 (13) 283.3 (9) 11.6 (4) 67 2001 5-6 186.5 (85) 179.8 (17) 366.3 (55) 24.2 (49) 54 2002 4-8 151.2 (54) 179.5 (21) 330.7 (28) 27.5 (70) 60 2003 5-7 179.7 (83) 245.2 (87) 424.8 (90) 30.8 (86) 74 2004 1-10 215.4 (108) 265.2 (108) 480.6 (115) 39.6 (114) 86 2005 7-4 147.4 (61) 303.2 (116) 450.6 (109) 31.1 (95) 114 (without Darnell)I couldn't find any Western Michigan Stats prior to 1999 but they went 2-9 in 1996 (the year before Darnell arrived), 8-3 in 1997, & 7-4 in 1998.
Coach Darnell was named the Mid-American Coach of the Year in 2000 after he led the Broncos to 9-3 record and a MAC Conference Title. His defense in 2000 was superb but it got worse every year following which ultimately led to his firing.
I don't know how much you put on a HC for the defense's performance but I know that Fran has had a lot of heat put on him so I'm sure it is the same for Darnell at Western Michigan.
Overview
When Torbush was fired I said I trusted that Bill Byrnes would make an exciting hire. I've also said that this hire would either make or break Coach Fran. I'm not as excited as I was hoping.Regardless of anything you just finished reading the majority of the fans are unhappy with this move because they think we should be able to pluck a big name and not have to settle. The biggest problem with this move is that it completely eliminated all of the momentum the fans were feeling after the team came to life in the second half of the OU game and through texas game.
I truly hope that Coach Darnell turns this defense around but I don't think that he or Fran will be given the luxury of having multiple years to get that accomplishment completed.
Welcome to Aggieland Coach Darnell, I hope that following your final game as an Aggie coach you will be remembered as a hero.